Chapter 42
CHAPTER FORTY TWO
Isprinted after Ferris with her name spilling from my lips in a desperate bellow as Islasees raced after her with his Tiger on her heels. I knew what he was planning. Ferris held three of the most powerful amulets here and he planned on murdering her to claim them.
I took chase with my sword raised, tearing through the winding tunnel that cut through the roughened rock.
The hairs lifted on the back of my neck in warning and I whirled around, narrowly missing the shot of an arrow as it went whistling past my head.
Benson had his bow aimed for my skull while Jadina ran at me with her double-headed axe held high and a look of murderous intent on her face.
Hollows chased after them, but they stumbled over the dead that the two of them had cut down, slowed in their pursuit while my magic urged them on.
The strike of Jadina’s axe met with the swing of my sword and she landed a hard kick to my chest that sent me stumbling into a tunnel away from the path Ferris had taken. I cursed in fury as she cut me off from my lightwing, leaving her to the mercy of their ruthless master.
Benson loosed another arrow and I lurched aside, swinging my sword in a deadly arc and drawing on the call of Death within my soul.
I could feel her here, feeding on my sadistic desires.
She knew what was coming. She had seen what became of my enemies when they came against me.
She knew how quickly their blood would pour once they got close to the savage Necromancer.
A few of my Hollows joined us in the tunnel with shrieks of feral rage, engaging Benson and drawing his focus from placing an arrow in my head. Jadina came at me with savage intent, her eyes alight with the game as if she really thought she could win it, but she was so very wrong.
I could cut them down so prettily, but a more fitting end came to mind for these two who had had a hand in my family’s deaths. They would face one of the most torturous ways to die. Ripped apart by a vicious beast.
A single command in my mind sent the Bear rushing into the fight, slamming into Jadina with tooth and claw, making her scream hellishly.
I released the Wolf next with a dark smile upon my lips and it joined the fray in a swirl of shade, landing on large paws and tearing past the Bear to meet with Benson.
The male had only just cut through the last of the Hollows when my Wolf collided with him, sharp teeth and ragged claws slicing through his flesh and making him scream just as my family had once screamed.
This was what they deserved. I wanted it to be slow. To be agonising.
Before the Bear could finish Jadina where it had her pinned to the cave floor, I caught her by the hair and made her look me in the eye, holding the Bear off with a will of my mind.
“You play with death, you pay the price. Look where your violent little games got you, Jadina. I saw what you liked to do among the Coterie, I saw the cruelty you dished out, and you remember well the day I watched you toy with my family before you helped kill them, don’t you?”
“Please,” she gasped, her face bloody from a nasty gash in her cheek, pain written into every corner of her face. “Have mercy.”
“You had no mercy upon my family, wretch.” I sneered. “I’ll have no mercy in return.”
I stepped back and let the Bear have her, the spirit making messy work of the kill while Benson’s screams joined Jadina’s in the dark.
Death watched on with keen excitement, whispering sweet promises in my ear of leading them to even greater torment beyond the doors of the afterworld.
I watched in dark glee as the Wolf tore one arm from Benson’s body then ripped out his throat to silence the last of his screams.
Then all was quiet, death well dealt, but I would not let these two cretins rest. I let the dark pour from me, a tempest of malice seeping across the tunnel floor and encasing their bodies in the grip of my power.
They began to rise, bloody and twisted as they gained their feet, their bloodshot eyes taking me in with horrified realisation of what they’d become.
“You will hunt down your Lord Protector and kill him,” I ordered.
“No,” Jadina rasped, touching her ragged wounds in terror. “What have you done to me?”
“You are Hollow.” I smiled my most vicious smile. “And you are mine to wield.”
Benson let out a gurgling groan, unable to speak since his voice box had been torn into by my spirit, but the torment in his eyes was clear.
“Hunt him down!” I bellowed and they turned, racing into the tunnel, forced to obey me.
I released the Fox to join its companions and urged it to lead the way with its blazing fire lighting the path.
We doubled back at a fierce pace, chasing after Ferris as panic consumed my thoughts over her safety.
I would find her. I would protect her. No force in Rathian could keep me from that task.
And when I had her, we would head for the Great Elm and figure out how to slot together the final pieces of this puzzle.
Then I would seize the boon this very night.
It was my right, my calling. Nothing could turn me from it so long as I could ensure Ferris was safe.
Though my spirits were silent, I felt their energy crashing around me like they were as determined to find Ferris as I was.
“Seek her out,” I called to them and the new Hollows I’d awoken, locking my focus on her and vowing I would reach my lightwing before Islasees could lay a finger on her. “Protect her at all costs!”