Sick guilt twisted my stomach. “They must have followed me when I skimmed here from Boston. I’m so sorry.”
Deanna laid a hand on my shoulder. “It was an honest mistake.”
Her instant forgiveness did little to soothe my guilt. I was an idiot. We weren’t ready yet. We’d planned to take the fight to them with a surprise attack, but they were coming to us. We hadn’t had enough time to train. The Rakken were going to tear us apart.
Deanna leaned over my shoulder. “It says the attack will be at the Blood Moon.”
“What’s the Blood Moon?” I asked.
The deep creases in her brow drew deeper. “It’s the convergence of the Autumnal Equinox, a full eclipse and a harvest moon,” she said. “All three haven’t happened for a hundred years.”
I had a vague memory that the Equinox had to do with the moon being near the equator, and it happened sometime in September. But the rest of it was lost on me.
“If you’re going to do something with a lot of power,” Casius added, his voice distant with stress, “you try to align it with an astrological event. The bigger the event, the more potent the magic.”
“When is it?” I asked.
Their expressions were pinched. Deanna grimaced. “Tomorrow night.”
“We’re not ready for this,” Casius said. “We need to run while there’s still time. We have families and children here.”
Casius was right; we weren’t ready. But we couldn’t keep running and waiting for them to find us. We were as strong as we were ever going to be, and I couldn’t afford to wait any longer. I needed to help Silas, and Atticus couldn’t stay undercover forever. It was now or never.
“If Titus knows where we are, he’ll have people watching us,” I said. “They’ll just follow us wherever we run. They think we don’t know about the attack. We can build up our defenses here and attack from behind our shield. We still have the element of surprise on our side.”
Casius chewed on his lip. “You’re suggesting a counterattack.”
Deanna raised her eyes to the ceiling in thought. “We can quietly evacuate the families. We’ll have the defenses of the town and the advantage of surprise. And we have Mae as our Anchor, giving us the full power of the Circle. I agree with Maeve. We stay and fight.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Two hundred pairs of eyes were glued to the horizon and the giant bloodred moon. It loomed over us and cast a bright light over the grim faces around me. It was the night of the Equinox.
Over the past twenty-three hours, a steady stream of people had left on foot from an underground tunnel that connected the Town Hall to a hidden exit miles away from the town. They left in small groups, without using magic. Casius had had the foresight to build the tunnel when they’d first settled in the town. Families had said hasty, fearful goodbyes and fled, leaving behind only those who could fight.
We’d been busy organizing ourselves and reinforcing our shield. Each person who remained in the town was assigned to a group with a specific responsibility during the attack. Thomas led the first and largest group, which was focused on maintaining the town’s shield, our primary defense. They were camped out within the bell tower and were also in charge of our alert system. If everything went to hell and the shield collapsed, they would be in charge of the cut-and-run signal.
The second group included those who’d excelled in the offensive training to engage the Brotherhood on the ground. Casius led them, dividing them into four subgroups stationed around the town. They planned to stay behind the shield. If it came down to hand-to-hand combat, my group would have already failed miserably.
We were tasked with diverting as much magic as possible from the Brotherhood. I’d already warned everyone not to absorb too much of the Brotherhood’s magic at once and risk becoming incapacitated from the tainted energy. I hoped they would remember that when the temptation hit. Simply put, we had to drain their magic before they broke through our shield, but we would have to be careful about it.
The thirty-five people in my group stationed ourselves on the roof of the Town Hall, which gave us enough height to survey the entire town. We had no idea where the attack would come from, and the visual clarity would help. We were joined by Deanna, the other five members of the Circle, and a handful of people who had enough power to skim and convey information between all of the groups stationed throughout the town.
Crouched in our positions, every person bristled with weapons and grim determination. In addition to Ripper strapped to my thigh, I had a second knife and four small throwing blades in a custom Rambo-style holster. I rolled my shoulders, shifting the straps crossed over my back. We were as prepared as we could be while we waited.
I chewed on the inside of my cheek as I watched the giant red moon. It was aptly named. The color of it was ominous, truly the color of blood. I tried not to think of it as a bad sign, but blood would be spilled. I had talked my people into fighting, when all they knew was years of running, and there was a very real possibility I was about to get us all killed. I puffed out the air trapped in my cheeks and pushed back my doubts. It was too late to turn back.
I peeked over the roof’s ledge and trained my eyes on the town’s perimeter, expecting the Brotherhood to skim into sight at any second. Around us in every direction, golden-headed grain waved in the cool night breeze, rippling like an ocean tide. Nothing had broken the still night. We would need to implement shifts soon. There was no use staying up all night and exhausting ourselves before the Brotherhood showed.
A bell rang out from the church spire.
One toll: South.
I twisted and found a portal shimmering into existence several hundred yards south of the town. Voices called out as everyone spotted it. The now-rippling surface reflected the red moon like blood in water. I held my breath at the unexpected sight.
The red surface shimmered, and a pack of Rakken bounded out of the portal. Silently, they dropped into the cornfield and disappeared between the tall stalks.
The air grew thick with silence as we waited for them to reemerge.
