Chapter 46
Chapter
Forty-Six
Kainda
A woodland nymph flew through the air on the back of a griffin. She drew back the string of her bow, the nocked arrow between her index and middle fingers as she aimed at Uttu. The demon caught unaware as the arrow lodged in between her ribs on her left side. A centaur and a troll had kept her distracted under the blows of their hooves and clubs.
Black, blood bubbled and oozed from around the arrow. Screaming, she snapped the shaft in two. The bottom half of the shaft with the arrow tip still embedded in her side. She swung the broken off piece wide, catching the troll with it in his large, bulbous nose. The troll bellowed in pain, wheeling away as the demon lashed out with her claws.
The minivan sized spiders had been forced away from her, creating openings as the elementals shifted their attacks to them. One of them lay on the ground on its back, the legs curling inward as it started to shrivel. It had met its demise under an onslaught of potions and a well aimed grenade. For some reason, it had turned its sights on me.
As it got closer, I flung vial after vial, quickly running through my supply. Smoke curled from its body, shrieks came from its mouth, and its movements slowed, but it kept coming. Then my fingers brushed against one of my grenades, that’d work. Pulling it from my pocket, I carefully adjusted my grip, used my teeth to pull the pin, and lobbed it into the thing’s open maw. Then before it could do anything, the grenade went off. Guts spilled out of its mouth, but the outer body was still intact as it fell to the ground, dead.
Another one had come under attack by three wolf shifters, their jaws all clamped onto one leg, yanking like the most horrible game of tug of war. The spider shrieked and tried to escape, his other legs scrambling in the dirt, unable to find purchase in the mud. A polar bear shifter barreled through the fray, grabbing a leg on the other side and ripped it clean off. The force in the opposite direction toppled the spider toward the bear, causing the leg the wolves held to pop off. It fought to get back on its feet, but a sand sorcerer rushed forward, opening a jar on his back as he went. Sand rose up in a stream from the mouth of the jar and rushed into the screaming mouth.
Before I could see what happened to that one, the body of a fox shifter crashed into the ground at my feet, shaking my balance. It yelped on impact and then quietly whined as it stayed prone on the ground. I carefully stepped over it, using my body to block any further attacks, and hoped it survived. The third monster spider still remained on its feet, flanking its master.
I zeroed in on her now, watching her closely. Her movements becoming slower and the blood from her wounds flowed faster. She took more blows and hits than she dodged or deflected now. We’d seen her weakness, and it was time to strike while the iron was hot. However, our own forces had weakened too. The tide wasn’t changing fast enough.
An Amazon warrior ran forward, sword held high ready to swing, but she got felled by the demon. Spider silk arched from Uttu’s hand, wrapping around the Amazon’s ankles like a lasso, taking the woman to the ground. Uttu pounced as graceful as a cat, landing with hands and feet on the warrior’s chest. The demon struck, a fang filled with venom sank into the vulnerable neck as the Amazon swung her sword and shield against the body above her, trying to dislodge her attacker. It was no use. The venom flowed into the dying warrior’s blood stream.
Ginormous hands of a giant grabbed the bitch by her long hair, ripping her away from the fallen Amazon. One of the Atlantean soldiers rushed in to pull the Amazon out of the fray and began to attempt to staunch the blood flow. The giant flung her against a tree as more of our forces moved in on her. Magic built in the air, thickening it. The pressure climbing as the clouds overhead began to roil.
Blue streams of magic zapped from one magic wielder to the next, forming a semicircle. The stream collided with the pendant around my neck with a bang. I felt the reverberations down to my soul as my bones rattles and my ears rang. The force nearly took me off my feet, causing me to stumble back a step. Rogan, Althea’s husband, steadied me putting his hand on my other shoulder and I felt his magic flow through me bolstering my waning strength.
I’d lost track of Elijah in the chaos of battle. He hadn’t reappeared, but the plan said he wasn’t supposed to reappear. If he followed directions the way he’d sworn to me, he would, then he was halfway back down the mountain by now. Knowing it was a reckless idea but unable to help myself, I cast my senses outward to find Elijah’s psychic signature. I had to know he was okay and pray the lack of self-control didn’t get me or anyone else killed.
‘ E! Where are you? Are you okay?’
‘ Kainda! She’s not been feeding! It’s why she’s weakening so quickly! You need to have everyone redouble their efforts for one big, final attack. It’ll take her down!’
As soon as his voice echoed in my head, I could breathe again. He’d also given us information that could make or break this battle. I had to know if he was sure or if he was under her psychic control. We’d taken as much precaution as we could to prevent that, but we faced off against someone stronger than us. Even weakened like this, she still stood under blows that would’ve killed anyone else.
