by A and E Kirk
“Fiamma!” Cristiano called out.
I fought my way toward his voice, ducking and weaving to avoid the grasping limbs. I saw him behind a tree, its branches slashing and trying to snatch him up while he used knives to fight it off.
A pale skull was embedded in the dark trunk. A long ago victim eaten by this monstrous plant? Well, it wasn’t getting another meal today.
I gripped Cristiano’s sword with both hands and raced forward, screaming for extra power as I rammed the long blade through the skull’s mouth and buried the blade to the hilt. Thick slime spurted and oozed out through the broken teeth like the skull was vomiting blood.
A keening wail filled the air. The branches stopped their attack on Cristiano and began to flail wildly, like a beast in pain. The black eyes peering out from the knots bulged, then blinked rapidly. Next to my head, one of the mouths in the bark opened wide and flicked out a long tongue. I flinched away from the slime as the tree slumped, suddenly motionless and silent. I grinned in triumph.
Then something grabbed my waist and flung me into the air.
CHAPTER 94
My back thumped against a solid, rough surface. A tree had me in its grip, using a branch that felt like a leathery rope to strangle my waist and hold me against its trunk at least twenty-feet above ground. I snatched two daggers from my corset and started stabbing. The branch shuddered with each blow, but didn’t release its grasp.
My chest burned with a sudden warmth and emanated a bright light. At first I thought it was my power revving into gear, but then I realized it was the umbra stone. It had opened and started to glow.
Cristiano shouted something and pulled two knives from their sheaths as he raced to the bottom of the tree and leapt onto the trunk. He stabbed one blade into the bark, using it as an anchor to pull himself up and plunged the second knife in higher, then pulled himself up. Knife by knife, stab by stab, Cristiano climbed higher, sweat glistening in muddy rivulets, muscles bulging on his arms, shoulders, and torso.
With each plunge of Cristiano’s blades, the tree jerked. Dark liquid spurted as the mouths that were riddled over the bark screeched in protest, one of them so close to my ear I thought I’d go deaf. Until I buried one of my daggers into it. That shut the freaking thing up.
A branch swatted my arm, causing the second dagger to fall from my other hand. More branches swiped at Cristiano, trying to dislodge him. I fought to breathe as the vise around my waist tightened. My ribs felt like they were ready to crack, and my lungs were squeezing shut. I gulped hard, trying to hold the air, but pinpricks of light edged around my vision. Cristiano moved closer, but any headway was hindered by the tree’s branches, which fought every inch of his progress. I was certain I couldn’t stay conscious long enough for him to get to me.
My mind began drifting away, searching for a place of comfort and safety where pain and danger couldn't find me.
I’d lost the battle.
Then a flash of light sparked hot and piercing on my chest, jolting me back to consciousness. My eyes flew open. Great. The umbra stone was going to set me on fire.
A low hissing trembled through the air. The heavy mist seemed to quiver. The hissing grew louder, but the tone remained raspy and sinister, that of a pagan cult summoning evil spirits.
Out of the white fog emerged several grey shapes. They were somewhat blurred around the edges but appeared as humanoid figures wearing long, hooded cloaks.
They slithered through the air, the forms undulating, their cloaks fluttering behind them in shredded strips. I caught glimpses of pale, skeletal faces beneath their hoods. They had black holes for eyes and sneering lipless grins from which that intense hiss was emanating. Goosebumps bubbled up my arms.
How was I going to fight these monsters, too? Before I could fumble for another dagger from my corset, the hooded figures dived, but instead of coming at Cristiano and me, they directed their violence at the tree.
They zigged and zagged, spun and twisted, using the shredded ends of their cloaks to cut off branches and stab the eyes and mouths burrowed in the trunk. Their attack reminded me of sparrows dive bombing a much larger hawk. I counted seven of them coordinating the assault, and watched as the tree put its energy into defending itself, loosening its hold on my gut and leaving Cristiano to climb unimpeded.
I cringed as one of the shadowy apparitions brushed close. A bitter cold washed over me, sudden and vehement, as if I’d jumped into freezing water. My breath sucked in. Teeth chattered. Then the wraith was gone.
