by S. D. Grimm
He leaned forward and turned his head so his good ear could hear what she said. Still, he couldn’t understand her. He approached her slowly. “Hey, Quinn?”
Her head jerked toward him, and she shrank back until her eyes focused on him. She shivered. “It’s coming.”
“What’s coming?” The threat in his chest warmed, and his heart thrummed. “We should get out of here.” He called out to his gryphon. “Zephyr? Where are you?”
“On my way. I feel a strange danger to you.”
Quinn stood, gripping the map book to her chest with one arm and grabbing his hand. Her eyes widened. “The creatures of the dark. The worst ones. Enya warned me about them.”
“Tell me about them.” Why didn’t he hear them? Did his deaf ear prevent him, or was this something unique to Quinn?
“Don’t make me.” She squeezed his hand tighter.
“Hey, hey, okay. Don’t cry. I just need to know how to protect the others.” With his borrowed sword. Unfamiliar enemies. Unfamiliar weapons.
She shuddered and, after a good amount of calming breaths, she stared at him, looking at once older and wiser. “Oh, Ethan. I hope someone will protect you.” She brushed her fingertips over his cheek as a small child might touch a parent.
He wanted to assure her that he’d be okay, but heat shot through his core, and he stiffened. Stood and pushed her behind him. She was right. Something rode toward them. Something with a thirst for death.
Eeeeethaaaaan.
His name hissed through the wind in a deep, grinding whisper. He pressed hard against the sword hilt’s grooves. He didn’t care if it felt familiar or not.
“They want your heart,” Quinn whispered. “Don’t let them get it.”
“Not my plan.” He swallowed.
The ground trembled.
Smoke rose into the heavens from the other side of the trees—where the chasm sat. The dark clouds choked light from the sky, and the earth split open. Ethan herded Quinn toward Jayden and Serena. Serena’s unicorn, Dash, and Jayden’s pegasus, Stormcloud, bounded to their sides.
Zephyr landed beside him.
“Get out of here.” Ethan waved for the others to run.
Logan raced up next to them. “What’s happening?”
A strange glow seeped from the direction of the chasm and bathed the world in a red light. Old, brownish red.
“Blood in the heaven. Blood on the ground.” Quinn’s small voice grew stronger as she chanted the phrases three times. “We have to run.” She buckled over and screamed.
Serena gripped the girl’s shoulders, and her wild eyes met Ethan’s. “What’s wrong with her?”
“You can’t tell?” he asked.
Quinn shrieked. “They’re killing the trees. The forest is dying!”
Serena stared at her, eyes wide. “I don’t know what to do. She feels like she’s burning inside, but I can’t heal it because it’s not truly her pain.”
Ethan stared at Quinn’s writhing form. If Serena couldn’t heal her, who could?
Logan shouted for the Feravolk army to ready themselves for an attack.
“Take her,” Ethan whispered and made eye contact with Serena and Jayden. “Get her as far away from here as you can.”
Zephyr ruffled his wings. “That pit. Animals are pouring out of it.”
Eeeeethaaaaan.
Jayden shuddered. “Did you hear that?”
“It’s calling all of you.” Quinn straightened. She appeared to shake off whatever had hurt her, and she looked older again. Nearly twelve or thirteen. She started moving away from them. Toward the edge of the hill where the chasm was more visible. It had grown. A stream of black poured up from the ground and out of the pit. Animals and liquid together formed an oozing black mass that spilled out, coating the earth. And the sounds deafened. Howls and groans and shrieks.
The ground quaked.
New cracks split the surface, swallowing trees. The harsh scent of burning soil stung Ethan’s nose. Even on the hilltop, the movement sent him sprawling. He tried to keep track of the others as the earth shook and a massive fissure split the hill in two.
Ethan scrambled to his feet and scanned the hillside. Smoke made his eyes water. The girls were all close, but Quinn was nearly on top of the crack. He ran to her. She’d remained unshaken and still moved toward the danger. He grabbed her arm. A flare of heat zapped across Ethan’s chest. He had to listen to his talent. “You have to get away from here. Take Serena and Jayden.”
