But it didn’t stop them.
Flaming corpses ran toward the group.
“In the heart,” Jayden shouted, shooting off several arrows.
Eadith extinguished the flame in her hand and pulled a sword out of its sheath on her back. With a gleam in her eye, she conjured fire over her sword. The flaming blade cut through the air, both slicing and cauterizing at the same time.
The stink of cooked flesh rose into the air.
“There are so many,” Eleuia shouted. She pulled a pistol from her holster and shot seven underworlders in a row before she reloaded. “We need a plan!” She fired several more rounds, then one into a hellhound darting between the trees.
Peter fought from the stone training circle while the battle raged on. An underworlder swiped at him, but when its hand reached over the blood-barrier, it screeched and recoiled.
“They can’t cross over the barrier,” Peter shouted. “Attack from the protection of the stone training circle!”
The group fell back, killing anything and everything in their way.
Ahmed fought with one arm, swinging a long, curved sword with Arabic script down the blade. He lunged forward and stabbed an underworlder in the sternum, lodging his sword in bone. Another came down with a hatchet into Ahmed’s already injured arm, carving out a chunk of muscle.
Hawa rushed to his aid and drove her blade into its back, then stomped on its head, spewing brain matter over the ground. The underworlder continued to move until she stabbed it a second time through the back, into its heart.
Ahmed screamed and threw himself onto the ground, convulsing with white froth leaking from his mouth.
“Something…” Hawa shifted her weight. “Something’s up with their weapons. They’re poison! Don’t let them cut you!”
“You have to leave him,” Eleuia shouted at Hawa from the training ring. “They’re closing in!” Eleuia pointed her pistol and shot several rounds, fending off a small group.
Arwan sliced through another cluster while more poured into the middleworld.
Hawa crouched and wrapped her arm around Ahmed. “Let’s get him back to the protected ring.”
Arwan reached them and grabbed Ahmed and then hauled him off the ground. Hawa carried him under one arm while Arwan carried him under the other until they were able to drag him to safety.
When he let go, Arwan turned to Eleuia and yanked her in close, peering into her eyes. “We don’t leave people behind. Ever.”
Eleuia nodded. “Just a little test.” She held up her pistol and pulled back the hammer, the barrel aimed over his shoulder. “Good thing you passed.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Zanya
Zanya finished strapping on her training gear and rushed into the living room, where she plowed right into Tara. Zanya examined her sobbing friend from head to toe. “Are you okay?” She scanned Tara’s body. “Answer me! Are you all right?”
“Yes. Yes, I’m okay.” Tara wiped streams of tears off her cheeks. “Peter’s out there with the others. There are so many of them.”
“You have to stay here. Don’t leave this house, no matter what.”
Tara shook her head while biting her lip.
“I have to know you’re safe. So does Peter. If you go running out there for whatever reason, you’ll just be a distraction, and right now, a distraction will get someone killed.”
Tara froze, and then nodded. “Okay.” She sniffled and wiped her face clean. “Okay, I’ll stay.”
“Good.” She hugged her friend tightly. “I love you so much. I’m sorry I got you into this.” She pressed a kiss on Tara’s forehead, and then ran outside to join the others.
The second she burst through the front door, the foul stink of the underworld smacked her in the face. She stumbled onto the bare soil, shock coursing through her as she took in the scene.
The ground had split open, and Yaxche had invaded the middleworld. But this time the tree was like a highway for underworld souls—a direct portal to their realm.
Small fires burned in the distance along the tree line, making the underworld figures into eerie silhouettes. The entire group fought from the training circle, which was now encompassed with more damned souls.
Peter nudged Arwan and then pointed at her.
Arwan turned, and paled when he saw her. His eyes widened and he ran toward her.
Zanya looked to the right, where an underworld hound was in full sprint in her direction.
Panic streaked through her and she froze.
The beast leapt. In mid-air, Balam plowed into the hellhound and tumbled to the ground, tearing at it with a voraciousness she’d never seen the jaguar deity display.
Arwan yanked her into a crouching position. “What are you doing out here?”
“I…” She couldn’t stop looking—taking in the scene. Her gaze stopped on Yousef’s lifeless body. Her breath caught and she cupped her hand over her mouth. “Oh no.”
“You need to snap out of it,” Arwan shouted, pulling her back to reality. “You have to stay on the petrified ground. Drina’s magic is keeping them at bay for now. We’re too outnumbered to fight on the soil.”
“I don’t think the lad’s breathing,” Beigarth shouted from behind them.
Zanya sidestepped to see the group crowded around Ahmed, the second windthrower.
Peter loomed over him a moment before beginning CPR.
“Oh my god.” Zanya rubbed her hands over her eyes. “This can’t be happening.”
“If you can’t be here, you need to go back inside. Go hide with Tara. I’d rather you do that anyway.” He cupped her face in his hands. “Please.”
Hide with Tara.
He wasn’t trying to insult her, but she couldn’t shake his words. She had trained for this moment—to stand against the uprising and rescue the innocent lives that hung in the balance. She was the Stone Guardian, and it was her job to lead them.
