Chapter 29
You ain’t stronger than my girl.
Likosa’s strange comment weighed on my mind as I followed Raymond through the shadows. How had I already paid her? Despite the unsettling feeling it left me with, I knew I had to put it out of my mind. I couldn’t be distracted when we got back there.
Raymond stopped moving and turned to look at me. When our eyes met, that eerie wailing, sounds from the creatures in the dark stretches, quieted. “We have to split up.”
“What do you mean, split up?”
“I need to go to Cufio. You get Metice.” He paused. “I can sense it. They’re in trouble.”
“How am I supposed to do that?” I looked around but found nothing but more darkness. “I can’t be here without you.”
Raymond turned my hand over in his and rubbed my palm with his thumb. When he did, another path opened, branching off from the one we stood on.
“Looks like you can walk the shadows now.” He pointed. “Keep straight until you reach the light, and I’ll see you on the other side.”
I almost panicked until I noticed the green webbing in my path. Seeing that and feeling the familiar pulses of the power that had existed in me all my life, I felt comfortable. When I stepped on it, it felt like walking into my garden. “Okay, yeah. I can do this.”
“I know you can,” he said confidently.
“Be careful.” I kissed his cheek then turned and ran down my path. I couldn’t watch him walk away first.
I reached the light, the doorway to exit the shadows quickly.
When I stepped through, I was back in the building with the shadow walkers, surrounded by chaos.
I glanced over my shoulder and saw Cufio still in the cage with Olian, but then he vanished from sight, and I could only hope that was because Raymond made it to him.
I turned my attention to the front of the building, where Metice was the last time I saw him.
He stood back-to-back with Noville, both surrounded by demons and losing ground.
The creatures encircled them, and while they fought, I could tell Metice was injured and Noville just wasn’t as strong as the others.
“No more fighting like a human.” I rolled up my sleeves to see the new tattoo moving. It shifted around and more pink petals formed, moving together into blossoming flowers, a visual cue that my new power had activated.
The vines moved from my arms, breaking through the stone surface beneath my feet and reaching into the ground.
Soon, I could feel every plant and tree rooted for miles around us.
They felt different from anything on Earth, and they made noises, sounds like coos and clicks, as they communicated with me.
It was strange, but I quickly understood they would do what I needed.
The ground rumbled—this time, not because of the poisoned spikes, but for the answer of this strange nature as it responded to me.
I ran to Metice, and, as I did, roots shot up from the ground and arrested the creatures that attacked them.
One by one, they were wrapped up and pulled to the ground.
Noville noticed what I was doing and instantly worked to secure the trapped demons.
He picked up the broken stone and threw it at them. The stone transformed mid-toss into traps that snapped down around them and blended into the roots.
It worked until one demon caught on and attacked Noville when he wasn’t looking. A massive hammer landed against Noville’s temple, and he fell out next to Metice just as I reached them.
“Shit!” I dropped to Noville’s side.
“He’ll be alright. Just taking a nap,” Metice reassured me. “Going to need more backup, though.”
Then, Metice whistled, and after the sharp sound cut through the air, Piko’s massive, mutated form exploded into the area, knocking two demons over with his entrance.
“That’ll do.” I nodded at Piko, who wagged his tail like he was having the time of his life.
“Yeah, it will.” Metice patted the dog’s back. “Now, go to Raymond.”
“He told me to help you,” I rejected what he said. “I can’t leave you alone.”
“And he can’t finish this thing without you,” he insisted.
I looked over to where the cage sat, now empty. Olian had escaped, and Cufio was still nowhere to be seen.
“Get to the doorway.” Metice said just as another demon targeted him, this one landing a blow before Metice responded by breaking his arm in half. “Go!”
“You need help!” I responded while shooting another branch to strangle the demon out on the ground. “I—”
BOOM!
An explosion sounded, and two demons splattered across the floor.
“Holy shit!” I screamed out.
“Oh damn, I forgot to adjust the strength of that.” A woman with long, two-strand twists appeared behind Metice. She flexed her fingers and balled her hands into fists. “I love this shit!”
“Who are you?” I turned, ready to call the roots into action, but I paused when I realized the woman looked human.
“Jericha,” Metice said, “this is Rayna.”
