Bud stared in horror as the woman with the shield collapsed to the ground. Her head lulled to the side, rolling back until her eyes stared at him. For a moment, he saw fear in them, then nothing. Lifeless. Gone.

He wanted to scream, but already the beast was moving toward Hump. It leered down at him. He wasn’t moving. His eyes were fixed on the woman, a dark haze over them. He was lost.

“What are you doing, Bud?” Celaine shouted. “Up! Get up!”

Bud looked in the direction of her voice, past the creature, past Hump’s still body. Celaine and Dylan were with Wizard Vivienne, their weapons ready. The two of them bloodied and battered, but they were standing. They still had fight left in them.

Wizard Vivienne was another case entirely. She was white as a ghost, and appeared ready to fall at the slightest push. He supposed that was the cost of whatever dark sorcery she had wielded.

The creature stopped over Hump, studying him curiously. The sight of its piercing gaze alone was enough for Bud to recoil in fear: it was in the gait of its stride, the light that shone from its spiritual form, the nature of its essence. It embodied fear, and he felt it pierce him like needles through his soul. Once more, Bud found himself questioning the path he’d taken. It was he who’d brought this beast Hestia’s Star. He had unleashed it, and now it would kill them all.

This was his fault. Emirai’s mercy, it hurt. His chest was agony. He felt warm liquid pooling beneath his armour, but felt cold—he never felt cold. The last time… the last time had been when his mother passed.

It seemed like a distant memory now, but it had been little more than three months. Three months and so much had changed.

‘Tell me, Bud, who are you?’ It was his mother’s voice. The question she had asked him while she lay there, clinging onto life.

‘I am Robert of Blackthorne, sworn Knight of Kelisia,’ he’d answered proudly.

She’d smiled with a warmth that was now gone from the world. ‘No, those are names and titles. Those are what other people have given you. Who are you in your heart?’

At the time he had not known how to answer. Now though, he thought he knew. At least, he knew the kind of person he wanted to be, even if he was not yet. No matter the evil, no matter how desperate and terrible a situation was, he would face it with a raging fire in his heart. He would not falter before this beast, nor any other.

‘You are my little Bud,’ she’d said, her hand against his cheek. ‘And one day you bloom and the world will see your light.’

Bud roared as he forced himself to his feet. His vision blurred. Pain exploded in his chest, but it was nothing compared to the pain of failure. Compared to the pain of losing someone. He would not let Hump down again. He would not let Celaine die. He would not let anymore of the people of Fishers Lake be victim to this monster. Hump had fought to give him a few extra seconds, a woman had died for them, and he would not let them go to waste.

He knew that if he didn’t stop the bleeding in his chest, he would pass out, or worse, so he did the only thing he could think of. Directing the flame in his heart to his hand, he dragged it over his chest. The cold was sharp as steel. He gritted his teeth against the pain, hissing in a breath. It was a good pain. The world became suddenly clear, the darkness was gone from the edges of his vision. He let all that power flow through him, invigorating him, fuelling his muscles and his soul. His heart pounded.

His sword felt more like a length of lead in his hands than a blade, but he dragged it up, adopting the Blaze Stance; the most aggressive of his sword forms. He called upon Kelisia’s power, his bond to her flaring to life as frostfire blazed across his blade.

He felt light. He felt her with him, acting through him, lifting up his sword.

The creature whirled on him. “You humans struggle and you struggle against the inevitable. How I relish it. The final moments where hope gives out and one’s fate is accepted.”

“I do not fear you, beast. I am Kelisia’s Chosen, and I am not afraid to die.”

The gorger lowered a long, pointed claw to Hump’s throat.

Celaine’s bow jerked up, aiming at the creature. “Get away from him.”

It stroked Hump’s throat tenderly, and Bud’s heart nearly leapt from his chest. He didn’t dare move. The creature smiled.

“It is not death you should fear, minion of the gods. Look at what has become of your wizard—a husk of a boy. Four weeks he was with me. Four weeks I tore into his soul, again and again, ripping it to pieces. Dragging out parts of him that he didn’t know he had.” It laughed, shrill and horrible. Evil incarnate. “Even in death, his soul shall never know rest. It shall never return to what it was. Think what I could do with you given the time. Think what I have done to fools just like you.”

Even through the pain, Bud’s stomach twisted. He’d exchanged only a few words with Hump, and he’d seemed mostly normal. Something was wrong though. He could see it in Hump’s eyes—a listlessness that drove a different kind of fear through his heart. The creature did not need to see that though.

“That is for gods to decide. You are nothing but a monster.”

The beast seemed to grow taller all of a sudden. Power radiated from it, and Bud’s own icy fire surged to meet it, forcing it back from his body. He gritted his teeth, willing his Heart of Frostfire to be free of him, but the creature was too strong. It took everything he had just to keep the pressure from bearing down on him.

It sneered, ivory teeth shining in its mouth with the light of frostfire, glinting like knives. “I do not intend to let the wizard die so easily. You cannot imagine the hunger that a starved soul can bring. I shall keep him as my hound and feed him your scraps.”

Bud stared back but really he was looking to Dylan and Celaine beyond it. She had an arrow on the string but was not yet channelling. They both gave him a nod. Bud only wondered if it would be enough. He knew they had to try, so that was what they would do, for who would stand if even Chosen gave in?

