by K. A. Fox
The bracelet on my wrist flared with sharp electricity, stinging me into action. I followed Moose down to meet Torren and Callum as they tried to make it back to the safety of the ward stones that would keep everything out as soon as they crossed the boundary. The magic was in place, the familiar hum in the back of my mind confirming it was strong, fully charged. I didn’t leave them down at all any more, unwilling to risk another demon slipping in the way the Proles had. But I wanted no delays barring Cal and Torren from their path to safety. I connected with the stones, dropping the wards in readiness.
Both men were running full out, legs eating up patches of ground, but it was clear the creature was gaining on them. Moose stood in front of me at the edge of the stones, his muscles tense. He rested his long body against my legs, pushing me back, keeping himself between me and the coming danger. I rested my hand on the new collar around his neck, feeling the flames chased into the leather, and then raised myself up to my full height.
“We have to help them. Now,” I said, my voice firm. He whined, looking up at me and then back to the men. With a growl, he finally made up his mind and shifted his weight off me. We stepped forward together, our feet moving until we were running as fast as I could to meet our friends and stand with them.
As we closed the distance, I could hear Torren screaming at me to go back. Cal shouted a word that was caught by the wind and blown away from me. A brilliant sword burst to life in his hand and he stopped running, turning to face the coming giant. He planted his feet firmly and waited, letting the gap between himself and danger shrink, allowing Torren to draw a few more feet closer to safety.
Again, there was a shock through my arm from the cuff around my wrist. I spared a quick glance at it and saw the garnets were flashing with rare light, burning from within. Torren was about fifty feet away from us now, legs moving desperately, but it was clear that his stamina was gone. The creature that was charging made a keening sound as it recognized its prey was close.
For a moment, the helplessness I felt overwhelmed me and I was choking, unable to suck in enough air or move my legs fast enough to reach him. My feet were cinder blocks dragging through mud and I knew I’d never make it in time. I forced myself to push that feeling down, focusing only on striding forward, reaching his side and standing there as his protection. Moose woofed to get my attention, and I nodded, waving my hand toward Torren, giving him permission to run ahead of me.
That was all he needed, his burst of speed amazing me. He flowed over the ground, effortless and pure enjoyment, even as he ran into battle. I was the awkward runner flailing along behind, but I kept on going, putting my feet to the ground and pumping my arms as hard as I could. I heard the cadence of my feet repeating over and over in my head. “Get There, Get There, Get There.”
It felt like forever, even though I knew it couldn’t be. Moose had reached Torren and barreled past him. He slid to a stop, a second line of defense behind Callum, who was eerily still, flames chasing up the blade of his sword. He barely seemed to breathe, his eyes never leaving the earthy figure bearing down on him. Just as I was afraid that Cal would let himself be trampled to death, he shifted his weight slightly to the right, his feet dancing around the creature as his sword swept out and landed on the back of the creature’s leg. With a scream, it fell forward and tried to catch itself, its weight shaking the ground as I reached Torren’s side.
I was close enough now to see the face of this creature, a formless lump of a nose and anonymous mouth, lidless eyes that stared as it shook and tried to stand again. Cal pressed his advantage silently, circling around and striking at skin that reminded me of the layers of clay I sometimes found when I was planting. The creature struggled to stand, gaining a knee as Cal continued to mark it with his sword, wounds that opened but didn’t bleed. A massive hand shot out, trying to catch Callum unprepared but he ducked under it and swung around, his sword catching at the wrist and slicing through. The hand fell into the dirt and flopped, shaking as the creature wailed above it. Cal kept charging in, raining down strokes but the crying just continued, rising to such a pitch that I wanted to cover my ears even as Torren and I stumbled backwards.
With a sickening scream, the creature reared up, chunks of it flopping onto the ground, quaking like the hand had. As it fell back, away from Cal’s sword, it cracked down the middle. Like dripping candle wax, skin slid to the ground, quivering as it struggled to reform. The monstrous thing fell back, its heavy weight crashing down with an impact that almost knocked me off my feet. With a moan, it collapsed into itself, what nerves it had dancing for a moment, before it settled and finally stilled.
