Chapter 34 #2
Instead of slowing, Rynna picked up the pace, her stride stretching into a light jog.
They’d cover more ground this way and still be ready for a fight when they got there.
But he wasn’t wrong, either. She forced the swirling storm of emotions down, quieting them enough to focus on their surroundings.
He’d just love it if I walked us blindly into an enemy trap and had to save him.
They continued in silence, the dense underbrush snagging at her boots as rocks slid beneath her feet up and down the slopes.
And all too soon, the sun began its slow descent, casting the rugged landscape in deep oranges and purples.
Kaelith kept pace beside her, not saying a word.
He knew better than to push when she was in a mood, and somehow, that only irritated her more.
Finally, as the last rays of the day dipped below the horizon, Kaelith spoke. “We should camp soon unless you think the army is close.”
She slowed to a stop and pulled out her canteen, taking a quick swig before handing it over to him. “You’re right. I hoped we could make it today, but I think it’s still another couple of hours.”
“Don’t trust yourself with me for the night?” He took the canteen.
She rolled her eyes and snatched it back. “Just go find us a spot that’s less rocky.”
“As you like.” Kaelith grinned, giving her an exaggerated bow before disappearing into the trees.
Rynna sighed and sat on a nearby log, the rough bark digging into her legs as she settled down, the cold mountain air biting at her skin. The distant rustle of pine needles surrounded her, their scent sharp and earthy.
Do I trust myself with him, alone, all night? She shook her head. I love Fenn. It was simple. The past was the past, and it didn’t matter anymore.
But it’s no longer in the past, is it? The thought crept in, unwelcome and insistent.
Whatever, her fingers drummed against her knee. But before she could delve deeper into the spiral of doubt, a hiss cut through the stillness, faint but unmistakable.
It echoed through the woods, low and serpentine, coming from the direction Kaelith had gone.
Rynna’s body tensed, and in an instant, she was running, her hands reaching for the twin short swords sheathed at her back.
That wasn’t just a hiss of annoyance or even anger.
No, that was a shit’s gone to hell hiss.
Kaelith was fighting for his life…without the Source.
She ran harder, her heart pounding against her ribs. Don’t die, don’t die, you stupid fucking snake. The thought raced through her mind, a frantic mantra as her feet pounded the uneven forest floor.
Bursting through a thick wall of bushes, she entered a small clearing near a glade.
It would have been a peaceful, almost romantic spot for a campsite if it weren’t for the bodies littering the ground.
At least forty walking corpses, twisted and decayed, were scattered across the open space in various states of decomposition.
At the center stood Kaelith, hunched protectively over the limp form of a young woman dressed in shredded Hollow-born garb.
A bloodied bandana from the Alliance Army was tied around her arm, her face pale and slack.
Kaelith was barely standing, his body covered in deep slashes, blood dripping from gaping wounds that crisscrossed his torso.
A few arrows jutted from his back, the fletching shaking with each labored breath, though he didn’t seem to notice.
The idiot didn’t even have any weapons! What the hell is he thinking?
“Kaelith!” Rynna yelled, her grip tightening on her swords as she prepared to cut her way through the undead mob.
Around him, the animated remains of former Hollow-born circled.
Their uniforms were torn and caked in mud, and the medallions that once marked their allegiance hung loosely around decaying necks.
Despite the advanced deterioration of their bodies, flesh rotting from bones, limbs twisted unnaturally, the dead moved with eerie precision.
Each step they took was poised, their movements swift and calculated, as if death hadn’t robbed them of the skill and speed they possessed in life.
“Stay back! There are too many!” He clutched his side, wheezing through clenched teeth as blood smeared his fingers.
But he didn’t retreat.
Before Rynna could move to help, a flash of white burst from within his sleeves, and a sleek, pale serpent coiled itself around the nearest revenant. The snake constricted tightly, its body winding around and squeezing the corpse’s throat.
But the revenant didn’t falter. Its hand jerked up, and it plunged a knife into its own throat, cutting through sinew and bone to shred the snake away in a spray of black flesh and stagnant goop.
The serpent writhed, and before it could slither free, the dead man stamped down hard on its head, crushing it beneath its withered heel.
Kaelith staggered, his body convulsing as if the blow had struck him directly. He coughed, and blood sprayed from his lips, the color draining from his face. She didn’t know how he’d managed the attack without access to the Source, but it didn’t matter. It had cost him dearly.
As Kaelith bent over in pain, the dead swarmed, and Rynna’s heart lurched.
No! Red blurred her vision. No!
As much as she wanted to deny it, she wasn’t ready for him to die. It had been agonizing enough when she had thought Taren had killed him. But now, with him standing before her again as his old self, everything was different. She couldn’t lose him again, not this time.
A feral darkness burst through her body, flooding her senses, and fangs dropped in her mouth.
They weren’t serpentine like the ones he had, but something far more dangerous.
Something worse. A pulse of hunger stirred deep within her, creeping through every part of her being.
It was a twisted, insidious power she normally kept locked away, lest she become one of the threats she was sent to destroy.