“No!” Quinn pushed him aside and stood like a tree with branches outstretched.
“Ethan!” Zephyr sounded panicked.
“Zephyr, help me protect the girls!”
Ethan’s talent urged him to defend Quinn, and he raced in front of her, sword ready.
A massive animal sprang out of a new crack in the earth. Heavy paws slammed into him. Pinned him to the ground. His head rattled and he focused to retain consciousness. Eyes, black like pitch with no reflective light, locked onto him. Dark, greasy fur stuck out from its body in clumps that resembled molten lava. The heavy weight shifted as it leaned closer to him. Opened its mouth wider than any normal animal should be able to. And its roar shook Ethan to the core.
He wiggled one arm free, gripped his borrowed weapon tight, and stabbed. His sword went right through the beast’s chest. It shrieked. The shriek morphed into a laugh, and it lunged closer, sliding down the blade as if nothing impaled it. Ethan struggled to free the blade as his talent warned him in a burning wave.
The animal’s head fell to the ground, and Logan stood over it, holding a reddened sword. “You okay, kid?”
Blood, like coagulated strings of maggots, fell onto Ethan’s shirt, and he pushed off the still-standing, headless beast. He jumped up, brushing the remains from his clothes. “Why didn’t my sword—” Breathing heavily, he stared at the bloody blade.
Quinn touched his weapon. “You can’t fight these creatures with that sword. You need a Wielder-crafted weapon.”
Great. He’d lost the Wielder-made one, which Logan had let him borrow, to Scarface. His chest heaved. If this sword wouldn’t kill them, he’d have to—
Jayden passed Ethan one of her long daggers. “Don’t lose this one.” She smiled.
Grateful, he took it. “Thank you. Now run.”
Stormcloud bent down, and Jayden and Serena climbed on top of her. Jayden looked at Ethan. “What about you?”
“I protect the Deliverers. Now take Quinn and go.”
She nodded, and he turned to face the enemy as Stormcloud’s wings beat behind him. Dash and Zephyr stayed, flanking him and Logan. Whatever came out of that chasm carried an evil he could feel. Like oil in the air. He shuddered.
Feravolk warriors flooded up the hill toward them.
Ethan clutched Jayden’s weapon tight and glanced at Logan, who stared ahead at the approaching mass of black creatures. Westwind and Aurora joined them.
A shriek pierced the burnt red sky as even more flooded out of the mouth of the chasm. Creatures with eyes like fire rushed toward them through the opening and up the hill.
Liquid, darker than pitch, rose up from the ground, seeped into the trees. When one fell, others moved to take its place. But the trees withered and fell like charred sticks in the wind.
“You have to run, too!”
A jolt of surprise rocked through Ethan at that voice, and he looked over his shoulder. “Quinn? How did you—”
“I couldn’t leave you here. If you fight them now, when they are at their most ravenous—the trees cannot hold this many. You will all be killed. Tell Logan. He’ll listen to you.”
A quiet tug in his talent told him to listen. He didn’t want to. It pulled against every protective instinct, but Quinn had remained. He had to get her safe.
Logan touched his shoulder. “She speaks wisdom, kid.” He shouted orders for all of them to retreat.
“Ethan!” Quinn screamed.
The fire in his chest caused him to turn.
/> Smoke that sucked the color out of the air spread out of the mouth of the crack like steam over the surface of water. A huge, canine-like animal stood in the center of the billowing cloud. Its fur glowed like a charred, smoldering log. Ethan stepped in front of Quinn and squared off against the creature. It resembled a massive wolf, rivaling Dash in size. Ethan’s eyes locked onto the red flames where the creature should have eyes, and he got pulled into a memory.
He was at the Winking Fox again. Tessa was there—the innkeeper’s daughter, the one who had saved him. Her smile was golden in the evening sun.
Oh no. He knew this night.
The night he’d died.
A warm summer breeze filtered through the property out front of the Winking Fox, and Ethan held his sword. A man stood across from him and sneered. Ethan swore he saw flames flicker in the man’s eyes, but he shook away the thought.
“Stone Wolf dies tonight.” The man’s smile seemed evil.
