Chapter 68 Devora
Devora
Clawed feet hit the courtyard with a boom, and the entire world trembled. I sucked in a breath when they came into view—black-and-red veined and inhuman, like someone had warped them.
The first had the head of a wolf while his massive upper body was still in his human form, with clumps of fur scattered across his bare chest. His pants were torn at the legs where his feet had shifted into enormous paws.
When he opened his mouth, his jaw came unhinged, opening wider than possible and exposing lines of serrated teeth.
Thick black veins pulsed around his black eyes.
These weren’t like any Shifters I’d seen before.
The second one made me stumble backward.
She was a serpent Shifter, with slick green scales covering her entire body and whip-like coils in the place of arms. Even her long hair took the form of snakes, each strand ending in a head with a forked tongue and sharp fangs.
Her waist morphed into the body of a tiger.
Muscled legs crouched before flying into the air, straight at Everett.
She sent him crashing through a stone statue in the courtyard with a sickening crack. The wolf Shifter blurred, moving faster than my eyes could track, and struck Nox to my right. The third…
A thick wing barreled into me, knocking me off my feet. Three reptilian tails lashed out and wrapped around my wrists and ankles. I struggled to catch my breath, my temples pounding as a welt formed on the back of my head. But even my shadows stilled when I saw what stood before me.
This Shifter was easily eight feet tall, with a face that shifted with every blink. Feline, avian, reptilian. Its glowing black eyes transformed from thin slits to wide, round orbs, with scales turning to fur then to feathers.
My magic pulsed in my bones, erratic and scared. It whispered a warning: Wrong, wrong, wrong. There was something wrong with these Shifters. Unnatural.
It bared its teeth and stretched its bat-like wings, pointing a sharp wingtip straight at me. My shadows reacted instantly. They shot around me like a solid barrier, thick enough to block any weapon.
But the Shifter didn’t slow. It punched through my wall of shadows like it was mere smoke. I quickly rolled onto my side. Dirt sprayed my face when the wingtip pierced the ground.
While it was distracted, I summoned my shadows and formed them into spikes, hurling several at its body. They hit their marks across its abdomen and wings. Black, viscous blood poured from the open wounds. Victory shot through me as its hold on my wrists loosened.
But within seconds, the skin stitched itself together, barely leaving a mark.
The tails bit into my skin, and I gasped against the pain. The voices in my head grew louder and louder with each passing moment.
Let us out, little one.
You know we can protect you.
My shadows taunted me, begging for release. Panic swept over me. I couldn’t do that again—not like last time. I didn’t have to fight that way. I didn’t have to—
The Shifter lifted me into the air by its tails, my body stretched so taut, I thought it was going to tear me in half.
Let us help you, my shadows hissed.
No! I shrieked back at them. The fabric of my leathers snapped as the Shifter’s tails kept pulling at either ends of my body, stretching me. The strain on my limbs was almost too much to handle—
A dagger soared through the air and sliced all three tails clean off. I crashed to the ground as the Shifter screeched at its new opponent.
Nox’s eyes were silver and molten, with navy scales shimmering in the starlight as his wings unfolded in a flash of fury. He tackled the Shifter and dug his talons into its flesh, flaying its chest open and ripping out its heart.
Its twisted, blackened heart.
Bile crept up my throat. What had Scarven done to these creatures?
All around us, the battle spiraled out of control. There were only two of his mutant Shifters left, but their power was undeniable. At least three of the refugees who had come with us were lying on the ground, and an Alchemist was kneeling over one of them, trying to revive him.
Everett took on the serpent Shifter alone. His dual-toned eyes were locked in fierce concentration as he sent illusions the rest of us couldn’t see, making the serpent rear back with an ear-splitting cry.
The handful of refugees who hadn’t gone with Tessa or Kieran’s groups were battling the wolf hybrid, but their combined magic was barely putting a dent in the Shifter’s massive form.
Arowyn strode between the two fights, her movements as quick as lightning. In one breath, her sword glinted off the serpent’s scales as she struck, and in the next, she was plunging it into the wolf’s side. Even though she was getting good shots in, each wound healed faster than the last.
My chest burned as I watched. Shadows pommeled inside me, the pressure rising like boiling water.
I couldn’t lose control. I couldn’t become that again. One wrong move, and someone I cared about could die.
A shout rang out ahead, and time stilled as Everett stumbled away from the serpent Shifter. In his momentary distraction, she lunged, sharp fangs glinting and slicing through the air.
I jumped forward, but Nox got there first.
