Klaus rose into the sky, his massive wings shredded but somehow still lifting his bulk.

  Each beat sent gusts of hot, rank air washing over us. The dragon circled once, building speed, then again, higher this time.

  The way he moved with those broken wings didn’t make sense… they shouldn’t have been able to support his mass.

  The Keeper stood his ground below, his sword raised toward the circling beast.

  "Is he fucking insane?" I whispered.

  "Says the man who wants to go and help," Mabel replied in my head. "You and Captain Suicide down there would make a lovely couple."

  Klaus tucked his wings and dove.

  Twenty-five meters of scaled death plummeting like a meteor. The ground shook from the force of his descent.

  At the last second, the Keeper sidestepped, as if he was allowing Klaus to pass by, like a matador with a dragon-horn sword. He spun, bringing his blade down onto the exposed dragon.

  The blade caught Klaus across the jaw as the beast shot past. Black blood sprayed across the stone in a high arc, steaming where it landed.

  Klaus screamed.

  The sound had a physical weight to it and sent shockwaves throughout my body as the rock formations behind me shattered.

  I reached the bottom of the ridge.

  My gaze locked on to Kaz. He was trying to stand, legs trembling, one arm hanging limp at his side. His golden light flickered like a dying bulb.

  The Keeper and Klaus clashed again.

  The armored man moved faster than any human I had ever seen… even faster than Rafe.

  His blade found the gaps between the dragon's scales, each strike drawing more of that steaming black blood. But Klaus was massive, and even the near-misses sent aftershocks through the ground that knocked prisoners off their feet.

  "He's incredible," Zo said, coming up beside me. Her face was streaked with dirt and blood, her eyes wide with hope.

  The Keeper dodged another bite, rolled under a wing sweep, and drove his blade deep into Klaus's flank.

  Klaus caught him with a wing.

  The armored figure was sent flying, he bounced off of the floor twice then slammed into the wall leaving a human-shaped crater.

  Then the Keeper pulled himself out of the crater.

  "Oh, come on," Mabel said. "What's he made of?"

  I ignored her, looking for Kaz again.

  Sadie had reached him, and was helping him stand. His arm was bent in an odd angle, and a white bone jutted through skin. He didn't scream. Just gritted his teeth, and set the bone… his Origin flaring briefly to cauterize the wound.

  Klaus breathed a column of flames that made the air shimmer around it. The Keeper raised his sword, splitting the flames around him like water passing by a riverstone. But the ground behind him melted into glass.

  The Keeper closed the distance again. Drove his blade into Klaus's remaining front leg. The dragon buckled, dropping to one knee. For a moment, it looked like the Keeper might win.

  Then Klaus bit down.

  The dragon's jaws caught the Keeper around the torso. His armor crumpled like paper. The Keeper drove his sword up through the roof of Klaus's mouth, but it wasn't enough.

  Klaus threw him up into the air as a dog would a jew toy.

  The Keeper hit the ground hard. He didn't get up this time… his armor was caved in, something dark leaking from the gaps.

  Klaus spat out a chunk of the Keeper's pauldron. Black blood dripped from his jaws. He turned his attention back to the survivors, his movements slower now. He was wounded, and bleeding from a dozen cuts. But that just seemed to make him angrier.

  "Get the others to the fortress," Kaz said, his voice a raw scrape. Golden light flared bright again as he stepped forward. "I'll hold it."

  Nobody made a move to leave.

  Zo stepped up beside Kaz, her fists clenched. Sadie took position on his other side, her spear of light already forming. Rafe moved behind them, his face grim.

  I joined them, my worms already forming weapons.

  Sophie appeared from the shadows, her Blood forming around her hands. "We do this together," she said, surprising me.

  "This is suicide," Mabel's voice was soft and full of fear.

  "Quiet, there is no other way." I told her.

  Klaus laughed, the sound scraping through my skull like nails on a chalk board. "Six insects and a dying sun," he rumbled. "This will be quick."

  Kaz charged forwards. His Origin blazing around him, his remaining axe cutting a trail of fire through the air.

  Klaus swiped at him. But Kaz ducked, and rolled, he came up with a slash. Golden fire bit into the dragon's leg. Causing Klaus to rear back and roar.

  Zo hit Klaus from the side while he was reared.

  She'd been absorbing energy from everything around her,I could see it crackling over her skin like lightning. She released it all in one devastating punch to Klaus's ribs. The dragons scales cracked, forcing him to stagger.

