Page 43 of Song of Night

Moving around the writhing bodies of the stunned or dying monsters, we make for Night. But we haven’t traveled two steps when more of the things swarm into the tunnel behind us. They seem to be coming from both sides of the intersecting tunnel, at least four more of them. We have no choice but to turn and fight. Our blast of magic was so strong it just about depleted what reserves I had left. Zara looks over at me and shakes her head, clearly she’s used hers up, too.

Jaylen yells and charges the things, swinging her blade in a broad arc. Zara and I follow. She ducks and rolls, darting in and out like lightning. I leap over one of the felled beasts and manage to pull my axe out of the skull of the other. Then I turn to face the new arrivals, whirling my axe around my body, hacking into spindly legs and jawbones.

But the monsters are fast, too. One of the spiked legs slices across my shoulder and I let out a yell as searing pain consumes my body. I see Jaylen fall beneath one of them, and Zara dives after her with a scream. My vision blurs a moment, my blood pulsing too fast in my temples. The tunnel shakes and I hear growls and snarls rushing toward us.

More of them are coming. We’re going to die here in this labyrinth beneath the earth, footsteps from our home.

Something red and glowing flies across the tunnel before me and tackles the monster standing before me. Another blur of light, then another. The smell of fire and ash hits my nose.

The fire wolves have found us.

Shock and adrenaline pump through my veins and I stagger toward the place where Jaylen and Zara disappeared beneath the monster. There’s a wolf atop their attacker, its flaming jaws ripping into the neck of the thing, spewing blood and bile. A moment later the thing falls limp, and the wolf lets out a victorious howl.

The pack leader, the one that I battled, is finishing off another of the spider-beasts. It takes a hit from one of the spiked legs, but it barely flinches. Sparks and ash whoosh from the wound, but it growls and leaps atop the back of the thing, slashing at its head from up high until the creature falls dead on the tunnel floor.

I help Zara and Jaylen to their feet. They’re covered in blood and dirt, but they’re alive. We stumble toward the end of the tunnel. I can see a metal grate in the shadows ahead, and I realize that the tunnels connect to the sewers beneath the city. It’s not locked. I shove it open and let Zara and her sister pass, then I whistle to the wolves. Three pairs of glowing eyes fixate on me from the darkness of the tunnel beyond, and then they pound toward me. I close the grate behind me after they pass.

Jaylen points to the right where there’s another path that angles up toward the surface. Zara staggers up it, one or both of her legs clearly injured, and Jaylen is pressing one hand into a shoulder wound like mine. The wolves run ahead of us, lighting the path. Dirt turns to moss which then turns to grass beneath our feet. The tunnel grows smaller, so we have to duck as we move ahead.

The tunnel opens into a wooded park. Another grate covers the entrance, which the wolves have already shoved opened. I see the spire of a church rising directly ahead, the first stars of evening glittering above it. Headstones are dotted amidst the trees, and I realize we’re in a small cemetery. The fire wolves stand waiting for us by a large marble mausoleum.

“What sector is this?” I ask Jaylen. What I really want to know is, what enemy’s territory do we occupy?

“Angelus,” she responds. “But we’re just north of the river. Not far from Daemonium territory.”

We move slowly through the trees and the headstones, alert for angels. One of Zara’s legs seems almost entirely unusable, so I move to her side to help her walk as I had in the tunnels after her vision. This time, however, she shrugs away from me.

“I don’t need you,” she says, her voice cold and quiet.

Jaylen darts her gaze back to us, but she says nothing of what she heard.

It’s better this way, it’s better this way… I repeat the mantra in my head over and over. I leave Zara and stride ahead, my fire wolf at my side as I reach the edge of the trees. Pausing, I survey the streets to make sure there are no enemies in sight.

There aren’t any angels nearby.

What I see before me, however, is far, far worse.

Chapter Thirty-One

ZARA

I step up next to Asher at the edge of the graveyard. He’s gone as still as one of the headstones we just passed. When I look out beyond him, my breath leaves my body in one big rush.

The City of Night is burning.

It looks as if the fires of hell have been released, one blazing inferno with barely a building spared. My mind tries to comprehend how a city of stone and metal could burn like this, but then I remember Vyrin’s words, how he’d said that when magic failed them, they became expert alchemists. That can be the only explanation for such destruction.

In the distance, on the north side of the city near Ellielle’s tower, huge catapults fling fireballs far into the streets beyond, some even landing close to the river, nearly in Daemonium territory. The sky is filled with winged creatures, angels and dragons and huge birds of prey. They dive and blast magic back toward Vyrin’s troops. On the ground, warriors clash together with swords and axes and maces.

I’m not sure why I expected anything else but what I see before me now. Vyrin said they’d sent an army through the rift the night before. I suppose the fight for my own life, being hunted by dogs and fae and monsters, had occupied my thoughts entirely. But I never imagined it could be this bad so quickly. The battle couldn’t have been going on for more than half a day, and yet a huge section of the northern half of Night is in flames.

“Dark goddess,” Asher murmurs, eyes wide.

Next to him, one of the wolves lets out a low whine, and Jaylen makes a gesture of prayer over her heart.

“We’ve got to rally our forces and join the fight,” I say, jaw grinding together. “Asher and I will find the Daemonium. Jaylen, do you think the Factionless will join us?”

She does not look at me when she replies, her eyes fixated on the hellish scene before us. As we watch, a fireball hits one of the dragons in flight and it crashes into a building with a reverberating boom, sending a cloud of dust and ash high into the sky.

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