Their beaks were bullets from machine guns striking the metal. Bird cries filled my head. I squeezed my eyes shut, but that only made it worse.
They were coming from everywhere.
I guarded the side of my face with my hand, as if that could protect me along with the shields. “What are they?” I asked, my voice barely audible above the clangs and caws.
“Sluagh,” he said again, as if that had any meaning to me. He must have seen my confusion, because he added, “Spirits. Vengeful spirits.”
Oh, I realized. I should try using my magic to kill them.
Of course I should.
After all the monsters I’d faced in the Games, who knew that birds would leave me shaking in terror?
I gathered my magic, and the electricity glowed around my skin. I made sure not to touch Julian or the shields. Electricity on metal was a recipe for disaster.
Wind whipped around us. Thunder boomed in the sky.
Now.
I pointed my palms down, let my magic loose, and aimed the bolts at the ground. They spread out and up, and while I couldn’t see above the shields, I felt the dome of electricity surrounding us, like it had in the final arena fight.
The wind picked up speed until it was a hurricane and we were the eye.
The pings of the beaks against the shields lessened. But it wasn’t enough.
I pushed deeper, willed my magic to expand, and released it up to the sky.
Thunder boomed so loudly that my chest vibrated from it. A bright flash of blinding light surrounded me. The charred smell of burning flesh filled my nose.
Thud, thud, thud, birds fell to the ground. There must have been thousands of them.
And then, silence.
My magic depleted into embers, so dim I could barely feel it. My muscles were jelly. I collapsed to my knees on the ground, my palms in front of me to balance on all fours as I gasped for air. My breaths were needles in my lungs. My clothes and hair were damp with sweat.
Julian was down there next to me. He wrapped his arms around me, and I buried my face in his chest. “We’re safe,” he murmured in my ear. “You did it. They’re gone.”
Once it no longer hurt to breathe, I opened my eyes and surveyed the area.
The fog had lifted. Dead, crushed ravens covered the ground. There were enough of them to fill the arena floor of the Coliseum, and then some.
Julian’s horse was dead where we’d left him. The birds had ripped apart his skin and shredded it down to the bones.
I glanced over my shoulder. All that was left of my horse was a mound of bones and torn, bloodied remnants of muscle and skin.
Tears streamed down my cheeks. I covered my face with my hands, unable to look.
“Our packs seem intact,” Julian said. “You need one of those apples. Will you be all right here if I go get them?”
“Yes,” I croaked, and it hurt just to speak.
He hurried away in a flash. Ten seconds later, he was back by my side, our packs in hand. He opened one, rummaged around, and handed me a golden apple.
“Eat,” he said, at the same time as I sank my teeth into the fruit.
Sweetness exploded across my taste buds. I swallowed down the first bite, and warmth traveled through my veins, stopping my body from shaking.
Juice flowed out of the apple and covered my hands. My strength increased with each bite. Soon, only the core remained.
Sparkly gold magic surrounded the apple, and seconds later, it was back to new. I finished it again, and then a third time. I must have looked like a savage animal, but I ate until my magic swelled so much that it pushed against my skin.
Unable to take one more bite, I dropped the newly whole apple down onto my lap.
“Better?” Julian asked. He also held an apple in his hand, and he smelled intoxicating, like honey. I must have been so involved in eating mine that I hadn’t noticed him eating his.
“Yes,” I said, and I reached for his shirt, pulling him in for a kiss. My hands were sticky, but I didn’t care.
He kissed me back, soft and sweet, and gazed down at me in wonder. “You’re amazing,” he said.
“So are you.” I smiled, loving how natural and easy it was between us.
Julian and I were a team. And we’d succeed in our quest to get the wand, because together, we were unstoppable.
11
Selena
With our horses dead and no towns or villages in sight, we walked the rest of the way to the base of the mountain range. Once we found a cozy spot surrounded by rocks, we set up camp.
The plan was to take turns sleeping and keeping watch. Julian insisted that I rest first. I must have been more tired than I’d realized, because I fell into a deep sleep the moment I lay down.
Julian’s soft, sweet lips eased me back to consciousness. “Selena,” he said, and my eyes fluttered open. “It’s your turn to keep watch.”
I moaned and kissed him again. As we kissed, I made my way out from under the blanket, wrapped a leg around his waist, and climbed on top of him.
His hands explored my body, sliding down the straps of my top to caress my breasts. I arched my back and moved slowly against him, my hunger for him taking over. My hands wandered down to the waist of his breeches, but he wrapped his fingers around my wrist, stopping me.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“We need to wake up early tomorrow to cross the mountains…”
He didn’t finish the sentence. Instead, he crushed his lips against mine, rolled me over, and pinned me to the ground.
Our clothes were off in less than a minute, leaving only centimeters between our naked bodies.
“When we switch posts again, we’ll be more responsible,” he said, his voice so strained that I could tell it was taking all his strength to hold back.
“Yes.” I smiled and brushed a damp curl off his forehead. “Next time, we’ll do that.”