The light in her chest flickered to life and her stone buzzed against her wrist. “I’m okay. I can do this.” She walked toward the group, Arwan following right behind her. Balam fell in line after he’d finished with the hellhound. Putrid blood stained his muzzle.
When Zanya reached the others, Peter was gliding his hand over Yousef’s eyes. “He’s gone.”
“It’s something in their weapons,” Hawa said.
Eleuia loaded her gun. “We can’t afford any more casualties.”
“Afford?” Zanya looked at her mother. “Yousef wasn’t collateral damage. And neither was his twin brother. They were our friends, and now they’re dead.”
Eleuia’s features softened. “I didn’t mean…” She swallowed.
“We should bring the lads to a protected space until we can give them a right proper burial,” Beigarth said.
“Aye.” Grima’s bottom lip quivered. “He’ll only be tread on here.”
Arwan knelt and scooped Yousef into his arms. He glanced at the growing group of underworlders—now thousands, all gathered around their home. “We don’t have much time. This spell may not hold forever.”
“Come on.” Zanya set her hand on Arwan’s back. “I’ll help you find somewhere to rest him for now.”
She accompanied him down the petrified path until they reached camp. Zanya searched the area, spotting a clear space beside the steps. “Here.” She kicked away a few rocks and leaves. “You can put him here.”
Arwan did, and then placed Yousef’s white hat over his face.
“We have to find a way to get Ahmed’s body too.”
Arwan hung his head. “There’s no use.”
“They should be buried together. It’s what they’d—”
“There’s no use, Zanya.” He turned and watched the thousands of underworlders gather in tighter around the group, reaching and slicing at them with their weapons. They had begun to pile on top of each other—two, even three at a time—creating a wall of the undead. “We’re not going to make it through this. I had no idea what we were up ag
ainst. I’m so sorry…”
“We will make it. We have to.” She took his hand held it to her belly. “Not for our sake, but for hers.”
Heat slithered through Arwan, giving him the fuel he needed to push forward. His child would greet the world one day. He would be sure of it—even if he weren’t there to hold her for the first time.
***
Zanya
Arwan ran to the others, leaving her alone with Yousef.
She knelt beside him and took his hand. His skin was still warm.
“I’m so sorry this happened to you. I promise I’ll do everything I can to get your brother. I’m so…” She choked on her words. She knew they’d lose warriors, but she thought she’d be prepared.
Zanya stood and turned back to the group, who fought just out of reach of the underworlders.
This was her fight.
She tapped the surface of her stone. “You ready for this?”
Her stone buzzed and lit up, pushing light through the clasps of the leather wristband.
“Good. Because we’re going to need every ounce of energy to make it out alive.” She sprinted to the group and gathered them close. “I know we all thought our abilities would be more useful. We thought we’d do more damage, but that doesn’t mean we can give up. We’re protected here, so we have to use everything at our disposal until we’re tapped out. We owe it to Yousef, Ahmed, and Renato. We owe it to them to fight as hard as we can, until we have nothing left!”
She walked through the group as they parted a way for her, and then stopped at the edge of the blood-barrier. Underworlders slashed at her with their hatchets. She leaned back, too close for comfort. It was an apocalyptic scene with an unlimited supply of the damned. But the Maya had been fighting this good fight since the early years, and she wouldn’t give up now.
Her light burst to life and she conjured a storm overhead. Flashes of lightning pierced the sky and struck the ground, hitting a cluster of underworlders nearby. She squinted and shielded her eyes from the burst of electricity, ignoring the stench of burning flesh.
Beigarth and Grima walked to the barrier’s edge and removed their weapons. The cousins glanced at each other before swiping at the underworlders, taking down a few at a time.
It was clear the Riyata could cross over the barrier, while the underworlders could not. Magic didn’t have an exact science, but Zanya chalked it up to a spell to block evil. Those who weren’t could cross.
Her mother and Hawa approached next, her mother letting out several shots from her pistol while Hawa threw a row of shining blades at the mob, hitting them in the hearts.
“We’ll cut them down from here,” Peter shouted. “Then push them out.” He took a knife and stuck the blade into one, then yanked it out before it dropped to the ground at his feet.
Zanya looked into the distance, catching sight of another group heading into the trees. She conjured a flame and pitched a firebomb into the jungle. A burst of light followed by a wave of heat kept the stragglers from seeking out unknowing victims in distant villages. There was no telling how far they could reach—or if they had risen from other areas already.
“Make sure they don’t go far,” Zanya instructed.
Eadith stepped up and formed two balls of fire in her hands. “I’ll cover it.”
Jayden let several arrows fly, striking three of the underworlders. He stepped closer to the barrier and shouted, then leapt back. Burns dragged over his arms and hands, bubbling into angry, red boils. “What the fuck—”
“Drina’s magic.” Arwan shook his head. “It must keep underworlders from going in—or out.”
“What the hell,” Jay shouted. “It hasn’t burned you and you’re more underworlder than all of us combined!”
Arwan glanced at Zanya, who shrugged. Maybe it had to do with Arwan’s split-genes. Jay was pretty much all underworlder at this point—a dead man walking.