“Dies? It’s a friendly sport match.” Ethan held out his hands as if to dissuade the man’s rising aggression. From time to time, some men forgot the fights were friendly—especially when they found out who he was.
“Not for me.” The man’s voice took on a deeper tone, almost as if two voices came out of his mouth at once. “Tell me, Stone Wolf, do you believe in Destiny Path?”
Ethan lowered his chin, sword ready. “Nobody chooses my destiny but me.”
“Really?”
The man struck the first blow before the fight officially started. Ethan’s sword blocked the blade in time. The man was twice as wide as Ethan. His shirt barely contained his muscles, but he couldn’t beat Ethan’s strength. Ethan’s Blood Moon talent made sure of that.
Their swords clashed and Ethan struck again. The man moved back toward the crowd. Ethan kept striking, pushing. His talents worked to show him the threat. His speed fueled him. He felt so alive tonight. On fire. The crowd cheered, and Ethan disarmed the man.
The man fell to the ground, leg nicked. Per the rules, he’d lost and the fight was over.
Ethan held out his hand to help him up. “Good fight.”
The man grabbed Ethan’s arm, and his iron grip tightened. The fire in Ethan’s talent raged, the deepest, hottest warning he’d ever felt. Fear, hot and cold at once, spiked through his blood, and he tugged at his trapped arm. He couldn’t break free. It was too late.
The man looked into Ethan’s eyes and smirked. “I choose your destiny.” His sword pierced Ethan. It stabbed right through his middle. Pressure like he’d never felt speared his stomach and gave way to the burning sting of pain. So much pain.
The man released Ethan’s arm, and Ethan stumbled back. Screams muffled all around him as the faces of the crowd grew hazy. Except Tessa’s. Crying, she raced toward him. He looked down. His hands curled around the weapon protruding from his stomach. He’d been run through. Blood, bright and spreading, leaked out of him. Stained everything.
Everything hurt.
Even his thoughts.
And he shivered.
Fell to his knees so hard his teeth chattered.
“Ethan!” Tessa’s voice cut through the haze. Her face came into focus above him, and he realized he’d fallen onto his back. “Someone help me!” she screamed. A tear clung to her cheek, not dripping off. Sunlight sparkled in the tear, and when Ethan stared at it, he could almost imagine the pain leaking from his body into something else. Not the ground. Not the earth. Somewhere else.
Or he was going somewhere else and leaving the pain behind.
“Ethan, hold on, please.”
He wanted to.
Then she was gone. No Tessa. No pain.
Only light.
Bright light that didn’t blind him. Then a darkness crept through the corners of the vision and suffocated the light.
Eeeeethaaaaan.
This wasn’t how it went that night. He gasped, all at once unable to breathe. Slim fingers covered his eyes, and Ethan sucked in air.
“Don’t look. It’ll kill you.” Quinn’s voice. She tugged his arm, and he became fully aware of what was happening around him again. The creatures from the chasm clamored around them. He had to save Quinn. But where was that beast? The one that had caused him to recall his death in vivid detail?
“Don’t look for it, Ethan.” Quinn tugged his arm. “I sent the trees after it. They won’t hold it off forever.”
He swallowed and nodded, seeing the wisdom in her words. Together, they mounted Zephyr.
“I thought I’d lost you there,” Zephyr said. “You weren’t responding.”
Quinn shivered in his arms. “I don’t know how you resisted its pull for so long. It was trying to claim you.”
He shuddered. “What was?”
“The barghest. The Mistress has two. She calls them Gnarg and Garmr. And that one wants to claim you.”
“You all right, friend?” Zephyr’s voice was a calm wind that reached into Ethan’s soul.
Ethan clenched his jaw. This barghest’s eyes matched the eyes of the man who had killed him that night. So it was true. The creature was coming for him again. It could come at him all it wanted. He wouldn’t be so easy to kill this time.
Chapter 3
Strike the Land
Dark, black forms still poured out of the chasm below them, swallowing light from the sky. Jayden clutched Stormcloud’s mane tight as the wind whipped her hair around her face. Wild wind. Scared wind. Each blast bit into her skin like a frightened child clawing at her mother’s sleeve.
She couldn’t calm it.
