Perhaps it wasn’t too late to salvage this moment. Aleksander planted his feet and opened his hands, calling out to the shadows. This time he didn’t attempt to form them into soldiers. Instead he sent them skittering over the field, fragile tendrils of darkness, blindly seeking the power they recognized. Like calls to like.

He released a shout as the shadows met the demon. They clung to its form.

More. Aleksander’s body shook as he fought to keep his sanity, that deafening, maddening vibration traveling through his skull. His threads of shadow wrapped around the demon’s body, giving strength to its limbs, banding together and binding its form.

The creature shrieked. Aleksander felt the demon’s mind, Nikolai’s mind.

The monster is me …

The ghost of a thought.

The demon’s wings beat against the winter sky and it hurtled toward the bells. It slammed into one, then another, sending them crashing to the ground in a heap of metal and glass. A soldier tried to fire on the creature, but it tore the helmet from his head and slashed its claws across the soldier’s face, silencing him, hot blood like a balm.

The Fjerdans scattered, terrified by the monster come to life before them. The drugged Grisha looked on without interest, their minds full of nothing except parem.

With a roar of triumph, the demon king smashed through the final bell. The wall of sound collapsed in blessed silence. Shouts rose from the Ravkan troops as they stumbled to their feet. They were bleeding. They were broken. But they were not done. They took up their guns, Ravka’s Grisha raised their hands, and they all threw themselves into battle once more.

“What happened?” cried Brother Chernov.

Aleksander could barely hear him. His ears were still ringing with that violent sound, and helping to forge the demon had taken a toll. He watched the monster slide back to the king, a dark blot skating over the field to return to its true master. The Starless hadn’t seen what he’d done or hadn’t understood it. They’d been on the ground, subjugated to the bells.

“What do we do?” said Brother Chernov.

Aleksander wasn’t sure. The bells were gone, but Fjerda had seized the advantage. Their troops were recovering, driving forward, and the king was surrounded.

“There are demons in the sky!”

At first he thought the monk meant Nikolai’s shadow creature, but he was pointing southeast.

“Who has a long glass?” he demanded, and Brother Chernov placed one in his hands.

There was something moving toward the battlefield, though he couldn’t tell what. He only knew it meant more trouble for the king. Nikolai had no allies to the south.

“Where is the sign?” pleaded Brother Chernov. “Why has the Starless One forsaken us? What do we do?”