The first beast flew out of the field and slammed headfirst into the shield at the town’s southern border. It shrieked, and the dome flickered, sending ripples of energy crackling across the surface.
The rest of the pack reached the shield and attacked with their powerful, razor-sharp claws. The heavy impacts were audible, even from our hiding spot on the rooftop, and sent energy sizzling across the shield with each blow.
The fighters on the ground conjured waves of high-energy magic at the Rakken. Thomas had managed an impressive modification to the shield, essentially reversing it to allow our magic to escape outward while still keeping anything magical from getting in. He was a freaking genius. Moving in pairs, our fighters lobbed their magic at the beasts. One fell with an ear-splitting screech, and the other Rakken retreated into the grain.
I let out a relieved breath. The shield had held.
I turned to my assigned communicator, a young man named Justin, who was just barely out of his teenage years. He grimaced as he watched the field.
“When the Rakken attack again, tell our people to draw the energy away from them. Remind them not to absorb it if possible.”
He shook out of his stupor, nodded with determined bravado, and skimmed to the ground to relay my instructions.
The bell tolled twice. East. I pivoted, searching for the cause. A second portal opened and spewed black insects the size of cats. Thousands of them swarmed over a harvested field like a slow, dark wave flowing toward the town. Jerky movements on spiky limbs caught the moonlight, which reflected off their hard, shiny shells. Each shell segmented, sliding like overlapping plates of armor across their backs. Serrated pincers longer than their torsos extended on each side of their heads, dripping thick yellow mucus.
The large, twitching mass of insects spread into a neighboring field. The slime that dripped off their foot-long pincers was some kind of acid, melting and setting fir
e to everything it touched. Flames consumed the dry stalks, and smoke and fire spread behind the insects through the fields.
On the ground, the closest offensive team conjured a ball of energy the size of a small horse and blasted it at the horde. It slammed against their hard shells. The energy unwound and fizzled across their backs, skittering harmlessly across the group like strands of white lightning. The creatures didn’t even slow.
I had once heard that a cockroach could survive a nuclear blast. I swore in frustration.
The fighters on the ground switched tactics and attempted absorbing the magic from the creatures. I couldn’t tell if any of them fell; the swarm was too thick to identify individuals.
The front line inched to the town’s perimeter, jerking and clicking and hissing. The shield would have to withstand another attack.
We waited anxiously for the slow-moving tide to hit the barrier.
The shield didn’t even flicker as they went right through it.
What the hell?
An alarmed cry rose from the people on the ground. They scrambled back as the insects swarmed past our primary defense. A man on the ground disappeared under a sea of black before our people broke and scattered. They clutched at blistered limbs and melted clothing, trying to get away from a scorching wave of heat riding with the swarm.
I watched in horror as several people were swallowed under the assault in mere seconds.
“The bugs aren’t magic!” I yelled. The shield kept out foreign magic of any kind, but a regular person could to walk right through—or a nasty, acid-dripping creature transported from another realm.
The heat surrounding the horde forced our people to dodge forward and back with barely any time to make contact, cutting down one or two at a time before retreating. It wasn’t enough. The giant, flaming cockroaches skittered across the field closest to the town, lighting everything in their path on fire. There was nothing we could do from where we were.
Their hard shells deflected our magic assault and a good portion of our weapons. The mindless insects didn’t react or try to avoid the blows. As soon as an insect fell, ten more swarmed over its carcass.
“Redirect them!” Casius yelled. “Fall back and create barriers. Turn the group to the field!”
The message was relayed, and the fighters engaged them with swords and machetes, while others retreated in a disjointed effort to create barriers. Casius swore and started relaying more detailed orders through several messengers at once, trying to organize the efforts on the ground.
Screeches from the south drew my attention. The Rakken had taken up a new tactic, rushing forward and taking turns as they clawed at the shield then ran back for cover. Our people pummeled them with magic, but the beasts were smart as men and quick as animals, dodging the random attacks. The shield wavered with every contact, and I wasn’t sure how long it would hold. I didn’t have much time to worry about it before the insects reached the first line of buildings. Acid hit the side of a wooden house, and it burst into flames. Within minutes, two neighboring buildings caught fire.
In all our planning, we’d never anticipated this kind of attack. We’d planned for the Brotherhood and the Rakken, but the non-magical insects from some hellish realm were going to burn the town down around our ears.
“Tell Tamara’s group to put out the flames,” I directed a messenger.
“Thomas, get that portal closed!” Deanna yelled.
Good idea. We didn’t want any more unexpected surprises coming through.
The bell tolled three times. I swore and scanned the horizon for the new threat. A portal on the northwest side appeared in the sky, creating a third bloodred pool of liquid hell. It tossed out five flaming creatures flying on jagged, leathery wings. Each one was the size of a minivan and burned red with energy. They looked like prehistoric birds on fire. The firebirds swooped high into the air, arched, and dove at our shield. Moonlight filtered through the thin skin of their wings, illuminating red skin and veins, turning the air crimson around us.
Holy hell.
They tore at the shield with their claws, and the magic flickered.
