Prologue
A ruby glow pulsed from between the stoic mountains. It purged our cherished memories from the face of the earth and incinerated the bodies of our civilians without ceremony. Our forces were decimated. Even my Century of soldiers had nearly been halved. I'd evacuate them because they depended on me. Because that was that could be done now: evacuation.
My soldiers reeled within my mind: a whirlwind of grief and anguish across our telepathic link.
“Calm is the mind, Calm is the Spirit,” I spoke the mantra aloud, willing them to follow and settle their nerves.
They did so and the mental dynamic refocused.
The unmounted Battlers braced themselves with moonlit weapons and our Beasts bared their teeth at the sound of the approaching enemy. All to protect the chanting, casting Mages who manned our only means of escape: the teleportation circles.
The circles nestled in a shallow basin between mountain peaks, glowing silver as Mages like my mama cast teleportation. Her circle’s circumference glowed in our ancient casting tongue, creeping around as the ten-minute spell progressed. My remaining cousins and father flanked her, guarding their circle.
Beneath me, my monstrous mount keened an anxious whine.
His patchy, wolfish fur scratched my palms as I braced over his withers. Withers that towered over the heads of my unmounted subordinates. He turned his head and met my gaze with a set of familiar gray eyes. His face was wrinkled and beastly, his limbs long and bent although they grasped as a man’s would.
"We should be safe here," Bruno, my brother and second in command, assured me through our collective telepathy. "None but Lunari can enter a charging teleportation circle.”
“No, they can’t,” I mumbled. “But we’re not safe yet.”
We had already lost so much. So much we would never recover now that it was burnt to ash. I’d lost six precious, little cousins: two whose bodies had been dumped upon our front stoop, two who’d been killed on the battlefield, and two who I’d lost contact with during the fray.
Whose bodies I’d likely never find.
"Enemy incoming,” A scout called across telepathy.
The enemy flung themselves down the mountainside, keening like hellfire cicadas with their six-fanged mouths gaping. The battlefield darkened, as if the waning wolf’s claw moon above had given up before the onslaught of clouds. As if Luna, the moon goddess herself, had lost hope.
Yet when the first vampire stepped foot upon the teleportation circles, he evaporated. Disappearing into the silver magic with a puff of maroon corpse-fluid. Immediately, the enemy clumped up, snarling furiously as the Beasts responded in-kind from behind the wispy curtains of magic.
"They’re repelled,” Father assessed, watching from the safety of Mama’s circle.
“Not for long,” I argued from another, "All other Mages, begin casting wall spells. Protect our escape."
They blossomed: vast sheafs of silver magic per Mage, but there were gaps.
An enemy figure at the top of the basin caught my eye. It bounced on the spot. Beside it, another straight-backed figure stood statuesque.
“Merda,” I cursed, recognizing the dichotomous personalities, “Two of the Theous. They’ll figure it out soo-”
Across the clearing, Mama's head snapped back. Didn't just snap back. It vanished along with her thoughts. Obliterated. Her body fell and her circle's magic fizzled out. She was dead. Decapitated. And my cousins were vulnerable.
Dread yawned its cold jaws in the pit of my stomach.
“Wall spells!” I screamed, fangs and claws unsheathing in despa “Guard the casting Mages from projectiles!”
Handheld stones, thrown from supernaturally enhanced hands, became bullets. Wall spells slid frantically to-and-fro, blocking stones which shattered into dust across their surfaces. Others failed to do so in time.
Another five Mages crumpled. Our exits had been halved in an instant.
But that wasn’t all.
The magic encapsulating those circles extinguished, exposing the soldiers within. Vampires swarmed them and Beasts snarled to meet them. But we were outnumbered.
“I can’t!” The Mage within my circle whimpered, staring fearfully up at the top of the basin. Her magic simmered and winked. “I can’t do it!”
“Cazzo,” I cursed, throwing myself from Bruno’s back. “Begin a wall spell. I’ll cast teleportation. Bruno, assume command of the Century.”
Not a moment too soon, either. The poor Mage lost her nerve. I stood firm, quickly reestablishing a connection with the circle.
The spell restarted. Another ten-minute cast.
The tide of the battle ebbed and flowed in the back of my mind. Agony ripped through my leg as a projectile made contact. I fell to one knee. With a low groan, I closed my eyes and chanted louder through the pain. I could feel my spell nearing completion. But I became aware of something even more horrible. A lack of chanting alongside mine.
The only Mage now casting teleportation was me.
I opened my eyes. Bruno grappled two vampires at once just beyond the circle’s edge.
"Go, Serafina!” he ordered.
“No!”
There were twenty-four minds left in the dynamic. Five more winked out.
"Go!”
Bruno’s olive face resolved from the beastly features, human with gray eyes and curly black hair: a half-morph. He shouldn’t be risking that.
“Make for the circle,” I ordered, Authority ringing in my voice. “I need you!”
The others defending me twitched but couldn’t disengage. I remained alone in the circle.
“If I move, they’ll get loose,” Bruno groaned, though he leaned toward me. “They’ll kill you.”
"Please! I need you!”
Another seven severed from the dynamic.
“Go!”
And for a second, I thought I could sense Authority ring out in his voice. Gritting my teeth, I nodded once and flipped my palms from face up to face down.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered as the world went white.
Whatever came next, I’d face alone.
