Reign of Shadows by Melissa Wright Page A

gusts were catching it. The ground was wet from the busted sprinkler system, mud beneath their feet. The air was filled with the stench of burned hair, of smoking leaves, of blood.
    Aern ran again for Brianna, and the water began to creep across the lawn, worm-like tendrils coiling their way toward Seth where he lay on what was left of the grass. Aern sensed Emily moving toward them, apparently done with the second of seven shadows they had to defeat, and hoped Logan and Daniels had finished the third. There was evidently one with Wesley and Ellin, but the remaining three were attached to Brianna.
    Something snapped within Kara and she crumpled to the ground, taking one of Logan’s men with her. He shoved her off unceremoniously , fighting against a force Aern couldn’t see. Three more of Logan’s men laid hands on the nearest shadow, sparks flying as they thrust fire and electricity into her lean frame and she retaliated with her own electrical energy. A few dozen of the unchanged soldiers were moving in, circling the mass of fighting to open fire if they somehow got a clear shot. They were being battered by wayward debris, several already bleeding from the exploded gatehouse and flying trees.
    Aern reached for a shadow just as Brianna cut loose with her power, throwing six of the men back and onto the ground. She collapsed, one shadow still clinging to her, and crawled forward in the mud, arms digging into earth as she dragged the man behind her. Aern took hold of the man’s leg, the only spot he could get purchase, and thrust the sway with a command to release her. The man did, or at least he faltered to an extent, just as Emily hurled herself on top of him.
    Brianna kept crawling, the second shadow rising with untamed speed to drive into her. He’d crossed the bodies of several downed men in the process, and Aern released his hold on the man beneath Emily to help her sister. But Brianna’s outstretched hand touched Seth, and suddenly the water he’d been gathering shifted form, shaping into a thick line before it molded itself as a spike that flew into the shadow, only changing to ice an instant before piercing the base of his neck. Blood rushed forward, coating Brianna as the shard speared the man down and through his chest. Aern hoisted the shadow’s body, tossing it aside to free Brianna and deal with the last two opponents who remained standing.
    He helped to her feet and t he wind swirled, thrashing around them, suddenly too hot. Aern brought up an arm to cover his face instinctively as fire flared in the churning gust surrounding them. It was spinning too fast, a mass of debris and flame concentrated in only the area around them, a cyclone of fire that was getting hotter, blistering their exposed skin. He felt Brianna push against it, but the force was too strong as it eddied around them. She reached out blindly and he pulled her against his chest, covering her face and arms from the damage that—if they made it out alive—he could heal from faster. Her eyes were closed, face buried in his blood- and mud-damped shirt, when he felt the change in her.
    Her body went limp for one long moment, the heat and dirt and metal hammering into them, battering and lashing every piece of him as he tried to hold her upright, tried to protect her from the flame. He reached for the shadows with his gift, but he wasn’t strong enough; he needed the touch to make it work. They were burning alive, he and Brianna, and he could do nothing to fight it. He squeezed his arms tighter, pressing his face into her hair, the ends of it lashing them both, and shouted her name.
    S he sucked in a breath, suddenly alive, every part of her pulsing with an energy that buzzed over Aern despite his ravaged skin. The air changed, as if they rested within the eye of a tornado as it howled around them. The winds blew backward, and the flames choked, dying so that the air turned from black and orange to clear, a bright blue that was the noon sky