Dylan extended his left hand as if throwing something. The air filled with the light of life, and two vines shot from the ground before him, thick as carrots. The creature turned, sensing his essence. The vines coiled around its forearm and it jerked back, tearing them from the ground, but their roots were deep. As it fought then, Bud saw his opening.

He charged the creature’s rear, lunging at its heartstone even as it turned, feinting with all his weight behind the blow. It reacted too strongly, as he had hoped. He dropped back as it clubbed at him with a heavy, and then he stepped around to its side, swiping up along the length of its arm. His blade carved through stone, and crystals of ice bloomed along the cracks, shimmering with the light of Kelisia.

The beast roared, for no spirit could stand before the fire of Kelisia and not feel pain.

It took everything Bud had to avoid the raging barrage of blows that followed. He staggered back, blinded by the pain in his chest. Dodging back and to the sides on instinct, stepping aside from whirling shadows as his vision went white and the world spun.

Dylan was there before the beast could commit to the chase. He’d shrunk his staff to the size of a dagger and now crammed it into the gap in the creautre’s armour, digging for its core. The staff expanded, growing longer and thicker, wedging itself within the armour and prying it further open. The creature screamed. Essence poured from its core in a great explosion of bronze mist. Essence it couldn’t replace.

Bud steeled himself and stormed forward. He took the blade of his sword in his left hand, half-swording, and stabbed it hard into Hestia’s Star. He bathed the heartstone in frostfire, turning its innards to ice. The creature screamed so loud Bud thought his ears would bleed, but he did not relent. He poured cold fire into the gap, destroying its spiritual form, willing Hestia’s Star to break. But not matter his effort, it held firm.

Then he felt power behind the gorger. Silver light flashed in the chamber, and an arrow struck the star dead on. There was a crack like thunder, and essence exploded from its back in a great cloud of bronze. Rock fell from the gorger’s body and its spiritual form jerked wildly. The cloud of essence turned to a steady stream, smoking off into the air and dissipating.

“Robert, stand aside.” It was Wizard Vivienne. Bud turned to see her behind him, her wand pointed shakily at the gorger, shining with light.

Bud fell rather than dodged to the side, barely staying on his feet. His blade dragged along behind him as water rose into the air all around him. It gathered before Vivienne, suspended before her wand, a ball of dense power, shining with essence. “Water Shot.”

The ball of water elongated, stretching into a long, thin bold. Then it pierced forward, too fast for Bud to follow. A fraction of a second later, essence exploded from the gorger, dwarfing Celaine’s attack.

It staggered, clutching at its heart with its arms. The last of its armour fell away now, and all that remained was its spiritual form. It shrunk until it was smaller than any of them, struggling to contain its leaking power. There was a fierce crack across Hestia’s Star, one of the tips had broken off and now swam within its pool of essence. For a moment, Bud thought it was over.

“Back!” Vivienne suddenly shouted.

Light built at the core of the creature, bright as the sun. Before Bud could even drop to the ground, the creature unleashed a burst of force that sent him flying back. Bud hit the ground hard, almost blacking out from the pain in his chest. Then the creature was above him, floating like a wisp—like a shade. It pressed its hand to his chest and he felt power wedge its way inside. Tendrils of cold that bore deeper, seeking out his soul. Bud tried to scream but sound wouldn’t come. It was pain like he’d never imagined.

Deeper and deeper it went, tearing essence from him. Tearing life. He felt himself dying. Panic, pain, terror—it rushed out from the core of his being Every instinct called out to make the suffering end but he couldn’t move. No matter how much he willed his soul to resist, for his essence to remain, it was dragged from him by claws.

Kelisia, help me.

The pain stopped. She had come. She had—

A hand pierced its chest, grabbing its heartstone. The skin reddened and burnt within.

“What?” the beast cried. “No—”

Its voice vanished, and then the wraith was gone too. Hump stood there, Hestia’s Star in his hand. He stared down at it with empty black eyes. His power roared around him, such pressure that Bud couldn’t even sit up. It surged around him like a cloak of shadow, veiling him. Consuming all light.

***

Hump felt the world go dark as he stood. He felt anger beyond anything he had ever felt, and his essence surged with it. His blood boiled. His soul roared with violent heat. The gorger had turned white before him, its body a dense mass of essence, focused at its core. It streamed from it, but still so much remained.

He thought of how much life it had consumed to become so strong. How many people had suffered its torture. Now it would face that same pain. He would make it know fear, even if it killed him.

It was so close, so open to attack, all he needed to do was reach out and grab it.

As he reached into its body, he felt pain in his hand, but it was distant. The heat was beyond anything he’d ever experienced, and he knew if given the time it would destroy him. He couldn’t give it the chance.

The moment his fingers wrapped around it, he unleashed all the anger of his soul. He tore into it with his will, unleashing the dragon at his core, tearing through its wall of will. With its heartstone damaged, there was nothing to stop him.

He found its soul within, a collection of fragments that had been smashed together, formed into a ball like sheets of crumpled paper. It was no longer just a shade. It was a mesh of all the creatures it had consumed.

And now Hump would give them a way out.