Chapter 30 #2
She wavered, twisting in a circle as I pulled both swords from the harness and over my shoulders. She glanced at the weapons and scurried off in the direction I pointed her.
“Thank you,” she said. “My name’s Kate, by the way.”
I leveled a gaze at her, and she turned her back to me. When I lowered the barrier, I realized I was going to have to drink more. There were now hundreds of angry bodies looking to take me down.
By the time I was through, the number of beating hearts in the once thriving village was significantly lowered. The road was full of copper-scented mud, and the sun had risen again, highlighting smoldering piles of flesh.
I tossed one last torch on a stack of flesh and exited through the rear gate, with my stomach satiated and my energy replenished.
The forest thinned, with the clusters of trees lessening right before the landscape began an upward tilt. The sky remained clouded and dim, with the occasional bright flash of blood red lightning. There were a couple rumbles of thunder, and I started navigating the tundra.
The atmosphere turned thicker, sticky with a cloying electrical charge as I neared Annalise and Wyvon. I was more than well-aware I may never make the trek back to Cassia.
My mortality had never been a concern for me in the past. For one, I couldn’t be easily killed so I’d never thought about it in depth. Then, as the years stretched by, they all blurred together and death became a completely foreign concept.
Now, I was being forced to consider a possible end. Knowing Annalise and Wyvon, they would extinguish me rather than kill me. Extinguishment meant true death, the loss of any type of consciousness. I would simply cease to exist and return to pure energy.
If I was fortunate enough to merely be killed, I would find myself in another Realm. The way death and the fates worked together, the Realm would be the sort that allowed no path anywhere else. And it would be an unknown world.
Either way, my chances of being reunited with Cassia were highly unlikely. What I faced was a scenario that would test me beyond anything I’d ever dealt with. Both Annalise and Wyvon were extremely powerful and the combination of the two could bring the gods to their knees.
The air all around me was charged with their magic, making the hair on my arms and the back of my neck stand on end. Annalise was prowling, sending out feelers and trying to infiltrate my mind. I had her locked out, but I could feel her knocking at the door.
A thick haze laid over the crest in the distance, lightly tinted with red. I was almost there.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted some of their scouts. Kakian demons dressed in military fatigues in shades of green and white, designed to blend into the landscape. Humans were the only species that may have missed their near-clandestine hiding spaces and movements.
A wave of magic washed over me from behind and I drew my sword, spinning around. There was nothing for several moments, other than the invisible clash of opposing power that sent a shot of adrenaline into my system.
Then I saw it. An overwhelming cloud of black swooping down from the sky. A blur of feathers rushed past me, and I was surrounded.
Crows.
Kiam.
A smile stretched my face as a burden slid off my back. The flock of birds circled around me and then continued forward, numbering in the thousands.
Just then, I got an impression of contentment from Cassia. My boots almost skittered to a stop. Had she contacted Kiam for me? If so, how? While warmth filled me over her care, dread flooded my stomach. If she had interfered, she was no longer confined.
Cassia was outside the safety of my magic and vulnerable to more ploys and manipulations than she could possibly fathom.
I broke into a run, keeping pace with the crows, until I leapt over a line of rocks.
In front of me, Wyvon sat in a chair that appeared wholly out of place on the near-barren and rocky ground.
It was a leather armchair with thick, curved metal feet and trim.
Annalise stood staring at the upper slope of the mountain behind him, her translucent layers of seafoam green fluttering in the stiff breeze.
Their soldiers rushed me, many of whom I recognized. I slashed ten necks with my nails and sword before Wyvon told them to stand down.
“Lukas, son. Come over here,” the formidable man ordered, keeping his voice pleasant.
He didn’t stand and I didn’t kneel. The blood on my sword dripped onto the tip of my shoe. “It’s been a long time. What’s this I hear about you disobeying your mother, the queen?” He asked.
Annalise swiveled slowly, the long trail of her gown catching the wind like a sail. The light made her white blond hair glow. She looked like a mountain goddess, one full of mercy and joy, but I knew and had seen her bring many a man to their ruin. I knew the ugliness that lurked behind her beauty.
Keeping my eyes on her, I answered Wyvon. “I don’t care to offer my mate as a sacrifice to your wife.”
Wyvon stood, smoothing down his shirt and fluffing his cape. “You would deny your queen twice.”
My gaze jerked to his. “I’m not in the business of bedding other men’s wives.”
He tilted his head to the side, pressing his lips into a small, tight-lipped smile. Annalise appeared beside him in a flash and clutched his arm, peering up at him with big, wide, jade-green eyes. She was pouting.
The king glanced at me again, after caressing her cheek. “And her son—what have you done with him?”
Zaynan could have been anywhere, and I highly doubted Annalise was unaware of his exact whereabouts. “I’m not his keeper.”
