Page 164 of The Last Syphon

No. That was not only a foolish thought but foolish timing. It was not the time to think such things.

“There’s someone here.”

His gaze whipped around them as a powerful pulse of magic hit the air, but he could only see what she did. An empty, vast nothingness. “Where?”

She didn’t know. Inara couldn’t see anyone, and yet, she would bet her life on it.

Inara shook off the disorientation hammering in her bones and switched to her syphon sight. For some reason, she couldn’t see them with the naked eye, but no one had ever been able to escape her syphon sight.

Her eyes darted all around her, searching, searching, searching⁠—

Something finally caught her attention, but it wasn’t coming from in front of her or behind her. Wasn’t coming from her left or right. No.

It was coming from below her.

She dropped to her hands and knees, her shield still in place to protect her from the cursed land, and stared hard. Inara didn’t have enough power. She needed more.

Fraener felt her desperation and sent a powerful pulse of power through the soul-link. It washed through Inara, filling her up from head to toe, and she focused harder.

Bright spectral energy came into view, buried hundreds of miles below the surface of the ground. One small, but still brighter than anything she had ever seen, and another over ten times larger. She’d been reading spectral energy all her life, so she understood what it meant. The size of the energy was a perfect correlation to what the being was. The smaller one was human-sized, the larger one at least the size of Fraener. The size didn’t matter entirely. What mattered was the brightness of it, because that dictated how powerful the beings were.

They were so bright that Inara had to almost shield her eyes.

The ground began to tremble. Prince Walder gripped her shoulder and strengthened his stance to keep her from falling over.

“What is happening?!” he yelled over the thundering rumble.

Inara couldn’t answer, her gaze locked on the energies deep below. Did it look like they were moving? Moving…upwards?

There was something familiar about one of them. It was something she had never felt from another person before. No one except⁠—

Herself.

Her eyes widened in horror. It was another Syphon.

She dropped her shield, grabbed Prince Walder’s hand, and ran.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

“Run!!!” Inara screamed.

The ground shook with a violent tremor, getting worse and worse as each second passed. She tried to jump, and although she had gotten much better at the manoeuvre, that was by herself. Not with another. They blinked out of existence and reappeared, but the trembling of the ground made her lose her footing when she reappeared and she went down hard.

Prince Walder tried to catch her. His arms wrapped around her and he jumped them, but this time he twisted so his back hit the ground when they reemerged a few miles away. Their momentum made it that much worse, and he slammed down harshly, making him grunt. They went rolling, and Inara couldn’t help but cry out as they tumbled. Cuts and bruises exploded all over her body, and when they finally stopped fucking rolling, she could do nothing but breathe a sigh of relief, filled with pain.

She landed on top of Prince Walder, and based on the way he was groaning, he was in quite a bit of pain himself. All she could hope was that they did not break anything. All this fucking power running through her veins, and yet, her body was still as fragile as ever.

A terrifying roar hit the air—a roar Inara would recognise anywhere. Fraener. She picked herself up before grabbing Prince Walder and yanking him to his feet. The ground still continued to tremble, and if anything, it was getting so bad they could barely keep their footing.

Fraener and Tydus appeared in the sky, whatever fear that had consumed them before all but forgotten as they raced towards them, blinking in and out of view. It didn’t take them long to reach them. They flew over the top of them and then curved, Fraener going left, Tydus going right, circling back around. They both tucked their wings in and dived.

Through the soul-link, Inara sensed Fraener’s intent. She spun so her back was to him and ran. Prince Walder did the same. The two Guardians swooped down. Shadows encircled her, blocking out the blazing sun, and then big, powerful talons clutched her, snatching her right off her feet.

Air rushed up upon her as Fraener reached back and placed her in her usual spot. She only had a moment to get her bearings and adjust before he shot forward, his wings pumping hard. A queasy sensation beat down the soul-link, a sensation Inara was all too familiar with. It was the feeling she got when she jumped. It was Fraener warning her. Inara inhaled, and they blinked out of existence, reappearing a few miles away. He did it again and again and again. Inara controlled her breathing to match, and they raced away from the terrifying magic below them.

Inara looked back and terror shot through her. They’d cleared Tolanaa and were now flying overhead the Borderlands, except now, the cursed land was spreading. Fast. Almost as if it were chasing them!

Faster! She screamed to Fraener and her dragon roared, hearing her command. His wings pounded against the wind, their bodies jumping across the sky, trying to outrun it. They were only just managing to stay ahead of it. The darkness rushed across the land, consuming everything in its path and turning it into ashes. It had progressed so far, and so fucking quickly. What was going on?