I stopped sliding and was thrown on moist, flat ground. This time when I breathed in, I swallowed mud and soggy leaves. Choking, I spit the mud from my mouth. My entire body ached, each pulse sending sharp pains through my skull.
With a groan, I opened my eyes and staggered to my feet.
Everything was dark. The trees here were so thick, I was surprised I hadn’t run into one. And there was no trace of Alex, Sonya, or Cicero anywhere.
I was alone.
I couldn’t have rolled that far. All I needed was to climb back up the hill. I could feel my way back. The Del Contes would wait for me.
A stiff chill trickled down my spine and I ripped my dagger from my belt and scanned the shadows.
Something was here with me, hiding.
My eyes darted between the shadows, searching for the source of rage, but I couldn’t see anything. I took a step back into the soft earth, the pounding in my ears faster as adrenaline surged through me. My back grazed against something and I jumped.
It was just a tree. Relieved, I slid around with my back to it, my eyes glued to the shadows as I clutched my dagger in my sweaty palm. I slid around a little faster now, my breathing easier. I was about to leave the tree and start up the hill when I caught a whiff of rotted flesh.
My blood froze.
I stared at a wall of fangs, blood dripping from each sharp point. Its red eyes burned with violence as a guttural growl rattled the earth.
“Daria, get down!” screamed a voice behind me.
I dropped as something whished over my head, and a howl of fury filled the night. There was a flash of silver, and then a dark shadow leapt over me.
One by one, more barghests emerged from the shadows, fangs barred. Alex was my only barricade between life and death, but if he was afraid, he didn’t show it.
I was too horrified to move.
Alex’s movements were swift as he used his surroundings to propel him. He rolled along the ground, jumping to his feet just in time to slash his blade across the jaw of another hungry mouth.
Cicero darted past me from somewhere, joining Alex’s battle. Father and son moved fast, plunging into the pit of death with a ferocity that was both astonishing and frightening. And they didn’t slow.
Arrows flew past me from somewhere in the shadows. I couldn’t see Sonya anywhere, but her arrows never stopped coming. They didn’t kill, but disabled enough barghests to give Alex and Cicero an advantage.
“Can’t you start another fire?” I screamed at the darkness.
“There’s nothing to burn,” replied Sonya’s voice from somewhere, sending more arrows into the horde.
Alex’s sword was still reverberating from impact when another monster lifted its head behind him, preparing to strike. And Alex hadn’t noticed. I screamed at him but no one heard over the din of the battle.
My anxiety spiked, my heart raced. If anything happened to him…
Time slowed to a halt.
The others were frozen in movement; each vibration in Alex’s blade was sluggish, its oscillations traceable with my naked eye. The beast behind him had leapt and was suspended in air, gaining ground inch by inch as its slow-moving jaws hinged opened.
The burning in my palm startled me from paralysis. My dagger.
With a flick of my wrist, I hurled it across the clearing at the beast with open jaws.
End over end it flew, splitting through the air and the horde, until it sunk into the beast’s skull with a loud crack.
With a shock of immense pain, time returned to normal.
The pain faded as fast as it had come, and the creature fell to the ground with a thud, dead.
Alex’s sword was still reverberating in his hands as he looked back at me. I could feel his shock as easily as I could see it on his face, but he quickly returned his focus to the next attacking dog.
Red points of light flickered off in the distance. There were more. Without the ability to start a fire, we’d never get out of here alive. There were too many of them.
Sonya started pulling my arms behind me, away from Alex.
“What are you doing?” I tried to shake free.
Another dull thud sounded. Alex had downed another beast, pulling his sword from its abdomen, its entrails spilling on the ground. Another one landed with a thud as Cicero split open its throat, black blood spraying the earth.
Sharp pain suddenly seared through me—one so sharp it buckled my legs beneath me. Sonya’s grip was the only thing keeping me on my feet. At first I thought I’d been attacked, but when I glanced down, I couldn’t find any wounds. When I looked back, Alex was clutching his left arm to his chest, his white sleeve slowly changing to black.
