Page 140 of Wraithwound

Now heightened to a degree of pain, her senses warned of the danger approaching, but before she could turn to see what would undoubtably be Malnik lunging for her, she caught sight of the battle beyond.

A scream tore from Laney’s mouth, the note suspended in the air as claws from one of the creatures raked down her back. Riley was somehow on her feet too, feebly waving a short sword at the creatures that had the two women surrounded. Taryk was covered in gore, and the green flames of his sword were close to winking out. Taya fought beside him, her moves restricted as blood dripped from her abdomen. One glance at the darkening grey skies above, and Lena spotted Wyn, locked in battle with some sort of winged monster three times her size.

Lena felt the air flow through her eyelashes as she blinked once, twice. She felt the individual beats of her heart pounding beneath her ribcage as she processed tactical details about the battle raging before her. The seconds dripped by, which gave her an eternity to consider what might happen to her friends and complete the calculations about the odds they faced given the threats surrounding them. All due, no doubt, to the two battle-tested beasts that resided within her.

Then, the distortion in time snapped, an elastic band having reached its capacity to stretch. Lena whipped her head around to see Malnik stalking toward her while murmuring something under his breath. In his clasped hands, a void was forming. Magic. Cross had warned Lena that Malnik had access to it. By the looks of it, he was getting ready to cast some sort of spell, and it would likely be the end of them all.

Runa and Draven rallied their power in response, filling her up with two different kinds of energy that seemed to both repel and strengthen the other. Hers, the familiar glittering black, was more permeable than his, which felt solid, energy that shone a matte black in her consciousness.

Lena understood then that the amount of power they had amassed was meant to kill everyone and everything around them. The only way to ensure her survival, their survival, was to kill them all, humans and creatures alike. It wasn’t an emotional decision. It was the practical one. Malnik would only cease to exist if he didn’t have anyone to draw energy from. Because according to knowledge that drifted in from Draven, Malnik could only pull from those he’d created. Those who had crystals embedded in their skin.

Only two realities were possible now. One where Malnik lived, and they all died, or one where Lena lived, but everyone else died.

Lena glanced over Malnik’s shoulder at Cross, at the devastation on his handsome face. She couldn’t hide her sorrow as she locked eyes with him and saw the same emotion reflected in his. But then a small smile ghosted his lips, and he mouthed four words.

“Hope to live, Alina.” And then he took a step back toward the open portal behind him.

Lena’s heart stopped dead in her chest, a scream building in her throat as she prepared to see him burn alive. But then, the energy inside of her rearranged and instead of black power erupting from her body, a beam of golden light speared from her chest hitting Cross just before he tumbled backward, and the portal winked shut. Malnik’s projected image disappearing with it.

Chapter

Seventy-Seven

“NOOO!” Lena screamed.

“He’s alive,” the voices inside her had melded into one, Runa’s combining with Draven’s to produce a multilayered tone.

“We don’t have any more time. You must free the Goddess to close the portals. Now!” Runa commanded.

Monsters poured from the portals, likely having smelled the blood and fear. Malnik’s creatures now fought other monsters, and her friends were still trapped in the melee. At least they had retreated closer to where she stood.

“I won’t leave them out there!” she shouted back at them.

“We don’t have much left to give you; we used the majority of our power to save him,” they said.

Runa’s annoyance accompanied the statement, no doubt thinking human lives were hardly worth saving, but Lena let her know it was not up for debate with a push of emotion.

“Is there anything left?” she pleaded.

Lena didn’t have to say any more before a ball of black energy gathered in her palm. It was smaller than the ones she’d wielded before, but she didn’t care. She found she didn’t need to direct it with her hand any longer. The new hollow part in her mind pulled up details for muscle memory that didn’t belong to her. Instead, her will was sufficient in knowing where to direct the power.

She blasted a smaller creature that had crept up on Riley and Laney. It had a long snout and a red, forked tongue that slithered on the ground toward them. It was a weak blast but helpful, nonetheless.

A few more blasts cleared the way for the women to reach her. Taryk and Taya were further out, surrounded by so many different beasts Lena only managed to locate them by the glow of green flames, which she suspected was the only thing keeping the creatures at bay. She whistled for the eleuth, who’d finished clawing the eyes out of another beast. Wyn’s head snapped in her direction, and she flew toward them, claws and teeth dripping black blood as she joined Laney and Riley under the covered walkway away from the danger. None of the monsters approached the walkway, and Lena suspected it was due to the strangeness of the portal that opened to the Tower of Two Worlds: the Goddess’s Untethered Temple.

Lena ran for Taryk and Taya, dodging beast and portals alike. She screamed for them hoping to get their attention, but before she could reach them, a set of jaws clamped around her thigh.

Lena went down but before the animal could rip the flesh off her bones, Runa and Draven sent a blast of onyx power that disintegrated everything within a six-foot radius. But the blast came with a warning: it was the last of their power.

Taryk and Taya fought their way over to the scorched circle. Taryk was nearly carrying Taya as her leg dragged uselessly behind her. The wound in Lena’s own leg burned fiercely, but it wasn’t life threatening. She’d been bitten by one of the monsters with the needle-like teeth, but it’d been smaller than the rest. They fled from the monsters who ate each other, roaring, snarling and clicking behind them, and some were even swallowed by portals that blinked open for a second and then shut. When they finally reached the others, Riley was on the ground, unmoving, and Laney hung suspended by her throat, gasping for air as Demara held her a foot above the ground.

“Let her go!” Taryk bellowed as he deposited Taya on the floor near Riley before stalking toward them.

“Come any closer and I’ll snap her neck,” Demara told him, her voice full of malice. But the Aurynn looked pale and weak.

Lena checked in with Runa and Draven, but the answering disappointment from within let her know they truly had nothing else to give. Lena took a step toward the Aurynn, if she could only get close enough— but Demara’s head snapped to her.

“I’m not going back,” she said, although her voice sounded different than it had been a moment ago when she’d addressed Taryk. It was full of warning and something like familiarity. But Lena didn’t have time to consider what it meant. A glint of steel shone from between the two women and then the Aurynn roared.