Chapter 47
Chapter forty-seven
Seraphina
Clouds built in the atmosphere, obscuring the brilliance of the blue sky. A slight breeze rustled the tops of the ironoak trees. Sera had dressed in her training leathers, intending to take advantage of Al’s state of unconsciousness.
Running her fingers through her hair, she thought of the image Ophelia had shown her of her birth.
It wasn’t how her mother had described it at all. Lavinia had mentioned more than once that Sera had been a difficult delivery and had teased her about how she’d needed a healer’s assistance.
There hadn’t been healers in that cottage, and the birth didn’t seem difficult. Sera pulled her hair back and began to braid. After knotting off the end of her plait, she wiped her hands across her face.
Her father wasn’t the warlock with kind brown eyes and a full laugh, who balanced her on his knee.
It was bittersweet. Almost. That she had been blessed with time, and Nora hadn’t.
Sera rolled out her shoulders in the middle of the training circle and warmed up with a series of motions Vasso had taught her. Centering herself, she called to her well of darkness and let that death fog fall around her. It bubbled and churned.
Sera envisioned it taking shape. Miniature trees, weapons, buildings—anything she could think of, and the mist transformed while she stretched. Sera grabbed the cracked pendant at her throat, and her new familiar cawed long and loud through the forest.
How long had her familiar been trapped in stone? It must have felt wonderful to stretch its wings, to feel the wind in its feathers.
Sera lunged again and reached her hands high above her head when a screeching bugle echoed through the woods.
“Snik?” she called out, her magic dissipating. The goblin was out hunting hares and rodents.
Another screech had her sprinting toward the south side of the forest. A fury of cries, roars, and mauling sounds continued as she leaped over logs and stones. Her heart was in her throat. If one of the agbris had him…
She’d light the entire forest on fire.
The sounds grew louder. Sera halted, finding low bushes, and crouched behind them, heaving in desperate breaths. A creature with great antlers extending from its head bellowed at the agbris surrounding it.
Sera swallowed her gasp.
An elken. A mighty one. The animal was massive. From hoof to antler tip, it was over twice her height.
The elken swung his head low, aiming its tines at the agbris’ bodies. Blood was smeared over its chest, dripping down one leg.
The demons in their robes and swiping claws had it backed up against one of the massive tree trunks. Seven of them surrounded it. Saliva poured from below their skull masks as they waited for the kill.
The animal looked at her, panic in its golden eyes. Sera pulled her flames into her palms, taking note of the dry dead leaves scattered across the forest floor. One of the agbris lunged, and the elken cried out in pain.
“Fuck it,” she said and jumped out from her cover, blasting three of the seven.
Their tattered cloaks caught fire. The agbris’ screams were louder than the elken’s bugles as they fled deeper into the forest.
The other four turned toward her.
The mighty white beast’s massive antlers glided past the low branches as it ran.
Click, click, click.
Sera suppressed a shiver. The clicking and screams were half the reason she was terrified of the monsters. The other half was the magic-eating parasite underneath its claws. Her pulse drummed in her ears. She wished she had a dagger.
Four agbris lowered on their haunches. With every low growl and snap of teeth, her darkness pulsed in her veins.
Show them, her magic said. Show them what you can do.
Her body warmed, and Sera lifted the lid on that well of magic. Black flames flared from her palms. Sera aimed and let go. Power ripped through her like raging whitecaps.
The beasts dodged and ducked.
They gnashed at her. The animal-skull masks flapped like loose teeth with each click of their jaws. Sera aimed again, and the beasts evaded.
One lunged.
“Barijara.” Her barrier coated her like a skin of blue steel.
She aimed her flames again. This time, she hit her mark.
An awful high-pitched sound escaped two of the beasts as black flames wrapped them. The odor of burning, rotten flesh wafted through the air.
Every hair on the back of her neck rose as the remaining two beasts growled.
Run, her magic screamed.
Sera ran toward the manor entrance, pumping her legs at a furious speed. As she ducked under a low-hanging branch, a stick snagged her cheek, and hot blood dripped down to her chin.
She couldn’t stop.
They were going to tear her apart, or worse, get their parasites under her skin to eat her from the inside out. A burning ache radiated from her sternum through her chest. She felt like she was choking or being smothered; she couldn’t decide which was worse.
