To their surprise, Evans heard them. He looked at Britt and Max, who pointed dramatically to the north. Britt saw Evans glance in that direction and visibly jump when he saw the dark red and brown dragons flying at them. Now Britt saw that a dragonrider trailed them but was too far behind to be immediately helpful. The dragons were going to reach the elves before the rider could stop them.  

Britt watched as Evans tried to get Inama’s attention. They only had a few moments to spare before acting in defense. “He needs help,” she said. Max looked at her and Britt said, “You have to help him.”   

Max took the crystal and gripped it in his palm. He strung an arrow, holding the sapphire in his arrow hand.  

He’s going to try to use the arrow like he did his sword, she realized. But he doesn’t know if that will work. What if he can only do that with the sword?  

The dragons leveled off just outside the city. Evans’ crystal glowed as he prepared to use a powerful burst of magic. Max held the bow string against his cheek, taking aim at the steady flight of the dragons. Britt heard his bow snap and saw the blue hue of the arrow’s shaft streak across the sky with more speed than she thought possible. Any non-magically powered arrow would’ve fallen short, but Max’s enhanced bolt streaked toward the dragons. Britt saw the arrow burst into an electric shower of light as it smashed into the dragons’ energy shields. A moment later a bolt of magic shot from Evans’ arms, hitting the red dragon’s back and taking off its wings. The dragon fell from the sky onto the plains outside the city, but the brown dragon continued forward, locked onto its targets.  

Britt held her breath as Max strung another arrow. She could see the dragon’s chest glowing as it readied to unleash hellfire on them. As the dragon’s mouth began to open, she heard the twang from Max’s bow. The arrow flew faster than the previous one, charged with energy from the crystal. It disappeared into the dragon’s mouth. The dragon’s head went limp and it pitched toward them. Britt thought she would have to jump, but the large body dropped quickly. The dragon collided with the building just down the line to the left, the building where Evans had been standing. Britt’s ears were filled with Max’s screams as a cloud of dust plumed in the dragon’s wake.  

Max jumped off the roof, landing between the elves in the street who hadn’t seen the crash from behind the houses. Britt clambered down off the roof to follow him, shouting, “Max, wait! Max!” She trailed him to the base of the wreck were elves were scrambling to their feet.  

The dragon’s crumpled and contorted dead body spread across the building and into both streets.

“Evans!” Max shouted, madly climbing through the rubble toward the dragon.  

Britt scrambled after him, trying to calm him down. As she came upon the dragon where Max was frantically throwing aside blocks of thick, dried mud, Britt noticed the arrow sticking out of the back of the dragon’s neck, just below the skull.  

Britt came to the pile of debris that Max was attempting to clear. “I’m so sorry,” she started to say when the entire pile shifted. Blocks slid off a bulge in the center and she saw Max’s foster brother standing in the center. Evans was coated in dust. He’d turned almost the same color as the adobe debris. Max’s foster brother climbed out of the hole created by the crystal’s magic to protect him. Max and Britt rushed to help. 

Max pulled Evans into a brotherly embrace. “You scared the daylights out of me, man. I thought I might’ve just killed you.”  

Evans chuckled and shrugged. He opened his palm to show Max the darkened crystal and said, “Good thing I’ve got a few more of these.” 

Britt didn’t have time to react. She saw the rise of a black figure lunging from behind Evans. She watched helplessly as the fairnheir landed on Evans, sinking its jaws deep into his neck. By the time she and Max could stab the creature, Evans blood had spilled out. They didn’t have time to comprehend what had happened before more hounds took the place of the one lying dead over Evans. The elves tried to fill the gap where the dragon had crushed the house, but it was too late for Evans. Britt could hear Max wailing as he wildly sliced and cut into the fairnheir.   

***  

Pain shot through Kirsten’s left shoulder, descending through her arm and causing her to drop the crystal. Fear of Anders’ healing reversing its effects forced Kirsten to quickly pull back her sleeve, expecting to see the goblin’s venom returning. The pain felt so real. Though the sky was clouded by a black haze, Kirsten could see with the light of the sapphire hanging from her neck. She stared at her white forearm and green blue veins. What? she thought, confused by what she saw. Her veins and shoulder burned with the intense ghosting pain of the old injury. A blade flashed directly in front of her. The pulse of air against her face was followed by a warm spray of blood. The sudden shock sent her falling back into reality. She backed away from the elves as they charged around her and tripped, landing in the dirt on her backside.  

“Get up!” she heard the Southland woman say to her.  

