Page 40 of Before the Bond Breaks
If Maze saw them, she didn’t let anyone know it. She focused on Balder and spat out her reply. “You lost this fight the second you shed innocent blood and stole from us. We’re not letting you finish the ritual.”
Balder’s patience ran thin in his next words. “You never learned to think beyond tradition. But it ends here—for all of you.”
He snapped his fingers. The blue chaos spell Maze had woven evaporated. The brawl in the corridor stilled, the surviving eitrborn bracing for new orders. Then, from every hidden door along the chamber, a fresh horde poured in—dozens, maybe more. Their magic stank, the air warping as rows of blank-eyed monsters filed into the space, encircling us tight.
I pressed my earpiece. “Winter. Now.”
The reply was instantaneous. “Portal opening.”
A seam ripped open in the air at the far end of the room. Blue light shimmered, then split wide open. Valkyries and shifters poured from the rift, weapons drawn, every step measured for war. Jenson led the charge, Candra at his side, with the rest of our clans fanning out behind. Nicky and Larc rushed forward to join the others, cutting a path straight through a knot of eitrborn.
Chaos erupted. The Valkyries hammered into the enemy line, magic crackling at their fingertips. Shifters shifted mid-sprint. Jenson’s white wolf form blurred as he carved a path through synthetic flesh. Larc’s shadow magic slipped in and out of sight as he cut through the monsters at the edges of the battle.
Maze kept moving forward. I matched her stride, both of us angling toward the altar where Balder had already begun thefinal sequence. Green energy arced between his palms, feeding the stone, warping the runes on the floor.
Bryna lunged at Maze, blade flashing in her grip. Maze anticipated the attack and blasted Bryna with a surge of Command. The impact sent Bryna stumbling, but she shook it off, hate burning in her eyes. The two warriors crashed together, old loyalty drowned by the violence of the moment.
I kept my focus on Balder. He chanted the spell, each syllable ratcheting the pressure in the air. I ducked the swipe of an eitrborn’s claws and grounded its magic with a direct pulse to the chest, then sent another blast of magic into the monster’s sternum, sending it flying.
The stone absorbed Balder’s power, every beat growing more erratic with every beat . I charged full-force and unleashed my grounding power straight at Balder’s core.
The hit landed hard, throwing Balder backward, his body slamming into the altar. The ritual faltered, and the green energy crackled wildly, losing form. I leapt and seized the Severing Stone, yanking it free and wrapping it in a warded cloth I conjured from raw will.
Bryna and Maze fought on the floor, every move a clash of bodies and power. Bryna’s attacks came fast. She wielded a poisoned blade, each thrust aimed to kill. Maze countered, deflecting with forearm and magic, sweat streaming down her face as she absorbed the tempo of the fight.
Balder recovered faster than I expected. When I spun around, blade in hand, he’d vanished. No scent, no shimmer, nothing.
Bryna drove the dagger forward, aiming for Maze’s heart. Maze reacted on instinct and caught the blade with her bare hand,twisting it aside. Blood welled along her palm. But before Bryna could pull free, Maze blasted her with a final, ruthless charge of magic. The energy buckled Bryna’s body, seizing every nerve and burning through her like wildfire.
Bryna’s eyes went wide, lips parting in shock. Then her body crumpled, the spell wringing the last tremor from her frame before silence descended.
Maze stared down at Bryna, chest heaving, the cut on her palm still bleeding. Grief and duty warred across her face. It wasn’t easy for her to kill one of her own, even if that person had betrayed her. Mazelina Valen was not as heartless as she liked for people to think.
The warehouse fell silent. Eitrborn corpses carpeted the floor, the Valkyries and shifters circling to regroup and tend the wounded. The runes on the altar faded, and the Severing Stone went dormant in my grip.
Smoke curled along the ceiling, mixing with the stink of blood and scorched eitr. Around me, Valkyries and shifters limped or crouched to tend the wounded. Some barely held themselves upright. Others worked with mechanical focus, dragging the fallen into rough triage lines while Candra and Jenson cleared the last of our enemies from the corners.
Maze knelt by Bryna’s body, face unreadable but for the hard set of her mouth. Her hands shook barely as she pressed them to Bryna’s chest. Bryna’s eyes stared up, wide open, the fury and hope that once lived there erased by death.
I crouched beside Maze, my gaze locking on the cut on her palm. Blood streaked the skin, the wound shallow but ugly, already swelling at the edges from Bryna’s poisoned blade.
I caught Maze’s wrist before she could pull away. My grip was careful, but I forced her to stay still while I checked the damage. Her pulse hammered under my thumb, but she glared at me, blue eyes daring me to scold her.
“I’m fine,” she said, voice ice-cold.
I bared my teeth, a growl rumbling through my chest. “You’re bleeding.”
She leaned in, lips finding mine with sudden ferocity. The taste of her cut through the haze of battle—salt, sweat, the edge of loss. When she broke away, her voice dropped to a whisper. “I’m fine.”
I cleaned the wound, using my magic to draw out the poison. Maze didn’t flinch, even as the pain must have burned. Her jaw tightened, but she let me finish wrapping her hand in a strip of cloth torn from my own shirt.
Bryna’s body sprawled at our feet, the old loyalty and betrayal both heavy in the air. Maze didn’t look away, but her voice softened just a fraction. “She was one of ours. Even if she forgot it at the end.”
I nodded, having nothing to say that would make it easier.
Across the warehouse, Winter and Quil herded survivors toward the portal, blue light flickering as the gateway stabilized. Nicky limped, one arm slung around Larc’s shoulder as my brother half-carried her. Jenson barked orders, his presence the backbone for every shifter in the room.
I helped Maze to her feet. She swayed, exhaustion carving deep shadows under her eyes. I caught her waist and steadied her, refusing to let her collapse after everything she’d just survived.
