Chapter Thirty-One
Yun
A wave of power, sickeningly familiar, slammed into me. It was the power that had crushed me for months, that had nearly swallowed me whole. The Pitt…
There, in the distance, an unstable portal blinked, shimmering in and out of existence. Portals usually looked round, sometimes a circle, sometimes an oval, but always solid, the edges clear and unmoving. This appeared like a rip with pieces of sky running through the portal as it flickered.
“You need to go,” Carter said, his humor having disappeared, his gaze locked forward. “Get back to the trailer. They’ll have guards stationed around them. Don’t leave, don’t open the door, not until one of us comes to get you.”
I wanted to say no, that I wouldn’t leave them, but his tone reminded me that this was no joke.
My vision wasn’t good enough to tell how many monsters rushed toward us, it appearing more like a wave of enemies, a blanket cast out over the dirt. There was damn near nothing I could do against even one of those things, which meant me staying wouldn’t help.
It would only cause them more problems.
An alarm blared across the base, and that got me moving. We’d reached the far end of the base parameter, which meant it wasn’t exactly a short run back to safety.
I forced myself to turn and run, knowing I’d prove myself most useful by staying safe until they needed me, until the one job that only I could do was needed—guiding.
As I rushed back toward the buildings, others moved past me, in the opposite direction. It felt like a simple fact of life—some people rushed away from danger and others toward it. I knew where I fit into those categories.
A screech, a roar. The noises buried deep inside my mind echoed through the open space in real life. They’d told me to run, but I couldn’t stop myself from turning around.
The monsters had moved so fast that they were already on the espers—both Carter and others who had arrived just in time. They clashed there, at the boundary, with Kenyon standing back, locked in on the fight and ready to jump into action the moment he was needed.
Most of the monsters ran, but a few flew. Not far, but massive black wings, similar to those of a bat, made the things look like horrific dragons, allowing them to glide over short spans. It didn’t seem as if there were as many, now, but perhaps it was simply that they’d spread out.
My feet rooted in place as I watched, reminded of just how amazing espers were. Sure, they terrified me, and I didn’t trust them, but when they moved across a battlefield like that, it stunned even me.
There were shape-shifting espers who transformed before my eyes into creatures that were just as terrifying as the monsters, and elemental espers who spread ice and fire across the space.
Other espers erected shields or sent out energy blasts, while others used weather like rain or winds to gain an upper hand.
Then there were some like Carter, who moved through the fight as though they were the only ones there.
He lacked weapons, but his actions made it clear he didn’t need any.
He didn’t usually carry any that I’d seen unless he expected trouble.
He held his own with ease, using his strength and speed to snap bones and tear the monsters apart.
Another of those horrific screeches echoed around me just as the sun dimmed. I had a second to glance up and see one of the flying monsters swooping toward me, claws out. I didn’t have time to even brace for the impact.
Well, at least I wouldn’t have to worry about dying in The Pitt, and it was good that Carter and the others were too distracted to watch it. I didn’t want them to have that in their heads. They’d blame themselves, sure, but they’d get over it, they’d move on.
A moment before the thing struck, however, the world shifted. Darkness engulfed me and strong arms pulled me against a hard chest.
When I blinked, the world had returned and I was standing a few feet away from the beast, which had struck the ground and thrashed its tail as though it were furious over its stolen meal. And standing there?
Ingram. He didn’t make a joke—a sure sign of just how dangerous the situation was—but instead released me and threw himself at the monster.
His preferred short blades were clutched in his palms. One sank immediately into the side of the creature, Ingram shifting and moving to avoid the searching claws.
He dipped in and out of the shadows, though he didn’t avoid every hit.
“Go!” he shouted, keeping the thing’s attention even as it turned as though still searching.
Maybe it just preferred easier prey?
Even if it did, it didn’t get the chance to try again before Ingram dragged a blade across the thing’s throat, spilling that thick, purple blood all over the dirt. Ingram turned his head toward me, his eyes so different from the ones I’d seen so many times over the past months.
Right, I’d never dealt with them mid-fight, only after it had ended, only once they’d walked away.
“You need to get going,” he said, waving his hands to get me moving. “I’d take you myself but I can’t. Besides, they’re more likely to follow me if I transport you there.”
I nodded, seeming to gain at least a few working brain cells, enough to spur me to action.
I only got another two feet before something sailed past me, so close that it knocked me to the side. The blur was Ingram, countering another monster before it reached me.
What the hell?
Others rushed around where I stood, but the monsters didn’t attack them.
I turned, trying to get to my feet, a sneaking, terrible guess echoing in my head. The monsters were far closer now, and this time it became clear.
They fought the espers only because the espers stood between them and their goal. They only responded as much as they had to, but their main purpose appeared to be getting past them and to…
Me.
It made no sense, as monsters didn’t give a damn who they attacked. If anything, they were often drawn to espers, like they could sense a connection and didn’t much care for it, though they truly acted like an esper on a rampage, willing to kill anything they saw.
This was different—they clearly wanted to get to me.
The memory of the corrupted hit me, as though I could feel his breath on my neck, like I could sense him nearby.
He couldn’t be, right?
The openings hadn’t been large enough for a person to leave, and one of the espers would have noticed. I reassured myself as I stepped backward, as Ingram fought—and won—against the monster.
The moment he took out that one, though, another appeared, all of them closing in.
The fight existed just around me, now, with bodies—both esper and monster—striking the walls of the buildings, the ground. Red and purple painted the dirt, but there were just too many.
No matter where I tried to go, I couldn’t get out.
Each attempt was blocked off first by a monster, then an esper who swooped in. Often it was Carter or Ingram, but occasionally it was one I didn’t recognize.
“Stay down,” Shear whispered into my head. “They’ll take care of this, just stay back.”
I turned toward where I sensed him, finding him up on a building, face red and unusually flushed. It seemed he exerted a lot of energy, but I saw no evidence of it.
“They resist my control. I don’t understand why.”
I had a sinking suspicion that I knew, but by even fully thinking it, let alone uttering it, I’d make it too real.
A roar so loud that I covered my ears echoed through the space, and it knocked all the espers down and back. It struck them like a physical blow, one that not only dropped them but skidded them in all directions.
I forced myself to remain on my feet, staring around at the monsters that encircled me, many injured, purple leaking over their bodies, their eyes bright and locked on me.
Long fangs protruded from their mouths, the same beasts who had plagued me in The Pitt, the ones who had nipped at my heels, who had poured their soured breaths over me every chance they got.
So much for thinking I might be wrong, that it was just a coincidence. I should have known better, that there were no true coincidences, that I had always been destined for an end like this.
I might have escaped it for a short while, but there was no more running.
So I stayed on my feet and held my arms out. “Go on,” I said, my voice trembling at first, barely a whisper, before I said it again and again, louder each time. “Do it!” I screamed, done, ready for whatever these beasts wanted to do. I refused to die in a huddled, frightened mess.
Except none of them moved. They just stood there, staring, some eerie presence there behind those eyes.
That’s when I felt it, the corruption of him.
This wasn’t a hit, not even an attack. It was a warning, a message, one he wanted delivered to me.
He was alive, and he wasn’t done with me yet.
So I stared right back at him and delivered my own response. “Fuck you.”
The portal flashed brightly, then disappeared. The monsters fell the moment the portal closed, as though the strings that had animated them had broken as well.
It left me there, in the center, alone, but knowing I wouldn’t be for long.
My biggest nightmare was far from over.