CHAPTER SIX
Armed with a scythe, bow, and quiver of arrows, I rushed across the bridge that led to the city’s left curtain wall, dozens of candidates both in front and behind me. A bubbling sense of urgency pumped through my blood with every beat of the heart working overtime in my chest.
The torches on the rise had been lit, indicating the direction from which the invaders had come. But I would have known which way to head whatever the case—the officiates had already reached the battlements, and I could hear the distant cries and growls of the invaders who were fast approaching.
Archers were keeping the aggressors at bay, along with those operating the catapults projecting large rocks that were either on fire or covered in boiling oil.
Phoenixians were tossing balls of cold air, and Delphiae were letting out elemental energy blasts that shimmered in the air.
Among them, Talon held his arms out straight as power rushed from his splayed fingers in vivid gold streams.
The moment we were all across the bridge, Keyes ordered us all into position on the battlements.
Stood only a few feet away from Talon, I could hear every snap of his power cracking through the air.
Soule was also nearby, busy filling bubbling cauldrons with various things—liquids, animal fat, oil, and hot sand.
I balanced the scythe against the battlement wall in front of me, hoping there wouldn’t come a point when I’d need to use up-close-and-personal weapons.
Reaching back to grab an arrow from the quiver, I looked down.
Dog-like creatures were swimming toward the island while others sprinted across the expansive terrain that lay between the river and the city walls.
They had pointed ears and strangely spiked marbled black/gray fur.
“What are they?” I asked no one in particular.
“Mutated Molossian hounds,” replied Soule. “And they’re rabid.”
They also weren’t alone.
Hundreds of clawed, shrieking, dark-haired women with pale skin were among them. “Lamiae,” I noted. Both creatures came from different areas of the Dark Lands. “Is it normal for them to join forces?”
His expression grim, Soule shook his head. “No.”
I positioned my bow just right. “How is it I’m seeing through the fog right now?”
“Anyone within the city walls can. It’s only if you’re out in the Pines that it obstructs your vision.”
Huh. All right.
Noticing that Bevan was beside me, I spared him only the briefest glance before I shot an arrow straight at a lamiae.
Satisfaction gripped my belly as it speared her head and took her down.
Thanks to my years hunting food, pure muscle memory had me retrieving another arrow and—no hesitation or fumbling—firing it through the heart of another lamiae.
I drowned out the nervousness beating in my system, letting my mind center on the weapon in my hand, as I targeted one enemy after another.
I noticed that Deimos’ creatures were joining the battle.
Horned panthers with scales on their back wrestled the swimming-invaders.
Massive golden eagles flew down, their talons extended.
Lions with vipers for tails tore across the land, roaring fire.
As if it wasn’t weird enough that those felines could breathe fire, it made it weirder that their snake-tails were hissing and snapping.
The lamiae fearlessly attacked the beasts on the ground—shrieking, lunging, clawing, biting. The hounds also fought back against Deimos’ creatures, tearing into them with their teeth; whipping their prehensive tails back and forth.
I fired another arrow. And another. And another. I hit my mark each time, just as most of the other archers appearing to be doing.
The catapults were doing an equal amount of damage, as were the balls of ice-cold air and the blasts of elemental energy. Every golden whip of power coming from Talon obliterated a foe, making them burst into ashes.
As one, our side was literally raining down death and destruction. The evening was alive with screams, roars, flames, and the flashes and crackles of power.
But the intruders kept coming.
Several rabid hounds were fast approaching the thick stone wall. I shot more arrows, took more down, watched others fall at the metaphorical hands of other candidates or officiates. Still, some hounds managed to reach the wall. They jumped and clawed at the stone, thankfully unable to traverse it.
That was when officiates began tipping over the bubbling cauldrons, pouring all sorts of things over the beasts. Liquids and fats hissed as they landed with a splat while the rain of hot sand pattered like hailstones. Each time, there were roars and yelps of pain that made my chest squeeze.
More came, as did several of the lamiae. I sent another arrow whizzing through the air, eliminating one of the screeching women. Another of them leapt—
And buried her claws into stone, using them to keep purchase.
As she began to awkwardly scrabble upwards like a spider, my belly rolled. I cursed as yet more of her kind mimicked her move.