‘ I can still feel her psychically like I can with you, but it’s one-sided now. She can’t hear me or sense my thoughts, and she’s furious. I can feel how hungry she is, and I can feel her power weakening. Her connection to me was so strong, she couldn’t hunt, and no other food source fueled her.’
“It’s not a trick! She’s weakening! Go after her harder! We can win!” I screamed as loud as I could over the din of battle. My connection to Elijah fell away the moment I stopped concentrating on him. I felt several magical acknowledgements of my declaration. Attack efforts redoubled and signs of injury to the once powerful demon began to show. Too early to celebrate, yet, but oh, did I want to so badly! I could almost reach out and touch victory and revenge.
She scuttled like a crab on arms and legs bent at unnatural angles away from a pair of wolf shifters closing in on her. Uttu backed under the tree where Maurelle sat casually on the branch as if in a café instead of a battle. The elf flicked her fingers like she didn’t have a care in the world, and the air behind the demon became solid, almost glass-like. Uttu slammed into it hard and the ground shook. Whirling around and looking up, the demon hissed at Maurelle. She heaved in a deep breath, her chest puffing out before spitting out a stream of venom from her fangs like a spitting cobra. The vile yellowish sludge hit the elf on the chest, knocking her off the tree branch.
Devanna sprang across the clearing, grabbing the back of Maurelle’s top and dragging her out of Uttu’s clutches as another group of shifters charged in again. Colorful bolts of magic slammed into the demon’s body. The disgusting, blood stained dress barely hung onto her as magic burned holes and claws shredded the fabric.
Uttu went down to one knee a moment later, and the power of the witches and other magic wielders began to pulse. The noise too loud for me to hear the words of incantation they spoke, but I could feel the powerful magic gathering in the air. Blue currents of magic that connected us grew and began showering sprays of magical energy. The heat coming off of the magic was intense; I felt like my skin began melting. It would crash over us like a tidal wave. The wind picked up speed, hurling the end of my braid in my face, and rain began to fall as we angered the atmosphere with our swelling power. A red glow from the ruby in the pendant lit my face, making my eyes sting and water. The glow reached out away from us toward the battle, zeroing in on it’s former owner.
Red light slammed into Uttu knocking her toward where the portal formed. The demoness shrieked as the fabric of our realm split open. Bolts of lightning screamed from the tear. The hole grew wider and taller until the dark gray, cloudy opening was big enough we could’ve shoved the dragon through, and that fucker was a big as a house. I wanted to break free from the line to shove that heinous bitch through the tear, but I couldn’t without taking my magic away from the collective. Delmira must have thought the same thing? only she wasn’t bound in place by magic– because she broke from the pack.
Del had given the demon everything she had from the start of the battle. Flinging weapons and potions at Uttu left and right, backing her toward where the portal had formed. But Uttu had realized she was being herded toward certain doom and skittered away as quickly as she could. A grizzly shifter came lumbering at her from the left, closing off her exit, but the crazy ass demon didn’t care. Being maimed by a grizzly it seemed was preferable to a one way ticket back to Gehenna.
Del ripped the pouch containing all of her potions from her belt and threw it against Uttu’s chest. The pouch exploded, the vials bursting inside, unleashing their magic. Black smoke curled off of the demon’s skin. It knocked her back a step, right into the arms of the grizzly. Dark brown fur covered arms closed around her as she shrieked. Del with blade in hand ran at Uttu. She tackled Uttu from the clutches of a grizzly shifter, and they tumbled into the void.
Uttu and Delmira screamed as they passed inside. Elijah shrieked in pain from somewhere behind me. I wanted to turn and go to him, but it wasn’t over just yet.
“Delmira!” Evin, Hida, and I all screamed at once.
Too late, nothing we could do as the magic gave out with an audible and physical pop in the air. The tear in the realm knit itself back together as all the witches me collapsed from the drain of the incantation on their magic. Uttu was gone, but so was Delmira and there would be no getting her back. She’d gone to Gehenna, and no human could survive there. My heart broke for my dear, sweet friend.
My knees buckled underneath me as the silence descended once again. The rain and wind ceased as the tiny army I’d lead into battle began cheering in celebration. We’d won, but at too high of a cost. She’d taken too many lives, including today. It was hard to believe it was truly over. Uttu’s desire for whatever otherness flowed in Elijah’s blood, and that obsession brought her to her demise.
“Kainda!” Elijah jogged back into the clearing, heading for me as I fell back on my ass. He was a welcome sight as the pain of losing Delmira began to wash over me.