I struggled to keep up with the others as we poured back through the secret entrance. I felt like I’d just run a marathon where the finish line ended with punches instead of high-fives from the awaiting crowd. This was so different from the comfortable stasis of the Higher Plane.
Sen caught my eye. “You can see that we spoke honestly when we warned you about using universal energy in the Immortal Plane. It may get easier with use, but perhaps it is fortunate that we rushed to join this fight,” she said, as if considering the idea in a new light. “It gave you the opportunity to test the effects in a low-stakes scenario.” Of course Sen would consider the opportunity for research to be the bright side of this battle.
It hurts like hell. I’d rarely felt such exhaustion, except maybe during our early, half-starved days of hiding from the Bureau. Those events seemed like they’d happened eons ago.
A few more skimmers had crashed into the courtyard since we’d left it. Fallen allies, a few dead but most thankfully only wounded, struggled to help one another. Two bodies of shrieking decays overwhelmed the field with the stink of rot. I covered my nose and watched as medics, marked by bright pink patches on their ratty vests, tended the wounded. A tent for the injured was being raised. Two makers waved their hands around the area, likely adding some type of ward to the top of the makeshift structure. Part of the barracks looked damaged, but it could have been much worse.
Still, the battle was on. A swarm of redbills hounded the last two skimmers in the air. One of the bat creatures screamed as Reshi’s defense system fired a gem blast into him. The watchtower added another cannon blast, effectively downing the beast. It careened to the ground with a ghostly, pained scream. I grimaced with sympathy as it struck the ground at a horrific angle. I hated hurting these animals, but it was either them or my allies.
Reshi’s defense system suddenly blinked out. She cursed, slapping the side of one of the columns. As she did, a remaining hulking beast on the ground let out a snarl. It was something akin to an ash wraith, except it appeared to be icy where the ash wraith was fiery. It pawed the ground with blue hooves and released a shriek from its sharp beak. The cry was accompanied by a terrible, frosty wind that blew down the middle of the camp. One of the medics attempted to pick up a wounded wilding in front of the gate. The medic gave a cry as he was caught in the blast, freezing partially to the ground as the icy breath passed over him.
We needed to get to the pair before the wraith had a chance to finish them off. I pumped my arms as I ran flat out, but the earth trembled again. I nearly careened into Sen.
The air rippled with power. A portal opened up just beside the charging wraith. Rainbow light poured from it. A hulking beast the size of a one-story building emerged from the portal and smashed into the wraith, ending its life with a snap of its bones.
The lumbering red beast grinned at our group.
Ruk’s lavender eyes glittered, making me smile in return. It was all I could manage as I gasped for air. Ruk dropped the wraith from one hand, and in one of his other several arms, he cradled a slumbering Aurora. The portal blinked out of existence as the field fell silent. Everyone stared at Ruk in a mixture of horror and shock.
“Miss me?” he asked, with his unmistakable sharp-toothed smile.
7
Lyra
I ran before I knew what I was doing. All that I saw was red and lavender. It was all I needed.
“I’m glad to see you keep your promises in the end,” I teased, grinning up at Ruk. His form was something akin to the ape-like humanoid figure he had in the sanitarium, but much larger. All around us was the smoldering wreckage of the battle, smoke drifting away to join the clouds. He regarded me with an amused but alert eye, then his body shrank to a more reasonable size. Still, he seemed a semi-giant to me, and he was able to cradle Aurora comfortably. My gaze landed on her, taking in her fragile but stable state. I was happy to see her outside of a glass stasis tank. Dorian joined me at my elbow, and I could tell exactly where his eyes were trained.
“You’ve healed her,” Dorian muttered, impressed.
“I’ve done what I could, but she’ll need a place to rest. We’ll have to see if what I did worked after she wakes up,” Ruk explained.
Ruk gently eased Aurora to the ground, but he didn’t release her. Her wide aquatic eyes fluttered open in a daze. She would need lots of rest. The battlefield was an unfortunate welcome for her, but she didn’t seem to register anything around her. Her eyes closed. I studied her. She was brighter in the Immortal Plane. I’d once thought her scales duller than they were in Ruk’s memories, but they shone with new health. Her limbs were longer, as if Ruk had to stretch her too fully all over to give her the legs she’d always wanted.
She was covered with a glimmer of gold dust, some remnant of magic left over from the Higher Plane. I heard someone inhale with surprise. Atop Aurora’s head, sloped like most aquatic wildlings, were a pair of feline ears. Her legs were long, catlike, and yet bipedal from the looks of it. A gem rested where her belly button would have been, above her old fish tail. It was the same shade of lavender as Ruk’s eyes.
Bravi cleared her throat loudly behind Dorian and me.
“I need answers, and I need them now. Who is this giant red monster, and why are you happy to see him?” I turned, broken from my spell of admiring the fully healed Aurora, to Bravi’s surly scowl. Reshi peered down at us, sitting on the ledge of the barrier wall. All around us, the Coalition stared.
Oh, we have a lot of catching up to do.
From behind Bravi’s back, Sen gave me a look of warning. Right. We couldn’t tell them exactly what had happened. Dorian gestured to Ruk, and I was more than happy to let him figure out what to say.
“He’s a friend,” he explained. “An ally, I promise. He’s going to help us.”
Bravi sucked air through her teeth. “I knew that the moment you trotted up to him.” She jerked her thumb in Sen’s direction. “But there’s a lot of explanation I need. I did like the heads-up about invisible troops, though.” Fair.
“He’s the Gate Maker. He and another ally came to help,” I said. Bravi stared, eyeing them both as Sen strode over to stand beside Ruk. From her perspective, I could see clearly how unusual this all looked.
Bravi was right to be skeptical, but there were still the wounded around. A group of vampires rushed over to help the frozen medic and the wounded wildling. I gestured to the camp.
“I can explain after we get everything settled,” I promised. Bravi scanned the field. Part of the camp’s wall had been destroyed. From here, we could see the tent where the medics were taking the wounded. She nodded in agreement after a beat.
“A full explanation,” she demanded. “I also want to pull in the others. Let’s get the rest of the generals into our war room so you only have to say it once. I’ll give you a tour of the place while we wait for them.” Her leadership was clear as she shouted orders. The able-bodied fighters scattered in a rush to follow her orders. She spoke into her comm, telling all generals to gather in the war room in an hour, unless they were doing necessary sweeps.
We got to work. With the enemies gone, the camp came to life. Lanterns sparked to illuminate the once-dim camp. I could see it clearly for the first time, and it was… astounding. The darkness had hidden much of the camp, a smart move to hide it from the hunters, but it was packed with people. I recognized the clear shapes of humans in the distance, and my pulse raced. I’d spent so much time with supernatural beings that I’d nearly forgotten to expect how connected the Mortal and Immortal Planes were at this point.