20. Jerrid #2
No, the shadow whispered, you would never measure up to her. But I can change that…
He ground his teeth together, wincing as a blow bounced off their right shoulder.
The strike sent him pinwheeling to the side and into a thick tangle of branches.
He came out the other side covered in bruises and scratches.
Ahead of him, Ava had already renewed her attack as she drove Talos down a ravine and into a muddy gully.
He hurled vile curses at her, using words even Jerrid had never heard from the most hardened of riders in the barracks.
If the curses stung Ava’s tender ears, she didn’t show it.
Maybe she didn’t care, not with Dragon controlling her every move. Her every thought.
She had sold her soul to the devil, and maybe she would never care about anything ever again. And there was nothing Jerrid could do to change that. He was beginning to believe that as he fought helplessly for any measure of control, but he couldn’t even form words on his own tongue anymore.
Now the silence he had so coveted became his prison.
I can set you free.
But at what cost? No, Jerrid wouldn’t listen—he couldn’t listen to these false promises. Not if this creature was as vile as Ava had led him to believe.
Ava’s cry echoed through the trees, and Jerrid forced his eyes open, trying to ignore the reeling nausea in his belly from being yanked around. Talos rose from behind a snarl of thorny bushes, his left hand swiping blood from the corner of his mouth. And Ava…
Where was Ava?
Jerrid wobbled on his unsteady feet. He forced his body to move toward Talos, who now leaned against a tree as if struggling to stay upright.
“Where is she?” he demanded as he kicked his way around the thorn bushes.
Talos spun to face him, eyes black with rage. “You!”
He took a step toward Jerrid but then disappeared with a muttered curse as he staggered to the ground. Jerrid dove after him and nearly stepped on top of Ava. She had both arms wrapped around Talos’s legs, pinning him to the ground.
Talos, on his back, lifted a hand and snapped a fireball into existence, but Jerrid kicked his hand aside to send the flame spinning uselessly into the trees. Ava looked up as Jerrid shoved his foot down on Talos’s wrist, pinning it.
The dark elf swung a fist of fire and slammed it into Jerrid’s thigh. Pain and heat exploded in his leg, spinning him off balance.
He tumbled into the thorn bush, sharp bits of the vine digging into his exposed arms and face. Behind him, Ava cried out.
Furiously, Jerrid battled the bush to disentangle himself, but the thorns gripped him like tiny fingers, shredding his skin and clothes as he yanked himself out of the bush. Stumbling around, he saw a tangle of arms and legs as the two dark elves rolled through the undergrowth.
A blast of blue fire lit up the forest.
Ava flew backward, smashing into Jerrid and sending him careening back into the bush as he wrapped his arms around her. He landed on his back, vines digging into his spine. Ava’s weight pressed down on him, one elbow against his chest and the other bent awkwardly against his neck.
She muttered under her breath, chest heaving as she tried to wiggle off of him, the bush ensnaring her as determinedly as it had him moments earlier. Together they struggled out of the bush, shoving the thorny vines aside.
Jerrid kept a firm grip on her elbow.
“Let go,” Ava hissed, trying to jerk her arm loose.
Jerrid tugged her closer, her dragon scales digging into his palm as he kept a firm hold of her armored elbow. “Ava, you need to stop. Don’t let Dragon take control of you.”
She shoved him hard in the chest and drove him backward several steps, Dragon enhancing her strength to remarkable degrees. “Where did he go? Where’s Talos?”
Jerrid scanned the forest, the shadows hiding their secrets. A flash of movement to the west.
“There!” He pointed.
Ava’s breath hissed through her teeth. “He’s headed back toward camp!”
As one, they bolted away from the thorn bush and back toward the ruins.
Ava outpaced him within seconds, her lithe form moving like lightning between the trunks, leaping over fallen limbs, ducking under low branches.
Jerrid’s breath tore at his lungs as he fought to keep up, but without Dragon… he didn’t stand a chance.
Ahead of him, screams ripped from the camp. Jerrid forced himself to keep moving, but his legs still felt like jelly.
