Zahara contemplated. Then, the tension in her face slowly dropped in resignation.
“Do it now,” she demanded through clenched teeth.
Noctis summoned his powers from within, a pause in his movements as he focused. When his palms flew forward, four Xemaari pummeled through the air, their bones scattering across the sandy ground with a thump. It left almost thirty turning their cracking necks toward the top of the hill. Towardus.
Then, they marched.
“Oh, gods,” I breathed as the guards moved in sync, advancing. “Do it again.”
Noctis shot another blast of air toward them, but only another three tumbled, shattering from formation. Sweat dripped down his forehead in beads, but he focused and hit another four.
The Xemaari advanced, unfazed that their lines broke or that their members shattered to pieces. The forward most guard raised its fleshless arm, and the army halted on silent command.
The ground convulsed violently, and I lost my breath at the sight of the fragments of bone that shifted and pulled at each other like a magnet. The pieces mended seamlessly, locking jointsback in place and soldering broken bones. The skeleton guards Noctis worked to destroy formed back and closed in.
“Oh, shit,” the god murmured underhis breath.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“We don’t back down,” Zahara quivered through clenched teeth.
It’d be impossible to back out anyway, not that I’d ever leave Calvin in the morose Bound.
We crouched before the Xemaari, blades raised in hand. I bounced on my toes, a cold sweat running down my spine, limbs refusing to obey as we watched the fleshless soldiers march on.
If Jun were serious that receiving the trident pieces from the other Bounds would be more challenging, we definitely wouldn’t survive those missions either.
But a raging storm of fury churned in my chest, threatening to spill over, so I waited with the others and squeezed the daggers in my palms. Every second with the crew taught me a little more about the mechanics of the world, how the gods worked with ill intentions, and even more about myself. I would fight to keep what little peace and contentment I’d gained with them. We would work to capture the trident piece, get Calvin back, and hopefully, return the crew all in one back to Zahara’s ship.
Or, I would die trying.
Noctis slumped to his knees, his power drained, sweat soaking through his thin white tunic. His chest heaved, but he quickly regained his composure and pulled both swords from along his back.
The other gods shouldn’t really fault him for his defiance. He was sculpted as the perfect image of a warrior, even staring down dire consequences.
The first line of guards lifted their chipped, rusted swords. Their jaws worked in tandem, yet no sound escaped except the brittle clanking of their bones and the sloshing of their decaying boots as they left divots in the sand.
Noctis and Jun plunged into the line, layered eruptions biting through the simmering air, metallic blades cracking together in harmony, except only haunting dissonance would come from the battle. They tore into the guards with ease, ripping their bones apart with brutal hits. The guards swarmed the two men, so Zahara and I sprung into action, attacking from behind.
My dagger’s hilt drove into the back of a Xemaari soldier, splitting it in half as its spine and ribs that connected the two sections shattered. Another marched forward, splinters ripping through its skull, reminding me of the glowing scars that also fractured Noctis’s features.
Chills skittered over my blistering skin, a rushing blast of cool air hovering against me. Even in the midst of battle and exhaustion wracking him, Noctis never dropped the power that swarmed around cooling my frazzled body.
Jun spun his sword above his head and brought it down on a Xemaari, its skull snapping off its spine and rolling across the sand. He threw himself into another attack, shoving his shoulder into an advancing creature until its bones scattered across the ground. Zahara advanced toward him, ripping the joints apart of those attacking her in rageful, jerking movements.
Noctis separated himself, taunting a group of Xemaari away from us as he flipped his sword, slashing it through the air. He threw his blade toward the first creature, only to meet air as the soldier flew backwards.
The ground jostled, pulling the scattered bones into a heap and fusing them back into full skeletons. Every strike tore them apart, splitting bone from bone, but it never lasted. The fragments shuttered, dragged back together by something unseen, stitching themselves whole again and again.
This was pointless.I needed to make a call and do something bolder that wouldn’t end in our inevitable downfall. Because fighting the Xemaari would only wear us down until we were killed.
I bolted in the opposite direction toward the shrine, praying that I wasn’t wrong. The cool breeze that drifted around my body fell, Noctis’s power out of reach as I crested the hill again.
Crouching low with a leg extended to slide down the massive drop, I threw my body into the steep decline of sand. The entrance to the cave yawned from the dune as if carved by ancient hands, welcoming and taunting me to enter. The same unrecognizable runes covered the hardened walls, etched in jaggedly like they were in a hurry to be placed.
Uneven gritty stonework stretched into the stilled darkness as if charged with quiet magic, each footstep echoing like a sickening whisper. Columns of lithified sand rose from ground to ceiling, a stark contrast to my expectations looking at the temple from outside.
I sprinted, uncontrollably searching for Calvin around each pillar, but the cave stretched for miles. A booming clammer rang through, and I slowed, ears straining to trace the origin of the sound.