Annalise’s fangs descended, and the air grew tight enough to make me feel like I needed to adjust my collar. I didn’t touch it.
She raised one hand, palm upward, and their soldiers moved closer. I struggled to focus my energy, and it took me far too long to build another protective cage like I had in the village.
Wyvon was instantly in front of me, his fangs bared and dripping saliva. “Your duty is to your mother and the court, not to your dinner.”
My ward swayed, as if the man had pushed down on a large balloon. He ran his fingers across the invisible barrier and narrowed his eyes. His mouth stretched open, and then he roared. The force of his voice blew my hair back over my shoulders, and my protective bubble dissolved in the ether.
I dropped to the ground, and the Kakians were upon me before I drew my next breath.
Their mouths stretched wide as they tried to siphon my energy and soul, the way their demon nature demanded.
I could feel the pull, the ripping sensation as they tried with all their might to remove my spirit from my body.
There wasn’t enough room to slay them with a long sword.
The moment I freed a hand, I was seized again.
My teeth and dagger shredded as many as I could while we spun like tumbleweed.
In the blur of motion, I lost sight of Wyvon and Annalise, but I could feel them watching, sense their joy as I took hit after hit.
A lock of red hair fell across my face, heavy and wet.
It was my own, soaked with blood. With a corpse lying directly on top of me, I concentrated on summoning more magic, beyond what I’d used so far.
Every cell of my body felt alight with a burning fire, and I flung my arms out at my sides, placing my palms in the dirt.
The ground shook and rolled like a wave in the ocean, toppling demons as if they were wooden blocks, one by one.
Throwing the mangled body to the side, I jumped up and surveyed my surroundings.
Several hundred Kakians remained standing.
Some of them were fighting amongst each other, falling to the rough ground and bouncing like rubber balls.
Blood soaked my abdomen and when I glanced down, the hilt of a knife stuck out of my side. Grabbing the metal, I tossed the dagger to the ground and pressed my hand to the wound. The pain was burning hot fire, from a blade poisoned and spelled.
Kiam’s crows continued to dip and dive, pecking away at anyone they could, scratching with their long talons. A contingent of men stood in formation on a rock outcropping, firing arrows that brought many of the birds down in an explosion of onyx feathers.
With the bleeding stanched as much as I could; I got to my feet.
Wyvon and Annalise’s men were advancing again, and I didn’t know how much more I could take.
I needed to find shelter and regroup. The energy to transition myself to another Realm wasn’t there, and if it was, I’d be depleted the moment I used it.
All it would have afforded me was a couple seconds of rest before they found me.
To my left, I spied a shadowy pile of rocks. I transitioned myself a hundred feet or so, hoping against hope that there was a cave or some other type of shelter that would buy me precious time.
Once I arrived, I fell to my knees and crawled inside an alcove.
Harsh wind whistled around the stone, shrieking as it pierced cracks and crevasses, shoving itself through every split of the rock it could find.
The impulse to shut my eyes and let myself slip away was overbearing.
Seductive and luxurious, the call to fall away into the darkness that pressed the corners of my vision was a temptation I couldn’t succumb to.
Sitting back against the rough stone, I tore my harness off and peeled away the sticky layers of fabric and leather from my torso. If I was lucky, I had mere seconds to try and help myself.
A small rodent squeaked and dashed across the gravel. He didn’t make it very far before I sank my teeth into his fur. Maybe the tablespoon of rat blood wouldn’t do much, but I was desperate.
At any moment either the Kakians or Annalise and Wyvon—or all of them would rush me. There was nothing I could do about it. The tiny amount of magic and energy I had left wasn’t sufficient, not to take on beings as powerful as they were. But slaughtering a few more Kakians was possible.
The opportunity came when a trio entered the narrow cave.
Dragging myself onto all fours, I dug my palms into the sand and grit, sending shockwaves into the ground. Frost winded its way up their legs, freezing their legs in place. I grabbed the ankle closest to me and he fell.
His lower body was stiff, and I heard a loud snap as I pulled his body closer. He got a couple of solid punches in, but it wasn’t enough to stop me from imbibing.
Human blood was what I really needed, to bring myself back to full capacity, but these three would have to do the job for now.
Amidst their thrashing, everything dimmed further than it already was.
The wind ceased, and I heard the beating of wings.
Three crows flew into the cave, flapping against the stone, their beady eyes reflecting the meager light.
The air charged with electricity, enough so that it swayed my blood-soaked hair.
Whatever number of birds were outside the entrance, they sounded the alarm, their screeching caws echoing and bouncing off the granite.
A red shadow filled my vision, and I heard Wyvon’s voice.
“I am dreadfully disappointed in you, Lukas.”