Caspar crashed through the brush, rapier drawn, followed by the dwarves. Wormwart came first, his eyes widening when he spotted Nefrim. “God in heaven,” he breathed.
Nefrim wheeled about, crouching his head and snarling at them. “Dwarves,” he sneered, “and a human. Useless creatures.”
Nefrim positioned himself directly in front of her, cutting her off from Caspar and the others. Caspar tried edging around him, but the wolf snapped his teeth, halting his progress.
“She is mine,” Nefrim said.
“I’ll die first,” Caspar spat, leveling his blade.
“Caspar, don’t!” Natalia screamed, but the prince was already charging forward.
He feinted to the left, and the wolf lunged for him, jaws wide, but Caspar rolled to the side, slashing at his muzzle when Nefrim’s jaws clamped shut. The wolf growled, shaking his head, and Caspar darted past, pulling something silver from his belt.
“Snow!” he called, tossing the sheathed sword toward her.
She ran forward, preparing to catch it. Nefrim’s eyes fixed on it, a bloody gash on his muzzle. With a flick of his enormous tail, he knocked the sword out of the air, sending it flying into the undergrowth.
Natalia cursed, sprinting toward it, but Nefrim turned on her, baring his teeth.
“You’ll need a lot more than a sword to beat me,” he said, stalking toward her.
She backed up rapidly, trying to watch where she was going but not wanting to remove her eyes from the massive wolf. Something caught her heel and she stumbled, falling backward.
The forest floor cut up her palms as she scrambled to get away, but she barely noticed. Her throat was so tight she could hardly swallow. Her back slammed into a tree, bringing her to a sudden halt. She tried to scurry around it, but the wolf pounced, planting a leg on either side of her and blocking her path. His teeth hovered over her head, dripping faery blood.
She took a small, shuddering breath.
Nefrim reared his head back and yowled. The sound was deafening, unlike anything she had ever heard, like wails and screams and nails clawing at her skull. He flicked his tail, which was halfway severed and spraying black blood. Wormwart stood behind him; blood was splattered across his grinning face. The ax in his hands was still planted in the ground, tufts of black fur caught beneath the blade.
“Impudent dwarf!” Nefrim hissed, turning on him and growling. As he spoke, shadows swirled around his tail, threaded by purple light. They converged into the wound, piecing it back together. When the smoke cleared, his tail was whole again.
“I wonder if yeh can grow back yer head,” Wormwart said, raising the ax.
The wolf snapped, darting to the side as the ax fell, embedding itself into the ground where Nefrim’s head was a moment before.
“Go fer the head!” Wormwart yelled.
The dwarves came out of the brush, descending upon the wolf like ants. Leaf stayed near the back, firing a crossbow. Arrows whirred through the air, narrowly missing the dwarf’s comrades, who shouted and waved their weapons like savages.
Natalia watched, mesmerized, as the dwarves launched a full out assault on the wolf. Nefrim, his attention divided, bucked and thrashed and snapped at their axes and arrows, hurling bodies left and right only to have them get up and charge him with renewed bloodlust. The ground became slick with blood, and something about that set the dwarves into a killing frenzy. All except Slither. Natalia looked around.
Where is he? I don’t think he ever showed up.
She didn’t remember seeing Nefrim move. It seemed like she blinked, and the next second she found herself on the ground, hands up in front of her face as the wolf snapped and clawed at her. Red energy flared around her hands, shielding her from the attack.
Caspar was screaming her name, though it was hard to hear over the snarling and growling of the wolf. She tried to push back, but Nefrim only came at her harder, almost desperately.
“Give me your heart,” Nefrim moaned.
She gritted her teeth, her entire body straining under the effort of maintaining the shield. Desperate and gravely injured, Nefrim reared and beat against the shield. The light cracked then shattered, and her air was abruptly cut off as the beast planted a paw in her throat.
The pressure in her lungs built up, threatening to explode inside her. Everything around her slowed down. Wormwart yelled, his voice sounding farther away, trying to rally his defeated party.