She could feel it now, bubbling up from the depths of her anger and fear, sliding through her veins like poison. She knew there was a brighter power buried even deeper, though she was forbidden from touching it, lest she release something even worse. But she couldn’t think about that now.
Her lips curled back over piercing teeth, and she snarled with the demonic force within her demanding release. Plunging into the swarm of the dead, her body blurred into motion, cutting, slashing, too fast to track, too strong for the dead Hollow-born to counter.
Rynna drove one blade upward, cleaving through a revenant’s throat and sending it crumpling to the ground in a heap.
In the same motion, she spun on her heel, ducking beneath the outstretched arm of another corpse, her other sword carving through its neck in a swift, deadly arc.
The head rolled from its shoulders, bouncing once before it landed with a dull thud in the dirt.
Limbs flew as she carved her way through the mob, leaving nothing but a trail of twitching parts in her wake.
Another lunged at her from the side, but she sidestepped, her blade flashing out to sever its arm at the elbow, sending it spinning to the ground.
In a heartbeat, she was already on to the next, her swords cutting a clean path straight to Kaelith.
By the time she reached him, he was on his knees, blood dripping from fresh wounds as he ripped one of the undead off him, the corpse’s fingers still latched onto his throat. With a snarl, he hurled it across the glade, the body crashing into a tree before falling limp.
“Get up!” Rynna yelled, her voice barely human as the darkness surged through her veins. “We need to get out of here.”
Kaelith gasped. “The girl…”
Rynna’s eyes flicked to the unconscious form on the ground. “Since when do you care about a random Hollow-born?” Even that small trickle of power dulled the warmth of her humanity.
“She… she…” Kaelith panted, struggling to get the words out. “She has your scent on her. You don’t know her?”
Rynna hissed, her gaze locking onto the unconscious person lying limply in the dirt.
At first, the blood-smeared face and tangled hair obscured the features, but something tugged at her memory.
Her eyes scanned the curve of the cheek, the familiar shape of the nose, and the delicate slope of the jawline.
Recognition hit her like a punch to the gut.
“Calli!” The bloodlust stilled within her, momentarily doused by the shock of seeing her friend in such a state.
She looked at Kaelith. He risked his life, his second chance, to save someone I might have known.
Before she could fully process it, another of the dead dove at them, knives flashing, teeth gnashing.
She spun, parrying with her blade and kicking it away, but they kept coming, relentless.
Even the dismembered parts she’d left behind began to wriggle, grotesque fingers and limbs crawling back toward whole bodies, ready to attack again.
“Rynna?” a weak voice rose from the ground. Calli’s eyes fluttered open, her voice fragile. “You have to get out of here…the dead…there’s too many.”
Rynna’s mind whirled. She knew what she was supposed to do in a situation like this. Fate had decreed that Calli was meant to die here. Maybe Kaelith, too. But the thought made her stomach churn.
Fuck that. If there was any leeway, any chance to rewrite what was coming, she was taking it now. She couldn’t watch her friend die. She couldn’t watch him die.
Her grip tightened on her blades. Not today.
Smothering the fear, Rynna forced herself to focus, slowing her heart’s frantic pace.
She stilled her mind, reaching deep within, past the darkness, past the doubt, searching for that elusive, forbidden light buried in the core of her being.
The fire she was NEVER supposed to touch.
Just a sliver. She didn’t think the Weaving would pull her away again, not with the final war already unfolding.
Her nerves hummed with the tiny spec of raw power coiling beneath her skin.
“Burn.” Her voice was barely audible as she commanded the untamable. She could feel it then, that brighter, hotter throbbing behind her eyes, growing stronger, surging through her like molten lava.
But it wasn’t just a pool of elemental force within her as she’d always suspected. It was hotter than fire, more dangerous than any flame or fire element she’d ever summoned.
What have I done? The panicked thought flashed in her mind before the inferno exploded outward, roaring to life, devouring everything in its path.
It raced across the undead horde, searing through their unnatural flesh with a hunger that mirrored her own barely contained fury, as if the flames themselves had become alive.
The decayed bodies ignited like dry paper, their brittle forms crumbling into ash without so much as a scream.
Then the blaze spread further, licking up the trees and underbrush around them, the forest itself becoming fuel.
In every direction, for nearly a hundred yards, the flames consumed everything.
Rynna gritted her teeth, using the last reserves of her strength to wrestle control back.
She inhaled, summoning the flames, calling them back to her. The heat flared, resisting her control, then abruptly gave way, vanishing with a soft hiss. And all that remained was a barren field of ash, stretching out in a blackened, smoldering circle for as far as she could see.
What the fuck was that? What was that fire?
She staggered, legs trembling beneath her, but she held herself up long enough to check on the others. Calli lay motionless but alive, her chest rising and falling steadily, while Kaelith, bloodied but alive, caught her gaze with a weak smile.
Doesn’t matter what it was. Relief washed over her like a wave, making her limbs go weak.
“Rynna!” His voice was distant as darkness closed in, and she collapsed into his arms.
They were still strong despite the damage he’d taken, and as his hold tightened around her, she felt something she’d never expected to feel from him ever again.
He felt safe. He felt like home.