He made a sound of approval, kissed me again, and just when I thought I couldn’t take the wait anymore, he slid himself inside me.
We didn’t hold back the next time. Or the next, or the next.
An hour or two after the sun rose—I’d lost track of time—we were snuggled together inside the sleeping roll. I wanted to stay in his arms forever.
But we had a mountain range to cross. So we pried ourselves out of each other’s arms, located our clothes that were scattered around the tent, and got dressed.
Julian stretched his arms behind his back. “Well,” he said with a satisfied smile. “We’re not very good at being responsible, are we?”
“I guess not,” I said as I finished packing up the sleeping roll. “But it was worth it.”
“Definitely worth it,” he said, and it took all my effort to stop myself from rushing over to kiss him again.
But we both knew what that would lead to. And we really did have a mountain range to cross.
Besides, there was always tomorrow night.
We ate, packed everything up, and started up the mountain range. Traveling was slower without our horses. But without them, we used our strength to climb up boulders instead of sticking to the winding road. It was a much straighter shot across. And when I grumbled about it taking forever, Julian pointed out that for half-bloods without super speed and strength, it would take a week or more. Our progress was great in comparison.
We made it to the top just in time to watch the sun set. After finding a place to set up camp, we settled in for another night of trading off posts as we slept.
And we were no more responsible this time.
Going down the mountain was more difficult than going up. But about halfway down, we got our first glimpse of the flat grassy plains on the other side.
The Central Plainlands.
My magic burst in excitement. I flung myself into Julian’s arms, whooping in delight as he swung me around in a circle.
With newfound energy, we quickened our pace. But as we neared the bottom, something rank and sour assaulted
my senses.
I scrunched my nose in disgust. “What is that?” I asked Julian.
He stopped walking and looked out to where the wind was blowing from the southwest. “It’s decay,” he said. “Something out there’s been rotting for a while.”
“Gross.”
“Once we’re across the mountains, we’re heading northwest,” he said. “It should go away soon.”
“Thank God,” I said. “Because I don’t think I’ll be able to breathe if it gets any closer.”
Julian stilled, his eyes suddenly distant. “The town of Hadrian’s that way,” he said. “I just hope…”
“Hope what?”
“Never mind.” He shrugged and shot me an encouraging smile. “I’m sure that whatever’s going on, they’re handling it.”
“Good.” I readjusted my pack in preparation to continue down the mountain. “Because as tempting as it might be for you to swoop in and play superhero, we have a tree to find.”
12
Selena
The next morning, we packed up camp from the base of the mountain and started across the Central Plainlands. There were a handful of valleys, but for the most part, it was flat.
The smell didn’t go away. In fact, it seemed to be getting closer. We had to smear juice from the golden apples under our noses to block the awful scent. It didn’t cover it completely, but it was better than nothing.
“Have you ever been this far outside the citadel?” I asked Julian as we walked.
“No.” He stiffened. “Half-bloods don’t have that kind of freedom.”
“Neither did I.” I thought back on my time in Avalon, when I was unable to leave the island that felt so small. “So I guess you don’t know if this smell is normal in this region.”
“Nope,” he said. “But I doubt it’s natural.”
I nodded in agreement.
We continued on without talking for a while. The smell was so horrid that neither of us wanted to open our mouths to breathe any more than necessary.
Every so often, there were small groupings of trees, their leaves a beautiful assortment of reds, oranges, and yellows. The trees smelled of the sweet faerie fruit that grew on them, and walking through them gave us a temporary reprieve from the rot in the open air. It was also a lot easier to talk when we weren’t trying not to breathe.
There was a break in the conversation, and something grumbled ahead. A low, humming, groaning sound that prickled alarm down my spine.
“What’s that?” I asked Julian.
“I don’t know.” He pulled a machete out of the ether and swung it through vines to create a faster way out.
We exited the thicket of trees, and then we saw them.
A horde of black-winged fae with gray skin cracked like dry paint. They filled the valley and trudged aimlessly in a circle, their necks tilted at strange, stiff angles. Their cloudy white eyes stared sightlessly ahead as they dragged their feet behind them. Thick black goo coated many of their torn-up shoes.
Some had a single wound on their exposed skin. The wounds were in different places, but they all leaked pus and were surrounded by black, spidery veins.
The creatures reminded me of…
No, I thought. Those are only in television shows. They don’t exist. Especially not in the Otherworld.
A breeze blew from behind us and carried our scents toward the horde.
All their heads looked at us at once. They turned to face us, and they picked up speed. Their groans were a ghostly chorus as they headed our way, and they opened and closed their jaws like they were ready to eat us for lunch.
Julian held an arm out in front of me and inched backward. “It’s the plague,” he said, his tone laced with tension. “There’s too many of them. We have to return to where we entered the forest and find another path.”
We hurried through the copse and exited into the field on the other side.
A wall of black-winged fae waited for us. It was like they’d come out of nowhere. The wall of them was too thick to run through without them pulling us down from behind. And we couldn’t jump over them, because we didn’t have enough space to get a running start. If we tried, we’d land in the center of them.
