CHAPTER 24

  “Has it been long enough to use Mask again if we have to run?” Mel asked Nanda.

  She stood beside me on the treasury platform, flexing her metal-clawed hand. Nanda waited behind us by the double doors, ready to sprint the moment Raine returned with the Soul Glass. His job was simple: hit anything in our way out. Tackle anyone in our way hard enough that they stay down.

  He thought for a heartbeat, then shook his head. “Two more minutes. I am keeping count. Do not worry, sister Mel.”

  “Damn,” Mel muttered. “I need to get Silas to invent a timer for the claw.”

  I glanced at her. “When we do run, are we staying transformed? Extra speed and all that?”

  “No,” Raine said over her shoulder. She and Leace stood at the platform’s edge, studying the room. “You can move fast enough in base. Staying in your Third Form will only make more noise. Mask hides you from eyes, not ears, remember?”

  She rubbed the bridge of her nose as if my question physically hurt her.

  I rolled my eyes. “Fair point,” I said.

  The treasure sprawled beneath us, in symmetrical piles. One mistake and Raine could turn the entire room into an avalanche of gold. The room was in perfect balance, just waiting to be ruined.

  I went over Leace’s instructions for Pulse, running them in my head like a mantra. Mel and I planted our feet shoulder-width apart and started smoothing our breathing. To trigger Pulse, we had to do the exact opposite of what we’d trained: We needed to breathe faster, not slower; slam our blood through our veins and the light energy rocketing up into the Kutasha instead of slowly dripping it in.

  Like cars at the line before a drag race, we stood still with our engines revving.

  Maybe nothing will happen, and we will just walk out, Fern said.

  I would not count on it. Things like this always go sideways.

  Nerida might be after Aer’s group right now, he said.

  I don’t even want to think about that…, I replied.

  It is not that I want her to attack them, he said. It’s just…Nerida is… terrifying.

  We are going to have to fight these bastards eventually, I told him. Feel the fear, sure. Just don’t let it steer us away from winning the fight.

  Right, he said.

  Leace turned to Raine, and bowed.

  “Good luck, Cinder Raine,” Leace said.

  “Actually, the title is Forgeman,” Raine said. “But… thank you.”

  “Just take the compliment,” Leace said, forcing a tired smile.

  Raine huffed softly.

  Leace eyed us. “The Gurus would exile me for letting their precious warriors of prophecy risk their necks.”

  “That’s just because they don’t know that we can hold off the scaly bitch,” Mel said.

  Leace shook her head, muttering to herself, then walked back toward Nanda by the door. “If she shows up, your job is to slow her down, NOT fight her,” she said without looking at us. “I hope your transformations are as impressive as you claim.”

  We went back to our breathing. Raine closed her eyes and called up her infusion.

  Her skin bled into a pale gray. A wind rose from her feet, lifting her. A storm twisted around her calves. Her hair puffed up and darkened into gray clouds, lightning flickering through the strands periodically. Raine’s eyes turned white and then glowed electric blue. Her red and black gi seemed to melt into her body, becoming dark lines of fabric hiding in the storm.

  “Incredible,” Leace whispered. For someone who had lived her whole life under demigod rule, she looked genuinely awed at the transformation.

  Raine floated off the ground. At about twenty feet up, she looked down, making sure we were ready. We were.

  Then she leaned forward and drifted into the treasure room. The wind carried her like gentle invisible hands, and she angled herself carefully between towers of gold, her wind’s wake was held so tight to her that not a single coin shifted by the breeze.

  The stand with the Soul Glass seemed farther than I’d thought, easily a hundred yards from us.

  I forced my mind away from watching her and checked inward on how I was feeling for Pulse Breath. With the rods in my spine, energy was so much easier to feel. It pooled at the base of my spine like liquid lightning, and every time I inhaled, it surged up along the bones into the space between my eyebrows. On every exhale, I released the energy outward.

  The sensation was electric and oddly ticklish, like someone scratching the inside of my skull. I had to fight the urge to laugh.

  When I looked back up, Raine eased around the last tower and hovered above the red cushion. I could feel all of us tense. Mel and I kept breathing, stacking energy for Pulse. Nanda and Leace held their breaths entirely.

  Raine reached out, fingers steady, and lifted the green crystal from its nest. The pillow dipped slightly, but the stand didn’t topple.

  She drew back, turned, and began retracing her path exactly, the Soul Glass cupped in both hands.

  Fifty yards.

  We are good, Fern said. She did it.

  It is not over until we are back at base, I thought.

  Twenty-five yards.

  She moved like a slow ship through the gold sea.

  My ear twitched.

  “Shit,” Mel whispered.

  I glanced at her.

  “What?!” She’d called on her Pangolin-badger sight. Her eyes were bright yellow and were locked on the stand that had held the Soul Glass.