  "The tail, the tail! Look out!" Mabel screamed in my head.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  But it was too late.

  Klaus's tail whipped around and caught Zo across the chest it had sent her flying, she hit the rockwall hard and didn’t get up.

  "ZO!" I screamed, starting toward her.

  "FOCUS!" Mabel shrieked. "She's down but if you don't pay attention, you'll be DEAD!"

  Sadie launched spears at Klaus's eyes. The dragon turned his head. One spear grazed his cheek, leaving a smoking gash. The other missed completely.

  Klaus breathed a burst of flames at Sadie.

  Rafe was there to grab her, Quickstep carrying them clear of the danger. The ground where they stood became a lake of molten stone.

  Sophie's Blood whips wrapped around Klaus's damaged leg. She pulled, her muscles straining causing the dragon to stumble, and falling to one knee.

  "NOW!" Sophie screamed.

  Kaz saw the opening.

  He leaped onto Klaus's back, a golden blur of motion. Drove his axe into the base of the dragon's skull.

  Klaus thrashed, but Kaz held on. Golden fire poured from his hands into the wound. The dragon screamed, it was a sound of actual pain this time.

  Then Klaus rolled.

  Kaz didn't let go fast enough.

  The dragon's bulk crushed him into the ground.

  When Klaus rose, Kaz was in a crater. His golden light was gone. He wasn't moving.

  Sophie's constructs dissolved as she lost concentration. She was staring at Kaz's body, her face blank with shock.

  Something broke inside me.

  I felt nothing but rage. Pure, mindless rage. The worms beneath my skin surged in response, hungry for blood.

  The hunger roared through me and I let it.

  Worms erupted from my skin. These weren’t weapons or constructs… they were raw, writhing masses of hungry parasites. They coated my arms, my chest, my face. I became something else. Something monstrous.

  Klaus turned toward me. Red eyes narrowed.

  I charged.

  My mind was blank.

  No thought.

  No plan.

  Just rage and hunger.

  Klaus swiped at me. I didn't dodge, my worm-armor absorbed the blow, hundreds of worms dying to cushion the impact. More replaced them instantly.

  I reached Klaus's leg.

  My worm-covered hands dug into the wound that had opened. And I started feeding.

  Klaus screamed.

  The worms were draining him, not just blood but something deeper.

  The dragon's fire dimmed. Its movements slowed.

  Klaus bit down at me.

  He caught my leg, I felt the bone snap with a wet crack. I didn't stop feeding. The pain was distant, drowned out by hunger.

  "You're losing yourself!" Mabel was screaming in my mind. "Stop! Stop! STOP!"

  I couldn't stop. I wouldn't stop.

  Klaus's essence poured into me. It was power unlike anything I'd felt before. The worms multiplied, spreading, and began climbing up the dragon's leg.

  Klaus panicked. Thrashed. Breathed fire at his own leg, trying to burn me away.

  The flames washed over me.

  My worms died by the thousands, curling and blackening. But they regenerated faster than they burned. I held on. I kept feeding.

  Something moved in my peripheral vision. It was Zo. She was up. Limping. One of her arms was hanging.

  She reached Klaus's head while the dragon was distracted. Grasping the dragon's horn with her good hand and planting her legs for support—She'd been absorbing the entire battle, every impact, every explosion, every tremor—she pulled her head back and slammed her forehead into the dragon's skull.

  Over and over again she slammed down, releasing all that energy in each headbutt.

  Klaus's head snapped sideways with each blow.

  The crack of bone echoed across the battlefield. The dragon's neck bent at an angle that the necks shouldn't bend.

  But Klaus wasn't dead.

  His head lolled. His eyes still burned with hate. He tried to bite at Zo with a broken neck.

  Sadie's spear drove through his eye.

  Klaus convulsed.

  Fire erupted from his mouth uncontrolled, scorching the sky.

  Rafe pulled Zo clear.

  Sophie dragged me away… I was still trying to feed, even now.

  The dragon crashed to the ground, he was still breathing… still alive… but broken.

  I came back to myself slowly.

  The hunger receded.

  The worms retracted. I was covered in Klaus's black blood. My leg was a ruin of torn flesh and shattered bone.

  The worms were slowly healing me. I could feel them knitting bone, regrowing muscle. It hurt like fucking hell… worse than the original wound.

  Zo was on the ground nearby. Her breathing was shallow. Rafe was pressing his hands to a wound in her side that I didn't remember her getting.

