Page 69 of What Lies Within Masks & Shadows

But his snickering remained, just as it did when she would hopelessly fight him back at the manor. That same snickering wrapped her mind with barbs and thorns as it did before her flesh would tear from broken mirrors or her bones would shatter downthatmarble staircase.

Terrifying, high-pitched shrieks surged across the dusk sky as the voice invaded again.You’ll die like the worthless trash you know you are.

What was left of the fading dusk was blackened out by whirling mist. The shape of a flying creature blocked out the sun as its wings unfurled from its back and flexed at a length equal to the beast.

No.Not real wings.

Smoke and shadow wings …

And not a creature but …

A voice—catastrophic as an atomic explosion—unleashed across the sky. Tendrils of Smokeshadows carried the High Prince on a hurricane wind above the beast. A glint of flashing metal caught the sun’s golden rays as he plummeted toward them.

Crystal, rock, and bone cracked.

Cracked with so much power, the creature’s arm shattered from its body. Crashing to the forest with enough force, it leveled the trees below.

The tail of the gamroara released Alora, writhing in pain as steaming black liquid poured from its wound and sprayed the air.

And then … she was falling down that damn staircase again. Only this time … it would be the last.

Her limp body plummeted dangerously fast—too fast—toward the ground. Through blurry eyes, she saw emerald, rug-covered wooden floors as she desperately fought to refocus on where she was.

Dense trees spinning.

Portraits hanging at an odd angle.

Back and forward, her mind splintered.

Then, the dirt of the clearing spotted into her view, feet from her face when Smokeshadow-covered, icy arms wrapped around her, folding her against a solid chest.

Garrik slammed into the dirt beneath her with a distinctive crack and pained grunt, knocking the air from his lungs. His shadows exploded into smoke on the wind before dissipating into the soil.

Thalon and Jade burst through the tree line. Their voices now familiar. And neither horse stopped as an odd swirling circle of thunderclouds and lightning appeared in their path. Swallowing them entirely and spitting them out beside the High Prince.

Jade slid from her saddle, ripped throwing daggers from her thigh straps, and positioned herself between them and the flying beast.

“It’s a gamroara,” Thalon called out. “It’s only killed by shattering the neck from its head.” Ripping his golden sword from the sheath, Thalon positioned himself as a shield beside Jade.

Something frigid was pressed against her cheek. Hard and scaled indentations pulsing with an unusual beating rhythm. She heard the voices, barely able to decipher the exchange. Heard the rumbling groan from the hardened surface beneath her as it moved.

Garrik … he was telling them that he was alright. Then his cold hands cupped her shoulder and back. The deep, honeyed voice of the High Prince chilled her ear … he was whispering.

“You are alive, darling. Try to breathe.”

Breathe.

Alora sucked in deep, greedily inhaling the refreshing air of dusk and the scent of leather and metal as Garrik’s body twisted, gently lowering her to the dirt.

He brushed sweat-soaked hair from her face, hovering over her, scanning for injuries she knew were likely to be there. When he found none other than the burned flesh from the gamroara, he turned to his Shadow Order. “Thalon, attend Alora. Jade—Aiden. Go, now,” Garrik growled as he vaulted into the air, and she felt a static energy ripple through her body, leaving her head in a wave of unease.

Smokeshadows once again formed into those impressive wings, hurling him faster into the sky. Those wings curled around Garrik’s body. Like an iron fist, he blasted through the sky and collided directly into the beast’s neck. Breaking through it with an eruption of shattering glass.

The creature’s head exploded into a downpour of crystal, shimmering star-like in the sky as it embedded into the surrounding earth. Failing to penetrate through an invisible shield that formed over their heads. Not even the dust of a stray crystal infiltrated it.

The gamroara struck the ground like a meteor. Spraying dirt, rock, and grass out of the crater of rising debris. Rattling the ground so brutally that those standing lost their footing and braced themselves on the dirt.

Garrik slammed into its back with wings flared and unfurled. Demolishing every last shard of the beast into a pile of shattered rock, black crystal, and steaming, rotting bone.

---