Page 167 of Elemental Becoming

“Lay a hand on her, and I’ll burn you to ash.”

The Commander stills. The shadows coil tighter around him as if responding to the threat.

I force myself to breathe, pushing back against the pressure crushing inward from all sides. My pulse hammers in my ears as I scan the battle again, every sense sharpened to a blade’s edge.There’s still a way through this.

There has to be.

Sera moves beside Valen, twin blades flashing as they carve through the encroaching shadows with lethal speed. Exhaustion lines her face, but her movements remain fluid and merciless, even as enemies swarm around her. She cuts through the darkness like she was born for this. For a fleeting moment, I envy her strength.

Then the Commander raises a hand. And the shadows surge toward me. Tendrils lash forward, too fast to track.

“Amara!” Thane’s voice roars through the havoc, but I can’t move fast enough.

Before I can react, one coils around my wrist, wrenching me off balance as I crash forward. Pain lances through my arm, the grip crushing hard enough to grind bone.

The bond seizes in my chest, Thane’s terror slamming into me through our connection.

My heart pounds, but I force myself to breathe. To focus.

“Not today,” I hiss.

I reach deep into the earth beneath me and slam my hands down hard. The floor fractures beneath me with a thunderous roar, the impact sending a shockwave in his direction.

The tendrils twist violently, writhing as if in pain, and the Commander stumbles back, momentarily thrown off balance.

My breath heaves. My pulse thunders in my ears.

Then I feel it. A sharp sting along my arm.

I glance down. A deep gash tears across my skin, blood dripping in thick crimson trails onto the shattered marble. The wound is savage, flesh split jagged and raw.

But even as I stare at it, it’s already healing.

The blood flow slows. The torn skin weaves back together, knitting itself closed as if the wound was never there. But something remains. A faint mark still mars the skin where thegash had been, tender and aching beneath the surface.

I flex my fingers, testing it. The soreness lingers, a reminder that the wound had been real, however briefly.

A flicker of movement drags my attention upward. The Commander is staring directly at me. His eyes flare with surprise—and then his lips curve into a menacing but gleeful, smile.

Something inside me snaps.

I spring to my feet, furious. Rage seethes through my veins, hotter than fire, sharper than steel. I don’t know what he’s so damn happy about, but I’m about to wipe that smirk off his face.

Thane moves first.

Golden flames erupt around him in a blinding arc as he hurls a devastating wave of fire toward the massive figure—but the Commander’s shadows twist unnaturally around the flames, corrupting them into something black and wrong.

The fire turns, surging back toward us.

Thane rips through the corrupted flames with a single violent motion, his own fire burning gold and fierce as it tears the tainted magics apart.

The Commander steps forward, blackened fire curling around its body like a living cloak.

His grin sharpens.

“You’ll have to do better than that,” he hisses.

My mind races. This is a battle I cannot win through force alone. The Commander’s power, his manipulation of shadow, is too much.