Chapter 38 #2
Grateful to no longer face those she once loved, Adara grinned back with bared teeth and malice that challenged the beast’s own.
She wriggled in its grasp, tugging free a dagger from the sheaths at her ribs.
She angled it against its body so that when it constricted against her, it would pierce itself on the blade.
Though she was nothing but a mere speck to its humongous form, her knife struck hard.
It hissed, tongue flicking. Its grip loosened enough for Adara to draw her sword.
Raising Infinova high, she plunged the blade into its body. The serpent let out an ear-splitting shriek, dropping her entirely. Adara landed with a grunt, on her feet and running in an instant. She took the stairs by twos, threes, fours, muscles aching with every leaping stride.
She jumped again, aiming for the top of the landing.
Something lashed against her ankles. Adara went careening face-first to the wall. Pain cracked across her jaw, lancing through her already-injured shoulder. Scales coiled around her and she scrambled to her feet, slashing wildly with her weapon.
Screams ripped through the air.
Adara swiped with her blades, lacerating the serpent’s tail.
It reared back in pain, and she ran. She didn’t need to kill it.
She needed to escape, to find Dominic. To get those bloody ashes and leave.
But she wanted that creature dead. It had toyed with her mind.
It twisted her heart to see her friends again and have them taken away once more, all within minutes of getting them back.
Heart hammering against her ribcage, Adara sprinted down the corridor.
She glanced up at the two massive pillars leaning precariously against one another.
A hiss drew Adara’s attention over her shoulder.
The colossal beast slithered swiftly toward her.
Lifting her hands to the crumbling ceiling, Adara prayed to the gods that her magic would not fail her now.
Fire sputtered out at her fingertips. Whatever strange magic that simmered in the air of the Ruins blocked her power.
Shit, shit, shit. The serpent’s massive fangs snapped at her and she dove out of the way just in time.
She eyed the pillars again, leaping to her feet.
Okay, new plan. Adara positioned herself by the wall that stretched down the lengthy corridor to where the bottom of one of the pillars was lodged against. She waited, heart pounding, hands trembling, breath catching in her lungs.
She pressed two fingers to the pulse on her wrist, then the flame tattoo on her chest, and finally her forehead.
Life, power, soul, she thought to herself. Itryla al rone yi mon taka.
The serpent charged at her. Its maw opened to devour her whole.
Adara lifted Infinova and leaped toward the beast. The blade plunged into the space between its sinister eyes and she used its leverage to vault over its scaly head.
It let out a high-pitched noise as her momentum yanked Infinova from its skin and its face crashed into the wall.
The stone cracked, quavering with the force of the impact, shooting all the way down the corridor to the pillars.
The structures groaned, shifted, and began to fall.
Muscles aching in protest, Adara pushed through the pain, running as fast as she could toward the falling pillars that would squash her like a bug if she wasn’t fast enough.
She discarded her rucksack and the cloak she’d borrowed from Dominic, wishing she had time to finish the water in her canteen, to salvage the dress Dominic bought her, cherish the book and the rose he gifted her, or savor his scent wrapped around her from his cloak one last time.
It felt like she was ridding herself of pieces of him as her pack and cloak hit the floor, but none of that mattered so long as she was fast enough to save him.
Dust and sand fell, its grit clinging to her face. She blinked through the particles pricking her eyes, gritting her teeth as she sprinted. The pillars loomed closer and closer to the ground, where they would strike with such force that the floor would surely collapse beneath her.
But there was a platform on the other side. A landing where stairs had once led. A gnarled tree limb that stuck out over the ledge, surrounded by sand and light.
The serpent’s hungry hiss echoed through the space as it advanced.
The floor rumbled. The ceiling cracked, bolstered only by the massive columns Adara had struck down.
So close, the pillars were so close to striking the ground.
And that beast was so close to catching her.
Its tongue licked at her boots, playing with her.
Blood rushed in her ears. Her heart pounded so hard it felt like it would burst from her chest. Adara didn’t know if she’d make it in time.
A scream split the air. She did not know if it was Dominic’s or hers as she dove beneath the pillars, inches away from crushing her.
Stone tore at her clothes, rubbing her skin raw as she skidded to the other side.
A thunderous boom resounded behind her, followed by a shrill screech that died as soon as it began.
Adara ran and did not look back at the pillars that struck the ground. She didn’t look back at the serpent’s head smashed beneath their bulk, at the ground crumbling beneath her feet from the force of the blow, or at the cavern that shook and shifted and began to perish.
She continued running until her feet hit the ledge. As the floor started to collapse beneath her, she leaped into the open air.
Time stilled as she hung above a chasm, a void of darkness that wanted to devour her whole. Death waited with open arms, but life was a risk she had to take.
Her arms flailed, desperate for purchase as she neared the other side. She held her breath as she fell, arms reaching out.
Her fingertips grazed the branch that overhung the cliff. Her grip met air. Adara opened her mouth in a silent scream as she fell.
Pain barked through her fingers, nails cracking beneath her weight as she slammed into the side of the stone, grappling for leverage under the drifting sand and drizzling rain.
Her shoulder screamed in agony as she hauled herself up, muscles shaking with the effort it took to pull her body up and over the edge.
Her entire body trembled with adrenaline, with fear, with exertion. She wanted nothing more than to collapse onto the ground.
But Adara forced herself to her feet and took off in a sprint as another one of Dominic’s screams rent the night.