Chapter 23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
DAKOTA
I kept my head on a swivel as I stomped through the forest, feeling like I was genuinely about to pass out from fear. My heart rate was through the roof, and Micah couldn’t do anything about it right now—he needed his strength for what was coming.
My peripheral vision was fuzzy like static, my field of sight narrowing as anxiety suffocated me.
I had to trust that Mason and Micah would be able to take care of the situation, but none of us even knew how many demons would be here.
The xiphos Mason had given me was in my pocket, but it felt entirely useless.
What would a small knife wielded by a human do against a demon?
When the wind shifted, I smelled something. It was faint, really faint, disappearing on the breeze just as soon as it came, but the scent was unlike anything I’d ever smelled before. It was…sharp.
I’d been scouting the forest while I walked, and I was in a small clearing now, probably good enough for the plan. I had no confirmation from anyone, but I had to trust my own judgment.
The entire mechanism of this plan was the element of surprise, so my decisions had to feel realistic and untouched by external influence. My understanding was that Mason and Micah knew they would be able to kill Aamon if given a correct opportunity.
Kneeling on the bed of pine needles lining the cold ground, I pulled out a folded piece of paper from my jacket pocket. My journal was full, and I’d yet to get a new one, so the lined paper I’d ripped out of an old spiral-bound notebook would have to work.
A loud rustling noise made me jump, adrenaline spiking so strong in my blood it made me nauseous.
I stood up shakily, staring into the darkness between the trees.
Dozens of red eyes blinked open through that black void and my heart dropped all the way to my feet, my blood pumping hard and hot and terrified.
Then, one pair of golden eyes joined them, glowing through the dark. The ones that’d been haunting me.
Oh, fuck.
I couldn’t count how many demons there were surrounding me right now, but it was certainly way more than I’d been hoping for.
Way more than we’d been anticipating. I was realizing too late that I didn’t know enough about the specifics of how a fracture worked, or how Mason was actually going to physically kill all of these demons.
But I didn’t get much time to ruminate on that realization.
Everything changed in the blink of an eye.
Micah tackled me to the ground, rolling us behind a large rock as a bright flash of light lit up the entire forest. A noise that sounded like the Earth cracking apart accompanied the light and I screamed, slamming my hands over my ears.
The second the light went out, Micah was on his feet, walking away from the rock, his jaw clenched. The smell of smoke and scorched pine drifted toward me on the wind, mixing with the sharp smell from before that singed my nostrils. It was stronger now.
I kept myself tucked behind the rock, trembling, tears slipping down my cheeks.
Another blinding flash, another deafening crack.
Light washed over the trees, turning the darkness white for a heartbeat before plunging everything back into shadow, like a camera flash.
The cycle of loud and quiet continued in sickening succession, and I kept waiting to hear anyone’s voice, any indication of the progress, but I never did.
Every few seconds, I convinced myself the next silence meant someone had died.
I wanted to try and see what was going on, but I knew it would be stupid to come out of my hiding place right now. Where was Micah? Was he okay? Was Mason okay? There was no conversation between them or with any of the demons, so I had no clue what was happening. Had they already killed Aamon?
Would he be killed in a flash of light?
I should’ve asked more questions. I genuinely had no clue how this worked.
Not knowing where they were was somehow more terrifying than watching them. My mind filled all the blank spaces with my imagination even more vividly, my own renderings striking fresh fear into my blood.
Everything was so much louder than I’d imagined it would be. It crossed my mind, absurdly, that someone had to hear this—that somewhere beyond the trees, someone had to be wondering what was happening. Wondering what sort of strange thunderstorm was holding these woods captive.
But the thought vanished as quickly as it came.
Mason was his own storm.
The whole fucking storm.
Breathing hard with my hands over my ears, I remained laying in the dirt, my spine pressed to the cold rock behind me.
There was another flare of white electricity, and I slammed my eyes shut, phantom arcs dancing behind my eyelids.
I felt the ground shake to my side and managed to crack an eye open, spotting a pine tree that’d just been cracked in half and was now laying on its side.
I curled myself up smaller, pressing back against the rock tighter and lower, praying my stone barrier was enough to keep me safe, praying it would be over soon.
It had to be over soon.
A million questions and anxieties raced through my consciousness.
I didn’t think Mason had to kill all the demons individually, at least not all the regular ones, but I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t sure about any of this.
I closed my eyes again.
Inhaled.
Exhaled.
Tried to repeat the process.
It will be over soon.
Every instinct screamed at me to run toward them. To make sure they were okay. But I did nothing. I stayed where they’d put me, hands clenched so tightly against the dirt that my nails filled with mud. I’d never hated feeling protected more.