Brandon didn’t even look at me. His fiery blue eyes were focused on Astra. Viola stood right behind her, unable to do much against the likes of Torrhen. Not while she still had the runes on her, anyway. “I hope you can forgive me,” he muttered, then vanished in a puff of black smoke.
Just like that, we were one ally down, and it pleased Torrhen. “There we go. A man with sense. What about you, Valkyrie? Will you keep at it? I don’t mind destroying you. I never liked your kind. Self-righteous and sanctimonious bitches, the whole lot. Well, Hrista’s got a flavor of her own, I’ll give her that—” He was forced to step back as Myst swung her sword and nearly sliced into his face. It made him laugh.
She tried to hit Torrhen again, but he blocked her light sword with his dark daggers. The clatter their blades made was different than the usual kiss of steel. It rang hollow and flat—the sound made my skin crawl and filled me with dread. I wanted to have faith in Myst’s abilities, but there was something about this Berserker that made me nervous for her, despite her strength.
“Thayen, we have to get them out,” Viola whispered, pointing to the door behind Torrhen. Myst kept attacking, and he continued blocking her hits without so much as a shuffle to the side. He’d broken our invisibility magic, and we had no other way of getting past him.
“Let’s get this party started!” the Berserker howled, then swung both knives at Myst. She brought her sword up to defend herself, but the blow was powerful enough to throw her back a couple of yards, their blades releasing a flurry of white flashes in the process.
Astra released a barrier toward him, but Torrhen merely waved it a way with a flick of his wrist. It bounced back and smacked the half-Daughter in the chest. She cried out and nearly fell, but Viola held her up. Torrhen was about to come after Myst when Jericho threw several fireballs at him.
The flames didn’t do much. The shadows slipped off the Berserker’s massive form in response to the brief light, revealing more of his leather and silver armor and the intricate details swirling across his chest. The motifs looked ancient, the ridges of their design blackened by time. The fire barely made Torrhen scowl. He didn’t care for the fae dragon; he had his sights set on Myst.
“I’ll keep him busy,” the Valkyrie said as she walked past me and went straight for Torrhen’s head. The light from her blade danced over every pane of frosted glass around us. She was incredibly agile, I noticed, wishing I could do more to help her.
Though it made my blood boil, I knew I was virtually helpless against the likes of Torrhen, considering that my last hope had been the pulverizer weapon. Since that didn’t do anything, either, my options were extremely limited. I glanced over to Astra, Viola, and Jericho. We had to get the others out of the glass house. Myst was putting herself through hell to make it possible.
My legs moved. I was about to find a way to sneak around Torrhen when a familiar growl emerged from nearby. I froze on the spot, and so did the others. We knew what was coming. The shadow hounds burst into sight all around us, like flying shadows. One blew past me and cut my arm, drawing blood.
I heard Jericho snarl, then saw him drop to his knees as another one of Haldor’s fiends pounced on his back, viciously clawing at the fae dragon. Astra pushed a barrier out and threw the shadow monster away, but it wasn’t enough. More of them were coming from every corner, from the main alley of the alt-Shade’s extension, from between the glass houses, and from the ocean itself. It grew suddenly dark, and my blood ran cold as Haldor made his presence known, standing proudly atop the very glass house where Isabelle, Voss, and Chantal were held.
Myst was having enough trouble with Torrhen already. Haldor would only make it worse. It angered me that Brandon had abandoned us, though I did understand why he’d had to do it. Had it been me in his shoes, maybe I would’ve done the same. They’d taken his Aesir. And if Torrhen had spoken truthfully, Hammer’s destruction would turn Brandon into a shadow beast like the many pets of Haldor. At this point, it didn’t matter for us, though. There was no time. We would have to make do with what we had.
I caught a glimpse of Viola sneaking past Torrhen and Myst, the shadow hounds darting left and right as they went for Astra and Jericho first. The creatures must have identified them as sources of light that had to be destroyed. Viola was quick enough to slip away relatively unnoticed. I dropped as one of the shadow hounds lunged at me, then scrambled around Myst and Torrhen, while Haldor laughed from the flat rooftop.
By the time I caught up with Viola inside the glass house, a terrible scene was unfolding. She’d been pinned down by Isabelle, while Voss and Chantal watched, smiling. They were clones, all three of them. Haldor’s laughter grew louder, practically mocking us. “It’s a trap. It was a trap from the very beginning…”
Cursing under my breath, I took swift action. There was nothing I could do against the Berserkers outside, but the clones… these bastards were mine.
“Hey, Isabelle!” I shouted. She growled as she looked at me, no longer touching Viola and eager to jump me instead, until she saw the weapon. I fired a pulverizer shot, and she exploded into a cloud of gray ashes. The other two joined her in the nothingness as I emptied my clip on them both. Viola jumped back up, giving me a horrified look.
“This is wrong on so many levels…”
“I know.” It was all I could manage as we rushed back
