Page 34 of Bonded to the Fallen Shadow King

Immediately, Yuki released me, and I plopped back on the ground as my ribs cracked and folded. My breath caught and my spine arched and twisted, and cold fire tried to take over my body, but my wolf and I both pushed through despite the shift taking a little longer.

My wolf didn’t care if this killed us.

She wanted blood, same as I did.

My claws raked against the stone. Shift completed, I lifted my head.

My stomach clenched. A manticore charged at us.

ChapterEleven

Briar

The manticore’s wings ripped through the air, and my body tingled with adrenaline. I ran from Quen and Yuki, wanting to attack the beast without risking injury to them. I rushed toward Siray’s platform and its glowing purple shield.

“Briar,” Quen yelled. “What are you doing?”

Even if I wanted to answer her, I couldn't. The only way I could communicate as a wolf was via pack link, and I had no pack members here. The only comfort I had was the faint warmth of the links in my chest from my pack members back home.

The manticore was inches from my head, so I jumped onto Siray’s protective shield, my claws cracking against the glass, and twisted and launched myself toward the enemy.

Locking my attention on where I wanted to land, my jaws came close to its throat. Bone ground against my teeth as I clamped down, which meant that I’d missed. The force of the collision knocked the beast off balance, and we crashed to the ground.

A deep, pulsing vibration rolled beneath my paws.

The swarm had changed. The sound of chittering legs wasn’t light anymore—it was heavy, pounding, and impossibly loud.

Yuki appeared on one side of me, Quen on the other, both pushing forward through the haze and heat. The manticore rose, furious, its tail flicking once before it launched black quills at us.

Thewhizzing noise reminded me of bullets, and I didn’t know how the hell I was going to protect the girls. This was it. Not only would I die, two others would die along with me. My heart twisted, and I threw my head back and howled.Ember, I love you.

Yuki’s magic surged fast, and warmth swarmed us as a stone burst from the floor and caught the brunt of the attack. The spikes slammed into the rock with a sickening crunch, one ricocheting off and slicing into the edge of my flank. I bit back a yelp, paws bracing as Quen hurled an arc of flame straight at the beast’s chest.

“Flames won’t work,” Kaylen shouted from behind her shield, voice trilling with glee. “Manticores don’t burn, stupid.”

Quen didn’t look at Kaylen, and fire crackled higher around her arms. “Flame-resistant doesn’t mean flameproof. Everything burns. Just takes longer.”

The heat snapped against my skin as the flames caught and the air shimmered with rising waves. The manticore screeched, rearing back as fire clung to its coat, devouring the fur and catching in the bloody crevices where I’d torn muscle.

Yuki threw her arms wide again. The stone trembled beneath the manticore’s feet, fissures opening beneath it. The creature hesitated, talons scrabbling for balance. A second shockwave echoed from deeper in the arena, and the manticore turned toward it. It took the bait and lunged, barreling toward the second tremor.

She kept feeding the illusion, guiding it with distant cracks—straight toward Deallan’s circle.

More movement surged from the edges of the hall. The next wave of creepy crawlies had arrived.

They were larger now—grotesque and glistening, legs clacking, bodies thick, and mandibles snapping. A centipede lunged, and I slammed into it, tearing into its side as ichor sprayed across the ground. A scorpion wrapped around my back leg, its tail piercing my skin as I twisted and kicked free.

There was no break, no pause.

More agony followed by more pain, tormenting us all.

Just critters, manticores, and us, fighting and trying like hell to get back to our circle.

The swarm didn’t care that I’d survived the fall or that we’d managed to drive off a manticore. They kept coming, one endless tide, and I wasn’t sure we could keep standing.

The screeching of incoming wings had my ears twitching. The whistle of quills echoed in my ears. I dove to the side, insects crawling all over me as quills struck where I'd just been.

Stings and bites ached everywhere. The cold fire of venom fought both my wolf magic and the warmth that had filled me from making eye contact with the stag. But the pounding of wings informed me that they were coming at us again.

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