Chapter Thirteen #2
Inside the center cage was a beast that was half eagle, half jaguar.
Its body was feline, but it had wings that beat against the cage and a beak that bit into the bars that trapped it.
When it noticed us, it flapped its wings in our direction and rammed its massive body against the metal bars.
Marco jumped, but even if it could escape its cage, there were two shackles around its hind legs.
I slowly spun in a circle, realizing that all the creatures were safely tucked in cages. Terrifying as they may be, none of them could attack us. The only harm was the damage to my eardrums as they carried on with their wailing.
“What has she done?” Emilie asked, on the verge of tears. “What has she done to them?”
I grabbed her hand when she tried to approach one of the cages. “Don’t get too close.”
Emilie shook me off. “They’re terrified.
Look at them.” She came to a stop in front of a cage that held what appeared to be a small critter—a chipmunk or gerbil.
It was hard to tell because its head was misshapen.
It turned to the side, and we both gasped.
It had a third eyeball, but it was completely white, and I didn’t think it could see out of the extra one.
“What the fuck?”
“She’s a monster,” Emilie said, shaking with anger. “How can someone be so cruel?”
I grabbed her wrist as she tried to reach for the latch. “You can’t.”
“Why not?” she cried. “We can’t leave them here to starve to death. I won’t leave them locked away for the rest of their short lives.”
She had more compassion than I could begin to understand. Reyna’s experiments would be better off dead, in my opinion. They were unnatural and more deserving of a swift death than freedom. “That’s not what we came here for.”
She ceased fighting me long enough to look at me with hurt in her eyes. “They’re innocent. They’re victims too.”
I understood the reason for her unshed tears. She looked at those creatures and saw herself—saw us. Objects that existed only for Reyna’s amusement.
She was right; it wasn’t fair.
But what the hell did she expect us to do? I looked around the chamber and the dozens if not hundreds of experiments. “So we free them, and then what? How are we supposed to help them?”
I loosened my grip when she no longer seemed likely to go on a liberation spree. Wiping her teary eyes, she looked up at the sky. After a second of thought, she pointed. “There. We let them fly away.”
“They can’t all fly.” Most did not have wings, and those that did—well, were they even strong enough after being caged for so long?
“Then I’ll help them.” She lifted her hands, and a small breeze encircled us.
She could lift them with her magic. Once they were out of the mountain, they’d be on their own. But at least they’d be free. At least they’d stand a chance.
“All right. But let’s do it quickly.”
The others must’ve been eavesdropping because when I turned to give them instructions, Bianca and Mira were already moving toward the cages, and Aven had taken up the lantern so they could see clearly.
“What if they’re dangerous? You don’t know if they’re poisonous. Or if they are aggressive. They could kill each other or us,” Marco said.
I didn’t have the time or the patience to argue with him. “Let’s free those with wings first. Bianca, be ready to freeze any that seem on the verge of attacking. Mira, can you use your shadows to calm the others until we get to them? The fewer distractions, the better. Aven…”
“I’ll just keep holding this lantern,” he said. “Unless there are any fish that need to be rescued.”
Aven was a water wielder, and he was right. His magic wasn’t of much use in this situation, but he could still help by unlatching the cages.
Marco stood aside and didn’t bother to offer his help. I wasn’t expecting him to, since he wasn’t keen on the idea to begin with.
Once everyone was ready, we began to unlatch the cages.
Most of the animals were freed smoothly.
There was a large hog-like creature that wasn’t thrilled to be lifted into the air by Emilie’s wind and tried multiple times to flee through the tunnels.
Another that reminded me of a rabbit with long talons refused to let go of the bars of its cage.
One by one, we set them free and into the sky above.
We were almost done when Marco shouted, “She’s here! She’s fucking here!”
Everyone’s heads turned in unison. For a fleeting second, I thought he meant Reyna, and my stomach dropped. Heat flared in my chest at the same time as the urge to take my time killing her rose like a tidal wave. I would savor every second of her pain and pleading for mercy.
But it wasn’t Reyna.
It was Vessina.
Perhaps she had heard the ruckus and came to see for herself what was going on. Or maybe she scented us. Either way, she knew that her lair had been invaded by outsiders, and she wasn’t happy about it.
The giant snake hissed and flicked her tongue, tasting our fear and anticipation in the air. She was as big as I remembered her, maybe even bigger. Her black scales glistened as if they were wet, but it was just the metallic texture that reflected like water.
Her beady eyes danced around the chamber, unable to focus on so many things at once—the creatures who had resumed their screeching, the humans who had disturbed her sanctuary, the flickering light from the lantern casting shadows on the walls.
She flicked her tongue again and slithered around the far side of the room.
“What do we do?” Marco asked, inching toward the rest of us from where he stood near the center of the room.
The half-eagle, half-jaguar flapped its wings furiously as Vessina came closer.
She lifted her head and swayed before striking the cage that held the mutated beast. Her fangs hit metal on the first attack, but she recovered before striking again.
The second time, her fangs sank into the beast’s right wing, and it cried out in pain.
Its uninjured wing flapped even harder as it tried to escape Vessina’s grasp.
“No!” Emilie cried.
Before I could stop her, she darted toward the cage in the middle of the room, hands outstretched for the latch a few feet ahead.