“Alex! Sonya, let go!” I yanked and pulled against Sonya. “Alex is hurt!”
I could feel him struggling to ignore his wound.
Sonya fought against me. “We have to get you out of here.”
“I’m not leaving…”
My voice trailed as the air around us convulsed. The wind was fierce, ripping up dust and dried foliage from the ground, whipping my hair in my face. But there was no sound. The wind gained momentum and force, forming a vortex right in the middle of the massacre.
And still, there was no sound.
Everyone froze—even the beasts halted, bewildered by this strange silent vortex.
Without warning, the vortex contracted and exploded. A deep sonorous boom blasted forth, ramming into my frame as it barreled through the forest, flattening the beasts, pinning them to the ground.
But we were all still standing. Whatever had affected the beasts did nothing to us.
“What in Gaia’s name…?” Cicero’s forehead creased as he glanced around. “Alex! Get back!”
Alex’s blade was still in the air as he and Cicero ran toward us. Once they were a few feet from me, a soft white glow appeared in the space where the vortex had been. The glow was moving. The air itself began to take on a soft sheen as the glow spread and diffused, flattening out across an invisible barrier, arching around our predators that had begun to stir.
We looked to each other; no one knew what was happening.
“Run!” Alex yelled.
He grabbed my hand, holding his sword with his wounded one, and yanked me after him. We sprinted up the hill, his parents on our heels.
“Are you all right?” I panted, my lungs burning trying to keep pace with him.
“Fine.”
I knew he was lying.
“What is that—” I huffed “—thing back there?”
“Some sort of shield.” His breath was ragged.
I didn’t have enough air to ask more questions, and I was certain he didn’t have enough energy to respond. His pain was acute; his energy was fading quickly despite his forced determination.
We sprinted hard. My legs burned, my lungs heaved so hard I thought they’d collapse. We ducked beneath low branches, leapt over thick roots and vines. I had no idea how Alex was running so fast. Sonya and Cicero passed us and ran ahead, their panic filtering through me. We ran past the burning building, the smell of rot and death still thick in the air.
I glanced over my shoulder.
Red eyes below were blazing with fury, locked behind the strange wall of light that was beginning to fade. Whatever it was gave us just enough time to get away, but I knew once that wall fell, those beasts would catch up to us, and fast.
We sprinted through the forest. Alex still gripped my hand in his, pulling me after him as his parents led the way. Twigs stung my face and arms, sometimes pulling out my hair. A chorus of that horrible screaming filled the night, renewing my strength to run. The barrier must have dropped.
And then Cicero and Sonya stopped.
We were standing on the edge of a low cliff. The river glittered far below, the silken thread carving into the black forest. The sound of the hounds behind us grew louder and louder. I could almost hear the tearing of the trees and the thud of their enormous paws as they stampeded through the woo
ds. We were trapped. We’d never get away in time.
Alex stared hard at me. “Hold your breath.”
Before I could figure out what he meant, I was jerked forward and falling through the air. Ice-cold water engulfed me, choking off my scream as I swallowed it. A thousand tiny pricks stung the open wounds in my skin. I fought for air as I struggled to swim upward, weighed down by my saturated cloak.
With a gasp I resurfaced, water slapping against my face. I spit it out, trying to fill my lungs with air, but my boots pulled me back under. Something grabbed my arm and I swung at it in an attempt defend myself.
“Stop…it’s me!”
Alex stopped my hand inches from his face. “Are you all right to swim?” He fought to suppress his agony as the water bit his wounds.
I nodded, the blaring screams echoing from everywhere. He guided me as we fought against the current. The heads of Cicero and Sonya bobbed in the water ahead as they glanced back to make sure we were following.
I swam hard, always watching Alex, making sure his arms were carrying him. His face showed none of the agony I knew he felt, only determination. We were halfway across the river when my hope sank. Red eyes dotted the opposite bank, pacing with anticipation.
