Xolani and François had planned their ambush with care and precision. They waited until the end of the day, once darkness had fallen and Jason and Allyra were weary. They also chose a crevasse-laden minefield, where every footstep was filled with danger.
They seemed to materialize out of thin air, exploding out of the darkness like wraiths in the night. Allyra’s mind froze for a second, but her body reacted on instinct, ducking under François’s blade as it sliced through the air, a hair’s breadth above her. Jason moved even faster, his swords instantly in his hands, slicing through the straps attaching him to their sled of supplies.
François seemed to disappear in a cloud of shadow and darkness, only to appear a heartbeat later, his sword aimed at her neck. Allyra leapt across a deep crevasse, her boots slipping on the slick ice as she brought up her sword to block François’s. The sound of their swords clashing together sliced through the deep silence, echoing endlessly amongst the ice crevasses. In a moment as frozen as the landscape around her, Allyra caught sight of the sword in François’s hand. It was black but shone in the darkness, like a shard of black glass. It had an edge filled with jagged teeth, made for tearing through flesh. It was a type of sword she recognized all too well though she’d only seen it in the Between—and never in the hands of a human.
She didn’t have time to consider the implications as François thrust the Revenant blade at her once more, forcing her to parry wildly, the strength of his blow sending her stumbling backward. His strength was inhuman, fueled by something not of this world.
Her boot caught on a shard of ice hidden by a layer of snow, and her momentum sent her sprawling headfirst into a deep crevasse, and she managed to save herself only through the strength of her Gift, the Air forming a wall more solid than the ground to catch her. She scrambled to her feet once more, calling upon every inch of her Elemental strength to push away François’s continued onslaught.
François disappeared once more only to appear behind her, the Revenant blade cutting through her bulky jacket and sending downy feathers floating into the icy air. Allyra managed to block his next blow, and as their swords came together, hers shattered into three separate pieces. François kicked at her left knee, and it collapsed under her. Her head hit the icy ground and black spots exploded in her vision. François strode toward her, and she tried to scramble away, but the ground was slick beneath her boots. As he moved closer, she saw that his eyes were no longer green but rather a deep bloody red—the eyes of an Ancient. Frantic, feverish fear consumed her.
Under the onslaught of irrational panic, Allyra froze. She froze as she’d promised herself never to do again. The Ancient wearing François’s skin moved closer, and time slowed even more, like honey dripping on a cold winter morning. The Revenant blade’s jagged edges dripped with poison. The Ancient was all her nightmares come to life—the very embodiment of death itself.
The Revenant blade sliced down toward her throat, but in the millisecond before it cut through her flesh, it was knocked aside.
“Allyra!”
Jason’s voice roused her from her nightmare, forcing her back into action. She tried once more to get to her feet, and this time, she managed to find traction in the ice. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jason facing off against François, the Fire in his hands reflecting in the Ancient’s red eyes but having no effect against François and his Inferno Gift. Xolani was stalking up unseen behind Jason, another Revenant blade clutched in his hands.
Allyra was suddenly back in the Between, in that moment of utter helplessness as the Revenant pursued Mandla. She had been too far to save Mandla, and she was too far to save Jason. This time there would be no Alex to save the day. This time she was alone.
Allyra glanced at her one remaining whole sword. She could throw it and guide it with her Gift, like an arrow, into Xolani. But she’d seen Jason stop a bullet and she knew well enough that her blade would never find its target, not when the target was Gifted. Allyra realized that there was only one way her blade would make it to Xolani—if he never saw it coming. She reached deep for her Gift, and its power burned like a river of lava through her veins. The sword in her hands started to fade, Evanescing into Air molecules until it disappeared altogether. She knew the sword well, knew the weight of it in her hand, the balance of it as it moved through the air, the sharpness of its blade. Allyra took all her knowledge of the sword and put it into reforming it. Despite her familiarity with the sword, it fought against her; it was forged metal—man-made—and further from its natural state, making it difficult to Evanesce, especially for someone as inexperienced as her. But she managed to reform some semblance of it an inch from Xolani’s back before she thrust it deep into his flesh. She felt it cut through muscle, tendon, and bone as surely as if her fingers had been wrapped around the sword’s hilt. She nearly collapsed with the effort, but no, the fight wasn’t over yet.
Xolani tumbled into Jason, knocking him off balance, distracting him long enough for François’s hellish Revenant blade to cut deep into Jason’s thigh. Jason collapsed with a sharp shout of pain, and François hefted up the blade for the death blow.
Desperation surged through her, and her Gift burned even hotter, threatening to turn her to ashes. But she embraced it. For the first time, she let it consume
