Maven tips her head, looking far more curious than alarmed. "What was that?"
"Mania," Crypt shrugs. "It's useless against shadow fiends or monsters and does little against powerful legacies, but it's quite fun whenever weaker legacies are in question."
"I can see that." Then she turns her face to the sky, shielding her eyes from the falling snow. "If you can fly in Limbo, can you get above the maze to look for a way out?"
The incubus tries Maven's idea but returns a moment later, explaining that they have magic wards in Limbo to keep all incubi within the maze. He's barely had time to report back before a fucking wendigo rounds the corner, its howl splitting the air when it sees us.
I've only seen wendigos in pictures. For a moment, I gawk at how intimidating they are in real life. This malevolent, insatiable monster has a huge, skeletal wolf body, bony human-like armsand legs, and a ram's skull for a head with the horns twisted at odd angles. Its eyes glow green as it launches toward us, snarling.
Turn and run like the coward you are, a voice in my head whispers.
No, fight! Cranes do not run, my father's voice snarls.Fight and die. Do not shame our family even more than you already?—
"I saidshut up," I snarl, pricking my finger to draw from the magic in my blood.
Everett throws up an ice shield while I send a wave of malicious magic toward our fiendish foe. It howls in pain but leaps over the thick ice shield, whirling to bare its sharp teeth. Bloodied saliva drips steadily from its hideous snout.
As Everett and I continue to fend off the wendigo, Maven shouts a warning that more shadow fiends are coming. We barely have a moment to process that before a group of vile-smelling, moldering Undead are suddenly upon us, launching themselves with gaping jaws and jagged teeth. Pain flares in my shoulder as one of the fiends digs its broken, rotting teeth into my shoulder.
Before I can even cry out, Maven beheads it with her dagger.
She moves with blinding speed, and as Everett manages to trap the wendigo in an impressively strong cage made of ice, Baelfire and I gawk as we watch Maven in her element. With perfected agility, she slashes, kicks, snaps necks, and leaves the ground littered with the remains of our Undead enemies.
Crypt is enjoying himself, too. He pulls a godsdamnedswordout of Limbo and uses it to cut through several of the Undead horde.
When they're all dead on the ground, with nothing remaining but twitching limbs and severed body parts, Baelfire grimaces. "Those things are fucking nasty."
I glance at Maven with an inkling of suspicion. "You killed those all easily."
"It was fun."
Still…
"That time when we all sparred you at once. You weren't even giving it a real shot, were you? You were taking it easy on us."
She shrugs almost sheepishly. "Sue me. It was just fucking adorable that you all wanted to fight me at once."
Baelfire lights up, turning to Maven. "Hey, if you killed a lot of them, does that mean you can break me out of this collar so I won't be a fucking deadweight?"
"Unfortunately, no," she sighs, kicking aside a twitching leg. "I can only wield life forces. The Undead have already died once, and they're only kept alive by necromancy, so they're useless to me. Aside from them being fun to take out," she adds.
"Agreed," Crypt grins.
"Where did you get that thing?" Everett frowns at the gleaming sword in the incubus's hands as he seals the wendigo's cage. The creature is trapped in a solid block of ice, still howling and clawing to get out.
"This? I've always got it with me. It's enchanted to be both a sword and a lighter, whichever I need more."
We follow Maven's lead further into the maze. She pauses occasionally to determine whether she senses shadow fiends before proceeding down each new path. Screams still resound throughout the sprawling maze, and various roars and inhuman shrieks join the chorus now and then.
It's positively spine-tingling, which is probably why my morbid little blood blossom is smiling to herself as we walk.
Baelfire huffs. "Damn. Where did you get a weapon like that, Stalker Boy?"
"I stole it from Melvolin when I was eight."
Everett snorts. "Melvolin Hearst was an asshole to all of the faculty whenever he was around, including me, so knowing that almost makes me like you."
Crypt gags. "Never say that to me again, Frost."
