The stone beneath his feet cratered from the force of his launch, and he crossed the sixty-meter gap in a single bound, rising through the air with his mana streaming behind him like a comet's tail of dark red and black.
His body was still changing mid-flight. The horns were longer now, curving back over his skull. His eyes burned in the dark of his own shadow, and the sound that came from his throat was a roar that had no words in it, just the raw, layered fury of a man and the thing inside him agreeing on exactly one point.
The twins broke. Cassian grabbed Calix by the tether and they flickered, swapping positions in a desperate reflex that put them further from where Kaiden was about to land. Their mana guttered. Their faces were white.
Selena didn't run. She raised both hands and her mana blazed, a wall of white energy between her and the thing hurtling toward her.
The sun went out.
