Chapter 44
Chapter
Forty-Four
Kainda
T he clearing a few miles from Uttu’s lair seemed surreal. Sunlight shone brightly through the trees, a cold breeze causing the vegetation to rattle, all animal noise had ceased, and time seemed to stand still. It gave off creepy vibes at a cellular level. Elijah had hiked ahead of us to reach the clearing first, and he waited as bait in the center. My magic screamed like a banshee to protect him. I couldn’t give him any magical protection without risking Uttu sensing the trap.
Most of the shifters had taken to the treetops to make their attack from above. Elementals blended in seamlessly with the landscape. The rest of our hunting party had spread out in a ‘U’ shape, hiding several yards back. When Uttu reached the clearing, we would burst into action. Not the most savvy plan or even the most elegant plan, but it’s what we were working with.
Wind blew through the clearing, carrying Elijah’s scent toward Uttu’s lair. The wind elemental directing the wind’s direction and channeling energy to whip the air into a frenzy. As an elemental, his magic didn’t have a discernible trace or presence. Since the creature formed from pieces of the element. There was no difference. It’s hard to wrap the mind around that, for sure. This was our ace up the sleeve.
The creatures could probably smell the fear, anticipation, and battle lust in the air. I could almost smell it even with my weak human-ish nose. My palms sweat, the body vibrating with the wait, and I physically ached to get Elijah the heck out of dodge. I’d gone and done the one thing guaranteed to get one or both of us killed— namely, gotten emotionally invested in him. Lady Gaia, let us survive this.
I’d known exactly what that stupid magical glow meant last night. Magically fated, the same thing that drove my parents together. Fate and the gods probably sat on high laughing their sadistic, diabolical, divine asses off at me. What in Gaia’s name am I supposed to do with this? I needed to focus on the battle instead of kicking my own ass. This whole situation was one hundred percent out of my control anyway.
The eerie hush felt stifling, if I felt this antsy, I couldn’t even imagine how uncomfortable Elijah felt right now. He’d been a real trooper today. For the last two hours he’d stood in that clearing waiting. He didn’t even pace. The bracelet seemed to have helped, as he waited for his tormentor to make her move.
Every now and again I’d catch one of his feelings through our connection, though thanks to the bracelet it wasn’t as strong as normal. The sensations made me nauseous. I could only imagine what those feelings, even dimmed as they were, did to him psychologically. He’d be lucky to make it out of this without an ulcer.
The silence grew intensely harsh in the blink of an eye. Uttu had arrived. She’d breached the wards the witches had set along the perimeter closest to her cave hideaway. My skin crawled as the wards silently screamed along my nerve endings. Time to send this bitch back to Gehenna.
Her evilness appeared to danced into the clearing. Elijah’s whole body went stone still; I couldn’t even tell if he still breathed. He was supposed to be getting out of there on the double, the second he saw her. His flight, fight, or freeze response had chosen freeze. I wanted to run out there and whisk him away because him freezing now could prove fatal.
“The fly has returned to his mistress. Uttu is pleased at your return, if only you were alone. Tell all your little fly friends to join us. I’m quite hungry.”
Elijah recoiled at the hissing sound of her voice. He snapped out of his concrete trance and bolted as the shifters rained down from the treetops. A cacophony shook the ground as the battle began. The witches and other magical beings swarmed through the trees to ring the clearing. Wards smacked into the ground like comets, sending grass and soil flying and bright, colorful lights flaring like fireworks. This was going to be epic, and my little internal adrenaline junkie enjoyed it way too much.
An army of billions of spiders boiled out of the trees and underbrush. My skin crawled in revulsion at the sight. Several shrieks of terror rang out at the unnerving sight. Fire spilled from the palms of a Fire Elemental and a mage wielding the element. They directed the streams of flames at the arachnids. The smell of sulfur rose from the tiny burning bodies, but more of the nasty little shits surged out of the woodwork. Uttu’s little minions had arrived to help save their mistress, but they wouldn’t succeed.
I took up a boundary line position to protect the big magical guns with my fellow hunters and the human hunters. Althea stood directly behind me, her hand on my shoulder to draw my magic to her to add to the collective. I held the pendant tightly in my left hand, channeling its powers through my body into my own magic to be drawn out. My right hand stayed busy tossing potions. Knives too dangerous for me to be throwing from my position on the perimeter. I might accidentally wound one of our allies slinging my blades around, no matter how good my aim was. A small chance always remained, one of ours could find their way in front of a flying blade before it embedded itself in its intended target.
The shifters held their own, keeping Uttu busy fending off their attack. Many of the shifters sustained damage but Uttu only took minor injury, but she did appear to weaken, which sent warning bells clanging in my head. Her tiring this fast even under the onslaught of at least a few dozen— give or take— shifters wasn’t right. As a former goddess turned demon, her strength had much deeper wells than this.
Trees shook, and the thick undergrowth quivered just before three large spiders came lumbering into the clearing. They looked like tarantulas only much, much larger, like the size of a minivan. Thick fur covered most of their bodies, and venom dripped from the fang like appendages in front of their gapping mouths. They knocked magic users out of the joined circle we’d formed, adding more screams and shouts to the concert of battle. Goddess, help us!
As the monstrous spiders moved into the central fray to protect their master, nearly all the magic users they’d displace rose to their feet. Quickly moving to reform the circle to keep the magic flowing into a central point. But two of them didn’t get back up, but one of them reached out and grabbed the leg of the witch closets to them. She funneled her magic into them as blood trickled from a gash in her side that went down the outside of her thigh.
Magic users pulled power from all around and concentrated it at the back of the clearing where Uttu had entered from. There the portal began to form. A tear between the realms began to appear. At first, a wavering line, like the heat waves of a mirage. Then more of their power hit the split and it grew in size. It took on a gray oval shape, almost fluffy, like the clouds that had hung overhead earlier today. The scent of sulfur grew stronger in the air as some of the Gehenna atmosphere leaked in through the tear.
An enormous man in front of me burst out of his skin, leaving behind a freaking dragon. Sunlight glinted off armored black scales with a purple tint to them. Claws as long as my forearms, the color of liquid mercury, ripped into the ground as he launched himself skyward on batlike wings. His roar split the air seconds before a fireball hurdled toward the demon. The creatures and beings battling her fell back fast from the flaming missile headed toward the target. Uttu took the hit between her shoulders.
Spinning as her skin sizzled and blistered, she shot spider silk from her hands, hitting the dragon’s open maw. The poor guy gagged and began coughing as smoke curled from his nostrils. He fell from the sky into the trees, out of sight. The evil bitch cackled in glee as the ground shook like an earthquake. Trees splintered in the distance from the impact.
Those giant spiders screamed an unholy sound and moved in closer to their mistress, acting as a shield. They prevent much of our forces from getting to Uttu. Her chest heaved as she breathed heavily, her red eyes scanning the battlefield looking for her fly. The way she’d looked at and spoke to Elijah was revolting. I had wanted to rip her tongue out at the way she’d licked her lips with glee as he’d run away.