The mist came from the south, rolled across the tree line at ground level, low and warm, and the temperature on the road climbed with it the way it always climbed when something very large and very hot was coming through.
Then Ares dropped through the canopy and the canopy said so, branches snapping and separating, and he hit the air above the road with his chest already cycling toward that deep volcanic red that meant the Inferno Storm was not something he was considering but something he had already committed to.
From the north, Shade simply appeared.
One moment the road was dark on that side and the next Shade was there, the corroding burst already building in the throat, the pale translucent compound gathering at the lips with that faintly iridescent quality it had before it found something to dissolve.
Shade released first.
