Chapter 73 Devora
Devora
Everywhere we looked was chaos. Blazing, burning, deadly chaos. Arowyn and I had outrun the web of dark magic and gotten our powers back, but the Hollow was slowly turning into a vacuum, a pit of darkness that consumed magic with hunger.
I wondered if it would keep spreading. If it would soon overtake the entire battlefield. The entire province.
I shoved the thought out of my mind and focused on what lay before us.
In our absence, hordes of Scarven’s mutant creations had joined the fray.
Not just Veridians, but also the creatures he’d created in his labs.
Our side was fighting valiantly, yet for every one of the mutants they took down, three more took their place.
My eyes darted from fight to fight. Kieran battled a two-headed dog with one sword while evading an attack from a Shadow Wielder with another.
Next to them, two Illusionists on our side stood back-to-back, blades in their hands as their opponents dodged illusions only visible to them.
Another refugee was kneeling on the ground beside a crumpled body, tears streaming down their face.
A hawk Shifter with the legs of a deer charged the grieving refugee. I shouted in warning, but before I could reach them, the refugee looked up. She shielded her face with her arm, then grabbed the dead body and strode out of sight.
But not before the hawk Shifter sliced his sword through the air and cut her hand clean off.
The severed hand fell to the ground as she disappeared, leaving trails of flowing blood and the echo of a scream in her wake.
I gasped and halted in my tracks. The Shifter turned to me and let out an ear-splitting squawk.
I clapped my hands together and pulled them apart to form a wall of shadows right as he jabbed his sword at my chest. The blade ricocheted off my shield.
In turn, my shadows surged, wrapping around his body.
I felt that same rush of violence that was always creeping at the surface of my magic, but I shoved it down hard. I knew now I was the first of this particular brand of Scarven’s experiments, and I didn’t want to become like his others. I couldn’t.
I wouldn’t let it consume me this time.
So, while my shadows shrieked inside of me, showing me visions of all sorts of torturous ways they could end this Shifter, I ignored them.
I yanked them away from him and brought them back to me.
He lost his balance and swayed on his four legs, and when he opened his eyes, I was struck by how human they still were.
I furrowed my brow. All of them were just…humans. Veridians, like the rest of us.
I could’ve easily been in his place. One of Scarven’s vicious puppets. These mutants were once innocent people with lives, families, and homes to go back to.
I dropped my dagger even as the hawk Shifter’s gaze latched on to me. He barreled through the short space between us.
I quickly threw up another shadow shield and found Arowyn, still nearby but locked in battle with a spider. “Arowyn!” I called. “Arowyn, come here!”
“Little busy at the moment!” she shouted as she blew a strand of hair out of her face.
With one hand holding my shield steady, I thrust my other toward her and sent a wave of shadows over the spider. They muffled its high-pitched shrieks, and when I flicked my wrist, they sent it flying across the property.
“Well, that was easy.” Arowyn brushed her hands off.
“Can you stride me and this guy to the Hollow?” I asked, straining against the force of the hawk Shifter trying to break through my shadows.
She raised an eyebrow. “Any particular reason why?”
“He’s not the enemy,” I grunted. “Scarven made him this way. He made all of them. It’s not their fault, and we can’t keep killing innocent people. But that magical suction charm thing down there—”
“You think it can suck the dark magic out of him,” she finished for me, realization dawning on her features.
“It’s worth a shot.”
“Say it doesn’t work, and he turns around and kills us?”
I huffed and pushed more magic into my shield. “At least we go down together.”
“That’s not comforting.” She looked me up and down. “Fine. You better be right.” Without another word, she stood directly between the hawk Shifter and me, placed a hand on each of us, and we all disappeared.
When we rematerialized in front of the familiar trap door in the stables, Arowyn gave a mighty grunt and shoved the Shifter into the dark hole.
I waited with baited breath as he landed on the ground. Dark wisps of that same cursed energy flitted near him, summoned by the presence of more magic.
The second they touched his skin, he froze.
And then he screamed. A harsh squawk that made me clap my hands over my ears as he thrashed in the dirt. Those black veins got even bigger, pushing against his skin so hard, I thought he was going to split open.
This was a mistake, I thought to myself. We weren’t curing him. We were killing him.
But his veins didn’t burst. As the dark magic swarmed around him, it literally pulled the poison from inside of him. Arowyn and I watched, unblinking, as little by little, the blackness was purged, sliding from him like a noxious gas.
His screams slowly subsided as his four legs shifted back into two human ones, his top half shrinking and shedding its feathers. What was left was a young man huddled on the ground, shaking in his torn clothing.
“It worked,” I breathed out. “He’s—he’s cured.”
Arowyn exhaled loudly. “You were right, Devora. These people have absolutely no idea what they’re doing.”
A small seed of conviction took root inside my chest. “Find the other Striders and get as many of the mutants down here as you can.” I turned to face her. “We can save them. All of them.”
She nodded tightly, and I took off.
The sight that greeted me back at the courtyard sent my hopes crashing to my feet. Somewhere on the other side of the property, a violent flash of lightning illuminated the sky. Shouts rang out as more mutated Veridians crawled from the shadows of the surrounding forest.
Where were they coming from? It was like every time I looked, there were more. Stronger, faster, fresher. While we, on the other hand, were losing steam.
The faces of my allies were haggard, and their magic was slowing. What were once fast reflexes a couple of hours ago were now drained and sluggish, barely able to stop blow after blow that kept coming from the enemy.
I darted between fighters as quickly as I could, focusing on defense. I raised shadow shields in front of the refugees and pushed back against their attackers. But still, it wasn’t enough.
Where was Nox?
A roar burst from somewhere close by, rattling the ground. A couple of mutated Shifters descended from the roof of the mansion.
My mouth dropped. They were easily four times my size, each with the body of a snake, feet of a lion, and strange, mismatching reptilian wings. Almost like Scarven had pieced them together to fashion a crude version of a dragon.
Two of them crashed to the ground, expanding their enormous, bat-like wings.
At the same time, they opened their mouths to reveal rows of jagged teeth and long, forked tongues.
Plumes of smoke issued from them and cast the grounds in darkness.
It smelled musty and foul, stinging like ashes as it coated my lungs.
The first set of screams rang out. I couldn’t see a single thing. The coppery tang of blood filled the air, and fear coiled inside me, so thick I could barely breathe past it.
Shadows flickered in all directions. The occasional outline of a blade slashing through the air was silhouetted against the darkness. Another scream shattered the night. My lungs burned, my shadows hissing against this foreign smoke.
Something furry brushed my arm, and my heart jumped up my throat as I yelped.
“Hush, Devora. It’s me. On your left.”
I blinked twice. I recognized that voice. There was no way—
A small flame burst to life in front of me. My jaw fell open.
Before me stood two figures. One was shrouded beneath a dark hood, with glowing rings on his fingers and a furry brown tail coming beneath the cloak to brush my arm. Beside him was a raven-haired beauty with magical flames resting in one palm and crushed leaves in the other.
“Easy there,” Rose said with a wink. “We brought backup.”