From Ashes and Snow

Static.

Chapter 43: Static.

"Impossible," Kohen breathed.

I wasn't a Zentin, but I saw the pain that creased in Kohen's expression as he took in that news, reeling as if I had struck him with those words. Gold tinged eyes flashed to me, blinking rapidly. My brows creased, but our attention was drawn to the Insurgent as he let out a low, cold laugh.

"You are horrified," He seemed to bask in Kohen's pain. "You can't believe that you have been alone for so long, only to have the only other Zentin be your enemy!"

"You...no," Kohen stepped back and I held fast onto his arm, hoping he could sense the comfort I tried to send him. I am here, Kohen. I am here.

An ear flickered towards me and a second later, my Zentin found his voice. "You are a disgrace to our kind."

The Insurgent didn't waver. "You are young, Zentin. You will learn to weave a spell with your words and you will learn to hate the humans who slaughtered your kind. They are all guilty and they all must be punished."

Kohen's hands shook, but his tone was defiant as he hissed, "Never."

"Then you will die too." He raised hands where the rotted flesh barely clung to their bones. Spindly fingers spread wide and then, the stillness shattered.

The Nirani began to stir, sucking in ragged, hoarse breaths. Teeth clicked together and I could hear the chafe of their coal-like skin as they began to move.

"Uh...Shiny..." Gwen hefted her hammer to grip the handle with both hands.

A shriek built in a swelling chest and burst as the Nirani leapt. More began to break and lunge, snapping with their too wide mouths and swiping with viciously long claws that could strip flesh from bone in an instant.

"We need you two!" Gwen bellowed as she swung and I winced as the Nirani's body caved under the blow of her hammer, the body bending back under the spine snapped.

I am never sparring with her.

Kohen and I didn't spare him another glance, leaping into the fray. The Alelang blade gleamed as it was swung and swept and the Nirani's screeched as they were torn open by the blade pulsing with silver, foreign magic. I parried the blow of swiping claws and booted him away as Kohen fought at my back, seamless in his movements. He fought quicker today, more savagely than I had ever seen him.

The Nirani who confronted him had no chance as Kohen bared his teeth, pointed fangs pressing down. His ears were flat and his eyes burned gold. Fire surged around us as a snapping beast, illuminating the dead faces in the dark who pressed to get a chance to butcher us.

"Little bastard!" Gwen bellowed as a Nirani scored a blow against her arm and sunk his talons deep into the flesh. Forgetting her hammer, she reached for him and in one swift movement, pulled his lower jaw off.

Bile burned in my throat and Gwen caught my eye for a brief moment, quirking a brow as she grabbed her hammer again.

"I am glad you're on our side, Gwen."

She snorted, swinging the hammer and knocking two Nirani over like they were just rotting posts. "You should be Shiny."

Honestly, I could have watched Gwen break Nirani for longer, but the risk of impalement or disembowelment was too high. But- it was easy to fight with these three. It was as if we had been fighting together for far longer than we had known each, moving to cover each other and anticipating a swipe of a heavy hammer or the burst of magic from either Fyr or I.