  I twisted my head towards it and drew the Chimera sight.

  The rod was leaning.

  “Sh—” I started.

  The rod tipped, caught itself against a stack of silver bars. Mel and I let out a breath of relief.

  Raine dropped softly in front of us and bled back into her human form.

  “Got it,” she said, holding out the Soul Glass.

  Up close, the crystal was even stranger. Light inside it shifted between blue and peach, like there was something moving inside it.

  Leace stepped in and slipped it into a small brown bag she pulled from her sash. She yanked the drawstrings tight, then turned to Nanda.

  “Put this in your belt,” she said.

  He obeyed. “Why me?”

  “Because you can transform and run faster than I can if need be,” she said. “If I fall, you keep going. Get it out.”

  Raine moved past us toward the stairs. “Mel, Erik. Let’s go.”

  “Everyone ready to Mask?” Leace asked.

  Mel flinched. I followed her gaze.

  The red cushion was sliding.

  “Shit, you guys run!” Mel yelled.

  “Go. Now!” I shouted.

  I saw Nanda jerk in surprise.

  “What do you—” Leace started.

  The pillow slipped off the stand, and time slowed and stretched as the pillow tumbled through the air.

  It fell onto a pile of coins.

  Metal rang out like a bell, and echoed across the room.

  A surge shook the room. The tine coin-sized pools of water on the tile floor grew, and dark liquid burst across the floor, black and hungry. Then, water rippled, and a dark form, tall and coated in a black oil shine, grew.

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  The doors behind us flew open. Nanda, Raine, and Leace bolted through, their footsteps already fading into the hall.

  Beside me, Mel swelled in size, her scales grew on her skin, and her muscles popped into place. I willed myself into Third Form and channeled the energy I had saved just as Leace had taught us.

  My eyes snapped wide as Pulse hit.

  The energy coiled up my spine like a lightning strike. My heart went from a controlled drum to a jackhammer. Every beat rattled my ribs and pushed blood racing through me. The world sharpened; colors were brighter, sounds separated into discernible layers. The rush of fallen coins, the splash of disturbed water, and the scrape of scales—every detail carved itself into my brain, heightening my awareness.

  Wings ripped through my back, and behind me, Fern uncoiled into his snakehead tail, unfurling with the cursed sword clenched in his jaws.

  Nerida erupted into form.

  “More of you?! And in MY vault!” she sang, with a voice beautiful and dreadful, it made my teeth ache like I bit down on metal.

  She slithered up the stairs, raising a massive claw at me.

  Mel tackled her first.

  Mel’s Third Form shook with rage. Her bristles stood on end, angry hot air escaped her nostrils, and her thick fists were clenched tight before she slammed one into Nerida’s exposed abdomen.

  The double impact happened so fast, it sounded like a shotgun being shot twice back to back.

  The shockwave rattled my bones. Towers of jewels and coins collapsed, sliding into new avalanches all around us. Nerida’s massive body flew backward down the stairs, and crashing into a heap of treasure.

  We did not wait to see if she got up.

  I flapped my wings and launched myself off with a powerful jump. Pulse turned my leap into a ballistic missile. I had Lightcutter in my grip, and my other hand ready to tear into Nerida; behind me Fern’s snake muscles were tense, and ready to whip the cursed blade around like a scorpion stinger.

  We hit her as she lay stunned on the treasure.

  Fern rammed the black blade into chest, just under her rib, and luckily, it pierced and cut as he pulled the sword with all his strength. A fountain of dark tar-thick ichor spurted out and covered him in black blood, so Fern pulled himself back.

  I took that chance and slashed at her exposed neck with Lightcutter, but the cut didn’t go nearly as deep. I kicked myself away, sensing danger when she moved.

  Nerida shrieked, a sound so high it nearly made my ears bleed. The floor buckled under her as she convulsed and thrashed.

  “Erik, back!” Mel roared.

  We both jumped back to the platform and rolled as Nerida’s body ballooned larger and larger.

  I thought she was going to pop when I saw dozens of small black spots appear around her body.

  “Oh that why—”

  A forest of black spikes burst from her skin, ripping outward in every direction.

  Mel spun, throwing up her plated forearm. Spikes punched into her right side before she could fully turn. I saw three bury themselves deep into her scales.

  She staggered but stayed on her feet.

  “You okay?” I shouted, chest heaving, and thankful that no spikes hit me.

  Mel’s face was half-human, half-beast; her whiskers had turned dark with blood. “Poison,” she grunted holding her side. “Hurts like hell. But I can take it. Thank you, Pangobadger blood.”

  Nerida writhed, her body twisted and cracked as her inflated form shrank. Slowly, and horribly, she pulled herself back into her “normal” shape—a mermaid torso, a glittering oil-colored tail, and a bone and tooth bralette to put it all together.

