The Catalyst

Chapter 72

As Noah got to Jaden, Seraph reached the topmost step and the demons turned voracious. Liandris backed away before a raging coyote, Kitera kicked a lynx in the face, and Dharkan hacked into a huge possum who kept coming back for more. Grateful for his friends' protection, Noah looked down at Jaden's angry burns. His eyes were closed, and his chest still moved up and down. The opaline crescent pulsed softly, healing the skin around it, but not fast enough. Noah took his hand and urgently transferred his energy into him.

He kept doing this even as Seraph jumped over a crenel and landed on the walkway nearby. Noah's heart clenched as thunder groaned above. Seraph stared Noah down from a few feet away; it wasn't hard to guess where the next lightning bolt would strike. Noah squeezed Jaden's hand tighter and made his energy flow like a powerful river. But Jaden still didn't wake up, and Seraph looked ready to make his move. As the thunder intensified and filled Noah's ears, he braced himself . . .

Except nothing happened. Seraph stared intently past Noah, completely rapt. Noah shot a glance over his shoulder, and his chest tightened as he saw Kili approaching. She only wore a long-sleeved ivory dress against the freezing wind, a thin ribbon barely holding back her wavy locks.

"Indrian," she said as she came to stand beside Noah. As he glanced from her to Seraph, Noah couldn't tell which one looked more troubled. The ongoing battle around them seemed not to exist.

"Natheni," Seraph breathed. "I thought I'd never see you again."

Before Kili could reply, the ground started to vibrate, intensely enough that they felt it from the top of the wall. It turned into a steady drumming that grew louder each second, and Noah would've been slow to identify the sound if he hadn't heard Kitera say to Dharkan that it was a cavalry. Led by Kemon Clay, probably.

Many Fellerans and Azurians quit what they were doing to cling to the battlements and look at the scene below. Even Seraph glanced over his shoulder, dark blue hair dancing in the wind. But Noah couldn't leave Jaden. His skin was fading from red to white all over, and Noah had to hope he'd wake up soon.

So instead he listened. Now that he knew, the loud drumming indeed sounded like thousands of war horses charging the Azurian army. Noah could just picture them emerging from the shadows of the city to attack the unsuspecting enemy. And then it happened, an explosion of swords and armor that seemed loud enough to wake up entire villages in the capital's vicinity. The Fellerans at the battlements started to cheer.

"Kitera," Noah called, "what's happening?"

She gave him a quick over-the-shoulder glance. "Felleran soldiers within the Azurian ranks! They're turning on them! They're being slaughtered from outside and inside."

As Kitera turned back around to watch, Kili knelt down beside Noah.

"Go stand with her," Kili said. "I'll stay with Jaden."

Noah looked into her big dark eyes, returned her small smile, then rushed to the merlon Kitera was leaning against. He didn't have much time to witness the absolute chaos that raged across the Azurian ranks before something else captured his attention. The same phoenix from last night soared above the gory scene with someone on its back. Lithe and snuggly clothed in black, blonde hair very pale, with a black mark on the side of her face. Tessa Nightvale.

As the phoenix dove and flew above the Dragon and his followers, a white-gold fire blazed down from Tessa's hands and rapidly spread to claim the dark mages' lives. Noah clutched the stone with whitening knuckles as he couldn't glance away from the eighty or so men and women being burned alive. It didn't matter if they threw themselves on the snowy ground, if they ran away, or cried begging for mercy, the fire never relented. They burned, and burned.