I respond with a “thanks” and quickly place my hand on my arm again to try to zone in on my little sis. My brows furrow in confusion.
“What’s wrong?” Knots asks, coming over and looking down at my arm as if he can see the problem written out in place sight.
“I…I can’t pinpoint her now,” I awkwardly announce.
“What do you mean?” Levi demands, joining us.
I shake my head and step back, shaking out my arms to see if maybe it’s just me and I’m overwhelmed. I close my eyes, and I pick up her signature, but it quickly zips off to the left and then to the right.
“It’s as if she’s a compass, and the needle is being fucked with,” I explain. I open my eyes and shrug. “I’m sorry. I get the general direction, but I can’t pinpoint her exact location right now.”
“Okay, that’s fine. What’s her general direction?” Levi asks.
I turn to point, but before I can lift my arm, Knots yells, “Ambush!” and pushes me to the ground.
Embedded in the ground where I stood now is a reaper’s sickle that would have taken my head if not for Knots. Holding the deadly weapon is the first scarecrow with the creepy leather face that we passed. Well, it definitely has limbs now.
What the fuck?
The fog around us quickly grows darker as black shadows quickly pass overhead, and the piercing shrieks alert me that it isn’t fast-closing clouds but Coraravens that are above us. I rollout of the way, shooting up to my feet, and automatically pull my magic to me, forming arrows.
Knots’ sword collides with the sickle as the scarecrow faces off with him, and I hastily back up to give him room. I almost lose my balance as I step on something, and turning to look, I feel my blood drain from my face as I comprehend the busted pumpkin at my feet. But that’s not the worst part. Further away and fast approaching are the Poppa-Corns, but they aren’t alone. Glowing eyes and gruesome, daunting broad smiles converge through the fog as the pumpkins from the other patch join in.
“Levi?” I call out.
“I see them,” he says, as I feel him step beside me. He pulls his staff out of his long jacket like a badass, and a flutter rolls through my stomach.
Nope. You love Zeke, not Levi…just Zeke and Rez.I still take another appreciative look at him in his corset outfit and smirk.But I can appreciate a good-looking man. Hmm, maybe I can pull off the corset look.
Levi’s staff flies up in front of me, pulling me out of my thoughts as it rams into a Coraraven and dives down.Ugh. Head in the game, JP!
I pull back my arm and send arrows flying into the attacking Coraraven and the three behind it. A hair-raising scream pierces the air as the scarecrow with the pumpkin head launches into the air and runs at us with his hands spinning what looks like corn-husk nunchucks. Before I can react, Levi slides in front of me and engages him with his staff, taking on the enemy as if it’s child’s play.
A glint through the fog catches my eye, and I quickly throw up a wall of water before a spike and small fireball speeding my way is efficiently doused.Shit, we’re outmatched.
I send an arrow into each scarecrow to help Knots and Levi when I hear a rustling behind me and turn. A creature walks outof the stalks and stops before me, spreading its leathery wings wide. This definitely isn’t a scarecrow. His body is humanoid, with defined muscles and scars ranging from old to new. Part of his face is missing skin, whereas the other half looks as if he has too much, and it drips off of him. His hands are claws, and his bottom half is part animal, as though I’m looking at a partially shifted werewolf. Behind him are more pumpkin and Poppa-Corn minions.
“Fuck,” I let out under my breath.
Boom!
My jaw drops as my brain tries to catch up to what it’s witnessing. The giant I was just sizing up flies to the left along with his minions and slides a good few feet as I stand in place, wondering what just happened until I hear the best sound in the world.
“He came in like a wrecking ball!” Moni sings at the top of her lungs. I look over to my right, and there, on top of a rhino, is my little sister singing her heart out and sending booms out into the fray like a primadonna.
“To the left, Chesty. Full speed ahead!” she yells, sending out a boom into the corn and knocking away some pumpkins as the rhino barrels into the scarecrow that Knots is fighting.
CHAPTER 22
Level Three- You’re Famine, Start Sucking
Knots
I’m momentarily lost as my opponent disappears in a flash of gray, and a rhino runs past with Moni sitting on top.
“Hi, Knots,” she says in passing, waving jubilantly. My jaw drops as my eyes follow their movements, and the rhino shreds the scarecrow with his horns.
“Yep, that’s Moni, and I’m guessing that’s Chester’s other form,” JP answers my unspoken question.