  “H-how the hell did you cut me so deep?!” She bellowed hauntingly. Then her eyes flicked toward my shoulder, where Fern lay coiled. “Ah, an Ashsteel Blade huh?”

  The Sibling groaned as her body healed. I saw, behind slitted gills and torn cartilage, something pulsing within her chest where Fern cut: a dark, jagged stone veined with red light.

  The Urn fragment. I thought. It had to be.

  I cursed that I couldn’t kill her now, given that the Ashsteel blade hasn’t been infused yet, but for now, we did our job.

  I channeled more anger and rage to fuel my Third Form, I clenched my jaw and fists feeling the heat of rage. Then, I urged my Pulse Breath to go faster and stronger. The wind around my chest became a miniature hurricane.

  “Together now, then, we run,” I growled.

  Mel nodded and did the same as me, she got angery. The Pulse Breath around her sped up, and both our muscles grew. Mel raised her metal gauntlet and her other open hand, now more claw than human, and closed both into fists.

  We charged.

  “You are not Criers, you’re something else!” Nerida spat, eyes wild. “What exactly are you trying to steal from me?”

  Four poisoned spikes erupted from her forearms, whistling toward us mid-charge.

  Luckily, pulse gave us the reaction time we needed.

  Fern whipped the cursed blade around me, shearing two spikes out of the air. Mel swatted the other two away.

  We closed the gap, and Fern slashed across Nerida’s abdomen, tearing open flesh easily. Mel tucked her shoulder and slammed into the side of the Sibling’s torso.

  Nerida fell again, hard and Golden tiles cracked under the impact.

  “Why will you not answer me, you disgusting beasts?” Nerida howled standing up quickly. Her nails extended into thin blades.

  “She’s recovering too quickly,” I said to Mel. “We need to do something serious to stun her so we can run.”

  Mel grunted. “Agreed, any ideas?”

  “I go high you go low?” I said, taking a step back. Mel nodded.

  I beat my wings and shot upward, dust and coins blew away in my wake. Mel charged again and hammered her fists into the the Siblings stomach. It sounded like a dozen drumbs being beat.

  “Enough!” Nerida screamed.

  She caught Mel with a backhand sending her up the stairs and onto the entrance platform.

  I turned, flapped twice to gain speed, tucked my wings, and dove.

  Pulse made flying twice as powerful, and so when I dove, my world turned into a blur. I twisted like a drill, turning my whole body into a spinning hammer, and drove shoulder-first into Nerida’s skull.

  Something cracked.

  Blood burst from her ears and nose. The Sibling screamed in gurgled pain. Her eyes rolled back, and for a fraction of a second, her whole body sagged, and flopped the floor.

  Then, her body inflated rapidly, and spikes grew out of the pore of her skin, and exploded.

  I kicked myself backward at the last instant, feeling one barb whisper past my cheek. The entire floor around her bristled with black blood and spikes.

  I landed near the platform, chest heaving.

  Fern? Time? I thought.

  Less than three minutes left on Pulse, he said. You are going to drop hard, you need to run!

  Nerida reassembled herself, panting. Her bone jewelry was shattered, and submerged in her blood at her feet. And the Urn fragment gleamed in her chest, before her body closed up again.

  Mel slid next to me, her face was turning a light purple, probably from the poison. She had also lost a lot of blood from a deep gash that Nerida had cut on her arm.

  “Erik,” she wheezed through gritted teeth, “we are running out of time.”

  “I know,” I said. “We just need one more opening, we gotta keep her down enough to escape her.”

  Nerida’s lips curled back into a grin, rows of knives showing. “Wait, I know who you are. You’re from the First Tier,” she said. “Igi-igi and Astrifer warned me about you. I thought they were being dramatic when they said beast men. So, you dare to steal from me. For what? Gold?”

  Behind me, Fern’s snake head hissed, agitated, the cursed sword twitching in his jaws.

  Nerida’s gaze flicked past us. Something in her expression changed.

  She twisted her head toward the back of the room. Her eyes landed on the fallen rod and the empty pillow.

  Her scream rattled the treasure.

  “The Ashsteel sword…You wanted the Soul Glass… you stole it?” Her voice vaulted into a shriek. “You stole it!”

  Then, she roared even louder.

  “YOU STOLE IT? GUARD!”

  Her yell shook dust from the ceiling. “Guards! Thieves! I want every one of you! Every single guard!”

  The doors we’d come through blew open again. Only this time, two dozen shirtless guards poured in, each with a spear, eyes wide and wild. They fanned out in a rough semicircle, weapons leveled at us.

  “Erik,” Mel said. “Don’t think we have time for another hit.”

  I spun, looking for anything I could use to give us an out. But we were surrounded.

  Nerida’s voice dropped into a guttural growl. “You do not deserve what you took. Hand it back, and I might kill you quickly.”

