But the others echoed its cry. The whole damn mess of them veered, following the ones aiming for the palace.

A flash of intense silver cut through the darkness of the courtyard—an arrow of pure Primal essence. My head jerked to the left.

Rushing across the courtyard, Bele leapt onto a boulder, her shoulder-length braid slapping against her rounded cheek. She crouched, one arm outstretched as she held a bow made of crackling essence.

“What ugly…” She pulled the string of eather taut and released another arrow. “Motherfuckers.”

I would’ve laughed, except I could see we were outnumbered—even with Bele’s arrival. I sensed another death. With every blow landed against a sekya, another came from the sky, more pissed off than before.

I had to do something. If not, the courtyard would be littered with pieces. Possibly even Primal ones. I turned to the bedchamber doors just as the eather thudded heavily in my chest. A wail of pain stopped me, and my anger took hold.

There wasn’t time.

Eather pounded through my veins. The corners of my vision turned silvery-gold as I spun back to the railing. I grabbed it, and energy ramped up inside me as I sprang forward.

Cool night air rushed up, catching the sides of the robe while the sekya shrieked overhead, and the guards shouted from below.

Like before, my body knew what to do. My knees bent to lessen the shock of the impact as the rest of my body relaxed.

My landing still knocked the wind out of me.

Kars staggered back a step with a gasp, “Good gods.”

The flash of pain was even duller and faded quicker than before.

Wishing Ash had been here to see what I was confident had to be one badass landing, I rose.

Kars stared, his mouth hanging open.

“I’m not going to use the stairs ever again,” I told him.

He lowered his sword. “Uh-huh.”

“Show-off,” Bele yelled from where she was perched on the boulder. “Nice to see you joining us. Hopefully, you’re going to do something other than stand there looking proud of yourself.”

I grinned. “Honestly? I hadn’t thought past jumping.”

“That’s reassuring,” Kars replied.

“What did I say?” Bele released another eather arrow. “About your absurdity?”

A shrill yelp of pain silenced whatever I was about to say to her. I had come down here to do more than look proud of myself.

Drawing in a deep breath, I focused on the sekya as one flew under Bele’s arrow, aiming straight for where I stood before the guards. I had no more moments to waste. No time to overthink.

Summoning the eather, it responded in a heady rush. Power surged through me as I lifted my hand. My skin warmed. Silver light seeped out from under the sleeves of my robe—silver light laced with gold.

Energy erupted from my palm. Like a bolt of lightning, it sliced through the air, striking one of the creatures in the chest. Its wings collapsed as it fell, spinning in midair. The sekya crashed into the ground, kicking up dirt and dust as it rolled, coming to a stop a few feet from where we stood. Realizing that, like with the dakkais, I didn’t feel its death, I looked down. Smoke wafted from the charred skin of its chest—a rather voluptuous, bare chest. My gaze shifted. Its scraggly hair was blown back from a pasty gray face. Its eyes were vacant, empty of life, and the color of heated gold, matching the streaks zigzagging through the undersides of her onyx wings. The creature’s mouth hung open in a silent scream, revealing a row of teeth shaped like daggers.

The sekya looked like the Ancients had drunk too much whiskey when they constructed the creatures, seeming to want to create a new breed of bird, then changing their mind halfway through and giving them a vaguely mortal appearance.

But the sekya wasn’t hideous. Her features were still somehow delicate. Beautiful, even. And that made the thing all the more disturbing.

An arrow of eather blazed through the sky, snapping my attention from the bizarre creature. Two sekya dodged the eather as at least half a dozen more flew over the courtyard, speeding toward us.

Flipping my palms outward, every part of my being fixed on them. Gold-tinged silver light once more sparked from beneath the sleeves of my robe. Wisps of eather swirled around my wrists and then my palms, moving faster as a silvery web of eather formed in my mind, stretching toward them like bony fingers.

The air vibrated as thin arcs of silver laced with gold seeped from my fingers, dripping to the ground as I walked forward. Tendrils took shape, rapidly spreading across the ground and lifting. The eather erupted into the web I’d conjured, each branch ripping through the sky almost faster than the eye could track. Veins of eather struck the sekya, one after another, catching them in mid-flight and sending them falling to the ground. I pulled the eather back—

A hot, dry hand clasped my ankle, jerking me back. I gasped, twisting at the waist.

The sekya Bele had first taken out smiled up at me. I froze in confusion, just for a second, but that was all it took. The creature pulled, throwing me off balance. I went down hard, landing on my back with a grunt.

The thing hissed like a feline and then leapt.

“Shit,” I grunted, throwing my hands up. I caught the sekya by the upper arms a heartbeat before it landed on me, holding it back. “How are you not dead?”

It screeched, its face and gnashing teeth inches from mine.

“Seriously?” I glanced down at the thing’s chest to make sure Bele had struck it with the essence, and…yep, there was a charred hole between the creature’s flat breasts. “I’m so confused right now.”

The sekya drew up a feathered leg. My eyes widened as I got an up-close-and-personal look at its taloned feet. Cursing, I drove my knee into its thigh, blocking it just as its talons snagged the robe.

“If you tear my robe—”

The tip of a sword suddenly burst through its chest, creating another hole as hot, musky-smelling liquid sprayed me.

Ugh.

Kars jerked the sword and sekya back. Turning, he kicked it free of his blade. The creature fell face-first onto the ground.

“Thank you.” I sat up, wiping at my face.

“You’re welcome.” He offered me his hand.

Taking it, I stood. Behind Kars, I saw Bele straightening, her eyes widening. I turned.

All around us, the fallen sekya rose, shaking dirt from their feathered bodies and wings.

Bele looked over at me, her brows raised.

“What?” I threw up my hands. “I don’t know how they’re not dead!”

But I should, shouldn’t I? I knew what they were called and who had created them, but I didn’t know how they could be killed.

“Because I assumed I knew how. Obviously, I was wrong,” I mumbled to myself. The skin behind my ear tingled as my thoughts raced, and a sekya lunged toward a guard, avoiding the sweep of his sword, and another took to the air.

“I…I can’t kill them,” I whispered, my hands falling to my sides.

Kars cursed, darting to the side as I scowled. He glanced at me. “For real?”

“That can’t be right. I’m the fucking true Primal of Life.” Annoyed, I spun toward a sekya and summoned the essence. It responded in a hot rush, joining my will. “How can I not kill one of these things?”

A flash of eather funneled from my palm, slamming into the sekya’s chest, knocking it to the ground. I didn’t retract the eather as I stalked toward it. I kept the stream of power bearing down on it until I reached where it had fallen.

I closed my hand, able to see the charred edges of its now-split rib cage and the ground through the massive hole in its chest. “Let’s see you get up from that.”

“They shouldn’t be getting up at all.” Bele fired another blast of eather and then jumped from the boulder, narrowly avoiding a swooping sekya. “Hey, meyaah Liessa.” She crouched. “To your right.”