Fifteen basilisks.
Instinct stood perfectly still, Moonfall held loosely at his side as he watched the creatures spread across the edge of the clearing.
None attacked.
Not yet.
Behind him, another chain groaned.
Purple light pulsed across the ancient prison.
The creature’s golden eye remained open.
Watching.
Waiting.
Arwen slowly drew an arrow from her quiver.
“Fifteen,” she murmured.
Kyra stepped forward.
“Yes.”
There was something different in her voice.
No teasing.
No amusement.
Just confidence.
Kyra’s nine tails slowly spread behind her.
“Arwen.”
The elf glanced toward her.
“Find high ground.
Cover me with your bow.”
Arwen’s eyes narrowed.
“You?”
Kyra smiled.
This time there was something dangerous in it.
“You’ve been wondering what I can do.”
Arwen stared at her for another second.
Then smiled faintly.
“I have.”
“Then watch.”
Kyra turned toward Instinct.
“And you.”
Instinct raised an eyebrow.
“Let me guess.
Stay out of your way?”
“Tempting.”
Her golden eyes flicked toward the prison.
“That rune we found.
The weak one.”
Instinct followed her gaze.
“You think it’s the weak point?”
“I think fifteen basilisks arriving at our backs is a wonderful opportunity for you to find out.”
One of the basilisks hissed.
Kyra’s ears twitched.
“I’ll keep them occupied.”
“All fifteen?”
Her smile widened.
“Little mortal…”
Foxfire appeared around her.
One flame.
Then another.
Then dozens.
Pale, eerie flames floated around the ancient Kitsune.
“…you really don’t know what I am, do you?”
Then the first basilisk attacked.
⸻
It moved frighteningly fast.
One moment it stood at the tree line.
The next it lunged.
Kyra didn’t move.
“Kyra!”
Instinct’s warning came too late.
The basilisk’s jaws closed around her.
And Kyra shattered.
Not flesh.
Not bone.
Light.
Her body dissolved into hundreds of pale fragments that scattered through the air like burning petals.
The basilisk stumbled forward.
Instinct froze.
“What—”
Laughter came from behind it.
Kyra stood twenty feet away.
Untouched.
Her tails swayed lazily behind her.
“An illusion,” Arwen whispered.
The basilisk spun.
Then the others attacked.
All at once.
The clearing erupted.
“Now, Instinct!” Kyra shouted.
Arwen was already moving.
She sprinted toward one of the broken stone formations surrounding the clearing, jumped, caught the edge, and pulled herself upward.
Her bow came up.
An arrow flew.
It struck a basilisk in the side of the head just as it lunged toward Kyra.
The creature twisted violently.
Kyra vanished.
Not blurred.
Not moved.
Vanished.
Space folded around her for the briefest instant.
Then she appeared behind the basilisk.
Her palm touched its scales.
Foxfire exploded.
Pale flames raced across the creature’s body.
The basilisk screamed.
Instinct forced himself to turn away.
Kyra had given him a job.
He trusted her.
He ran toward the prison.
Behind him— chaos.
A basilisk charged Kyra from the left.
Another came from the right.
A third circled behind her.
Kyra lifted one hand.
The air distorted.
The first basilisk lunged— and disappeared.
It reappeared several yards away, directly in the path of the second.
The two monsters crashed together.
Bones cracked.
Before either could recover, Arwen fired.
One arrow.
Then another.
The first buried itself in an eye.
The second punched into the softer flesh beneath a jaw.
Precise.
Efficient.
Deadly.
Kyra laughed.
“There you are, little elf.”
“Stop moving so much!” Arwen shouted.
“Where would the fun be in that?”
Three more basilisks rushed Kyra.
Her tails spread.
All nine.
Foxfire ignited at their tips.
Then the world changed.
Instinct felt it even from the prison.
Magic rolled across the clearing.
For an instant, Kyra stood alone.
Then there were two of her.
Four.