Serena hugged Jayden’s waist as Stormcloud’s wings buffeted the wind. “There are so many.”
Creatures that looked like fire. And black creatures that moved to reveal folds in their fur that resembled molten lava. Beasts with terrible roars and shattering shrieks. Jayden shook from the inside out. “What are they?”
“Monsters the Mistress created. Their purpose is to hunt the Deliverers and bring them to her.”
The way they sniffed the air and looked up into the sky made Jayden squeeze her knees reflexively. Stormcloud moved as if she understood the need to get farther away.
Ethan was down there. Right in the mouth of the battle. Protecting her. She had to do something to help. This was all her fault. She hadn’t kept the seeing heart from falling into the volcano. She’d freed the Mistress. “We have to stop them from escaping.”
“How?” Serena asked. “We don’t know where the Mistress is to put her back. Do we even know how to put her back?”
“Quinn knows.” But Quinn had said she’d fly on Zephyr. Jayden scanned the sky. Where was the gryphon?
As Jayden’s emotions battled inside of her, Stormcloud stayed above the pit, hovering in the tumultuous wind. “You are calling the storm. I feel it growing stronger.”
“You’re sure?”
“I feel your emotions alive in the air.”
Jayden closed her eyes and reached out to the storm with her talent as if it were a person whose emotions she was trying to read. Wind flowed through her like blood. Tossed her hair, wrapped around her heart. This was her storm. Her fear pulsed into it. “I didn’t know I could do that.” And it changed everything. “The lightning disabled the firegoat. Do you think it can close the chasm?”
“I think we can try.”
Jayden glanced over her shoulder and locked eyes with Serena. Fear pumped through Serena, but that wasn’t her strongest emotion. Hope had the strength. It warmed inside her like a beacon. Jayden clung to that warmth.
She didn’t want the raging storm to leave, and when she pulsed hope into it, instead of fading, the storm grew stronger. Became easier for her to hold on to. Almost as if a storm born of her fear took more energy than one made from hope.
Serena squeezed Jayden’s shoulder. “Look.”
More creatures slithered out of the pit—fiery creatures and creatures that looked to be made of smoke. But these took to the sky.
Jayden gripped Stormc
loud’s mane tight and pulled out her dagger. The storm built inside of her, strong and heavy. A weapon much too large to wield for more than one strike.
Serena touched her shoulder. “I’ll hold off the monsters. Do what you can.”
But Serena’s fear still tickled the back of Jayden’s mind. Could she really protect Jayden if she feared being up here in the sky?
“Time to trust us to do our part,” Stormcloud’s voice whispered into her soul. “I’ll keep you close enough. Strike the land. Strike hard.”
Trust. Jayden breathed deep. Using a storm was one thing. Creating one and filling it with enough charge to strike lightning pulled at her like a tight seam on an outfit she was outgrowing. If she did this, she may not have strength left to fight.
“Dash says Logan ordered them to retreat,” Serena said. “All it’s done is spurred a hunt from the creatures.”
Jayden squinted, trying to see what happened below. Streams of black and fire headed toward fleeing people. A line of defenders stood in the way, letting Feravolk pass as they waited for the never-ending influx of evil to hit them. Her heart clenched. Ethan stood in that line. She couldn’t make him out, but she knew he’d be standing there with Logan and Westwind and Dash. She had to do something to limit the number of escaping creatures.
Stormcloud let out a thunderous roar and jostled. “Look out!” Serena pushed Jayden into the back of Stormcloud’s neck and slashed her dagger at a creature in the air. Flames licked its streamlined body. Stormcloud shot through the clouds. A firegoat chased them.
“Now, Jayden!” Stormcloud tried to kick the monster and missed.
Wind buffeted.
“I feel your fear in the storm. The creatures will feed on it. Call the wind as your friend. Fill it with righteous anger. Save them.”
Jayden clung to Stormcloud’s words.
Creatures shrieked and flew toward them. Jayden closed her eyes and breathed.
The storm inside her swelled. Holding her breath, she felt the sky congregating for a lightning strike. Electricity bled into her. Made her hair stand on end. Sent a thrill through her.
