Page 5 of The Immortal Covenant

A lashing claw raked down his chest. Thanks to the duskflame infusing his flesh, his skin flickered like smoke, allowing the claw to partially pass through it. Once again, however, the Dawnlands betrayed him. He hissed as the strike left a gouge leaking dark wisps of shadow.

The voidspawn dissipated, and Malorg staggered to his feet, ignoring the ache in his chest. The wound wasn’t serious enough to cause him any real danger, though itwouldhamper him even further than being here already had.

The Celestial slowly stood, eying Malorg with open suspicion. “Who are you?”

“Your savior.” Malorg waited until he was convinced the Celestial wasn’t about to do something stupid like attack him before scanning the surrounding plains.

A single voidspawn remained several dozen paces distant. Though its plodding pace marked it as slower than the others, its armored carapace—similar to a turtle’s shell except for the dozens of stubby tentacles protruding from it—looked like it might be tough to penetrate.

He turned back to the wary Celestial. “How do you want to do this?”

The Celestial’s brow rose. “You tell me,savior.”

Malorg narrowed his eyes. “Maybe I’ll leave you here to satiate it while I escape.”

“It would come for you as soon as it finished me.”

“Let it.” Malorg flicked his wrists to conjure two fresh blades. “It’ll be easy prey once I make it back to the Dusklands.”

“Ifyou make it back with that wound and your weakened magic.”The Celestial’s appraising gaze roved over Malorg fromhead to toe in a way that left him vaguely unsettled. Something akin to nerves fluttered in his belly. “Besides,” the Celestial continued, his tense posture relaxing, “I don’t think you’ll abandon me.”

Malorg barked an incredulous laugh over the oncoming voidspawn’s growl. “And why is that?”

To Malorg’s astonishment, the wounded Celestial managed an exhausted smirk. “You wouldn’t have run all the way here from the Dusklands to save me if you were the kind of person to just give up.”

The Celestial’s words slugged Malorg like a punch to the gut. Before he could muster a retort, the voidspawn howled and began a laborious charge across the last of the distance separating them.

Malorg peppered it with a barrage of daggers, but as he’d feared, this foe didn’t fall as easily as the others. Even with multiple blades turning its rounded back into a pincushion and jagged cracks of cursed shadow rippling along its carapace, the voidspawn barreled on.

Malorg fell into a crouch beside the Celestial with his latest daggers in hand. It seemed they’d have no choice but to fight in close combat.Maybe I’ll get my wish to pass on sooner rather than later.

For some reason, the thought didn’t please him nearly as much as he’d expected. Instead of relief at the idea of rest, all he could think of was the unarmed Celestial at his side who would suffer the same grisly fate if he failed.

“Stick close to me,” he said. “If I go down, run.”

The Celestial didn’t reply, and Malorg glanced over to see his golden forehead furrowed in intense concentration. Had the Celestial been mortal, sweat would’ve been beaded there.

“What are you doing?” Malorg demanded. “It’s almost here!”

“I. Know,” the Celestial said through gritted teeth. He raised his right hand to point toward the voidspawn. “Just give me. One more minute. And—”

The Celestial gasped as dawnflame burst from his raised hand. It wasn’t much—barely a trickle. Malorg watched skeptically as the weak magic streamed toward the voidspawn. If his cursed blades hadn’t been enough to drop the beast, that tiny amount of dawnflame wouldn’t either.

Yet, the turtle-like abomination didn’t appear to be the Celestial’s target.

Shock widened Malorg’s eyes when the dawnflame instead flowed into one of his daggers still embedded in the voidspawn’s back. The dagger erupted with golden light. Flames spread down the black cracks Malorg’s magic had left.

The voidspawn staggered to a halt, shrieking as the infusion of dawnflame somehow jumpstarted the duskflame curse, sending more black tendrils fanning outward to carry golden fire in their wake. Within seconds, the flames had engulfed the voidspawn until nothing remained but violet ash.

Malorg spun toward the Celestial. “Eternal Dark, how did youdothat?”

The Celestial slumped to the ground, his exhaustion overtaking him now that the immediate threat had passed. Still, he found the strength to grin. “Light if I know. I figured since I didn’t have enough magic left to do much on my own, maybe I could somehow strengthen yours. I wasn’t expecting it to work so well, though.”

“It shouldn’t have! Dawnflame and duskflame are polar opposites. Light and dark, Celestial and Infernal—they’re not intended to ever mix!”

The Celestial’s grin faded, his brow knitting. “What does it matter how or why it worked? The important thing is that it did.Besides,you’rehere in the Dawnlands, so the two must not be entirely anathema to one another.”

Malorg spun away, shaking his head. “The only Infernal that would willingly come here is one with a death wish!”

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