When I looked back to Sonya and Cicero, I couldn’t find them. My heart pounded as my eyes searched in desperation. Where had they gone? Alex couldn’t swim forever.
I noticed two dark shapes hanging from a shadow, fixed in the middle of the river. It was a rock, and Cicero and Sonya were crawling up its side. As Alex and I approached, they were waiting with ready hands. Alex pushed me up so that my hand could reach Sonya’s. She pulled me onto the rock and Cicero helped Alex up after me.
Crimson eyes lined both banks and their yips and screams rang in my ears. The eyes paced back and forth, hungry and seething.
“There are so many of them,” I said.
Cicero looked back at me. “They can’t cross the water.”
“Are you sure?” I asked, but even as I watched, I noticed none of them dared to go near the river’s edge.
Alex’s wound burned through me and I jumped to his side. Sonya hovered over him, eyes closed in deep concentration as she held his arm. His entire shirtsleeve had changed to black and was spreading fast. The flesh in his forearm had been ripped away, revealing mangled muscle oozing with thick blood. My stomach turned. “We have to stop the bleeding.”
Sonya stood there with her eyes closed and Alex’s energy was fading with every drop of blood that seeped from his open wound.
I growled in frustration, and pulled up the corner of my cloak, trying to rip off a piece.
Alex winced. “Daria, please.”
Sonya’s eyes snapped open and fixed on me, her expression blank. I glanced back at Alex’s arm. Not only had it stopped bleeding, but it was coagulating along his forearm at an unusual rate.
Sonya sighed and sank down on the rock, her husband at her side wiping the hair back from her face. Whatever she had done put great strain on her.
I knelt beside Alex, examining him for any sign of further harm and wiped his arm clean with my cloak. The wound had stopped bleeding and was protected by a solid clot. I stared wide-eyed at Sonya.
“Sonya’s a healer.” Cicero said, examining his wife.
“Wounds never heal that fast.”
“You’ve also never seen a wound healed with magic. It greatly weakens the healer—especially for a wound like his. Barghest saliva carries poisonous toxins.”
“It isn’t healed…” Sonya struggled for air. “Not all the way. It was…all I could do…” She fought against invading fatigue.
“Shh.” Cicero pulled back her hair, holding her hand. “You need to rest, love. You’ve done more for him than anyone else could. He’ll be fine.”
Sonya was hunched forward, her breathing shallow. She’d depleted so much strength tending to Alex, that I could hardly detect traces of her life. But that might have been because Cicero’s anxiety was so strong it drowned out everyone else’s emotions.
Alex’s pain was acute, but it was noticeably fading. Relieved, I sat beside him and wrapped my arms around my knees to keep myself from shaking. With all my worry about Alex’s health, I hadn’t noticed the cold. The water had soaked through my cloak and skin, and now my bones were frozen.
“We should have turned around.” Alex winced. “Alaric will be—“
“There’s no point in arguing about it now,” Cicero interrupted.
“…Should never have let her try magic,” Alex mumbled.
Cicero glanced sideways at his son, his brow furrowed as his gaze returned to the blood rimmed banks. The eyes glowed from all directions, floating back and forth in the shadows, watching and waiting.
“Are th-th-those things usually prowling this f-f-forest?” I asked, unable to keep my teeth from chattering.
“No. Death hounds existed in this world ages ago. They were created by dark wizards, from the shadows. They couldn’t live peaceably with humans, or any creature of light for that matter. It took decades to destroy them.”
As if to emphasize the point, the horrible alien screaming blared all around us, the points of crimson shining with madness. I knew this was going to give me nightmares for a very, very long time. Probably the rest of my life. “Then wh-what are they doing h-h-here?”
Cicero took a deep breath as he rubbed Sonya’s hand. “Someone has brought them back.”
“The same someone that’s b-building an army?”
Cicero was silent, contemplative as he stared ahead.