Heat returned to my body. I heard ragged breaths a moment before Cristiano plunged both knives into the tree on either side of my hips. Then he let one go, and hanging by one hand, pulled a gleaming hatchet from somewhere and swung it into the limb around my waist.
I was free. Good news because I could finally breathe again, but bad news in that I dropped like a stone. I screamed. My arms flew up, flailing for purchase.
My shoulder nearly pulled from its socket as I jerked to a stop.
“Got you,” Cristiano said.
I looked up into his grinning face. He still hung from one hand on the knife he’d stabbed into the bark, while his other hand was latched around my wrist. Feet dangling, I reached my free hand onto his rigid, muscle-bulging forearm.
The hissing increased, insidious whispers riding on the wind as the creatures returned, gliding through the fog in a single line and swirling a whirlwind around the base of the tree.
There was a great moan. The tree sagged like it had been filled with air and was now deflating. It snapped near the bottom and with a slow finality, began to topple over, taking us with it. The fall gained speed. The ground rushed forward, and just before we hit, Cristiano flung me sideways and let go. I rolled into a fairly soft landing on a patch of grey-green grass.
The tree crashed down, its giant weight shaking the earth beneath me, hitting with an explosion of sound and shattering of limbs. Branches snapped with a series of sharp cracks, like bones breaking, turning bits of bark and entire boughs into flying shrapnel.
I covered my head with my arms, and when it all finally settled into silence, I popped up onto my elbows, searching for Cristiano. There was no sign of him, just the fallen tree, crumpled, broken, and dead. And him somewhere underneath it.
“No, no, no.” I scrambled to my feet. “Armani!”
As I ran forward, Cristiano rose up from the twisted mess, bearing cuts and scrapes, some bleeding, but otherwise intact.
I stopped and leaned over, clutching my stomach and sucking in air. “Don’t scare me like that.”
“It is nice to know you care,” he said with a little bow, then easily vaulted over the tree, striding toward me as he wiped his knives clean on his leather kilt. “But I assure you, it takes much more than an overgrown weed to kill me.”
The seven ghostly specters returned with a collective, creepy hiss, floating side-by-side above and in front of us. They were terrifying to look at but made no move to attack.
“What are those creatures?” Cristiano asked. “More of your ghoulies?”
I shook my head. “Nothing I’ve ever seen here before. And I have no idea why they helped us.”
The hooded figures started to expand until their shapes blurred and each one began fading into the others until they finally became one swirling tornado of dark grey that spun up and disappeared into the haze.
In the distance, the ghoulies howled. Once, twice, three times, each cry sounding ominously closer.
“They’re coming again,” I said. “Must have finished with the corpses and decided we’re next.”
Which meant I needed to figure out how to get us out of here. But I didn’t have a clue. I blinked back tears. I’d been so sure about this plan, so sure I could just pop into the Waiting World and pop out to save the Hex Boys. So much for that. For all I knew, we’d been in here for hours, days, and they were dead already. A half sob escaped from my throat.
Cristiano put a reassuring hand on my shoulder. “Yo
u will figure it out.”
I shrugged him off and wiped my eyes. “What if it’s already too late? What if I’ve already failed?”
“Then the Hex Boys are dead,” he said with an unconcerned roll of his shoulder and walked away. “We can now give up, and there is no hurry.”
“What?” I stared at his back.
“But we should keep moving,” he said. “Away from the monsters.”
My eyes narrowed. Anger boiled. I picked up a rock, took aim, and let it fly, nailing him between those well-muscled shoulders. He didn’t flinch. Didn’t even turn around.
“Look, you big jerk,” I said through gritted teeth as I stomped toward him. “We aren’t giving up, because we aren’t too late, they aren’t dead, and I’ll figure something out. Got it?”
He turned to face me, a small smile playing on his lips. “Now that is the attitude we need. So ascertain a viable plan. Quickly.”
I rolled my eyes. “Mind games? Really? Next time just tell me to suck it up and quit wimping ou— Ow!”