  Sadie stood over Klaus's broken form, another radiant spear ready, watching the dragon's labored breaths.

  Sophie knelt beside Kaz's crater. Her hands were shaking, she looked at me. Shook her head.

  I dragged myself toward Kaz. My leg wasn't working right yet. I didn't care.

  Kaz was breathing, just barely… his chest rose and fell in shallow gasps. His body was broken, his chest was partially caved in, spine twisted, one arm flattened to a pulp beneath him.

  But his eyes were open. Golden light flickered weakly in their depths.

  "Did we..." Kaz's voice was a wet whisper. Blood on his lips. "Did we get it?"

  I looked back at Klaus. The dragon was still alive. It had a broken neck, ruined eye and wounds across its entire body… but it was breathing. Healing, even, slowly, so slowly, but visibly.

  "Not yet," I admitted.

  Klaus's remaining eye opened. It fixed onto us, the hatred there hadn't dimmed.

  "Foolish insects," the dragon rasped. "I have lived... ten thousand years. You think... this ends me?"

  Klaus began to rise. Broken neck straightening with the hollow sounds of bones cracking and popping into place... his wounds began closing.

  Sadie drove her light-spear into his other eye.

  Klaus screamed, but just kept healing.

  "The tear," Mabel said. "The one the Keeper came through. It's still open. And it's growing."

  The dimensional wound was spreading, becoming even more unstable. Light and shadow warred within it.

  Klaus laughed, blood bubbling from his throat. "Yes. Run to the Reaches. I will find you there too. I will hunt you across dimensions. You cannot escape what you've started."

  Kaz's broken hand grabbed my arm. "Get them... through the tear. All of them."

  "What about you?"

  Kaz's golden light flared, one last surge. "Someone has to... make sure it doesn't follow."

  Before I could argue, Kaz stood.

  His bones ground, his flesh tore and hung loosely.

  It shouldn't have been possible. But Kaz stood anyway, golden fire burning in his eyes, he was wreathed in light that was no longer warm but white-hot with pain and fury.

  "You want to die for them?" Klaus mocked, his voice stronger as his healing accelerated. "I'll grant your wish, dying star."

  "Go," Kaz said, not looking at me. "NOW!"

  I hesitated for a moment.

  Kaz had been the first person here to show me anything like respect. To treat me like more than just another body to throw at the monsters.

  "He's made his choice," Mabel said, her voice uncharacteristically gentle. "Honor it by making sure it's not wasted."

  I grabbed Sophie's arm. "Help me with Zo."

  Together we lifted Zo, who was still dazed from the impact. Rafe took her other side.

  "Sadie," I called. "Come on!"

  She stood over Klaus, spear poised for another strike. Her face was a mask of cold fury.

  "Sadie!" Rafe shouted. "Don’t waste the gift he is giving!"

  She turned, her eyes meeting mine. Something passed between us, an understanding, maybe. Or just the shared knowledge of what it meant to lose someone.

  She ran to join us.

  "The tear," I said, pointing with my chin. "We need to get through before it destabilizes completely."

  We moved as fast as we could with our injuries, heading for the dimensional wound. Behind us, Kaz stood alone against Klaus, his golden light blazing against the darkness.

  I didn't look back. I couldn't.

  The tear pulsed and writhed as we approached. It wasn't a clean cut one like the ones the SDC made. This was jagged, raw, bleeding into reality itself.

  "Will it even take us somewhere safe?" Sophie asked.

  "Who cares, as long as it's anywhere away from that dragon," Rafe said.

  "It leads to the Reaches," Sadie said, her voice flat. "The Keeper came through it. It leads somewhere in the Infinite Reaches..."

  "Better than here," I said.

  We reached the edge of the tear. Up close, it was even more disturbing… a wound in the world that showed glimpses of another plane of existence.

  "Ladies first?" Rafe suggested weakly.

  "Fuck you," Sadie said, but she stepped forward. Paused at the edge. Looked back at Kaz, who was now engulfed in golden flame as he faced down the dragon.

  Then she stepped through.

  Sophie went next, then Rafe, pushing Zo through ahead of them.

  I was the last to reach the tear. At its edge, I turned to look back at Kaz.

  He was like a star against the night. His body was broken but his light undiminished. Klaus dwarfed him, his massive body healing, and growing stronger by the second.

  "Thank you," I whispered.

  As I stepped toward the tear, I felt something catch my leg. Looking down I saw the keeper had me in his iron grip, his fingers digging into my ankle… stopping my escape.