Eight.
Sixteen.
Every one identical.
Every one smiling.
Every one carrying the same ancient golden eyes.
The basilisks stopped.
Confusion rippled through them.
One struck an illusion.
Its claws passed through empty air.
Another snapped at a second Kyra.
She dissolved into foxfire.
A third turned— and found nine Kitsunes standing behind it.
Instinct stared despite himself.
” FOCUS.
”
Nyx’s voice snapped through his mind.
” UNLESS YOU’D LIKE TO SPEND ANOTHER TWO HOURS STARING AT RUNES WHILE YOUR GIRLFRIENDS DO ALL THE WORK.
”
Instinct crouched beside the weak rune.
“Right.”
He pressed his palm against the stone.
Absolute Sense.
He let it expand.
Not outward this time.
Inward.
Into the prison.
The rune flickered beneath his hand.
He felt power moving through it.
Then— connections.
Lines of magic extending from the rune into the surrounding symbols.
A network.
Exactly as Kyra had said.
Damage one rune…
the others compensated.
But something felt wrong.
The weak rune wasn’t merely damaged.
It was strained.
Like something on the other side was constantly pulling against it.
Instinct concentrated.
“Come on…”
⸻
Kyra stopped smiling.
Six basilisks surrounded her.
The illusions vanished.
All of them.
Suddenly there was only one Kyra standing in the center of the clearing.
The basilisks attacked.
Arwen’s expression changed.
“Kyra!”
Kyra’s golden eyes glowed.
The first basilisk stopped.
Completely.
Its body locked mid-lunge.
Its claws dug trenches into the earth.
The second froze.
Then the third.
Kyra raised two fingers.
Her eyes burned brighter.
Something invisible passed through the clearing.
Instinct felt pressure against the edge of his consciousness.
Ancient.
Subtle.
Terrifying.
Mind magic.
The three basilisks slowly turned their heads.
Not toward Kyra.
Toward each other.
“Fight.”
The word was quiet.
The effect was immediate.
The first basilisk attacked the second.
The clearing exploded into violence.
Instinct’s eyes widened.
” KITSUNE.
”
Nyx’s voice was unusually serious.
” ONE BRANCH OF THE YŌKAI.
”
Instinct kept his hand against the rune.
“Yōkai?”
” A BROAD FAMILY OF SUPERNATURAL BEINGS.
SPIRITS.
MONSTERS.
DEMONS.
CREATURES THAT DON’T FIT NEATLY INTO THE LITTLE BOXES MORTALS LIKE TO BUILD.
”
Another explosion of foxfire illuminated the clearing.
” AND YOUR NINE-TAILED MENACE IS A VERY, VERY OLD ONE.
”
Instinct glanced back.
Kyra disappeared beneath a basilisk’s claws.
Her body burst into foxfire.
Another illusion.
The real Kyra appeared above the creature.
Above.
Instinct had no idea how she’d gotten there.
Space twisted beneath her feet.
She dropped.
Her palm struck the basilisk’s skull.
Foxfire detonated downward.
The creature slammed into the earth hard enough to crack it.
Kyra landed gracefully beside it.
Nine tails floating around her.
Untouched.
Instinct stared.
” YES, SHE’S IMPRESSIVE.
”
A pause.
” NOW STOP STARING AT HER ASS AND BREAK THE PRISON.
”
“I wasn’t—”
” I LIVE IN YOUR SOUL, REMEMBER?
”
“You can’t use my own skill against me.”
” APPARENTLY I CAN.
”
Instinct gritted his teeth and concentrated.
⸻
Arwen fired again.
A basilisk rushed Kyra from behind.
The arrow struck its throat.
Not deep enough.
But enough to make it recoil.
Kyra turned.
Two fingers flicked through the air.
Space bent.
The wounded basilisk suddenly shifted sideways.
Directly beneath Arwen.
Her emerald eyes widened.
Then she understood.
She drew.