Something swacked me in the head and pulled out a chunk of my hair. I ducked, Cristiano hovering over me.
“Stay down,” he ordered, swiping his sword through the air.
It flew fast as lightning, a blur of red, sparks flying, emanating some weird high-pitched squeaking. It dive-bombed us over and over. Cristiano kept it from making further contact, but couldn’t hit it.
I pushed him away, and when the red flash came at us again, I grasped my skirt on either side, swished the fabric back behind me then forward, then twirled like I was going to let the dress flare out around me. But instead of letting it fan out, I flung the hem upward, sending the endless yards of fabric into a high, wide arc, using it like a net to ensnare the buzzing red thing in mid-flight.
Quickly gathering the fabric around the flying fiend, I brought the makeshift net down to the ground, dropping to my knees and holding the skirt pinned to the dirt to keep the creature trapped. The silky material bulged as the little critter tried to fly, but it was effectively captured.
Responding to Cristiano’s curious look I said, “It’s how we catch bats that get in the house. We throw a towel over them, and then release them outside.”
“Clever,” Cristiano said. “But I do not think we shall be releasing this creature.”
He changed his grip on the sword, raised his arm, and rammed the hilt down at whatever mini-monster was struggling under my skirt.
The squeaking noise lowered in pitch, then in a voice filled with venom, the tiny beast shrieked, “I hate you, Aurora Lahey! I shall kill you! It’s all your fault!”
CHAPTER 95
I shoved my shoulder into Cristiano, knocking his aim so the hilt slammed into the ground instead of the prickly pest.
I stared at the fabric that puffed and bulged with frantic attempts at escape. “Pearl?”
“Of course it’s me, you nitwit! Let me go so I can kill you! Which is what I will do right now! Kill you! Kill you! Kill you!”
Cristiano raised a brow. “You two know each other?”
“It’s Ayden’s guardian. She, ah, isn’t one of my biggest fans.”
“Clearly.”
“I’m a fan all right!” Pearl shouted. “A fan that will fan you right in the head!”
“That’s helpful.” I flipped my skirt off the prisoner.
The tiny guardian froze, startled by the sudden freedom. The size of an overgrown butterfly, her little body sparkled a fiery red. She stood as tall as she was able, sneering at me, shaking her fists. Her lacy wings quivered and flapped as she launched into the air, then awkwardly spun sideways and thumped onto the ground.
“You broke me!” she screamed, gazing at the bent tip of one of her wings. “Just like you broke Ayden.” She stamped her foot. “I hate you! I hate you even more than before! And I hated you a lot before! I will kill yo—” She paused then started laughing, doubling over in her shrieks of hilarity. “But I don’t have to, because you’re already dead. You’re here in the Waiting World, so you’re dead. Oh, yay, yay, yay!” She twirled and danced. “Dead, dead, dead!”
“I’m not dead,” I said over her squeaks. “You have to help me.”
“Of course you’re dead! You must be dead! Oh, please, please, please be dead! And I would never help you! Unless I helped you get dead!”
“Ayden’s in trouble,” I said. “All the Hex Boys are.” That shut her up. “I don’t have time to explain everything, but I need to go help them so you need to find me the portal to Paris, or somewhere in this place really high that I can jump off of. Then you can go to Ayden, tell him it’s a trap, and that we’re coming.”
She jumped up and down in a furious tantrum. “I can’t thanks to you!”
“Ah,” Cristiano nodded. “I see.”
I frowned. “I don’t.”
“Guardians go to their hunter when they are summoned,” Cristiano said. “The interaction is what keeps the bond between them strong. As the hunter needs them less, summons them less, the bond weakens until it is severed completely, and the guardian is assigned a new young hunter to protect.” He shrugged like it all made sense.
I hated it when people figured I understood when I clearly didn’t. “Your point?”
“I am surmising that in an effort to protect you from…” Cristiano gestured to Pearl, “…Ayden has not been summoning his guardian.”