  Her body changed again.

  Her spine creaked and stretched, and vertebrae separated. She grew taller, her ribs cracked, and shot out of the skin like her spikes before folding back inside her. Two new arms punched their way out between her existing ribs, and trailing black ichor dripped from her teeth. Above her eyes, two more sockets split open, revealing a second pair of gleaming black orbs that blinked independently.

  “Shit,” I breathed.

  We are out of options, Fern said. But… I think I have a plan.

  What plan? I thought desperately. I do not see an exit. I do not—

  I can do it, he said. The thing.

  Recognition clicked. The move we’d used accidentally on two other occasions. Fern’s astral projection.

  You are sure? I thought.

  I am, he said. Be ready, I’ll be the distraction.

  Fern slid the sword into its sheath, and I jammed Lightcutter back into my sash.

  “Drop your form,” I hissed to Mel.

  “What? Are you insane?”

  “I cannot carry you like that,” I said. “Trust me.”

  She glared, then let her infusion fall. Her body shrank back down, scales retracting, and bristles fading like makeup. Pulse left her like a tide pulling out, and she nearly toppled over

  “You… better be… right about this,” she gasped.

  “Aww,” Nerida crooned. “Already tired? And I was just getting warmed up.”

  She surged forward. The floor cracked beneath her weight.

  Then, teal blue light exploded from me and slammed in front of her.

  Nerida recoiled, shrieking. The force hit her so hard she fell backwards over her tail.

  I turned and scooped Mel up under the arms, pressed all my force into my legs, and launched. Pulse poured everything it had left into me. And I poured everything I had left into my wings. We flew straight through and over the spears, and guards. My wing beat down so hard, all the men fell to the floor.

  Behind me, I watched a familiar figure dance around Nerida, slamming himself into her.

  Fern.

  “Come back quick!” I yelled.

  Fern flew like an eagle, diving and striking Nerida, over and over. He was a ghostly storm of spectral blows that smashed into her larger body.

  I let him distract Nerida and flew down the hallway we had came through. Pain flared in my ribs with every wingbeat, but I forced it down, riding the last of Pulse.

  We hit a sharp turn and I landed on the wall with my feet, catching myself mid-flight. Behind us Nerida roared in her fight with Fern, and the guards were now scrambling out the hallway to follow us.

  I took a deep breath and yelled. “Fern! We are leaving!” I shouted in my head. “Now!”

  I saw his blue light shoot out of the room and arrow back into me. With him returned, I sensed a slight wave of relief and a return of strength. I pushed myself off the wall and rocketed down another hallway. I knew I only had seconds left of Pulse. I had to get us out of here.

  Mel hung heavy in my arms, cold sweat pouring off her. The poison was wearing her down.

  “Come on,” I panted. “Try to breathe.”

  “I’m… trying… asshole,” she wheezed.

  We crashed back through the corridors, turns, and stairs. Pulse Breath was fading like sand in an hourglass. Every flap of my wings and step I made to keep flying through the halls felt like someone was pouring molten lead into my bones. My body was disgustingly heavy. My vision had tunneled, and the world went gray, void of color.

  Behind us, a thunder of feet echoed. Nerida’s men, most likely. I could not tell if Nerida was with them.

  Pulse is about to drop, Fern warned.

  “Just a little… farther,” I grunted. I could no longer fly, and was sprinting through the halls.

  Light flickered ahead—a familiar brightness pouring through an archway. The edge of the ballroom.

  I tore through the room, and out the back hallway.

  “So… close…” I cried.

  I could see the open window we entered from now, I pushed off one more time, and my leg gave out.

  My grip slipped, and my Third Form fell instantly. Both Mel and I crashed to the floor and hit the wall.

  “Shit,” I said, reaching out for her. But my arm gave out and fell.

  Darkness flooded my vision, turning the world into a blurry smear. My breath scraped in and out of me like I was inhaling through soaked cloth.

  Not like this, I thought. Not ten feet from the finish line.

  Move! I told my body.

  Then, dark shadows appeared at the edge of my fading sight. Four shapes in the corridor, wide-shouldered, moving fast. Nerida’s men had beaten us.

  Hands grabbed me under the arms, and lifted me up.

  “Got you, brother,” a calm voice said—Nanda’s.

  I was floating, half-conscious, and listening to the soft roar of chaos getting quieter behind us.

  “I cannot believe you did it,” came Mel’s voice, rough and incredulous.

  “It was too risky after all,” Raine said, with a tense throat. “We should not have done that. I should have been more careful with the stand. Is he—are they okay?”

  The crushing weight of Pulse’s withdrawal deepened, and I began to lose consciousness.

  We did it, Erik, Fern said. You crazy son of a—

  And like a stone dropped in water, I fell into a deep sleep.