She tried summoning the energy, but it wouldn’t come because her mind was too starved for oxygen. Black shadows leaked into her line of vision, threatening to consume it whole.
Something sailed above her, burying itself in Nefrim’s eye. He howled with fury, letting up on her throat. Air crashed into her lungs as she gulped down air, coughing and wheezing as she rolled onto her side. The wolf thrashed his head wildly, trying to rid his eyeball of the arrow.
The trees were blurry, and she blinked hard once, clearing her vision somewhat. A pale figure came into focus, bow still aimed, another arrow already notched.
“Via,” Natalia breathed.
The wolf laid his head against the ground, stepping onto the arrow shaft and pulling it free with a harsh growl. A bloody hole remained where his glowing violet eye once was.
“You’ll pay dearly for that,” Nefrim hissed, glaring at Via with his good eye. He sniffed, cocking his head to the side thoughtfully. “You’ve changed, as well. Your aura is different.” He paused, understanding breaking into his voice. “You’re not Charmed anymore.”
“Charmed or not,” Via said, squinting and aiming for him, “an arrow in the eye will still hurt like hell.”
She let the arrow loose and it hurtled toward Nefrim. With remarkable grace, the wolf leapt out of the way, bounding against a tree and launching himself for Via.
“Watch out!” Natalia cried, raising her hands. She was still incredibly dizzy from nearly starving for air, but not so much that she couldn’t focus her thoughts to fire a clean shot of energy. It slammed into the wolf, knocking him to the side while Via sprinted toward them.
“I can hold him off, but I don’t know for how long,” Via said, her crimson cape whirling about her as she turned and narrowed her gaze on Nefrim.
The wolf turned around, crouching low. Had it not been for his single glowing eye, he would have been impossible to see because it was so dark.
Natalia staggered to her feet, coming to stand behind Via. “We can’t leave you here alone to face him. Besides,” she said, casting a quick glance at the faery, “we have an injured comrade.”
“Enough!” Nefrim bellowed. He planted all four paws on the ground, kicked back his head toward the sky, and released an ear-splitting howl.
Natalia gritted her teeth, trying to keep the sound from grating against her eardrums.
The dwarves all dropped their weapons and covered their ears, looking in as much pain as she was.
Impossibly, the forest darkened, turning such a rich shade of black it looked like oil. Soon it was impossible to distinguish even the smallest detail in the immediate area, even with Natalia’s eyes long adjusted to the poor lighting.
“I can’t see!” Natalia yelled.
Beside her, Via gasped. “No,” she whispered.
The howling stopped. Nefrim’s purple eyes stared back at them, the only part of him that was visible. Things scuttled and fluttered all around them, in the air, on the ground, everywhere.
“Something tells me we have more company,” Caspar said. He bumped into Natalia’s shoulder, shifting his weight. All of them – the dwarves, Via, Caspar, and Natalia – clustered into a circle, their backs to one another.
“He’s called Them,” Via said, her voice fragile and frightened.
“Who’s ‘Them’?” Natalia asked.
“The Soulless. The creatures that dwell in the Nether.”
“What sort of creatures?” Caspar asked when something resembling a bat and a squid flew out of the dark, shrieking and hurtling past Caspar’s face as he ducked.
More of the strange, tentacle-laden creatures dived for them, at which the dwarves began swatting. One of the creatures caught hold of Via’s hair, yanking it.
“Ouch!” she said, glaring. “Veebles. Nasty things.”
In front of them, hiding in the dark, the wolf opened its mouth, a slow grin of glowing white teeth spreading over the dark spot where his face was.
Natalia was too caught up watching Nefrim that she didn’t realize something was slithering up her leg until it reached her thigh and sank its fangs in. Shrieking, she kicked her leg out, sending the thing flying back into the dark.
The glowing, toothy grin widened. “Kill them, all but the Charmed one. I need her alive.”
