Page 115 of Tears for a Broken Sky
Watching.
Like a ghost with no soul.
The ridge was steep, the rocks sharp beneath our boots—but we made it.
From the summit, the view stretched clear—and terrible.
The garrison lay ahead, half-wreathed in smoke, half-swallowed by chaos. Veilguard soldiers scrambled to barricade the outer walls, but they were under siege frombothsides. Onone flank, soldiers in blood-red surged from the hills like fire ants, pouring down in endless waves. On the other, enemy ships rained fire from the sea.
The air stank of smoke, sweat, and iron.
From the battered stone keep, projectiles launched into the horde—catapults screaming overhead, fireballs flaring like dying stars. Flames tore through the outer buildings. Screams echoed up the hillside.
When we reached the lower slope, Phoenix didn’t hesitate.
He flung out his arms. Fireleaptto him—sucked backward from the burning ramparts, swirling around his body until he was a silhouette of flame. Then, with a guttural cry, heunleashedit—an arc of pure inferno that slammed into the advancing Sentinels like a falling star.
The impact lit up the valley. Bones turned to ash.
To the west, I spotted General Marcus on horseback, bellowing orders as Veilguard soldiers regrouped and fired at the enemy ships. But it was no use. They were outnumbered. Outflanked.
If this garrison was going to hold, it would be because ofus.
I stepped forward—slow, deliberate.
And I threw out my shadows.
They surged from my skin like smoke given teeth. Writhing. Reaching. I aimed them at the soldiers cresting the hill and felt themsnapinto form—like living blades. They struck down the first wave like scythes through wheat.
I didn’t stop.
Not when my hands trembled.
Not when my breath came shallow.
This wasn’t just survival anymore.
This was war.
Maddie stepped beside me—eyes wild, hands lifted.
The groundanswered.
Vines burst from the soil, thick and thrashing, writhing like furious serpents. They coiled around incoming Sentinels,yankedthem from their feet, and flung them like ragdolls—into the sea, into the rocks, straight into the inferno Phoenix had left behind. The scent of scorched bark and burning flesh thickened the air.
Leo’s growl cut through the chaos.
I turned just in time to see him shift—his bodyripplinginto motion, limbs elongating, fur blooming across his skin in a flash of power. One second he was Leo, and the next—he was the lion.
Heroared.
It echoed across the battlefield like the crack of thunder, and then he was tearing into the Sentinels with claws and teeth, a golden blur of fury and flame-lit muscle.
Behind us—crack.
A blinding flash split the sky. The air turned electric.
Then aboom—a crash like the world being torn open.