Sera dared to glance over her shoulder. The agbris were closing in. Another ear-piercing roar echoed through the trees.
Two of the demons she had downed were now racing toward her. The smoke billowing from their burning robes made them look like moving pyres.
They regenerate.
That’s what Alistair had said the last time she was running for her life. She was a fool for even thinking she had a chance against them.
Her lungs screamed for air.
Two of the agbris had caught up with her, flanking her as they crossed the south meadow. She could make out the glow of their red eyes through the socket holes of the animal skulls. Another two herded her away from the manor’s entrance.
A giant raven dove from the sky, snatching the one to her right. Her familiar buried its talons into fabric, then flesh and bone, ripping the beast high into the air.
The agbris screamed, a sound so sharp she was sure it pierced her eardrum.
As she burst into a sprint, her palms tingled.
Taking as deep a breath as she could, Sera stopped short, turned, and slammed a stream of black flames at the two beasts directly behind her. They immediately dropped to ash.
Hands on her knees, she sucked in great gulps. A dark cloud rose through the canopy, polluting the sky above.
“No!” she breathed. The mighty ironoaks were burning.
Her blue second skin flickered. The remaining two demons circled her, claws extended, fangs out.
One of them howled, and Sera froze… for what sounded like a chorus of hundreds howled back.
“Oh gods.” She’d been utterly stupid to come out here alone. Flames in each hand, Sera sidestepped in a circle to keep the two she could see in front of her.
The ground shook as a stampede of agbris broke from the trees. Their white skulls, all antlers and teeth, moved like they were braying as the demons surrounded her in the open field.
“Any suggestions?” she asked her magic between gulps of breath.
It did not respond.
Her heart pounded in her chest, and the tightness in her ribs wasn’t helping as she gasped for more air.
This was how she would die.
She’d never make it to Nora. She’d never see Dominick again, or Alistair, or Vasso. Sera winced as a single tear rolled into the cut on her cheek.
Taking a deep breath, she pulled for more vatra. A thick layer of black fog saturated the ground around them. Sweat rolled down her back. Shadow, she was hot. Her veins cooked under her skin, but still, that well ran deep. Not even close to burning out.
Two agbris lunged. She blocked one, sending flame into its gut, then the other. Alistair’s training rang clear in her head. You’re small. Learn how to fight at close quarters.
Well, she would fight close as long as her barrier stayed intact.
The next one came at her, and she drove her elbow into its guts before spinning and gripping its neck.
She screamed. Mist swirled around the demon, who hissed and snapped at her.
Her magic twisted around and around like a constrictor, squeezing the life from it, and when she let go, that twisted fog blazed into hot flame, reducing the thing to ash at her feet.
Yes… she liked this. Liked the roll of her magic flowing through her without a thought.
Another beast lurched from the horde circling her. It sliced its poisoned claw at her middle, and her barrier fell.
“Shit,” she hissed and jumped back.
Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump. Her heart beat like frantic bird wings. She took a few steps back, her hands up in defense, as the crackle of burning timber broke through the demons’ cries.
The agbris in front of her raked its parasite-infested claws in the dirt, snarling and clicking, while the rest of the horde stayed in place.
This one had claimed her.
A flash of red behind that mask of some dog or fox skull had her swallowing hard.
It would kill her.
Sera took a deep breath and pulled the flames to her again. The agbris inched closer. Its tattered, rotten robe dragged in the grass.
A bugle shrieked in the distance.
Well, at least the elken had lived. She wasn’t so sure she could say the same of herself for much longer.
Then a flash of movement caught her eye. The mighty white elken was charging through the horde straight for her, smashing the agbris out of the way. The animal slid to a stop, bowing on its front legs.
“Fucking miracle.” Sera didn’t hesitate.
She threw herself across its massive shoulders, barely managing to get her leg over its neck, and grabbed the antlers before it took off. The haze of smoke stung her eyes as they galloped across the field.
A trilling caw rang out high above her, and then her familiar was beating its massive black wings at her side. It had helped her, ripped that demon into the sky.
The agbris swiped at the elken’s legs as they ran, snarling and clicking behind them. The entire horde was chasing them.
Sera threw a wide arc of flame behind her. Few fell. She slammed her hand into her chest as a sharp pain cracked through her. “Fuck…” She winced.