The moment Kaiden turned, his heart twisted into a knot.
The battlefield before him looked like a massacre mid-breath.
Blood slicked the stone floor in wild, uneven strokes. The air pulsed with residual magic and copper tang. His Valkyries—his girls—were barely standing. If at all.
Nyx was collapsed on the ground.
Still.
Unmoving.
A javelin—barbed, cruel, and vampiric—was buried straight through her chest. Her armor had cracked, pierced as if it were butter. She didn't twitch. Didn't even tremble.
Luna stood above her with thunder crackling on the edge of her Stormblade.
Her lightning-infused eyes brimmed with tears she didn't let fall.
Fury was etched across her features… but so did a deep, gut-wrenching worry. She slashed wildly at the vampire wife before her, keeping her away from Nyx like a lioness protecting a cub. Her body bled from several wounds, and her thigh barely supported her, but she refused to back away.