Shit, they could climb.
And I was out of arrows.
Cursing, I placed the bow and empty quiver behind me. Reaching forward, I grabbed the long wooden-handle tight of my scythe and held it just right.
Which was when Talon, a large two-handed sword in his grip, fucking jumped.
Jumped over the wall, dragging a climbing lamiae down with him as he did so; landing as easily as if he’d scaled a mere fence.
He wasn’t the only one. Ajax and several officiates did the same, using the lamiae they’d yanked down from the wall to break their fall and lessen its impact. Wings of silk shot out of the backs of the Phoenixians on the battlement, who all took to the air.
I watched as Talon brutally hacked into a lamiae, all but cleaving her in half with a single blow of his sword.
Many of the Delphiae changed—their bodies developing armor made of moss-covered wood—and started swinging similar swords at the invaders.
Meanwhile, the Nemeans and Lykaons attacked in their animal forms, barreling into their foes with brute force like battering rams.
Still, more of the lamiae kept coming.
Phoenixians, including Khalida, snatched them away from the wall and tossed them pitilessly through the air; all landed hard, bones breaking, spines snapping, skulls cracking.
The shape-shifting officiates fought as savagely as Deimos’ beasts. Both lions and wolves took down enemies, broke up formations, and trampled on those who fell.
The combined force of the officiates and Deimos’ resident beasts was too much for the army.
Especially now that the horned panthers had left the sea to battle the enemies on land, lashing their exceptionally long tails; their roars remanent of the sounds of rushing rapids.
But none of that stopped invaders from attempting to breach the walls.
Soon, more lamiae were climbing toward the rise, bloodthirst whirling in their red eyes. Taking a shaky breath, I dropped the bow to the floor and angled the curved brutal-looking blade I held just right.
Hearing a frustrated curse, I spared a sideways glance at Bevan. He was holding a sword, having dropped his bow and quiver. I realized then that the other candidates also now held some form of blade.
A gold spark of light immediately drew my attention back to Talon, who was decapacitating one enemy after enemy with both sword and strikes of pure power.
A lamiae charged him from behind, but Ajax was there—expertly wielding a mace with metal studs and spikes protruded from its head.
He lashed out with the club, viciously caving-in her skull.
Damn, the force of his swings were tremendous and—
A female head popped up in front of me, a snarl on her face, red-eyes glittering with thirst.
Fuck that.
I struck with the scythe, cutting right through the skull.
Her eyes going vacant, she fell back without a sound.
Others soon appeared, trying to breach the rise. I wasted no time in attacking, determined to hold them back. I swung the scythe over and over, cutting through flesh and bone as easily as if they were crops.
Eagles and Phoenixians repeatedly appeared to drag the screeching females away, ensuring those of us on the battlements weren’t outnumbered.
It meant that we could tackle the enemies in teams of two or three.
So Bevan and I occasionally teamed up, both of us using our weapons to slash, stab, crush bones, and leave brutal injuries.
One lamiae leapt onto the battlement and grabbed at me. She sank her teeth into the side of my face and, fuck, it felt like dozens of knives had embedded themselves in my skin.
I buried the scythe into the biting bitch’s skull again and again. As she slid to her knees, I planted a boot into her chest and shoved her off the wall.
“Fuck,” cursed Bevan.
I looked to see that a lamiae had somehow managed to overpower him. He was flat on his back with her hovering over him, his sword inches from his bloodied and bitten hand.
Wicked fast, I swiped out with the scythe, beheading her.
Bevan scrambled backwards as the corpse collapsed to the stone floor of the battlement. Breathing hard, he looked up at me. His throat bobbing, he gave a curt nod of thanks and pushed to his feet.
Right then, I noticed that there were only two other lamiae on the battlements—both were being hacked into by officiates.
Others from the Order were tossing ropes over the wall.
Struggling to regulate my breathing, I flexed my hand around the handle of the scythe as I gazed down at the scene below.
The battle was indeed over, thank the gods.
Bodies, burned and bloody and broken, littered the terrain.
The majority were invaders, but some were sadly officiates—none of whom I knew personally, which made my chest flutter with relief.
The latter were being healed by Delphiae officiates such as Layna and Jelani, so they might be injured as opposed to dead.