Our defenders cast magic at the firebirds. One of them snatched a ball of energy right out of the air, and it disappeared in its claws. A second one swooped down at the top of the shield, raking its claws along the dome. The whole thing dimmed.
“They’re absorbing the magic!” I yelled. “Pull the energy from them before the next attack!” With my group, I focused on absorbing energy from the firebirds before they broke through the shield. The birds were too far away. They were only exposed to our abilities when they dove toward the shield to steal its power. We had only seconds before they rose high in the air on strong, powerful wings, once again out of our range.
I grimaced and swore. We couldn’t catch a break.
The screeching of the Rakken stopped, and my ears rang with the lack of sound. I turned back to the east to check on the beasts. They were tearing up the ground, digging a tunnel under the shield.
“How far down does the shield go?” I demanded.
“About five feet,” Thomas said, his attention also locked on Rakken. “We never thought about this possibility.”
Damn it. We should have extended the shield. We just hadn’t had enough time to think of everything.
“Focus on the Rakken!” I directed my group.
We absorbed the demonic beasts’ energy, spreading the disgusting magic between us to minimize the effect, and together we took out two Rakken before the rest of the pack tunneled underground. They slipped in faster than I could count them. A half dozen, maybe, were headed under the shield and into our town. Three different threats from three different portals. Dozens of buildings burned as the horde of insects followed the fighters through town. The firebirds ripped at our shield from above, and the Rakken were digging under it.
I couldn’t believe the hell the Brotherhood had just rained down on us. Powering three portals would take an insane amount of energy, even with the help of a Blood Moon. And Titus was still out there, waiting for his turn. I focused myself. We had to deal with the problems we knew about, starting with the Rakken about to break into our town.
I scanned our rooftop until I found my aunt overlooking the south side. “Deanna! You have to get the people off the ground before the Rakken break through!”
“Everyone to the rooftops!” Deanna commanded, projecting her voice with magic.
The message spread, and people rushed for the buildings. Those with enough power to skim escaped to the highest rooftops. Everyone else ran for the lower structures, clambering up the sides or running inside the houses.
“Higher!” I screamed at the people. “Get to the roofs!”
My voice was lost in the noise of attack.
The Rakken clawed their way under the shield and bounded into the town. Inhumanly shrill screams rattled my bones. Four monsters chased after a group of people racing for our building. It was a matter of seconds before they would be overrun.
There wasn’t any time to draw out their life magic or conjure an energy ball and redirect it at the Rakken. I skimmed down to the ground and loosed three of my throwing knives into the face of the closest Rakken. One lodged in its left eye, catching the monster by surprise. It stumbled and fell to the ground. The other Rakken leapt over their fallen comrade, and I dodged out of the way before they ran me down.
My messenger, Justin, skimmed next to me with weapons in hand. He attacked a Rakken with a broad machete, but the blows didn’t even slow it down. An almost casual swipe of the beast’s claws ripped Justin’s stomach open. I raced toward him with Ripper, but the Rakken tore him apart before he even hit the ground.
The rest of the demons caught the group of fleeing people, and the sounds of screams and tearing flesh carried over their inhuman howls. Five people were dead in a matter of seconds. Blood and gore soaked into the ground as the Rakken feasted, completely ignoring me a dozen paces away.
Up the stre
et, three Rakken screeched as they scaled the outside of a two-story building, where a half dozen people had sought refuge on top of a low balcony. Claws sank into the side of the building as the monsters scrambled up the vertical face. The people were trapped. Judging by the intensity of their flares, they didn’t have enough power to skim on their own. Some prepared to jump and make a run for it.
A knot tightened in my gut. I had to do something. I skimmed to the low roof just as the first Rakken clawed its way over the top. It snarled and opened its giant maw like a snake, unhinging its jaw, revealing razor-sharp teeth.
The woman nearest me screamed.
I held out my hands. “We’re skimming to the Town Hall!”
I had no idea if I needed physical contact, but it was how I’d taken Aria through the protective barrier of the Council Centre. We didn’t have time for a consultation. Six pairs of hands gripped me.
I gritted my teeth and pulled the magic from all the Rakken around me—the three on the roof and the ones down on the street closest to us. The magic obeyed my call, crashing into me with a wave of sick, dark energy. I resisted the urge to absorb the power and redirected the magic into a skimming spell.
The rooftop shifted and fell away. The group of us landed on the Town Hall in a heap, and I barely caught myself before I face-planted. Carrying that many people took a huge amount of energy. My lungs were on fire, as if I’d just run a marathon.
Excited cheers and whoops greeted us. People clapped me on the back, knocking the remaining breath out of me.
“You’re crazy!” Deanna yelled with a huge smile. “I’ve never seen anyone do that.”
I sat down on the roof, draping my arms over my knees, determined not to move for as long as possible. The people I rescued hugged their neighbors. A small victory, but it was worth it. Nothing else had gone right for us since that first portal had opened. We needed to regroup and take out the Rakken. We couldn’t let them or the fire bugs force us outside of our shield into the arms of the Brotherhood.
Fate Forged Page 33
