“Come on.” Before waiting for a response, I dashed east to Artton who’d been surrounded by half a dozen of them.
“Hey!” I screamed, trying to get them to face me so I could target their beady, black devil eyes.
“Seriously?” Tarrin groused from my side, catching up to me now that I’d stopped.
“What?” I said, brow raised, as one of the beasts shifted their gaze to me. “Gotcha,” I breathed and let my blades fly, only this time the beast was fast. Unnaturally so. Not only did he dodge my blades, but it looked as if a gash to his neck was healing.
“That’s not good,” Tarrin said.
We both crouched into our fighting stance.
Having missed their target, it took a bit longer for the magical daggers to nestle back into my bandolier. Imbuing two more, I released them at the beast, who was no more than twenty paces away. Its massive strides chewed up the ground in a hurry, and he hurtled toward us with a deafening roar—it was then I noted its eyes glowed an eerie red.
Just as the daggers struck true, the beast rolled out of the way. It was up in a flash, headed right for us. Panicking, I sent flames so hot that the dazzling white ball was almost blinding as it scorched the earth a few feet below without ever touching it.
At my side, Tarrin raised his sword, readying for battle.
“This one is different,” I panted.
“Red eyes,” he confirmed. “And apparently a bitch to kill.”
“Ahhhhh,” Sidrick yelled, and focus darted to him. He’d killed two more, but claw marks slashed straight through his leathers and down his back.
“Sidrick!” I shrieked taking a step toward him only to be tackled by Tarrin, the move hauntingly close to when he’d saved me from Thaddeus. Focus snapping back to the flames as we fell, the wild beast emergedthroughthem like some vengeful hellhound, completely unfazed as it jumped through it, landing where we’d just been.
Rolling off me, Tarrin laid flat facing up, and dug the hilt of his sword into the ground. Lifting his opposite shoulder, he grimaced as his grip closed further up on the blade to brace it at the right angle. I winced, knowing there was no other way to achieve what he’d planed; and damnation, I wished he had fae healing, knowing the sharpness of a blade didn’t discriminate when it came to splitting flesh, even if you were its master. Anticipating what would happen next, I held my breath and prayed to the gods of old to let it work.
In a blink, the beast’s momentum carried him into the sword’s path, and a gut-wrenching sound full of hate and malice like I’d never heard before rippled through the land as it impaled itself on Tarrin’s sword right through its heart. As if puppet strings had been snipped, the demon went limp. I swung my legs around, kicking it hard on the side with both boots so Tarrin wasn’t crushed.
The leaves shattered under its weight before the valley went silent, our heavy breaths the only sound.
Sidrick’s crunching footsteps came closer as he jogged toward us. Blotting out the sun, his broad silhouette reached a hand down to me, which I gladly accepted. Once up, he did the same for Tarrin, who grunted with the effort.
“Let’s get the fuck out of here,” Tarrin said, then winced as hewiped his blade as clean as he could on the ground before re-sheathing it.
“Agreed,” Sidrick said.
“Let me do a quick check on your wounds first,” I said, slipping the pack off my back and grabbed bandages for Tarrin’s hand. As he flipped his hands over for me to tend to them, I sucked in a sharp breath. “Stars, Tarrin! Any deeper and you could’ve severed muscle.”
He shrugged. “It was that or become lunch meat.”
I poured alcohol on his wound in response, not hiding my smirk when he hissed.
“And your back?” I asked Sidrick, splitting my focus.
“I’m fine. Is already healing, and I think my leathers mended.” He turned for me to look.
“Yeah, your leathers are fine,” I confirmed, wrapping Tarrin’s palm several times. “There,” I said, throwing the supplies back in my bag and swinging it back on.
Conjuring water, I washed the blood off my face and leathers as best I could. When I was done, I created a large sphere of water and gulped it down. “Ah.” I sighed, wiping my bare arm across my mouth.
I looked up to find my companions staring at me with cocked brows. “What?” I said, glancing between them.
“By all means, Ny. Don’t mind us. We love being bathed in the blood of our enemies,” Tarrin quipped.
I gave them a sheepish grin. Conjuring water had become second nature during training that I hadn’t even thought about it now. “Sorry,” I said, both of them looking at me expectantly.
As I raised my hands, Sidrick motioned for me to stop. I froze, suddenly alert. The commander put a finger to his mouth, indicating for us to stay silent. I followed his intense gaze over my shoulder to the eastern side of the aspen forest flanking us on three sides.