The air erupted with the sounds of hundreds of fluttering wings. Natalia threw up her arms, imagining a dome in her mind around them. A red dome flashed to life as more of the squid-bat things – Veebles – crashed into the shield, throwing themselves at it, and clawing and biting with their circular, leech-like mouths. Around the base of the dome, long, snake-like creatures slithered, wriggling into the dirt and trying to go under the shield’s bottom. A head popped through the dirt on the other side, hissing at them. Wormwart stomped on it, smashing it back into the hole it came from.
Sweat collected on Natalia’s forehead. Her head was beginning to ache with the effort of holding them off. “I don’t know how long I can keep this up!” she shouted.
Caspar slashed at another worm-like thing with his rapier, severing its head. The body flopped about, wriggling sporadically before falling limp. “You can do it!” he yelled, squishing another snake-like creature.
Natalia caught the subtle hint in his voice, the hidden message that said “you have to.”
Hundreds of slimy, furry bodies pressed against the shield, fighting to get in. “You will not succeed,” Natalia hissed at them. “I won’t let you hurt my friends.”
The shield was growing brighter, turning from deep scarlet to pink, to white so pure it was blinding. At first, Natalia thought it was the shield itself, but when she looked at her hands, she saw her skin was the source, glowing like fire.
Thousands of crystals glittered beneath her skin, throwing rainbows on the ground and against the wall of the shield. A low hum vibrated in the air, growing louder and shriller in pitch as the light strengthened. The hum became so loud it made her teeth rattle. So much energy was pouring through her body, like a conduit, making every part of her hurt. She could feel her muscles cramping, feel the tautness of the tendons in her arms, stretching all the way down to her legs. A feeling like floating overcame her as she started to feel light-headed.
A Veedle careened into the shield, and a tiny crack formed.
“Snow, stay strong!” Caspar shouted.
“I’m… trying…” It was an effort to speak because her jaw was tightly clenched. Numbness spread through her, starting in her hands and rolling down her back and into her legs. The crack seemed to spur the Veedles on. They attacked in frenzy, swirling and diving against the dome. Multiple cracks speckled the surface, spider webbing and connecting like a broken mirror.
Time stopped for a few seconds, the silence loud as Natalia gasped, realizing the entire structure was about to come down and they would be eaten alive by these deranged animals.
A sleek shadow darted across the dome, and a Veedle cried out, falling to the ground dead. An arrow protruded from its body. Golden sparks ate away at the part where the arrowhead was embedded in its chest, turning it entirely to ashes. Its remnants blew away in the breeze.
More arrows rained down, striking the Veedles and snakes along the ground. Some arrows were lit, streaming fire through the cluster of nightmarish creatures. They shrieked and flew into each other, catching one another on fire. The fire spread, intermingled with golden ash as the Veedles fell to the ground, faster and faster.
“Quickly now!” a familiar, deep voice shouted. “Light your arrows, archers of Thesperia!”
That voice. I heard it in the woods that day with Tristan.
The Veedles swirled, rounding on their attackers.
The energy building up inside her was too much, like a disease consuming her whole. She had to release it, to get rid of it before she lost herself to pain.
Bending her knees slightly, Natalia crouched, then sprang up with a fierce scream, flinging her arms and the energy along with it. The light blew outward with a boom, throwing back what remained of the creatures and turning them to glittering dust. Golden ashes rained down, swirling and fluttering on the backdraft around them. Her arms were still in the air, and her hair blew about her shoulders as she panted, staring at the now deserted clearing.
Caspar, Via, and the dwarves had been knocked to the ground by the blast. They groaned, sitting up, their faces smudged with dirt. “That,” Caspar breathed, standing up and swaying, “was an incredible display of magic.”
Men shouted around them, and figures moved within the trees, coming toward them. A man stepped into the clearing, and Natalia recognized his peppered hair and stern gaze at once. “Malachite,” she breathed.
A feeling of euphoria, light and uplifting, fluttered in Natalia’s chest right before her legs gave way and she tumbled to the ground. Caspar raced forward, catching her in his arms and lowering her to the ground, resting her neck on the crook of his arm. He pushed her sweat-dampened hair back from her overheated face. “I feel so sick,” she rasped.
