Chapter 92
Chapter Ninety-Two
Eldrick
Eldrick had envisioned war many times. Had woken from nightmares fueled by it. But nothing compared to the grime—the limbs yards away from their owner, entrails unraveled like fleeing snakes, and the maddened mutterings of the damned. Even the gods wished for something in their last moments.
Eldrick tried to channel the rightness drummed through his taut being. His axe’s shaft strained under his grip. In his other hand, his sword’s hilt imprinted into his palm. His beastly energy drove him forward, kept him strong and at the ready.
He spun and slayed an approaching nathracha demon. Its split body writhed, and more blood rushed into the current of black and red.
Yet, more demons kept entering Sorin. For every one he killed, two emerged. Scáths emerged from the fogs of Drystan, answering the call of their dark maker. Worse, too many of Eldrick’s own kin lay dead, vacant eyes staring up at the ashen sky.
His heart raced in his chest, the instinct to search and find his mate like an insatiable pull. Eldrick spun east, then west. A ringing vibrated through his head. He didn’t spy Tovi anywhere. No sign of her gray leathers or white braided hair—
There.
Ten yards to Eldrick’s right, Tovi fought a god. His sword was as long as Tovi was tall, and her arms shook with each blow.
Get to her, his wolf roared.
Eldrick ran, but something grasped hold of his ankle and tugged. He shot into the air and rose higher and higher above the ground. Blood rushed to his head, and Eldrick blinked through the nausea roiling in his stomach.
Stars above, focus!
A demon—one Eldrick didn’t have a name for—used a furred tale like an appendage, wrapping itself around his ankle. Eight beady eyes stared at him, fangs quivering. Fuck. Two pincers reached up and snapped.
Eldrick thrashed, the demon’s attack missing his neck by inches. Its tail tightened around his leg and yanked him to the left. He braced, keeping a tight grip on his weapons.
Yet, more blood rushed to his head. The ground grew farther away.
Mate.
Tovi’s pained cries jolted him into action. He reached upward and carved his sword through the demon’s tail at the thinnest end. The breath whooshed out of Eldrick as gravity took hold, and he fell. He collided with the grounded quicker than anticipated, his lungs aching.
But with each wince, Tovi’s face painted the back of his eyelids.
Save her.
Eldrick didn’t care for the angry demon at his back. He faced where Tovi stood. The god raised his sword. She’d fallen to one knee, bracing. Eldrick gripped his axe with two hands. He inhaled and readied to through it.
He released.
His axe spun and spun—
Until the blade crunched into the god’s face.
Tovi didn’t miss a breath. She whirled, sword angled waist height. Her blade sliced through the god’s arms and torso. Eldrick’s mate stepped back, and the god fell, the many pieces slipping apart in a horrific heap.
She turned to face him. Their stares connected through the chaos. Eldrick witnessed spring in her jade eyes. The future. A reminder of what they fought for—
“Eldrick!”
A pincer knocked him off his feet. The demon raced after him, spiny legs trudging through the mud. Eldrick scrambled back as the demon used its injured tail like a whip. It cracked through the air, slamming into the ground. Rain pelted his face, and his slims slipped through the bloody mud.
He halted against something—
A pile of bodies. The demon had cornered Eldrick. It released an earsplitting screech. Rain pelted his face. Exhaustion gripped him so tightly, he couldn’t rally his inner wolf. Far away, Tovi screamed his name.
Live, he wished to tell her. Live.
Eldrick braced as the demon raised its two pincers overhead.
The onslaught never came.
A horn blared in the distance, the kind werewolves used. Eldrick fisted his hands and peeled his eyes open. The demon shuddered and collapsed. Dead. A dozen arrows stuck from the monster’s head. The kind whittled in the Vadon Mountains. Through the sounds of battle, he’d not heard their descent.
“Eldrick!” Tovi leaped over the demon’s body and rushed to him. “Look!”
He rose on unsteady legs, following his mate’s line of sight. To the west, an army of werewolves lined the horizon.
Thorn, Drabek, Alland, and Lindstrom.
Their colors bled one after the other. Banners and flags flapped in the wind.
The alphas stood at the front, thrusting their shields into the air.
The howls of a thousand thundered across the land.
At the sight, Eldrick’s breath bottled up in his chest. His inner beast howled in his blood, celebrating in his kind’s arrival.
“Vampyrs!”
“Eyes ahead!”
Warriors on the battlefield shouted warnings to their comrades, snapping Eldrick’s and Tovi’s their attention north.
Another army had arrived.
Black armor. Bloodstone welded into their breast plates. Dread pooled in Eldrick’s belly.
Tovi stumbled back, like someone had punched her in the gut. “Lord’s Oziel’s army.”
Yet, their banners said otherwise. Eldrick stepped closer, trying to get a better look at the color flapping in the wind. He refused to snuff out the hope blooming in his chest.
“Tovi,” he whispered.
Those on horseback stepped further through the fog. One in particular—a female—rode atop a white horse, her red hair twirling in the wind.
“Wait,” Tovi said. “That’s Lady Anastasia.”
As if hearing her name on the wind, she rose the banner she carried high in the air. The original forces Eldrick had brought raised their shields, hollering.
For they shared the same lilac color.
Eldrick dared to smile, and his limbs tingled with the words of the prophecy.
Those of these lands will unite.
“I believe they’re here to fight for you, my queen.”