A demon suddenly exploded near her boots, and she staggered back from the splash of ichor.
"Holli," Cole warned sharply, pulling her away as a rage demon slammed its fists where she'd just been. It roared fire. Cole answered with steel, jamming his blades up it, jerking back before the flames could catch.
She flung fire; she called out Fade debris with her mark, mostly keeping to targets that weren't near any of the others. She didn't trust her aim. She threw out shields when someone was going to be struck and just did what she could without making things worse.
Hawke, Fenris, Dorian and Sera kept their focus on Corypheus while the rest of them tried to keep the demon numbers down.
She gritted her teeth, magic burning raw behind her eyes. Her mark flared without her calling it, hungry for what leaked into the world. She yanked at the magic around her, hurled a piece of the Fade itself like a spear into the face of another demon that lunged for Cole's back.
It evaporated mid-air. He looked over his shoulder and gave her a crooked smile. She gave a little smile of her own. She was going to kiss him when this was done. Hard.
The sky thundered again - another wave dropping down. She turned to meet them, but something else cracked in the corner of her eye. A flash of red, a pained cry.
"Varric!"
He was down on one knee, blood running down his side. Bianca was half-raised but slipping. A horror bore down on him, claws raised.
Holli sprinted, not even thinking. Her body just moved. Her hands were already glowing when she skidded to her knees beside him. She slammed her palms to his chest. Power surged up her spine, out through her fingers.
Varric cried out as the healing tore through him, like fire and ice and too much. It always hurt; she still bloody hadn't figured that out. But it worked. Flesh reknit, his blood stopped pouring out of him.
He gasped. "Shit. Still better than dying." Then he grinned up at her, sharp and strained.
She almost smiled back, then ducked as a claw swiped through where her neck had been. Cole was there before she could react, cutting the demon down in a blur of blades and shadow.
They fought together, back to back. She wasn't the best fighter. Her footwork was too slow, her spells inconsistent, and her limbs ached already. But she had desperation. And she had Cole, who seemed to know when she needed a demon gutted more than she did.
She didn't know if they'd survive this. The sky was broken. The ground was shaking. But they kept fighting. Higher and higher through the shattered ruins, toward the roaring heart of the Breach, its light vomiting demons in bursts of heat and Fade shit. Red lyrium cracked through the stone around them, warping the ground beneath their feet into something sick and jagged. Holli skidded as she vaulted a broken step, ducking a clawed limb as it streaked past her ear.
She didn't have time to think. Her hands burned with power, raw and instinctive. She thrust them toward the nearest demon and pulled. It shrieked as the Fade tore it backward, disintegrating into dust.
Her heart was hammering and her arms ached. The mark was flaring like fire down to the bone. And still they climbed.
She heard a shriek behind her and turned. Much too late. The demon lunged. She barely saw the claws. Just the blur of movement, that gaping mouth, and then Cole.
His daggers slid through the demon's body like a whisper. The creature dissolved, its pieces falling around her in black ash. Cole didn't say anything. He only stepped close, his fingers brushing along her jaw in a touch so brief, so unbearably gentle, she might have imagined it. His smile was soft and real. And just for her.
And then he was gone again, vanishing like breath in the dark, slashing into the next threat before she could even blink.
Holli stared after him, chest rising and falling, mouth slightly open. That had been so fucking swoon-worthy. He was like a guardian angel.
And then she ran. The next demon was already coming.
Holli turned to meet it, breath burning in her lungs, but before she could let the spell fly, the sky shattered above them. The dragons were still at it, roaring and tearing at each other, wings beating storms into the air.
And then, from above, Morrigan dived. Like a comet, almost.
The shape of her dragon form tackled Corypheus's beast from above, slamming it down onto the plateau in front of them with a bone-cracking crash. The whole mountain seemed to shudder. A wave of hot wind and dust hit Holli's face, nearly knocking her off her feet. She shielded her eyes, coughing into the crook of her arm.
When the dust cleared, the enemy dragon was still there, bloodied and limping, its flesh torn and steaming. But Morrigan... she was gone. No sign of her. Not a scale. Not a shadow. Just... vanished.
Holli scanned the ruins wildly, trying to feel for her, see her - anything. The part of her that cared was quiet, but it was still there, somewhere under the pulse of her magic and the ache in her ribs. A small, stubborn part of her hoped she was okay.
But the dragon remained. Its eyes blazing, and it let out a long, echoing snarl.
They had to kill it. They had to. Without it, Corypheus couldn't return, he couldn't latch his twisted soul onto a new body. She looked around. No Hawke. No Cassandra, no Leliana. No sign of Corypheus himself.
But she wasn't alone. Varric was at her side, crossbow ready. Bull rolled his shoulders and bared his teeth like it was just another bar fight. Cole flickered at the edges of her vision, fast and silent, and Blackwall had planted his feet in a stance that said not one step back. Solas stood just behind her, hands crackling with power, eyes fixed on the wounded beast.
Holli took a breath, steadying herself. She kept glancing toward the ruin edges, watching for Morrigan. Just in case she needed healing.
The dragon reared, wings tearing the air, its roar shaking the bones in Holli's chest. Its scales shimmered with a sickly sheen, blood and whatever else dripping from wounds already half-healed.
They were all in motion then - Varric darting to cover, Bianca letting loose with a bunch of thunks; Solas raising a shimmering wall of protective magic; Bull barreling in, axe flashing; Blackwall drawing its attention with a bellow that sounded almost knightly. Cole was already gone, his shape blurring between shadows and strikes.
Holli hurled a crackling bolt of magic that exploded against the beast's flank. The dragon howled, and its tail came swinging through the smoke so fast she barely registered it before it slammed into her side like a tree trunk.
She went flying. The sky tumbled above her - grey, red, smoke, claw - and then the ground. Solid, punishing, a full-body shatter of impact that drove the breath from her lungs. She lay there. Holy fuck. That hurt.
Somewhere nearby, she heard Cole cry her name, sharp and panicked. She tried to respond, but she couldn't get the words out.
Her ribs screamed. The world spun. Her fingers trembled as she pressed both hands against her chest and released a pulse of healing magic. The pain crescendoed for a moment, fire tearing through her lungs as bones knit and organs remembered how to be organs again.
She screamed. It was barely a sound. More like a croaked, breathless sob. But it helped.
She blinked hard, forcing vision back into focus. Her whole body throbbed, but she was alive. She rolled to her knees, coughing, then staggered upright. Somewhere above, the dragon shrieked in challenge.
New plan. Distance. Lots of distance.
The next spell she flung was jagged Fade-stone. It cracked across the beast's snout, and she kept walking backward, hands glowing, eyes locked on the dragon, staying out of range.
She hadn't seen Morrigan since that crash into the plateau. And Corypheus and the others were still elsewhere in the ruins. The dragon was all that remained.
And if it lived, so would he.