Someone let the Pykans through the portal. Someone was building an army to overthrow King Darius. This same someone was sending hellhounds after me.
What had I marched my eager, ignorant self into?
I was suddenly glad I’d decided to follow the Del Contes. “Then, how do w-we get rid of them?”
“We don’t.” Cicero’s attentions were split between the prowling red eyes and his weakened wife. “But they can’t stand water, and sunlight is toxic to their skin. Until then, we’ll wait here.”
My wet hair clung to my back, each droplet sending shivers down my spine. Alex lifted his good arm and wrapped it around me, holding me against him. I wanted to protest—he was the one wounded—but my ravenous body drank in the warmth of his, and my shivering died down.
There was just one more thing.
“Cicero, what was that light back there?”
Cicero scratched his chin as he stared out at nothing. “Something that contained the essence of sunlight, or enough of it to keep the barghests at bay.”
“How did you make it?”
“I didn’t make it.”
“Who did then?”
“No human possesses that power.” He looked at me then, something curious in his eyes. “It appears that Gaia wants to keep you alive.”
Chapter 16
Awkward Beginnings
I was alive.
Nature was in full glory this morning, celebrating our victory over death. The sun was hot, baking my leathers and shading the backs of my eyelids a burnt orange. Water bubbled by, birds chimed through the air, and a bed of rock had never been more comfortable. Everything was perfect, except for the acute pain stabbing the back of my skull.
I heard a sharp scraping and forced my lids open.
The world was white—blinding white—and the scraping made the ache in my skull pulse. After a few moments, my eyes adjusted and different colors came into view.
Alex was sitting beside me. His elbows rested on his kneecaps and he fidgeted with something in his hands. His dark hair curled around his ears and neck, hanging in his face, shielding his eyes. And his shirt was off.
For a moment all I could do was stare. It wasn’t like I’d never seen Alex without a shirt. We’d known each other since we were crawling on all fours. I just didn’t remember him looking like…that. His golden skin was smooth and perfect, his arms and torso were hard with lean muscle. There was no lying to myse
lf now. He was gorgeous. So gorgeous it made me a little self-conscious.
And I had been wrong about him. It didn’t take away the fact he never told me about this world, but I’d been wrong about one very important thing: our friendship had meant something to him. All those years of thinking my memories were false, that I had to destroy and hide them and pretend they never happened because he never cared. He had cared, and I could hold on to that truth with confidence.
So now what?
I pushed myself up, my head throbbing like someone was beating it with a hammer.
“Hey.” Alex turned his face to look at me. His expression was still guarded, but there was new warmth to his eyes this morning.
“Hey.”
“Sleep all right?”
“I…think so.” I rubbed my temples as I gazed around. There was no sign of the horrors from last night—the barghests. There was also no sign of Cicero and Sonya. “Where are your parents?”
Alex raked a stone across whatever was in his hands.
“Trying to find the horses.”
Calyx. Poor thing had been so scared. “You think they made it?”
Scrape—scrape. The sound wasn’t helping my headache. “Those horses are fine. What we’re not so sure about is if they’ll come back.”
“I wouldn’t blame them. We’re risky transport.”
There was a gleam in Alex’s eyes as he looked at me. I wish he didn’t look like that with his shirt off. It was distracting.
“Those barghests are gone for good?” I asked.
Alex narrowed his eyes at the ledge we’d leapt from. “For now. But they’ll come back tonight. As soon as my parents return, we’ll be on our way away from this place.” He looked back at me then and studied my face. “How are you feeling this morning?”
“Fine, besides a massive headache. What about you? How’s that gash in your arm?” I bent towards him to get a look, but he hid his arm behind his back.
“It’s fine.”
“Let me see it.” I grabbed his arm and a surge of his pain shot through me. The gash was much longer and deeper than I’d thought. The clot had crusted over a shade of red so dark it looked black; the skin around it was tinged pink, filled with a web of blackened veins. “Alex, that looks terrible.”
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