BRAYDEN
TWENTY-FIVE
Everything happened in a blur. Narrowly getting crushed by a falling tree, Lailah screaming, then demons flooding the path.
I had never seen so many minor demons of various kinds swarming before.
They poured out of the trees, some flying while others crawled.
Hissing and screeching echoed around us.
Hope clung to me, sobbing as a demon dive-bombed us, but I was able to roll us out of the way.
The chaos made it hard to see where everyone was. Balls of fire were being tossed in all directions, giving me a clue as to where Micah was. I picked Hope up and held her to my front, wrapping her legs around my waist and her arms around my neck.
“I need you to hold on to me as tight as you can. I need my arms free to keep us safe, can you do that for me?” I asked, trying to keep my voice calm. Not speaking, she whimpered into my neck, clinging as hard as she could.
“Brayden, over here,” Lailah called, kicking a demon away from Charlotte, who was trying to beat a demon off with a stick.
Feeling my daggers form in my hands, I charged over to them, slashing and stabbing as I went, not stopping to see if I had killed them or not. Seeing a boulder off to the side, I used my power to pick it up and send it crashing into a group of demons trying to overwhelm the girls.
A demon latched onto my leg, trying to slash through the snow pants I had on.
I tried to shake it off, but it only held on tighter and dug its claws in deeper.
Needing backup, I looked around for Micah but couldn’t find him anywhere.
Then the demon was engulfed in flames, and a boot kicked it off my leg, sending it screaming into another demon.
“What the fucking hell is going on?” Micah demanded, whirling to slice off the head of a demon trying to tackle David.
Micah and I, having grown up and trained with each other for years, moved seamlessly together.
I handed Hope off to Kayley who was with David, and circled to keep the three of them in the middle, while Micah and I moved us towards Lailah and Charlotte.
“How the hell should I know what's going on?” I snapped when I caught a second to answer.
“The two of us can’t keep this up, there are way too many of them and too many people we have to look out for,” Micah said, giving me a hard look. “You need to do something drastic, and fast.”
Before I could answer, Lailah sent out a pulse of power, blasting all the demons away from us. Quickly we gathered, panting and sweating from the effort of fighting in winter gear.
“Please tell me one of you has a plan,” Lailah said, her worried eyes flicking between the two of us.
That’s when the reality of the situation hit. Most of the people I loved were here with me and under attack. With only two of us that could defend and protect, the odds were not looking good. Micah was right. I needed to step up my game and think big.
“Brayden, can you make an avalanche?” Charlotte asked, pulling David close to her side, her body rigid with fear.
“It could work,” Micah said, nodding his head, slashing away at encroaching demons with his swords.
“The fuck it could work. How do you plan on surviving that? I can’t really control how it happens once it starts. We could get buried alive,” I fumed, throwing one of my daggers at a flying demon.
“Better than what the demons would do to us,” Micah countered.
“I can make us a shield to protect us from the avalanche,” Lailah said, stabbing at a demon with her sai.
Micah and I both looked at each other in shock, then over to her. “How do you know you can make a shield? No one has done that before,” Micah demanded
“Does it really fucking matter at this moment?” Lailah barked. “It’s not like we have that many options. Trust me, I can keep us safe. I know I can do this.”
Just when I didn’t think things could get much worse, a second wave of demons flooded out of the trees. There was no more time to figure out a better plan. It was now or never.
“Okay, cover me while I figure this out,” I yelled.
A wall of flames burst up around us, slowing down the demons' advance. “I can’t hold this for long, so make it good, man,” Micah said through gritted teeth.
Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and sent my power into the mountain beneath my feet.
I felt along the ridges that were farther from the ski resort, not wanting to endanger more people.
Finally, I found a weaker section that I could shake loose and send the snow falling.
Reaching deeper into my power, I pulled up as much as I could and sent it out to do my bidding.
The ground rumbled under our feet, and I could sense the shift on the air, but it wasn’t enough.
I was too far away to get the right punch I needed to break the ground loose.
Then a hand slipped into mine, and golden power flooded my system, sending out a shockwave that hit the mountain right where we needed it.
A loud CRACK reverberated through the air, then a muffled WHUMPH of the snow breaking off signaled the start of the avalanche.
The ground bucked under our feet as the earth shifted against the oncoming wave of snow.
When we saw it coming in the distance, it looked like a fast-moving wall of clouds that would be harmless.
I grabbed Kayley and David, hugging them close while Charlotte and Hope gathered around.
Micah framed them in, opposite of me, trying to keep everyone close.
I lifted my head in time to see Lailah throw her arms wide, facing down the avalanche like she could tame it with that look alone.
Praying that the angels would give her the strength she needed, I watched as the first wave hit.
When the snow slammed into her shield, it shone like a golden dome surrounding us.
Lailah took a step back but didn’t falter as she held her own against the onslaught of snow.
Having only seen this sort of disaster on TV, I was blown away by the power it had to take down the trees like they were nothing more than a blade of grass.
Time seemed to still as we waited for the snow to settle, and I could see Lailah beginning to struggle.
Stepping closer to her, I rested my hand on her shoulder just as Micah did the same.
Our powers flowed into her, and the dome became awash with green and red, along with the gold.
The rumbling stopped, and the world became quiet. I could feel the earth had settled and everything was calm. Confident that the avalanche was over, I took a deep breath.
“How the hell are we going to get out of this damn snow?” Kayley grumbled. “Seems someone didn’t think this all the way through before bringing a mountain down on us.”
“Really, Kayley, now is not the time,” Charlotte snapped, cutting our sister a look to shut the hell up.
“I should be able to melt a way out,” Micah said, looking up at the snow above us.
“Try it. I’ll hold the shield until you test it so we don’t have a cave in. It will at least tell us how deep under we are,” Lailah said, looking pale and exhausted.
Rubbing his hands together, Micah got them to heat up and placed them above his head against the barrier and the snow.
Seconds later, sunlight shone through, showing that we were buried under only a few feet of snow.
Lailah slowly let the shield fall, and the snow tumbled in, but it was nothing we couldn’t wade out of easily.
As we looked around, it was like a whole different world.
The trees had snapped off, leaving branches and tree trunks poking up all around.
Thankfully, there was no sign of any demons.
Now I could relax and figure out our next step.
We didn’t need to wait too long before a search and rescue team on snowmobiles showed up to take stranded people back to the ski lodge.