He shoved one of his wings between the Shifter and Everett, catching a fang in the translucent underside. Clutching at his back, his wings instantly shifted out of view. He dropped to his knees as a trail of dark green veins crawled up his neck.
The serpent smiled, then attacked.
A scream tore from my lips. “No!”
Her hair of writhing, coiling snakes dove for his head, hundreds of tiny teeth bared and sharp enough to break skin. They latched onto his head. He let out a terrible roar of pain that shook the ground at my feet.
I snapped.
An ocean of darkness exploded from my skin. I thrust out my hands, and a solid wall slammed into the serpent. It wrapped itself around her body, cutting off the snake’s heads in her hair and flinging them to the ground. Her body was swathed in shadows, completely swallowed by the darkness until—
Blood sprayed, coating Nox in black-and-red ink. The Shifter’s scream ended in a wet gurgle. When my shadows unraveled and rushed back to me, her body dropped in a dozen pieces to the ground, hunks of scaled flesh now ripped to shreds.
I dragged in a breath. As before, my shadows were now tinged in red and humming with dark satisfaction. They twisted around my limbs and filled me with an overwhelming sense of power. It flooded my veins, trickling through my blood and steeling my spine.
It felt good.
A whisper, cold and low, brushed my ear. But it wasn’t the familiar whisper of my bloodthirsty shadows.
“Exquisite,” the voice said.
My euphoria halted. I knew that voice.
“Scarven,” I breathed out. Whirling around, my shadows scattered into the night, seeking out the source of the voice. But he wasn’t there. The battle raged on around me as if no one else had heard him.
Laughter echoed next to me. I swung out a hand, but again, nothing was there.
“You grow more beautiful every day, love,” his voice murmured. “I almost forgot how stunning you are when you break.”
“Where are you?” I shouted, shadows circling in anticipation. “Show yourself!”
“You can’t see me, Devora. But I see you. I always have.” Magic pulsed around me, and on the outskirts of the surrounding forest, more shadows emerged.
“You were the first,” Scarven whispered. “We thought fatesprig was meant to take power. But I changed that. I gave you power. I made your magic bloom into something I could only dream of. And look how glorious you became when you stopped fighting it. When you submitted to it.”
My knees threatened to buckle. I pressed my fingers to my temples to try and block him out. “You turned me into a monster,” I spat.
“I turned you into a masterpiece,” he hissed back. “And I’ve done the same thing with the rest of them. There is no limit to what I can do.” A sharp pain dug into the cut at my thigh. “You are mine. By the end of the night, the rest of you will be too.”
The sensation in my leg dimmed, and his presence disappeared. The shadows that lurked on the edges of the tree line elongated and widened as several more creatures came into view.
“Nox!” I shouted. I ran forward into the thick of the fight between him, Everett, and the wolf Shifter. Nox spun at my call, and I was relieved to see he’d already healed from the serpent’s wound.
He grabbed my forearm. “What happened? Was it your shadows?”
I glanced down at my hand to see black veins, identical to the ones on these mutant Shifters.
“It’s Scarven. He was here. He—he talked to me.” I shuddered. “Whatever he did to make my magic so uncontrollable is the same thing he did to all of them,” I explained, brandishing an arm to the battlefield. “They’re stronger than us, Nox. And there’s more coming.”
His eyes followed my hand when I pointed toward the oncoming opponents.
There was no fear in his gaze, like the kind I felt in my own bones. Only resolve. His features hardened as he said, “The prisoners. You and Arowyn have to go—now.”
“But there’s too many—”
“We’ll hold the line. We have to get the prisoners out, Devora. Stick to the plan. Finish what we came here for.”
I met his stare and swallowed hard, willing my shadows to calm. My eyes took in the courtyard, the broken Shifter corpses, the fallen refugees. I nodded slowly. He was right. We had to try.
Arowyn appeared beside me with her blood-smeared sword and dirt speckling her pale hair. “You ready for this?” she asked.
I clenched my hands into fists and spun to face Nox again. “You promised me tomorrow.” Grabbing the back of his neck, I forced him to meet my eyes. “So you will not die today.”
His answering smirk shot straight to my heart. “As you wish, darling.”
He claimed my lips with his, a heady flood of desire, fear, and unspoken promises lingering between the blood and sweat. When he broke away from me, it took all my strength to let him go.
I straightened my shoulders and shook off the rising dread. He would be fine. He had to be. I couldn’t let myself think otherwise.
“Alright, Arowyn.” I gripped her arm. “Take us to the Hollow.”
With a faint shimmer, the battlefield disappeared.