Kirsten grunted and forced the stinging sensation she felt from her old wound deep into her subconscious. She saw Inama’s twirling spear preceding her fast-moving body. Inama sliced and skewered her weapon into the hellish hound-like creatures that breached their defenses where the dragon had crashed. Clambering to her feet to join her fellow crystal bearer, Kirsten let the rage that had been consuming her take over again. Even if her arm became useless from the phantom pain, she wouldn’t let anything take her from the battle, not without seeing Bo’s face at least one more time.  

A monstrous growl arose behind them. Kirsten spun on her heels to see a massive ball of muscle and fur barreling in from the streets behind them. The broad beast tore into the elven soldiers who had been distracted by the fairnheir.

“Where the hell did that come from?” she shouted, grabbing her crystal and looking to Inama.  

With her crystal, Inama pushed a pulse of energy at three fairnheir charging into the streets. “You take it; I got this up here!” she managed to shout before putting her spear to work.  

Kirsten groaned. She’d already used up one of her crystals in the initial wave while beating back demons and monsters. One more won’t tap it, she hoped, pressing the balls of her feet into the dirt street and sprinting after the beast with crystal and sword in hand.  

“Move! Get out of the way!” she shouted halting just before reaching the thrashing beast. Kirsten held the sapphire in one hand while trying to get a clean shot at the oversized wolf-looking beast. “Ah!” she snarled as the elves blocking her continued to shoot arrows and stick the monster with spears. With the creature’s long claws raking through the elves plate armor quicker than they could stab and hit the beast, Kirsten threw herself carelessly into the brawl.  

She charged in through a gap between soldiers and pushed an archer who prepared to launch an arrow out of her way. With the wolf beast ripping its deadly fangs into an elf, she finally had her clear shot. Anger and rage flooding her mind, Kirsten let loose a stream of magic stored inside the crystal. The electric stream of light blew into the side of the beast with such force it sent it hurling through the air. The beast spun, twisting as the momentum from Kirsten’s attack pushed it across the street and through a thick-walled adobe home. 

She continued to run after the beast, realizing now that the magical attack might’ve been strong enough to kill the beast but there were no guarantees. After fighting similar creatures for hours, she knew not to take a chance. Pushing past normal human strength, Kirsten let the crystal’s power course through her as she bounded onto the hellish beast. To her gratification, the wolf monster was rising, shaking off the debris from the assault. Kirsten fell on it, driving her sword through its side resulting in a thick flow of blood that pulsed out of the sword’s entry wound. The monster snapped and thrashed, each time with less effort. Kirsten held it down with her super-human strength. Acting on instinct, she spoke the phrase as best she could remember from the day Anders tried to show them how to harvest a dying creature’s energy. She felt the wolf go limp and the flow of its existence enter her sapphire, recharging it to more strength than she’d had at the beginning of the battle. 

Kirsten had to force herself to stop taking energy from the crystal. A voice in the back of her mind kept telling her to survive long enough to see Bo again. Half-dazed from her consumption of magical energy, Kirsten stumbled out of the rubble where the dead beast lay. She tried to focus on where she might be needed most. Somewhere close by, she heard a familiar voice calling her name. She searched through the shadowed lighting and saw Thomas cowering against a nearby building.

“Thomas?” she said.  

“Kirsten!” he called out but didn’t get up to come to her.  

Kirsten rushed to his side, crouching in the dirt street. Thomas clutched at something near his chest. She feared he’d been injured. “Are you hurt?” she asked. Thomas stared at her as though he didn’t hear or understand what she was asking. “Thomas, let me see,” she said, pulling back his hands. Though his grip was firm, she was able to pry his hands away from his chest. She saw that his armor was unscathed. The pink-hued sapphire she’d given him hung from the necklace. “Thomas,” she said getting his attention. “You’re good. You’re not hurt.”  

Thomas nodded but his eyes darted to the empty street behind Kirsten.  

Kirsten looked behind her, but only saw a demolished building. Glancing at the fighting, she could tell the elves had formed the barrier again. They were finishing off anything that had been trapped behind their lines. She grabbed Thomas by the shoulders and helped stand him up. “There you go. You’ve still got your bow. You could put that to use with the others.”  

Thomas stared at her, his pale complexion screaming fear. 

“Thomas, what’s wrong?” she asked.  

He pointed a shaking hand over her shoulder and whispered, “It’s still there.” 

Kirsten looked behind her again, but only saw the dead wolf creature she’d killed. “It’s there, Thomas, but I killed it. The beast is not a threat.”  