“Oh, your Rayna?” I eased.
“Yes.” He smiled, looking at her like she was his entire universe. The demon actually had a dreamy look on his face.
“Hey, I’ve heard a lot about you.” She waved, and I flinched, afraid she might blow my head off. “Go on and get your man. I got his back.”
Metice kneeled so Rayna could kiss his cheek, and Piko jumped over to Rayna.
Something about seeing them together like that gave me hope.
They’d fought against the odds and survived.
We could too. After a quick nod of confirmation, I turned from them and ran for where I knew the doorway was.
The roots still shot from the ground, clearing my path of any demon who tried to attack me as I ran.
Just ten feet right of the cage that previously held Olian and Cufio was the marked spot Raymond had shown me—only it was different. I could see it! It was a tall, thin panel that rippled with energy. I searched the area for any sign of Raymond or his brother but found nothing.
“Jericha!” Olian called out to me.
I turned to find her slumped against the edge of the wall. She held her shoulder where she bled. “Olian, are you okay? What happened?”
“Yeah, I'm fine. Got cut by a dagger, but it wasn’t poisoned, so I’ll survive. I've had it worse.” She groaned in pain as she readjusted herself.
“Where are they?” I scanned the area. “Raymond and Cufio. Have you seen them?”
“In the shadows. They haven’t come out.” She pointed to the spot where I saw the two brothers disappear. “They should have by now. I don't know what's going on, but I don't know how to get in there either. None of the shadow walkers on our side are here.”
“Damn it.” I looked around to assess the situation. She was right. There were shadow walkers, but they were far away, and they were all busy with their own fights. Her orange demon ran down the hall. I wasn’t sure what he was doing, but he knocked out two others on his path.
That intuition yelled at me again and begged me to examine the cage. There had to be something to lead me to them. When I left Olian, she slumped to the ground and waved me off when I hesitated.
“Go. I’m fine.”
Inside the cage, the door now hanging limp at the hinges, I almost gave up hope of finding anything until I caught the flash of something in my peripheral.
I turned and squinted to see a small slit in the air.
It took me a moment before I realized it was a shadow left open.
There was a thread of darkness reaching from the slit in the cage and traveling back to the doorway to Talkeen’s space.
My heart dropped into my stomach—I immediately knew what it meant. The brothers were still in the shadows, and they were in trouble. That instinctual voice told me I had to go in. It screamed at me that if I didn't, Raymond would not make it out alive.
I turned back to Olian and pointed down the hall. “Can you get your orange buddy back here to help you out? You need to leave. Now.”
“What are you talking about? We can't just leave.” She struggled to stand, stumbling back against the wall again. “This isn't done.”
“It will be, but I have a feeling this place won’t be standing when it's all over.” I glanced at the two shadow orbs, but they moved more frantically, bouncing against each other, and every time they hit, there was another ripple, a shadow that passed through the space.
“Look at those things, and that’s before whatever needs to happen to take Talkeen down. ”
“What are you going to do?” She pulled out a device from her pocket and pressed a small button. “He’ll be here in a second.”
I nodded when I realized she had just called the orange one. Dammit, I should have asked his name. “I'm gonna do what I came here to do. Get the others and get out.”
Without another word, I turned, a new magic humming within me, and silently called to the shadows, feeling their power stir. They responded instantly, widening the split in the space enough for me to enter.
On the other side, there wasn't a thin path for me to walk across.
This was a massive field on checkered stone, and in the center of it stood Raymond.
He faced off against a guy I had never seen before but could only imagine was our target.
Behind him, slumped on the ground, was Cufio.
He was breathing, but each inhale was a struggle, a ragged gasp for air.
He clutched his side, and I could still see where the spike had stabbed into him.
“You think you can just come back here and do whatever you want?” Talkeen’s voice boomed, and the domain we stood in trembled as he spoke. “I have worked my ass off to build what I have now, and I will not let you or anyone else destroy it!”
“You know how this works. It's just business.” Raymond saw me, but he didn’t acknowledge my presence.
I took that as a sign to proceed with caution and started tiptoeing across the field, keeping my position behind Talkeen’s back.
“That's how you got to where you are, right?
You took advantage of a situation that played in your favor. I'm only doing the same thing now.”