Malachite, trailed by several of his men, jogged up to her, his black cloak billowing behind him. “Will she be all right?”
“It’s the magic,” Via said, walking to them and kneeling beside her. Her wide blue eyes were full of sympathy. “Your body isn’t used to it. It’s like exercising too much before your body has had time to build up the strength to match.”
“I had no choice,” Natalia whispered. “I couldn’t let them hurt you.”
Caspar smiled, admiration shining in his eyes. “You were marvelous.”
Via stood. “We should get her back to the cottage and let her recover before –”
She never finished the sentence. The air split open with a black slit, purple lightning crackling around it. Two black paws shot out of the hole, grabbing hold of Via and pulling her in before she could scream.
“Transference. How noble,” Nefrim hissed as Via struggled against him. “You’ve meddled for the last time. Let’s see how much you interfere where I’m taking you.”
Malachite drew his sword, the men around him readying their bows and crouching into defensive positions.
Natalia scrambled to her feet, her head swimming at the sudden movement. “Via!” she cried, stumbling toward the hole.
Caspar grabbed hold of her arm, holding her back. “No, Snow!”
“Let go of me!” She jerked free, running toward Via and trying to summon her magic. Heavy waves of nausea churned in her stomach, pushing bile up her throat, which she swallowed back down.
“Snow…” a small voice whispered.
Her eyes shot up. Via was looking right at her. Terror raked Natalia’s body, sending shivers through her.
“Don’t give in” Via mouthed.
Then she vanished into the darkness and the hole snapped closed with a bolt of purple lightning.
Chapter Twenty
Kindred Spirit
“No!”
Natalia tripped forward, pitching hard onto her elbows and sending sharp slivers of pain up her arms, but she immediately pushed herself upright and kept going. The clearing looked normal, as if nothing had ever happened. Nefrim’s bloody pawprints steamed smoke, evaporating into nothing until they were gone. Natalia stood in the place where the hole in the air appeared, circling with growing confusion. “I don’t understand,” she said. “Where are they?”
Wormwart used his ax to support himself as he climbed to his feet. “Most likely the Nether,” he said, groaning.
“We have to save her,” Natalia said fiercely. “How do we get there?”
“Yeh
can’t,” Wormwart said. “No living creature can set foot in the Nether.”
“We can’t leave her there, not with him!”
“Lady Snow, you have been brave,” Malachite said, stepping forward. “Your courage has saved us all.” His eyes softened, the first time she had seen him look anything but hard and cold. “But sometimes bravery isn’t enough, and there’s nothing you can do about it. I’m sorry.”
Natalia only halfway heard what he said. “I failed,” she said, staring at the spot where Via stood only seconds before.
Malachite shook his head. “Failure, often times, is merely a point of view. To say you failed to save one friend could certainly be considered failure. But when you look around –” he gestured to the gathering crowd “ – at all the lives you saved, then one failure becomes thirty successes.”
Natalia didn’t say anything. She had no idea what to say.
“She’s in shock,” Caspar said, coming up beside her and laying a hand on her shoulder. “Snow?” he asked gently.
Her wide, hollow eyes lifted. “He just took her right in front of me.”
“I know,” Caspar said, squeezing her shoulder. “But there was nothing you could do. You can’t blame yourself for what happened to Via.”
“We’ll get her back,” Natalia said, her gaze strengthening. “I owe it to her.”
A man, one of the marauders, walked up to them. “Lord Malachite.”
“Yes, Jerith,” Malachite said, turning his head.
“There is something you should see.”
Natalia’s eyes darted between them, suddenly very interested in their hushed tones. “What is it?” she asked.
The man looked at her uncertainly, raising his eyebrows at Malachite as if asking for permission.
Malachite nodded, and he turned back to Natalia. “One of the Fey is here. He looks –”
Natalia could have smacked herself. How could she have forgotten? Maybe because you had a massive, man-eating wolf and an army of demons trying to slay you. She scanned the clearing, finding several men clustered around something a few feet away. She walked over, pushing through the crowd.
A White So Red Page 21