Thomas shook his head, “No. Not the beast.”  

She could see that his eyes were darting around, searching the space behind her for something. She shook him and said, “Get ahold of yourself. Tell me where you see it?” She waited for him to respond but he didn’t. “Was it behind the elves?” she asked. 

Thomas nodded and tears began to trickle from the corner of his eyes. 

Kirsten didn’t know what he’d seen, but it must’ve been bad to leave him in such a fearful state. “I’ll deal with it. You go find a place where there are lots of elves and stand in the middle of them so nothing from the front or the back can easily get to you. Use that bow and fight back.” 

Thomas nodded, seeming to regain some confidence at her words.  

They took two steps toward the others when a black streak passed over them. She saw the demon land on a building in front of them and begin attacking archers. Thomas screamed in horror, almost cowering back down against the wall where she’d found him. Kirsten grabbed him and taking on most of his weight, kept him on his feet. She began dragging him back into the middle of the nearby elves. “Thomas, get into the middle where it's the safest,” she said, shoving him into the group. “And use that bow!” she called after him. 

Thomas locked eyes with her as he blended into the crowd. He seemed to have accepted her advice. He nodded and pushed his way through to the center. 

Kirsten charged off toward the demon. When she reached the top of the building where it had perched, it had vanished. Looking down, she spotted one of the brindle-colored beasts, pricked with dozens of arrows yet still able to leap over the fairnheir piling up in front of the shield wall. Most of the other beasts that had survived had returned to the bulk of the army that waited beyond the battlefield. This one had not.  

 Kirsten jumped onto its back as it hurtled over the shield wall. She grabbed the arrows sticking out of its back as though they were handholds. Using the arrows, Kirsten balanced on the creature’s broad shoulders. Taking her hand off one arrow to grab her crystal, she prepared to channel magic as she ripped an arrow from the beast’s back. Suddenly the monster bucked launching Kirsten into the air. She flew up over buildings, knowing she wouldn’t have a soft landing. Using the power from her sapphire, Kirsten threw the arrow as she sailed away from the beast. The enhanced power that she summoned from the sapphire forced her arm to move faster than a bow. Her aim was true; the arrow sunk deep into the bearish monster’s skull. The beast was dead before she had begun to fall from the arching angle of her involuntary flight.  

Dropping past the buildings, Kirsten prepared for impact, when suddenly she was caught by something in the air. Her first thought as her body changed direction from falling to flying again was that Anders or Maija had saved her. Instantly, though, she felt sharp claws scraping at her. Kirsten looked down and saw dark arms with blood-stained claws wrapped around her. Demon, she thought in a panic.  

The creature scraped and grabbed at her as if it were searching for something. The demon’s grip pinned her arms against her body so she couldn’t reach up to grab the crystal slung around her neck. My sword, she thought, reaching for the blade sheathed at her waist. Unable to move her arms enough to pull it, she started squirming. Kirsten broke free with one arm and began punching, hitting any part of the demon she could as it carried her through the air. She screamed when she felt the demon’s claws cutting through her skin, trying to hold her in place. Suddenly she felt the creature find the crystal on the necklace. It popped free. A fraction of a second later, Kirsten felt herself falling through the air.  

She landed feet first on the street and rolled into a forward motion. Rolling to a stop, she saw the demon land in the empty street just a few yards away. Kirsten scrambled to her feet, pulling her sword free from its sheath. The demon held the small crystal in its oversized hands, trying to produce the energy from inside it by flicking its arms like it would when throwing something. 

It doesn’t know how to use it, she realized and took full advantage of the distraction.  

Even though she moved as quickly as she could, the demon was too quick to respond. It grabbed her with its long arms, wrapping its fingers around her neck. Kirsten felt the claws cut into her skin and her airway being restricted. She choked while she stared deep into the demon’s eyes. It looked back with the intensity of a hate-filled soul. Kirsten could feel her windpipe being crushed. The pressure in her face and head grew so strong she thought her head might burst.  

Kirsten stabbed, cut and punched at the demon’s outstretched arm. Her efforts broke its skin but did nothing to lessen the grip around her throat. The more she kicked and thrashed, the more she realized she wasn’t going to escape. Her vision began to blur. The devilish red eyes were all she could see. Kirsten didn’t know what possessed her to do it, but she tried to speak. The phrase was the one she’d used to harvest the wolf-like beast’s energy. It came out in a gurgled whisper, but when the last gurgling syllable of the ancient language fell from her lips, the demon’s hand ripped away from her.