Chapter Nine Fallyn
Chapter nine
Fallyn
Another scream ruptured the air, the reverberations flowing through me on the way to manufacture fear.
We were close enough now that I think those beyond the wall legitimately might hear what hunts us.
Might see. They'd sound the alarm. My body was shoving exhaustion aside in favor of running on pure fear and adrenaline.
“Don’t stop, Fallyn!” My father’s voice was weak, like he too was barely hanging on through his body’s demand for oxygen.
“Never mind me,” I panted, hating the way his pace began to labor, the sheer effort to keep up. I grabbed my father’s hand, desperately pulling him with me. “Don’t you dare stop!”
A dull tone rang out then, something that sent fear and hope colliding within me—the warning bell, sending all citizens scurrying for the safety of their homes and rallying the guards.
The tower had spotted us and whatever ghastly thing from the Underworld or Hell itself had sent out.
We didn’t have much further to go. Maybe one hundred feet. I pumped my arms faster. Pushed my legs to eat up more ground, knowing that this would be the last effort I could give, knowing that whatever was behind us was coming in fast.
The deep, unpleasant sound of resistant, rusty hinges echoed off my bones. The door. They were closing the door!
“Wait!” I screamed desperately. "Please!" Dread filled my veins as the wind carried my voice away.
Perhaps they were making it so we could run through before shutting the door quickly. I felt the idea deflate immediately, seeing the guards refusing to make eye contact with me.
One thing became tragically clear: they were going to let us die.
The rotten, godsdamned, fucking bastards!
“Stop this!” My father’s booming voice carried over the distance before the door heavily shut. He slammed with all his weight into the door, bouncing off of it like nothing more than a pesky fly. He banged heavily on the door with me. “At least let my daughter in!”
“Guards! To arms!” The one guard from beside me, the one who led our convoy, called out in sheer desperation between pounding on the door. "Open the door!"
Not just me. Let us all in. The city I grew up in. The city I loved.
Betrayed us.
That ripping sound filled my ears. Ripping flesh. Blood sprayed my face. My father didn’t scream. His eyes softened as his last words through his shock were for me. “I love you, Fallyn. Run.”
I stepped back as the massive monster feasted on my father’s flesh. I screamed, my throat tasting of copper.
At least if this would be how I died, it wasn’t by the male in my nightmares. At least he didn’t win.
It was hard to say that dying this way wasn’t worse when I saw our pursuer, the very definition of a waking nightmare.
It was garish. It was massive, at least double the size of the carriage they wanted me to ride in earlier.
Part arachnid, part human perhaps, and all bloodthirsty demon scuttled the small distance in my direction.
Its humanoid-shaped face wore a deeply unsettling, fang-revealing grin.
Worse, it bore the features typical of a female—long hair, curled eyelashes above many sets of blackened eyes, and strong, pointed features.
Inky, reflective skin was covered by the blood of its victims it had already consumed, including my father.
Its many eyes moved independently, seeking its next prey.
The hush died, bringing instead the roars of battle cries from the two guards, far too few of them.
Swords flashed and spears wheeled towards the beast from the battlements above, making the monster shriek in outrage at the unwelcome severing of one of its eight legs. Its discomfort didn’t last long. Despite its size, it was blindingly fast, pouncing on the nearest guard.
Spiders liquify their prey to devour at a later time.
But seeing it up close, personal, and prey-sized was a horror I never wanted to see or smell again.
My heart thundered in my chest as the male before me screamed until death mercifully greeted him, but not before half his body had dissolved into steaming black sludge that oozed and sizzled over the stone street.
I clamped my hand over my mouth to stifle a terrified sob.
Another brave soul blasted fire at the abomination, a Hestia-blessed wielder, forcing it to rear up and strike out with clawed feet.
He dove aside, nimble and just out of reach. But he wouldn’t recover fast enough.
I didn’t think. I didn’t consider what would happen next.
My palms met the ground below with haste, vines bursting forth from beneath the melted stone and bringing about my will.
Froths of green light preceded the winding growth, vaguely in the shape of hands holding the creature fast, even as all of its eyes landed on me, as its head swiveled far too slowly to be anything other than deliberate.
Reaching to grab my dagger, the one father crafted for me, I thought that perhaps I could end this insanity.
Channeling Thaddeus, I lined up my shot and threw as hard as I could.
It bounced harmlessly off its thick, leathery hide. Its eyes, all of them, narrowed as it jittered at me. Mocking me.
"Magic tastes good."
Did that thing just talk?
“Run, girl!” a guard, the one with fire wielding called out to me before standing in the path of the beast as his guard mates plunged their blades into various spots on its enormous body.
The high-pitched scream made me want to clench my hands over my ears and cry out, even as it echoed in my head.
The sound bounced off the walls of my skull and made itself at home there to roost. My magic wasn’t something the demon had factored in.
But neither had I considered its strength.
I threw my magic into the ground, holding it steady as the guards watched me, awestruck.
Their own magic was bound by some element or another.
Mine was something other. Not unlike this monstrosity.
“Attack!” My bellow was more a command than I had anticipated, and they were too busy to care about be ordered by a female.
Blades hacked, slashed, and skewered the demon before us, each shriek and wail of agony it belted out getting weaker with each blow.
I felt it thrash against my magic, but I held firm, keeping my palms on the ground.
It was only when what legs that were still attached to it slumped to the ground that I heaved a breath and severed the connection with an exhausted slump to the ground.
I dragged air into my lungs from the exertion as the guards continued to waste the demon.
I shimmied my way forward, content that the threat was over.
One of the guards held his hand out to me with a blood-spattered face that didn’t dampen his smile to me. “Are you alright, young one?”
Was I alright? No. I tearfully turned my head to where what was left of my father remained discarded on the ground and a sob broke from me.
I grasped the guard’s hand, and he steadied me to my feet, holding me as I doubled over from my cries.
I couldn’t help the nervous laughter that tumbled from my lips, blending with my cries as the arachnid demon finally slumped silently to the ground.
A familiar sound of a blade leaving its sheath startled me.
One of the guards, the one who held me upright, handed me a small dagger.
“You won’t feel safe. Not for a while. I hope this helps, Lady Fallyn.”
No words could convey the gratitude of his action.
I nodded at the same time as a hissing screech reached us all.
His eyes met mine with the same note of horrified confusion I was currently experiencing.
All the remaining guards and I froze before turning to look at the carcass that was centered between us.
Its legs didn’t move. Its eyes were half-lidded and dull, but its thorax moved violently, reminding me of a turbulent ocean underneath the skin.
The shrieking grew louder before the sound of tearing flesh rose with it and another smaller beast screamed its emergence.
Fucking gods.
It was pregnant.
Its cherub-like face was marred with black ink lines and a grotesque, toothy smile, disturbing for a small child’s face. Worse, its eyes were intently focused on me.
Fuck.