Vessina was quick to notice the unexpected movement, and she reared back, readying to strike again. This time her eyes were set on Emilie.
I grabbed the set of daggers at my side and launched the first one at the snake. It lodged itself between two scales, but Vessina simply hissed and continued to track Emilie’s movements.
My second dagger hit one of Vessina’s shiny scales and bounced off. I needed to aim for her underbelly if I wanted to do any actual damage.
“Don’t kill her,” Marco cried.
Fuck that. He could still get her venom even if she was dead. And I wasn’t about to let her sink her fangs into Emilie a second time. The memory of the first occasion made me hurl my third dagger toward her delicate underside, but it barely grazed her skin.
Vessina lashed out toward Emilie, who was fiddling with the cage’s latch.
“Emilie, move,” I yelled.
She looked up and dodged out of the way at the last second. The door to the cage swung open, and the creature scrambled out, almost trampling Emilie in the process. She rolled onto the floor, avoiding the heavy jaguar’s sharp claws, then spun to her left to avoid another strike from Vessina.
For a moment, Vessina was distracted by the freed creature.
The tormented thing roared and sprang forward, latching onto Vessina’s body.
The snake’s length began to wind its way around the creature’s body, and together they rolled to the side.
Emilie sprang to her feet before they could crush her, bolting and falling into my arms.
She looked back and pushed the hair out of her face. “She’s strangling her!” she cried.
She struggled against my hold, but I refused to let her go. “That beast isn’t worth your life, Emilie.”
“That’s. Not. For. You. To. Decide.” She writhed and jerked, fighting me every second.
Meanwhile, Vessina latched onto the beast’s other wing, creating a matching set of puncture marks. It thrashed and beat its wings wildly until they seemed to drop like dead weight.
“The poison is spreading,” I said. “We need to act now!”
Bianca was the first to move. She raised her hands and a chill spread through the room. Ice formed at the base of the cages, slowly spreading upward until they were all covered in glistening white.
But Vessina remained black as night. Perhaps her scales protected her from the frost. One thing was certain, however—she remembered we were still here. Her head swiveled, finding the source of magic. Then she abandoned the pitiful creature with useless wings and made for Bianca.
“Watch out!” Aven shouted as Vessina pulled back, ready to launch at Bianca. He threw out a wave of water, and Bianca froze it like a shield in front of her.
Vessina crashed into it with an angry hiss.
Aven sent another wave. This time, he wrapped it around Vessina, drowning her on dry land. She thrashed her head back and forth, trying to shake it away, but his water held strong, circling her like a hurricane.
The snake released one wild flail, and her head collided with Aven, sending him flying. He crashed into the empty cages. The water fell to the floor and splashed before settling into puddles.
I looked around, hoping to see a boulder I could use to attack since my daggers had been so ineffective.
Before I could find something of use, Emilie ran across the room, diving and dodging Vessina’s attacks with ease.
I started after her on instinct—the urge to protect her was more overwhelming than my need to slay the viper.
Emilie raised her hands, and the cages we’d cleared so far began to rattle as her wind ripped them from the walls. She threw them at Vessina while Bianca, Mira, and Marco ran for cover.
The cages slammed against Vessina’s steel scales and the ground, breaking to pieces.
Another surge of magic erupted from Emilie, and just as Vessina reared to strike again, a dozen jagged bars shot up from the ground like spears, piercing Vessina’s belly in multiple places.
She hissed violently, but her body slammed to the ground with her massive weight, and the bars only drove deeper into her flesh. She made multiple attempts to slither forward, but the bars made it impossible for her to move without causing further injury and pain.
As the life slowly drained from her, I approached with caution, just in case she got one last surge of energy before death ultimately claimed her.
Once I was close enough, I drew my sword and drove it deep into her eye.
Deep enough that I was certain it had pierced her brain.
When I pulled it out, she ceased all movement.
“Damn it,” Marco shouted, the sound echoing in the now quiet chamber. “Move.”
He barely waited for me to step aside before he was at Vessina’s mouth, forcing it open so he could milk her fangs while her venom was still fresh. Black liquid seeped from her sharpest teeth, and he collected it into multiple vials, stowing away as much as he could.
“Will that be enough?” I asked. I didn’t know the first thing about brewing antidotes.
But he nodded confidently. “Yes; this is good. We can go now.”
“Not yet,” Emilie said, and we all turned to her.
She still looked a bit rattled after taking down Vessina.
Her eyes were wide, her pupils blown. I could tell it hadn’t fully settled in yet that she had killed her.
She should be celebrating. We both should be celebrating.
But the blood of one beast wasn’t enough to quench my thirst for retribution.
“We have to free the rest of the creatures.”
When the last of the mutations was set free, we began our ascent back through the tunnels. We were met at the entry to the tunnels by a disgruntled-looking Jade.
“Did you get what you needed?” she asked, eyes narrowed as she took in our dirty and bloodied clothing. Her nose crinkled like she could smell the filth on us.
“Yes,” I replied. “Thank you for your hospitality. Unfortunately, we can’t stay much longer. It’s important that we get back to Renoa to work on the antidote. We’ll be out of your hair before nightfall.”
“Excellent. My bags are already packed.”
I frowned and studied her expression with unease. “What do you mean?”
She forced a smile. “My brother has demanded that I go with you to Renoa. To make sure you uphold your end of the bargain.”