Jayden mumbled a line of curse words under his breath before Peter stepped off the front lines. “I can heal you.”
“Don’t waste your energy.” Jayden glared at the massive, growing army. “It’s about to get a lot worse.” With a warrior’s scream, he charged the barrier, breaking through to the other side. He covered his face as his skin flushed an angry red.
“No!” Zanya stepped to the edge of the circle, but dared not step over it. She couldn’t risk being attacked. She wasn’t the only one at risk anymore.
Eleuia fired her weapon, putting down a few of the damned near Jayden to give him enough time to get to his feet. He stumbled to the nearest corpses and pulled his arrows out of their heads.
That’s when Zanya realized—he was out of ammo.
“Jay!” Zanya swiped her hands, leading a gust of wind to knock an assailant off its feet. “That’s enough. Get back here!”
Jayden gathered salvaged arrows and grinned. “Worried about—”
An underworlder came from behind and sank its weapon into Jayden’s back. He shouted and scrambled, taking the arrow in his hand and plunging it through the underworlder’s chest, dropping it in seconds.
Zanya lunged forward, but Arwan snagged her around the waist, holding her back. “You can’t go out there.”
She held her breath and watched Jayden, who ran toward the group and plowed through the barrier a second time, doing even more damage than the first. He lay on the ground, screaming and clawing at his eyes.
Balam darted through the underworlders, taking down hellhounds the best he could.
A shrill shriek stole Zanya’s attention. Grima stumbled back, holding a gash on her arm.
Zanya searched the barrier. “How did that happen?”
“It reached right through,” Grima shouted. “It reached through and cut right into me arm!”
Zanya shook her head. That couldn’t be. Drina’s spell kept them out. Unless…
“The spell is failing,” she said, first to herself, and then to the others. “The protective spell is failing!”
A sense of desperation charged through her, echoed by her stone.
She had to push harder.
Zanya took the stone out of its holster and cupped it in her hand. “You have to help me. We have to save them.”
Her stone buzzed and lit up with an affirmative response.
She coiled her fingers around it and drew in a deep breath.
Everything around her went silent. The light in her chest grew colder and brighter by the second. Her head started spinning, slicing into her focus. She wavered on her feet.
“No.”
She had to push on.
She had to work harder.
She had to protect them—until she no longer could…
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Arwan
When Zanya dropped to her knees, Arwan ran to her side and scooped her into his arms while the others continued to battle the underworld army. “Peter, get over here!”
“I can’t help her,” Peter shouted as he slashed and jabbed at the enemy. “Get her back inside where she’s safe. We can’t do anything for her if the baby is taking up her energy.”
“But we won’t last a second if these things break through completely.” Eleuia fired several more rounds. “Not without her.” When she reached for another clip on her belt, there was none, and she resorted to reloading the empty clip with a handful of bullets she’d pulled from her pocket.
“What do we do?” Hawa shouted. “I’m out of throwing knives, and my dagger got stuck in one of these things.” She swung a battle hammer and cracked it against the jaw of an underworlder. She swung again, hitting its skull and throwing it back, but not killing it. “And—” She stumbled back, covered in murky blood. “This is exhausting. I can’t pierce hearts with a battle hammer. It’s just slowing them down.” Panting, she wiped a streak of blood from her cheek. “Arwan…we’re running out of time.”
He held Zanya tighter against his chest. He should have told her to run—forced her, if need be. He should have ensured he
r safety and the survival of his child. Of the others’ lives. He should have, but now it was too late to look back. And even if he had—even if he bent time and did it all over again—he wouldn’t be able to fight off the army alone. They were all doomed, no matter the course of history.
Grima clenched her jaw, holding the wound on her arm. Her muscles tightened and she seized on the ground, a second victim of the underworld toxin.
Peter knelt beside her. “I’ll do what I can to help her, but we have to get Zanya out of here!”
Eleuia looked at him. “Please…save her.”
An underworlder broke through and slammed right into Eleuia, taking her down. It was the same underworlder Hawa had gotten her blade lodged in. She yanked the knife from its back and spun, lopping off the underworlder’s head. Though severed, its eyes darted side to side while its body continued to move. Eleuia kicked it off and jumped to her feet.
Hawa mounted the flailing corpse and stabbed it in the chest, then rolled the corpse away from her.
Another intruder broke through.
Then another.
The group gathered into a tighter formation as they fought with everything they had.
Eleuia ran out of bullets and held the gun by its barrel, using it as a bludgeon. “Fall back!” Eleuia cried. “Fall back to the house! We’re out of time!”
Beigarth scooped Grima into his arms and chased after the group as they fled to the sanctuary of the house.
Tara flung open the door and let Arwan inside. He set Zanya on the nearest step and backed out, shaking his head. “We can’t hide in here.” He turned to the group. “Keep fighting! They’ll break into the house in minutes. We have to fend them off!”
“We’re out of options!” Jayden shouted. “There are too many!”
An arrow whizzed through the air, hitting an underworlder in the chest and pinning it to nearby tree.
Arwan looked at Jayden, but there was no bow in his hand.
Birthright (The Stone Legacy Series Book 5) Page 23
