lled the air and stuc

aking hand. Its fur was shiny like wet rust and soaked in blood. Jasper's eyes burned

were like a sharp knif

is sound echoed through the ruins. Do

she was dressed in darkness, had red circles around her eyes, and her hands held bright sig

n, more gently. "Please.

I remember your voice. But it's so faint

feet forward, then

the Alpha warned as hi

red me enough to say my name. You remembered the sound of it. That me

teeth, but he didn

g, tension coiled like snakes ready to strike. Aeris whispered protective incantations

he unfastened the crimson veil fro

in remembrance. Of what was taken from me. Of the vow th

ered along the ve

d. "Blood magic

hispered. "Bu

ber even one thing-just one moment-then

's fingers

e began

her head with both hands as the sharp signals on her body began to glow wildly

Alpha roar

lun

orward, weaving between broken pews, her eyes locked on Ash. Aeris flung spells to disrupt the Alpha's movements,

re, chao

me a battleground

face, yet he was still breathing. She couldn't make out his plain

etly, then took her dag

hey pulsed with blood-binding runes designed to suppress power. Emb

her body glowing with protective sigils granted by the Order. But the Alpha

ame th

urious,

ign

er ducked, dragging Ash's half-conscious form down as glass and stone rain

th

other

ded outward as she screamed again. But thi

e cried. "I reme

to the Alph

ild, scarlet magic, the same as Ember's, born of fire and pain. It hit th

Ember's dagger striking the

sna

ped into

spered, "I've got you,"

nscious as his eyes

she choked. "

her hand and squ

asse

d, rising t

oo, blood drippi

Ember's mother. "You

said. "You took me. But m

d launched at her,

rew th

ry rune, every vow, every drop of sacre

nd the Alpha's

consumed him, not flesh but s

forward, her

everything yo

the blade in

m within him-cr

ded, nothing r

e fell

ght wa

eath the old cathedral altar, the v

. Aeris had done what she could. "His spirit's bruised," she had explaine

l, her shoulders under a hood and her cheeks filled

proached

ree now,"

ice distant. "Free. B

it," Embe

intly. "You are stro

said n

where the sun was just risin

had been broken. But the legacy of fir

corners of the realm, oth

Vael would

ugh smoke, through

ad come o