In order to save the world from eternal night, Red must find a way to unlock the dormant power of the Sun Goddess running through her veins without killing herself and everyone she loves.
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Sebastian wanted to kill everyone and everything in sight.
More so than usual; it wasn't just the animalistic need to be stronger and swifter and deadlier than his prey and opponents. There was always that whispering malice in his blood, taking note of bared throats and turned backs, or who was lagging behind the safety of a group. He grappled with those urges daily. They were manageable. Minimizable.
This rage was different. It howled through his blood like the gale force winds ripping wings off lesser wyverns above. It was the way his younger brother clenched his thighs around the neck of his mate. The way Hunter chuckled in response to something only he and Oriana could hear. They were sharing thoughts, something Sebastian could never hope for in his wildest dreams, and they fit together like a key in a lock as she took to the air, beating her majestic wings and leaving him stranded on the ground like the bug he was.
Not a bug, he snarled, throwing himself into the fight. A wolf.
Cutting down one Kirin was wildly different from killing the next. Some of their bodies were willowy and bent with maddening flexibility, defying the cleaving force of his claws. Others were hewn from the very mountainside, cracking his teeth and crumbling under the pressure of his jaw. The War Queen took notice and started edging towards him, ripping air from the fellwyrm's lungs as she went, leaving them gasping and flopping like stunned fish in her wake.
A keening cry stole his attention momentarily and he looked up, hackles rising at the new threat swooping down. It was a topaz wyvern with the eyes of a dead fish, like the mind beneath it was trapped in stasis.
Bradon, he swore in his head, noting the yellow-eyed man perched on a saddle of gleaming black leather. A necklace of fangs gleamed at his throat, testifying to all of the kills he'd made over the years. Sebastian was no longer confident this was a rescue so much as an extraction.
A star-speckled wyvern shot up past the dais of stone, wings tucked tight against its body, like it was diving in reverse. He watched with baited breath as Rana attacked the golden intruder, only to be dispatched with ruthless efficiency. The next second she was sagging in the air, then tumbling unceremoniously to the ground. The Wraith's ears flattened against the back of his head as he skittered out of the way, cursing himself for not being able to intervene. If he had access to Nya's Grace, he could have brought the whole hoard to its knees —
Green light enveloped the falling wyvern's body, slowing its descent. Rana trailed through the sky like a comet and hit the rocky ground with only a little less force, an impact that surely would have liquified her bones if left unchecked. Sebastian's head whipped around to see Gretchen hovering mid-air, her lovely face contorted in a horrific scream as she fought against gravity.
And something else, Sebastian realised, instinctively edging away from her. Gretchen's eyes were wholly green; the irises had swallowed pupil and white and were glowing just like the magic wreathing her blackened hands. That darkness crept along her veins, up her neck and into her face, feathers and scales sprouting in their wake.