Callum circled it once more, looking for any sign that it might surge upward on the attack again, catching his breath while he watched it. I tried to examine it from where I stood but was too far away to see any distinguishing features. It was nothing now, reminding me of a lump of clay waiting to be made into something.
“What the Hell was that?” asked Torren, his voice breaking the tense silence surrounding us.
“A Golem.” Cal spat the words. “Formed and sent here with one mission. To attack and destroy.”
“A Golem?” I repeated, unsure. “I’ve never heard anything about them.”
Callum wiped his now quiet sword on his pants, the Golem drippings leaving brown streaks on his jeans. Sweat dripped from him and he was taking long breaths, riding out the adrenaline rush. When the sword’s surface gleamed clean, he bowed over the blade, making me think he was thanking it its service. The sword flashed like quicksilver before disappearing with a ringing note left behind on the air.
That done, Cal turned to me and shrugged. “I’d have to say Newton left out a chunk of your education. It probably never occurred to him that someone would ever send a Golem after you. They’re creatures born from clay, animated by magic, driven to accomplish a single purpose.”
That sounded ominous and generally awful. Someone had sent this here to attack my home.
“Just like the Proles,” I whispered to myself.
Cal heard me, nodding sharply in agreement. Torren stared at us, his eyes wild. I stepped between them, needing to see up close this enemy that had been formed solely to fight me. I knelt down at the edge of the melted mass, trying to discern any clear marks that could tell me who had sent this thing. The smell rising from it was loamy but there was an unpleasant tang, something that made me think of burnt gristle.
There were puddles of melted skin from where Cal’s sword had swept through, and some of these still bubbled and popped, letting out more of the meaty odor. My stomach twisted, and I was about to turn away when I saw a dark brown scrap poking out from the center, the edge of it barely visible.
I reached out a finger to test it and heard Moose whine behind me. I looked at him with what I hoped was a reassuring smile, then turned back to my assessment. Trying to grip the end I could see, I gave a gentle tug, expecting the piece of what felt like leather to slide free. Instead, the whole mass in front of me began to shake. The puddles of skin quivered and the noxious odor increased suddenly, pouring out putrescent fumes.
Shocked, I fell back and scrambled away. Cal’s hands wrapped themselves in the back of my shirt, dragging me to my feet gracelessly. I watched as the fallen Golem in front of us coalesced into smaller figures that shook themselves, each one identical to the first. As a group, they turned their staring eyes right to where I stood.
Chapter Thirty
Cal muttered a curse in a language I didn’t know. What had once been a single, enormous threat now surged forward in multiples. Torren grabbed my hand, dragging me back and out of the way. Callum growled, a sound full of frustration, and pointed behind us. “Get inside the stones. Be ready to set those wards.” I nodded at him, and started to head that way, but his next words stopped me. “Even if we aren’t there, you set those wards and keep these things out.” I skidded, trying to turn back to him but Torren pulled me along.
Moos
e and Callum faced the oncoming swarm, each individual piece smaller than the original, but the sheer number of them was overwhelming. Cal’s sword was back in his hand and he fought with Moose like they were a team. The surge of creatures was relentless, but they beat the mass back as much as they could.
Desperately watching over my shoulder as I tried to run, I saw Moose catch one of the creatures that was leaping forward, knocking it back into the dirt and wrapping his jaws around its neck. He clamped down and then shook the thing mercilessly, flipping it up into the air. When it came back down, the body was motionless.
I was about ten feet away from the stones when one of the creatures made it past Callum and beyond even Moose, who was tearing into two of the creatures he’d batted down. I cried a warning at Torren who dropped my hand and turned to face what was coming. He dove forward to snatch up a tree branch from the ground and then rose to confront the danger gaining on us. He took a swing at the creature’s head, but it ducked under the club’s path. The thing feinted in and then twisted around as Torren tried to counter the move, leaving his side open. The creature’s fist swung in and connected with a shocking thump. The impact of the body blow left Torren staggering, his knees fighting to keep him upright for a few seconds. He crumpled to the ground, unable to support himself, a brief scream of pain echoing.