Released.
The arrow drove straight through the creature’s eye.
It collapsed.
Kyra looked up.
Arwen looked down.
For the briefest moment, the two women smiled at each other.
Arwen’s next arrow was already flying.
This time Kyra didn’t dodge.
She stepped forward.
Her nine tails flared outward.
Foxfire erupted.
Not a small flame.
Not the gentle light she’d used in the cave.
A wave.
Pale fire swept across the clearing.
Three basilisks disappeared inside it.
Their screams shook the forest.
Yet the grass beneath Kyra’s feet didn’t burn.
The trees didn’t ignite.
The fire touched only what she wanted it to touch.
When the flames faded, two basilisks lay motionless.
The third staggered forward.
Burned.
Furious.
Kyra tilted her head.
“Persistent.”
It lunged.
Kyra snapped her fingers.
Space twisted.
The basilisk vanished.
It reappeared ten feet above the ground.
For one confused instant, it hung there.
Then gravity remembered it existed.
It crashed down.
Arwen’s arrow met it before it hit the earth.
Straight through the eye.
Kyra glanced toward her.
“You’re enjoying this.”
Arwen drew another arrow.
“Maybe.”
⸻
Instinct barely heard them anymore.
He had found something.
The weak rune.
The surrounding runes were feeding it.
But the power wasn’t coming from nowhere.
He followed it.
One connection.
Then another.
Then another.
Deeper.
The prison was a web.
Thousands of individual pieces forming a single structure.
But every web had anchors.
His awareness moved through the magic.
Then— there.
Something beneath the rune.
A fracture.
Tiny.
Almost invisible.
The stone underneath it had cracked.
Not recently.
Long ago.
And every time the creature pulled against her chains— the fracture widened.
Instinct opened his eyes.
“I found it.”
The golden eye inside the prison opened.
Instinct looked at her.
The creature looked back.
“You’re doing this.”
The chain nearest her tightened.
The rune beneath Instinct’s hand flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then almost went dark.
His heartbeat quickened.
It wasn’t simply a weak rune.
It was an anchor.
One of the places where the prison’s magic connected to the physical structure.
And it was failing.
” NOW THAT… ”
Nyx murmured inside his mind.
” …IS INTERESTING.
”
A roar ripped through the clearing.
Instinct turned.
Five basilisks remained standing.
Bodies littered the ground around Kyra.
Some burned.
Some pierced by Arwen’s arrows.
Others killed by their own kind.
Kyra stood in the center of them.
Her black-and-silver hair moved in a wind that didn’t exist.
Nine white-and-silver tails streaked with deep crimson and darker accents spread behind her.
Foxfire floated around her body.
Her golden eyes burned.
And for the first time since meeting her, Instinct understood something.
Kyra hadn’t been showing off before.
Not really.
At the shrine…
she had been playing with him.
The woman standing in the clearing now was something else entirely.
Ancient.
Powerful.
A creature that had survived more than two thousand years in a world filled with monsters.
A Yōkai.
A Kitsune.
And she was still smiling.
One of the remaining basilisks charged.
Kyra disappeared.
The creature stumbled to a stop.
Another Kyra appeared to its left.
Then another to its right.
Then ten more.
The basilisk spun wildly.
Every illusion laughed.
The real Kyra appeared directly in front of it.
She placed one finger against its forehead.
“Found me.”
Foxfire erupted.
The basilisk collapsed.
Four remained.
They hesitated.
For the first time— they looked afraid.
Kyra’s ears tilted forward.
“Oh?”
Her smile became predatory.
“Now you understand.”
Behind her, Arwen drew another arrow.
Instinct turned back toward the failing rune.
He placed both hands against the stone.
The creature’s golden eye followed him.
“Keep fighting,” he whispered.
The chain pulled.
The stone groaned.
A thin crack spread through the rune.
Purple light flickered.
Instinct smiled.
“There you are.”
He had found their weak spot.