Bats lit up midair, bodies freezing for a heartbeat before unraveling into shadow and ash as the lightning passed through them. They vanished as they fell, leaving empty air where they had been.

  Rain followed, cold and heavy, washing soot and blood into the earth.

  Baxter shielded his eyes as the storm broke.

  Ace didn’t look away.

  Broderick lowered his body over Miles, metal plating sealing protectively as the last of the swarm unraveled above them.

  “Unconscious state confirmed,” the wyrm stated calmly. “Protective posture maintained.”

  The clearing fell silent except for rain and distant thunder.

  In front of Anthony, Ava lifted her axe, green eyes burning as silvery blue code pulsed along the blade.

  The bats started to fall almost completely gone.

  Kyo yelled after the last bat fell.

  He’d been running on nothing but willpower and now even that was splintering.

  Through blurred vision, he looked toward Ava.

  He saw Anthony pin her against the tree and her push him off.

  Saw the fraction of weakness in her movement. His stomach dropped.

  He had taken too much.

  He’d put her in danger.

  Stupid.

  Useless.

  He forced himself upright anyway.

  Blue aura cracked violently around him.

  Broderick’s voice cut through the storm.

  “Kyo. You have reached a critical limit. If you proceed, biological failure is imminent.”

  Baxter heard it and sprinted over.

  “What the hell is happening-”

  Kyo swayed, lifting one shaking hand as code began flickering along his skin, not controlled unraveling.

  He was starting to desync.

  “Kyo!” Baxter shouted. “Quit, damn it! The bats are dead!”

  But Kyo ignored him.

  For once, he didn’t want to be the weak one. For once, he wanted to protect her.

  His vision fractured. Blue static crept along the edges of his arms. Then his body gave out and he collapsed.

  “Kyo!” Baxter dropped beside him.

  Across the clearing, “Kyo!” Ava shouted, turning sharply.

  The silvery-blue code around her flickered violently then stabilized.

  She staggered.

  The exhaustion hit all at once.

  But the strength that remained?

  It was hers.

  Anthony straightened slowly, rain sliding down his face as his gaze shifted between the two of them.

  Understanding dawned.

  Then amusement.

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  “Well, well…” he murmured softly, almost reverent. “Now I see.”

  He stepped back, boots sinking into the wet earth, giving her space not retreating.

  Observing.

  “You’re carrying him.”

  His eyes dragged over her again, not crude but intensely aware. “That explains the restraint.”

  Ava lifted her axe again, jaw tight. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  Anthony tilted his head slightly. “No,” he said quietly. “I do.”

  Lightning flashed behind him, red eyes glinting.

  “He drains you because he can’t survive this place without you.” He took one slow step forward. “And you let him.”

  The air between them shifted.

  “You fight like someone who refuses to fall,” he continued curiously. “But you’re splitting yourself in half for a mage who can’t even stand.”

  Ava’s grip tightened.

  Not because he was right, but because she hated that he thought he understood.

  Anthony’s gaze softened just slightly, a fascination threading through it.

  “If you stopped protecting him,” he said quietly, “you’d be terrifying. I suppose,” Anthony said softly, glancing toward Kyo’s collapsed form, “I’ll have to kill him.”

  His gaze returned to her. “To make you fully mine.”

  Across the clearing Kyo lay still as the blue aura shattered around him as the Soul Link snapped.

  Ava felt it tear away from her like something ripped from bone, and the shared strength vanished instantly. Exhaustion crashed into her all at once, hard enough that her knees nearly buckled. The world tilted, breath catching painfully in her chest as her body struggled to adjust.

  Anthony saw it, the stagger, the half-second delay in her footing and something knowing flickered across his face.

  “Oh,” he murmured softly. “There it is.”

  Across the clearing, Ace was down on one knee beside Sable, hands buried in the wolf’s rain-soaked fur as he checked for injuries. He didn’t look up. He didn’t see Anthony close the distance.

  Broderick had lowered his massive mechanical body protectively over Miles, plating sealed around the unconscious boy. His optics flickered rapidly as he monitored both Miles and Kyo.

  “Kyo: vital signs unstable. Miles: condition steady. Ava: physical distress increasing. Threat proximity: critical.”

  But Broderick did not move. Ava’s last command echoed through his protocols.

  Protect them.

  Baxter dropped beside Kyo and grabbed his shoulders.

  “Kyo? Hey. Kid wake up.”

  Rain streamed down Kyo’s face as Baxter pressed trembling fingers to his neck, searching for a pulse. His jaw tightened.

  “Don’t do this,” he muttered under his breath.

  Ava forced herself upright despite the weight in her limbs.

  “You will not touch him.”

  She attacked.

  Her strike was still clean and precise but slower. Anthony deflected easily and stepped inside her guard before she could recover. He caught her wrist mid-swing, twisted, and the axe tore from her grip, disappearing into the mud.

  Before she could regain balance, he drove her back into the tree. The impact knocked the air from her lungs, his forearm pressing across her collarbone while his thigh blocked her leg. The hold wasn’t brutal. It was efficient..

  Rain slid between them as she strained against him.

  “You feel it,” he said quietly near her ear. “When it’s just you.”

  She shoved against his chest. He didn’t budge. Her muscles trembled from the sudden crash of the severed link, her body still trying to recalibrate.

  Behind him, Broderick’s voice cut through the storm.

  “Kyo: neurological activity rising.”

  Anthony’s hand slid down her arm to her wrist. He lifted it slightly, studying her pulse as it raced beneath his fingers.

  That was when adrenaline hit.

  Ava surged forward with a snarl and drove her forehead into his jaw. The crack of impact startled him enough to break his perfect balance. She twisted violently, ripping her arm free and driving her knee into his ribs. They slid through the mud together, rain splashing up around them.

  She didn’t reach for her axe.

  She went for him.

  Fists. Elbows. Fury.

  One strike connected with his cheek. Another grazed his throat. Anthony laughed softly under the assault, something almost exhilarated in the sound.

  “Yes,” he muttered. “There you are.”

  She swung again, but this time he caught her arm and spun her with her own momentum. The reversal was swift. He pinned her once more, stronger now, faster his grip locking around her wrist before she could pull away.

  Exhaustion was catching up again.

  Behind them, Baxter sucked in a sharp breath.

  “Kyo?”

  Kyo’s eyes opened.

  Kyo didn’t wake gently. He surfaced into cold rain, mud, and pain, lungs burning as he dragged in air. For a moment everything was blurred and distant, but then his vision steadied and he saw her.

  Anthony stood over Ava, his hand wrapped around her wrist, his mouth pressed to her skin.

  Something inside Kyo went violently still before it shattered completely. “No.”

  He tried to push himself upright, arms trembling under his weight.

  “Kyo don’t,” Baxter snapped, grabbing him by the shoulders.

  “Get off me!” Kyo snarled, shoving weakly against him. His body barely obeyed. His legs buckled, but he forced himself onto one knee, eyes locked on the scene ahead.

  Anthony lifted his head slowly. Rain ran down his face. Blood marked his mouth.

  And then he looked directly at Kyo.

  And smiled.