I glanced around for another way out, and panic set in my lungs.
We were trapped.
Julian pulled knives out of the ether and threw them into their hearts.
Snapping to it, I gathered my lightning and aimed it at their hearts as well.
We stayed in the field and kept out of the trees. Fighting in the trees would be far more dangerous, since it was harder to spot opponents.
Julian continued throwing his daggers, and I kept attacking with my lightning. The black-winged fae dropped like flies.
But then, the first group that had fallen started to stand up. Their skin was healing, and as it mended, it pushed the knives out. Black goo came out of the wounds, too. Their blood?
The knives hit the ground and disappeared back into the ether. The others healed themselves, too, including the ones I’d seared through the hearts with my lightning.
Julian’s mouth dropped open.
“They’re zombies!” I screamed. “We have to aim for their brains.”
Julian nodded and switched tactics, throwing the knives into their foreheads instead of their hearts. I did the same with my lightning. I didn’t think it mattered as much with my lightning—frying them was frying them—but it didn’t hurt to try.
Just like before, they healed and got back up.
“Let’s dismember their legs,” Julian said wickedly. “Only the gods have the healing power to grow back limbs. They can’t attack if they can’t walk.” His eyes gleamed, and he pulled two sharp, lethal looking longswords from the ether. He tossed one to me, and then the other.
I caught the swords by the handles, and he pulled out two more for himself.
He ran toward a group of black-winged fae to the right. They came at him from all directions, and he spun as he fought, moving in a blur. Their legs and arms flew outward around him, and their black, oily blood splattered on the grass.
I took on the ones to the left. I wasn’t as fast as Julian, but my lightning staved them off if too many came at me at once.
Suddenly, Julian screamed.
I backed away from the group I was fighting and searched for him.
The fae that Julian had dismembered were growing back their legs. He must have had his back toward them when he thought they were down, because they’d reached for his ankles and taken him by surprise from behind.
He pulled knives from the ether and threw them at their hearts to knock them out and free himself from their grasps.
He hurried to the small forest, cutting off the legs of the zombies in his way. Then he climbed the trunk of the nearest tree and motioned for me to join him. “Selena!” he called. “You’re going to have to roast them.”
It would be easier from above. So I shot my lightning at the zombies ahead of me to clear a temporary path, and climbed the tree next to Julian.
The horde had surrounded the copse. They gathered below our two trees and clawed at them so much that the trunks swayed back and forth.
With his legs wrapped tightly around the tree trunk, Julian pulled knives from the ether and threw them down at the zombies. It held them off, but they’d resurrect before we could get all of them. And his aim wasn’t as perfect while he was holding onto the tree.
I needed to knock them all down at once with lightning from the sky. Hopefully it would keep them down for long enough for us to escape. I could do it, but it would take everything I had.
I reached for my magic and smiled as a storm started brewing within me. Clouds rolled in and covered the sky. The wind picked up speed and rustled through the leaves. Thunder boomed so loudly that my bones rattled.
My magic crackled and popped, ready to release.
“I might not have the strength to run if I use this much magic at once,” I screamed to be heard over the
storm. “And I won’t have time to replenish it with the apple.”
“I know.” He pulled his pack with the sleeping roll off his back and dropped it into the group of zombies below. They fought each other for it and ripped it apart. “I’ll carry you.”
I nodded, since that made the most sense. My pack held the golden apples, pomegranates, water bladders, and our traveling clothes. All things that we needed more than the sleeping roll and tent. Well, maybe the tent was more useful than extra pairs of traveling clothes, but we didn’t have time to shuffle it around now.
I took a deep breath and pictured the magic in my palms connecting with the thunder roaring in the clouds. It boomed again, answering my call. Then I exhaled, pushed my magic out, and imagined the lightning from the clouds doing the same.
Light blue magic erupted from my palms into the sky.
Thunder boomed so loudly that the tree trunks vibrated, and hundreds of bolts struck down at once. The sizzling smell of burned, rotted flesh assaulted my senses. Every zombie and every tree except ours burned. The zombies’ skin was charred so it was the same color as their wings.
More flashes of lightning. I forced out the last bit of magic in my body, and then the storm disappeared.
My arms shook around the tree trunk, and I fell.
Julian was already below me. He caught me easily and positioned me on his back, his feet balanced on the unconscious bodies of two fae zombies. “Can you hold on?” he asked.
I put all my energy into tightening my grip around his neck. “Yes,” I croaked.
“Don’t worry.” He held onto my wrists. “I’ve got you.”
He hopped from collapsed zombie to collapsed zombie like they were stones in a river. The intensity of my lightning storm kept them down for longer than before, but a few were starting to slowly push their way back up.
Julian avoided those zombies.
Once we were past the thick of them, he ran.
I closed my eyes, relief coursing through me as I rested my head on his shoulder and let him carry me away.
The Faerie Wand (Dark World: The Faerie Games Book 4) Page 5
