“It’s you,” she said to him.
“What’s she doing?” he said as Ouda’s mouth fixed around Honey’s face. Ouda’s petrification-inducing whine was dulled and Damion’s arms moved slightly, but as if in slow-motion.
“Oh, that’s not good,” Magda muttered.
Kaelan lurched forward, shaking one of the swords loose from its sheath.
Magda retracted her own blades, clamped down on his arm, and ripped the sword out of his hand. “hold on to me.”
“She’s killing Honey!”
Magda took his hand and hooked his fingers into her waistband. “Don’t let go.”
She charged forward, dragging Kaelan like a Pixie Prince-shaped anchor. When she stopped, he slammed into her. She wobbled, trying not to topple into Ouda.
She sliced Kaelan’s blade through Ouda, but the fine curved sword simply passed through her stomach and out her back. The creature didn’t break away or even flinch from Honey, who had lost rigidity and hung slack, only held upright by Ouda’s leeching mouth.
As she feared... a normal sword wasn’t going to stop this creature. Fortunately, her blades were not normal weapons. Each was unique, each had magical properties. She just so happened to be in possession of a blade made for less substantial creatures.
She unleashed the tiny ghast blade from her left pinky, thrusting the bluish knife up into Ouda’s side, and was rewarded with the pressure of the blade hitting something solid.
Ouda’s mouth broke away from Honey, who dropped to the ground in a heap.
Ouda spun, clutching the wound in her side, which did not bleed, but shone with white light. She shrieked at Magda. The force of the howl threw Magda and Kaelan up and away to the very rim of the hollow. Magda landed on top of a fallen log. A black toad hopped over her back, leaving a slimy puddle of glue-like stickiness dripping between her shoulder blades.
Ouda’s whine started up again, thickening Magda’s thoughts and making it impossible for her to sit up.
“Magda.” Kaelan gripped her arm, breaking Ouda’s power over her again. “Look.”
Magda lifted her head with a groan. Down on the forest floor, Lavana and a dozen of her warriors were frozen in mid-dismount.
“Fuck.”
Kaelan dragged her up off the log. “You hurt her with your knives.” He gave her a bit of a jerk, as if he was going to fling her back into the hollow. “You have to kill her.”
Ouda floated down over Honey again, lowering her oversized mouth to Honey’s slack face once more.
Kaelan’s fingers dug into Magda’s arm. “You have to help her.”
“I know! I know!” She rolled her shoulders. The toad’s ooze was starting to harden. The fat bugger had the nerve to hop onto her foot, staring up at her with its bulbous smirking toad eyes. She glanced down at Lavana, locked in mid-stride.
“Grab this toad,” she said.
“Huh?”
“Do it!”
He reached down with his free hand, never releasing her. The toad let out a startled erping sound and tried to jump away, but Kaelan caught him.
“Come on.” She jerked him down the opposite slope towards Lavana.
“What about Honey?”
“She’ll have to hang on or we’ll all be dead, so it won’t matter! Just keep a grip on me and don’t touch Lavana.”
She stormed down to her cousin. Kaelan stumbled along behind her. Trying not to lose momentum, she swooped down and slammed her shoulder into Lavana’s waist. Heaving Lavana up over her shoulder, Magda swung around, almost losing Kaelan in the process.
“What are you doing?” Kaelan asked as he clung to her elbow.
