Page 94 of Court of Wolves

She didn’t, but she wasbristlingwith power, and she was a newborn saint. She raced forward before Bryon or Kheir could catch her, their cries of alarm and fear like new arrows to her chest.

Like he matched her fury, the drake lumbered forward, his huge body crammed awkwardly in the corridor, and he unleashed a roar of rage so loud and powerful it shook the walls. Cracks widened in the floor. Plants shrivelled, escaping the primal rage of a drake. Even Samlyn’s face paled as he stared at the drake. She sent the ink hawk at his face while he was distracted, but he batted it aside like nothing more than an irritating fly.

Az!Maia yelled down her connection with her mate.Azrail!

She waited for his soul to surge against hers with the familiar, comforting rush of warmth and protectiveness, but he was frozen, utterly still even on the inside. What the fuck did theydoto him? A roar of her own left her throat before she could stop it and Jaro’s head snapped up, jade-green eyes locking with hers. And oh, they were blazing. Rife with anger and defiance and bloodlust.

Maia’s heart quickened. It had been so long since she’d seen him, an eternity they’d lived apart, but one look and she recalled every moment they’d shared, every hug and smile and laugh and sweet, delicate promise. And yet there was nothing sweet or delicate about the look they shared as Maia broke into a run, or the way their souls slammed into each other, tangling so hard and entirely that the trees at the heart of her soul bowed and shuddered.

We end them here. We make them pay for ever keeping us apart.

As if he heard her, Jaro whipped towards Samlyn so fast his fur blurred. But it wasmagiche struck with, not teeth and claws and bites. It erupted from him like an explosion, driving silver shards of power into the saint until Samlyn staggered back, a hand at his throat where the largest piece punctured him.

Other fragments drove into Scylla’s back, shredding her dress, and Maia froze mere metres away, braced for the slash and pierce of Jaro’s power on her own skin. Instead, it flowed over her like a cold brush of air, like wind carried on an icy current, and rushed further, passing over her mates, over the drake, over the unconscious form of the Eversky.

Maia shuddered, and startled hard when the drake snapped,attack them now, while they’re distracted by the indentures shattering.

The indentures… Maia’s eyes stung, a lump tightening her throat. Jaro had done that, with magic she didn’t even know he possessed. Her brave, wonderful mate. There were thorns between them, truths so sharp they’d grown teeth, but those didn’t matter in this moment. He was hers and she loved him so much her heart might burst, and she felt the same adoration echoed back to her along the mate bond.

Which indentures?Maia asked, dropping rapidly into her new pool of magic, so far deeper and wider than anything she’d possessed before today. It covered her skin until she shone like a star, and she watched the impact hit Scylla when the saint glared at her, teeth bared in a show of fae hostility. Maia bared her own. She was still fae, butmore.Fae but a saint, just like Scylla. Maia might not have been the root of all magic, or the earth itself, but she was life and souls and the defiant, ever-present survival of even the smallest, most fragile flowers in winter. If Scylla didn’tknow that yet, she would know it now. So would the Eversky when she woke up, though Maia hoped she never did.

Which indentures?The drake laughed.All of them. Every last one in this land.

Every—Maia didn’t have time to process that because she was close enough now that she could see the freckles on Scylla’s nose, the way her jaw ticked with a betrayal of her anger, the sharp edge of her canine teeth. There were so many things Maia could do with her magic, so many ways she could have struck Scylla, but there was one thing she really wanted to do. She curled her fingers into a fist and slammed it into Scylla’s nose, the crunch of cartilage and sudden gush of bloodimmenselysatisfying. Especially when Maia followed it with a rush of soul magic.

It would have been nice of Sephanae to stick around to explain how all of this worked, but Maia gave her power free reign and was rewarded with the glow around her hand intensifying. Scylla tore away with a hiss like her touch burned. The charcoal of her soul cracked, a bright fracture across her face where Maia’s magic struck her.

No wonder the magic burned; like the Eversky, Scylla was darkness and evil and the pureness of Maia’s power would be like acid to the touch. She drove her fist into Scylla’s stomach and left her stumbling back, diving towards Jaro just as… just asAzrailrushed at her jaguar with darkness wrapped like coils of shadow around his arms.

It took her a second to realise what had happened, to guess that even though indentures had shattered, Samlyn still had control of Az. No wonder Jaro kept trying to protect him.

Maia tugged on the thread of her power connected to Ark’s tattoo, and the hawk dove over their heads with a silent shriek. It crashed into Azrail’s shoulder right as he wrapped both handsaround Jaro’s thick throat, and the drake let out another world-shaking roar behind them.

Get out of the way, you blithering fool,he barked at Maia.

She tucked her shoulder and rammed into Azrail, knocking him out of the way and tugging on Jaro’s soul so he followed. The three of them hit the wall just as the drake’s serpentine, ivory head lashed past like a whip. A whip covered in spikes and scales, harbouring sharp, lethal teeth. Magic rushed in around Scylla, pluming like charcoal smoke, carrying her away. But Samlyn had turned toMaia,furious, she supposed, that she’d taken Azrail from him.

No. A gasp tore up her throat. He was furious that she’d knocked Azrail’s compulsion free. Maia grabbed Az’s face in both hands, throwing herself at his soul and wrapping herself around it, her magic lighting them both in bright, glowing silver.

“I can’t…hold on for long,” he said through gritted teeth. Pain darkened his sapphire eyes, tightened his jaw, and lined his face with bright, vivid suffering. It was such a relief to watch the stoic expression drop that Maia didn’t care that her soul lit up with pain where they connected.

All at once, the darkness stifling the palace ripped away and Maia saw everything in bright, brutal clarity. Blood flowed down Azrail’s chest from even more wounds than last time, like someone had tried to skin him alive. Maia wanted to scream.

Jaro saw them too, and a vicious snarl ripped from him, sending another rupture of magic through the palace. Maia’s legs weakened, but Az’s warm hands fell on her waist, steadying her. The touch made her want to cry.

“Keep fighting,” Maia urged him, squeezing his arm, wrapping them both in as much magic as she could summon. It faltered when the drake roared, exceptionally large teeth snapping at Samlyn when the saint tried to escape.

“Defend me!” Samlyn yelled at the undead, a note of panic in his voice now. Hope surged into Maia’s throat at the sound of it.

“They answer tome,”Azrail snarled, teeth bared as he fought Samlyn’s control. Sweat beaded at his temple. Blood ran from his nose—black blood. Maia’s stomach dropped.

“Az,” she rasped, sending a surge of gleaming power towards that blood, as if it would have the same effect as when she touched Scylla’s darkness.

“Back, foul creature!” Samlyn snapped at the drake. “Forsaken one, to me!”

Azrail ripped away from Maia so suddenly, she stumbled. The moment she found her balance, she had her hands around his arm, pulling with all her might, locking eyes with the Provider. “I’m going to kill you,” she promised him.

The saint’s smile suggested the inverse, and cold bled through Maia, dripping down her spine. She was focused on him, on the army of dead things behind him—too focused. Scylla came out of nowhere, appearing from a plume of magic behind the drake.

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