"Cade, get up. We have company…"
"Cade…"
"Cadeeeee…"
"CADE!!! WAKE UP!!! We have company…!"
'Oh God, oh God… that word. I swear I'm about to add it to my dictionary of hated things.'
I dragged myself up out of the deep sleep I'd dived into, only to feel the ground quake beneath me. I staggered to my feet at once, the substitute hand answering half a beat slow with its fingers still stiff, and birthed a ball of flame that rolled above my head, throwing at least some light around me.
In that white, incandescent glow, Kassie swung her greatsword forward and slammed it into something, and the sound that rolled back off the impact came hollow and brutally hard, like she'd buried her edge in a tree trunk cast in metal, the ring of it still hanging in the air.
I yanked Wren out of the trunk where I'd stabbed her, filled her with fire, and lunged.