In fact, every muscle in his body felt weary, pulled taut like bowstrings. His left shoulder jerked hard, straining against the socket as his hand swung at a non-existent opponent. He ground his teeth together and tried to continue toward the camp, but his body wanted to move in a circle instead.
Ava had already found Talos, apparently.
Brynja shouted something he couldn’t understand as he kicked and cursed his way around a large oak tree, his boots trampling dark ferns.
Ahead of him, Ava and Talos were locked in an intense fistfight, each elf throwing and dodging punches. Ava’s dragon-scaled arms were a blur of movement, but Talos managed to keep pace with her, his glowing fists shooting off sparks as they connected with her forearms.
He kicked toward her legs, but Ava drove her fist down and deflected his knee.
He recoiled with a bellow and flung another burst of flame toward her, but it skittered harmlessly off her scales when she lifted her arm to protect her face.
Her wings flared out behind her, momentarily blocking the fight from view as Jerrid slogged through the invisible bonds trying to force him to move in a circle around Talos.
He didn’t want to circle—he wanted to drive straight toward them so that he could join the fight.
You’re just a bystander. The shadow laughed, its voice like thunder against his eardrums.
Jerrid squinted against the pain, wishing he could put the shadow into a box, but if he’d failed to do it to Dragon, there was no way he could manage a monster as powerful as the shadow.
You can’t even manage to control yourself. You’ll never get rid of me.
Jerrid shook his head. No. This wasn’t going to be his lot in life.
You might as well accept it. Embrace it. Let me have control so that I can make your life better. Make you stronger. Make you invincible. You’ll be stronger than them.
He didn’t want to spend his life like this, always afraid of what he was going to do next, or who he was going to hurt.
Jerrid made it a few yards closer to the camp before Talos kicked them on the hipbone and sent them both spinning sideways. He righted himself and drove forward, hard, before Ava ripped control away again.
This time he made it within grasping distance of Talos. Since Jerrid came from behind, the dark elf never saw him coming.
But just as Jerrid stretched his fingers to catch the dark elf by the back of his tunic, Ava delivered a sharp kick that sent Talos careening out of reach.
Nostrils flaring, Jerrid righted himself after his corresponding kick went uselessly wide and wrenched control of his legs free.
He stumbled after Talos, determined this time to maintain control.
He needed to keep his walls high, keep her out, limit the connection to Dragon…
The connection was taut, painfully taut, but when Jerrid drew closer to them, the discomfort eased. So, if he could stay close to Ava, maybe he’d find a way to keep better control of his body. If Dragon would let them.
He imagined Dragon was enjoying this.
Talos spun abruptly and hurled a fireball straight at Ava’s chest.
Several paces behind, Jerrid had more warning and dug his feet into the ground, driving his torso forward to prepare for the blow. Ava shrieked and flew backward into his waiting arms. Jerrid felt the impact of the magic, but he stayed on his feet as she slammed into him.
He wrapped his arms around her and frantically hissed, “Let me help!”
She tore out of his arms and righted herself.
“We need to work together,” Jerrid whispered as she advanced on Talos again.
Her steps faltered and then paused. Then her hand snaked out, and her dragon fingers snapped and pointed. She wanted him to go in that direction.
He hurried to obey, circling around Talos as Ava patted out the lingering flames that had scorched her tunic.
Talos faced them, panting heavily, teeth bared. He knew he was losing this fight, but he was too stubborn to surrender. He’d go down fighting; that was certain.
“It’s over, Talos,” Ava flung at him as she and Jerrid came at him from two different directions.
He backed away, trying to keep both of them in his line of sight. “Keep telling yourself that, healer.”
“Oh, I will.”
Jerrid took a step closer, but Talos snarled, ignited a flame in his palm, and shot a jet of fire in his direction. Jerrid ducked and rolled to avoid the stream of blue heat.
Ava launched herself forward, claws extended, wings driving momentum into her running legs. Talos spun to face her and flung another fireball straight at her, a curse twisting his lips.
This blow struck her hard in the face, and Ava went down with a shriek.
Jerrid recoiled as if he had been the one blindsided by the blistering magic.
This wasn’t working…