Elena wasn’t paying attention because she was busy conjuring arrow after arrow to plant into Kendric’s body. The man was looking worse for the wear but still surprisingly fit for someone who was bristling with arrows.
How was he doing it? Even powerful dreamwalkers couldn’t take the kind of damage Kendric was without getting completely drained. Either the man was talented beyond all reason, or he had some help or some trick keeping him alive.
Clayton would have been content to allow his parents to finish Kendric off at their leisure, but Elena was bleeding heavily from a gash on her chest, and the fist Naerith used to cheer Clayton on was clearly broken.
Even though he wasn’t showing critical damage, Kendric no longer had a smug, triumphant expression and was throwing bursts of raw magic at Clayton’s parents. Both of them worked together to dodge each one to the best of their ability, like a well-oiled machine.
Their combat style was a thing of beauty, and Clayton could have gotten lost in it if it weren’t for the fact that, as battered as Kendric was, his parents were slowly losing. More of Kendric’s attacks were landing as Elena and Naerith grew more exhausted, but Clayton was busy raining fire upon the fae besieging his boat.
Could he help his parents and protect his kids at the same time?
Why the fuck not?
Clayton let a small sliver of his attention separate from taking down every last fucker who dared to kidnap children and feed them to monsters and let it hover over Kendric.
Did Clayton know how he’d done it? No.
Was he going to try to figure it out? Extreme and hard no. He was Clayton, he had probability magic, he could do whatever he wanted, and he was going to keep believing that until everyone he loved was safe.
Amid the screaming wails of deserving assholes burning to death and the soul-shaking roars of countless demons being consumed by Mal, Clayton caught a faint hum of energy coming from Kendric.
It wasn’t so much a sound as a vibe. It was subtle, but something about it told Clayton that it didn’t belong to Kendric. It was on the man’s body, but it wasn’t part of his body.
Clayton honed his focus down to scan Kendric and pinpointed the location of the hum. It was coming from his right hand, the one releasing blast after blast of raw magic without rest.
The hand was gloved, unlike Kendric’s left hand. Something about the glove was giving Kendric an advantage in the fight, and Clayton was going to take it away from him.
“His hand!” Clayton shouted to his parents. “Get his glove!”
However, the noise from the battle raging around them kept Clayton’s voice from reaching them.
He let his split focus fade and checked in on how many warriors he had left to take out. His spellfire had taken down over half of the forces against them, and all the survivors were cowering under whatever shelter they could find.
Clayton decided to trust in Holly’s shield and the fear he’d inspired to keep the surviving soldiers at bay for the moment. He ended the spellfire and leaped away from the stalactite to fall to the cavern below.
The floor was littered with rocks and broken stalactites, and Clayton happened to land on the edge of a long, broken stalactite lying against a rock. As he landed, his body weight was just enough to cause the stalactite to swing down like the highend of a seesaw, slowing Clayton’s descent and allowing him to land safely. When he stepped off, the end of the stalactite flew upward once more, and the bottom slammed down on a fae warrior attempting to make a break for the portal.
There was a horridthunklike a bat hitting a rotten pumpkin as the man’s head was smashed.
Clayton was now behind Kendric and within his parents’ line of sight. Elena’s eyes flew wide with fear, and Naerith made a subtle shake of his head to tell Clayton not to interfere.
Clayton rolled his eyes. Had he not just shown how awesome and useful he was? Naerith’s expression grew hard, and he shook his head again and mouthedleave.
If Kendric hadn’t been busy trying to blast them into oblivion, he would have noticed the interaction, but he wasn’t likely to miss that Clayton was behind him for much longer.
Clayton could try and attack the man who’d destroyed his life and stolen his childhood, but he was pretty sure his parents needed the kill more than he did, so he pointed at Kendric’s back, then pointed to his own right hand and mimed slicing it off.
Understanding flashed across both his parents’ faces, and finally, Kendric noticed something was off. When he turned slightly, Elena and Naerith both went for Kendric’s right hand. Elena’s arrow struck it seconds before Naerith’s fiery blade sliced it off, and Clayton gave Kendric’s stunned face a wave.
As Kendric’s hand hit the ground, it swelled, exploding out of the glove and morphing into something gray and grotesque.
A rotten smell flooded the area, and Clayton covered his nose, trying not to gag. The hand flopped around wildly as if trying to scuttle away, but Elena’s arrow kept it from gaining enough leverage to escape.
Two more arrows buried themselves in the hand, and Elena gave Clayton a fierce grin. “Thanks, baby. Mom and Dad will take it from here.”
“P-please, sister…” Kendric stuttered as he tried to back away.
“I’m not your sister,” Elena snarled.