That was true. He was afraid that if Pearl found out I was the Divinicus, she’d turn me in to the Mandatum to protect him from getting into trouble. “Yeah, so?”
“So the bond between them has weakened,” Cristiano said. “Perhaps broken altogether.”
“Not yet,” Pearl sneered. “But it’s very, very tenuous and not strong enough to break protocol and go to him unless he calls.”
I sighed. “Okay, then just get us out of here. Why are you in the Waiting World anyway?”
She huffed. “Because, you stupid, ugly girl, that’s where we go when we are waiting to be called. We help with security. Which is why when you caused all this commotion, I came to investigate.” She puffed out her chest. “I am very important here.”
“Good,” I said. “That means you know this place well enough to find what I need. Let’s go.”
“So you can play the hero and Ayden will like you even better?” Pearl licked her fingers and smoothed out her bent wing. “I don’t think so. I’ll find a way to save him myself.”
“Are you kidding?” I shouted, my blood boiling. “You just said you can’t!” I lunged for her, but Cristiano caught me around the shoulders.
Pearl spat, “How do I know you’re even telling the truth? You’re a liar. An ugly liar girl that I hate!” She stabbed Cristiano with a dirty look. “And you’re cheating on my Ayden with this…this…stupid hunk of… Who are you?”
“Her new boyfriend,” he replied calmly.
“What?” Pearl screeched.
I shot Cristiano an incredulous, open-mouthed stare.
“She needs the truth.” Cristiano put one hand under my chin to close my mouth and give my cheek a light kiss while he settled a possessive arm around my waist. Then he faced Pearl. “Aurora is not cheating. She and Ayden have dissolved their romantic entanglement for good, and we are together now. But the Hex Boys are truly in trouble. With your help, we can save them. I will make sure Ayden knows of your assistance. He will be grateful and need you more than ever.”
Pearl squinted at Cristiano then me. “Is that true?”
An immediate “no” nearly sprung from my lips, but Cristiano’s hand squeezed my waist. I took a moment. Pearl’s jealously was overwhelming her good sense and every minute here put all the Hex Boys in greater danger.
I wrapped both arms around Cristiano and snuggled into him. “Yes. So Ayden’s all yours now. Unless you let him die.”
Pearl’s contemptuous, calculating gaze studied the two of us for several moments. Time ticked like a bomb in my quivering stomach. I would strangle her if I had to. Wrap my
fingers around her tiny throat. Do whatever it took to make her help us. And if she didn’t do it in the next two seconds…
One Mississippi.
She just kept staring, disdainful and so arrogantly snotty.
Two Mississ—
Okay, that was it!
Cristiano tightened his grip, effectively holding me back from throttling her as he pretended to place a lingering kiss on the side of my head while he actually murmured into my ear, “Have patience. She will get there.”
Several more agonizing seconds slipped away. Then, with a sudden burst of ruby red dust and a shrill squeal, Pearl zipped a fast twirl into the air and took off, quickly becoming only a small, shimmering crimson sphere in the distance until she disappeared altogether.
Taking with her my hope and any chance of the Hex Boys’ survival.
CHAPTER 96
I stared for a shocked moment. Then I shoved out of Cristiano’s arms and pounded my fists on his chest. Sure, it was like picking a fight with a marble statue, and it hurt, but the pain distracted me from the utter despair drenching every cell of my body.
“Happy now? You just lost us our last chance of saving them!”
Cristiano let me pound for a few more seconds before he grabbed my wrists. “You are very impatient.”
“You ain’t seen nothing yet, buddy. Wait until I—”
Something clocked me on the head and pulled my hair. I looked at Cristiano who offered a small smile and nodded to my right.
Pearl hovered a few feet from my head. “Impatient? That’s just one of her many, many, many faults. Along with not listening. I told you to follow me, and you’re just standing here groping your new stupid, ugly boyfriend instead of saving my wonderful Ayden. Come on!”
She zipped off again, but slower this time, so we could follow, as long as we kept up a dead run. I’d lost my boots sometime during the terrorist tree attack, so my feet were freezing, and I hoped it was only mud squishing through my toes.
