Chapter 48
Chapter forty-eight
Fenn was already moving, dodging the monster’s head as claws flashed in a brutal cross-swipe, ripping into the thick column of its neck. A wet spray burst from the gashes, black and steaming, but the serpent only reared higher, hissing, its weight shaking the stone beneath them.
Rynna dropped into the space left in its wake, her blades crossing once before she dove under the shadow of its body.
The stench of rot thickened in her throat as she drove both swords upward into the softer seam between scales—deep enough that the vibration of its heartbeat rattled through the hilts into her hands.
Hot, black gore burst over her knuckles, coating her arms to the elbow. And the monster’s body buckled overhead, pressing downward in a crushing wave of muscle.
“Fuck!” She grunted, yanking both blades in a sharp cross-motion as she blinked out of the kill zone, reappearing several paces away, gore still dripping from her steel.
On the other side, Kaelith moved in a wide arc, his body low, before leaping to clear the rise of the snake’s body and dropping onto the thick ridge of muscle between its coils.
Then, his claws buried into the monster’s scales, clean up to the wrists, before raking down in brutal, unbroken lines.
Tearing into the beast's back, he carved deep gouges across blotchy, riding the thrashing beast until the serpent twisted sideways, and his claws seemed to catch.
Rynna caught the sharp jerk of his arm—once, then again, harder. His body turned with the motion, but he didn’t rise with it.
“Kae!” she yelled, slipping between the serpent’s lashing coils as she fought for a clear view of where Kaelith clung.
He yanked back a third time, muscles straining, but the scaled flesh refused to give.
Then, the monster bucked, and Kaelith’s body snapped from side to side, yanked like a rag caught in a storm. His back hit stone with a crack, grit spraying in bursts beneath the impact, and before the dust had settled, he was wrenched skyward again.
Kae! Let go! she yelled into his mind.
But he couldn’t answer. The monster coiled tighter, then unspooled in a savage burst, its head whipping around.
Jaws gaped wide with fangs as long as her own height, then crushed shut on Kaelith’s leg.
The sickening crunch of fangs sinking into flesh split the air, followed a heartbeat later by Kaelith’s scream ripping out of him like something alive.
Then, blood fountained in bright red arcs as the serpent yanked its head back, ripping a chunk of the man’s leg clean away.
“Kaelith!” Rynna yelled, trying to find a landing spot to get up to him.
He ignored her, planting his other foot on the monster’s back, and wrenched his hand free. But the body beneath him lurched before he could leap on his own, hurling him through the air instead. He hit hard, rolled, and scrambled backward, dragging his ruined leg.
“Talk to me, dumbass! Are you ok?” Rynna sprinted for him, but the man propped himself up, fangs bared, fury darkening his gaze.
“Just kill it already!” His leg was a ruin of shredded muscle and bone, stark white under the glisten of torn sinew.
“Shit!” She halted.
He was right. They needed to end it.
She flicked one more look back at Kaelith, eyes catching on the blood pooling beneath him, then blinked off the ground and into the air above the serpent’s writhing bulk.
Could have done that before, she thought ironically, before the reek hit her.
It was a fetid pressure as if the whole body was one massive, rancid heartbeat. Barely able to contain her vomit, she lifted both short swords high over her head as she dropped, throwing her whole weight behind the downward thrust.
“Die, asshole!” she grunted as the blades punched into the back of its skull, steel on bone vibration shuddering up her arms.
“Now!” She twisted, holding on against the sudden convulsions.
Fenn was already moving. He knew what to do. Slipping under the arc of a flailing coil, he dove straight for the soft line of the serpent’s throat, claws tearing through thick sinew.
The serpent bucked, its body smashing against the ground in an attempt to dislodge them. But she flattened her stance, sawing the swords back and forth, grinding through brittle bones.
Across from her, Fenn’s face flashed through the chaos, fangs bared, streaked red as silver eyes locked on the serpent’s throat.
The sight hit low and harsh; she held her breath as his claws dug in deeper.
Then, in an instant, he yanked sideways, and the monster came apart—skin, flesh, and spine ripping in a hot spray, streaking her face and shoulders.
She leapt from the sagging wreckage, watching the severed head tumble end over end before striking a nearby rock face with a splintering thud.
The body convulsed in answer, and from the ragged stump of the serpent’s neck, a black sheen poured out, writhing as if alive before thinning into nothing against the stale air.
What remained was no monster—only the mangled, deformed shape of Skarn’s human frame, pale-scaled and misshapen. Then, even that began to slough away, crumbling into a spreading pool of black, viscous liquid seeping into the ground.
But Rynna was already moving toward Kaelith.
“Hold on.” Rynna knelt beside him, examining the ruined leg.
“Piece by piece.” He smirked, the corners of his mouth slick with his own blood. “That…that was a rather large piece.” His laugh broke into a manic bark, spraying crimson across her cheeks before his gaze jerked past her to Fenn. “Well done…wolf.”
“Why are you laughing, you idiot? Your leg’s nearly off.” She placed a hand over his heart, feeling for the beat there. “You might bleed out right here if Elara can’t help you.”
“This?” Kaelith glanced down at his leg. “Not a worry. I’ve always been a quick healer. You know that.”
Already, his leg had begun to knit back together, strands of muscle creeping back into place with unnerving speed.
The flesh rippled as it reformed, like a serpent shedding old skin.
Fenn rolled his shoulders, the motion rippling down his arms as he flung them wide, flicking blood in thick droplets like a wolf shaking off rain.
She looked between them, sighing. “Fighting with you two is going to be the death of me.”
“Oh?” Kaelith raised a brow.
But she never got to finish the thought. The corpses that had collapsed with Skarn’s earlier rage began to twitch—first a shiver through their limbs, then a faint, spasming jerk. Fingers scraped at the ground. Heads rolled upright.
“Fuck.” She crouched, hooking her arm under Kaelith’s, and hauled him up until his weight slung across her shoulder and back.
His groan was a gasping curse against her ear.
“I guess killing Skarn wasn’t the Hail Mary we thought it’d be,” she muttered, glancing sideways at the writhing dead.
“Hail who?” Fenn closed the distance in two long strides.
“Never mind.” Her free hand reached for him, squeezing his arm. “Hopefully, the others have found a way to drop the barrier.”
Sound swelled then, soft at first, before rolling through the field as the dead all turned their heads at once. But not toward them. Or toward the barrier. They now faced toward the horizon where the last lines of civilization lay.
Fenn’s voice went tight. “Can you flash us to the others?” His hand closed over hers.
“Flash?” She smirked despite herself, then shook her head. “I don’t know where they are now, and it’s too crowded. We could drop right in the literal middle of them.”
“Which would be bad,” Fenn said flatly.
“Understatement.” She nodded.
The first rows of corpses began to lurch forward. Without Skarn’s control, their movement had lost its eerie precision—they stumbled now, clumsy in the way rot demanded—but teeth still gnashed, and blades still reached.
“I’ll clear a path.” Fenn’s grip on her hand tightened once before he let go. “Follow on my right.”
“Yes, boss.” The words left her mouth on instinct. Fenn in commander mode was nearly as hot as teacher mode.
“Yesss. As you wish, Commander,” Kaelith drawled from over her shoulder.
Fenn’s gaze cut to the other man, nose wrinkling. “You and I are going to have words when this is done. Kaelith.” His eyes flicked back to Rynna. “Let’s go.”
Then he was gone, the wind at his heels and stone splitting under his stride.
“Really?” Rynna smacked Kaelith on the back of the head as she took off after Fenn, the dead already spilling into their wake.