I felt the ache in my side where Torren had been struck, felt my breath start to seize up, but then shook myself out of the feeling. Rushing to his side and sliding to the ground, I grabbed the stick he’d wielded in his own defense and swung at the creature that was coming in for the kill as I regained my feet. It flinched back and tried to maneuver around me, but I pivoted, following it steadily. When it darted in again, I waited until I could smell the fetid odor of its skin before I brought the stick up, catching it under the chin and enjoying the sound of what I hoped were its teeth smacking together.
I couldn’t help myself as I barked out a harsh laugh, enjoying the fear I saw crawl across the creature’s face. I didn’t waste time reveling in the adrenaline that was fueling this fight. I stalked toward it, never taking my eyes from it, keeping my body between it and Torren.
It crouched in front of me, unmoving as I approached. I looked for hints, anything that I could use to gauge where it would jump to. It didn’t appear to breathe, so I couldn’t predict when it would come at me by its breathing patterns. I remembered everything Newt had taught me to look for in battle and none of it was helpful in this fight. It was going to boil down to the basics. The first thing he’d ever told me during our battle lessons was, “Winning ugly is still winning. Because it means you lived.” I’d do what I had to do to make sure we all came out of this as healthy as we could.
I copied the creature’s posture, its stillness, waiting. My hand gripped the club I carried as tightly as I could. I let my breath out beat by beat, counting my heartbeats in my head. Deprived of my movement and the sound of my frightened breathing, the Golem in front of me cocked its head, much like I’d seen Moose do when he was puzzling something out. I ignored the sounds of fighting coming from Callum and Moose’s position and kept my focus centered on the problem directly in front of me.
It seemed like an eternity, but the moment finally came when the Golem couldn’t wait any more. I saw the minute flexing in its legs as it prepared to leap at me and tensed my muscles in readiness. Its forward momentum carried it right at my head and I waited until the last second before I tucked down into a roll, coming up right behind the thing that threatened my home and my friends. I couldn’t contain the scream that tore out of me as I swung my club at the Golem’s head, my rage powering the impact as I followed through, hearing my father’s patient voice as he tried to teach me how to hit a baseball when I was younger. “Keep your eyes open, Laney. And swing all the way through the damn ball.”
The satisfying crunch of contact filled my ears and something wet flew out from the Golem’s head before the branch got stuck. Letting my anger charge all the energy around me, an image of the bright blue purifying fire I’d used back in Angel Falls appeared in my mind. I focused on that and let it build, then shoved the magic out through my hands and into the creature that wavered on unsteady feet before me. The bright blue flames raced down the wood, into the Golem and shards of light burst out through cracks that spread over its skin. It turned to face me, hands trying to grasp my arms, but then collapsed onto its knees. It was motionless for a second before an uncontrollable quaking took it over, the cracks spreading and light spearing through as the gaps widened. When the Golem’s entire skin was webbed with lines, its face creased with what I thought must be pain. It raised both arms to the sky, almost glowing, and exploded, the light inside bursting its way out. Chunks of Golem flew, liquefied for a moment until the purifying fire burned it all away.
I spared a glance at Torren, who was trying to stand, his hand protecting his injured side. We seemed to be out of danger for a brief moment. My attention on Callum and Moose now, I could see they were tiring. There were fewer Golems attacking, but we had been outnumbered from the beginning. I stepped forward, the scars on my wrist flaring white hot. The heat from the purification spell I’d used began to build around me again, electricity flaring as the energy rushed to my silent call. The stones on the bracelet shone a deep blood red as I raised my hands and pointed toward the attackers. I didn’t need words any longer for the magic to know my request, and, as I dropped my arms down, I felt the energy arrow away from me, engulfing the attackers. Protecting those who I claimed as mine.
I could see the purification spell as it worked its way into each and every individual Golem, diving inside and spreading to fill them. The cracks webbed out across their skin and the group began to collapse, one by one, losing their strength and ability to fight. Callum and Moose retreated back, watching as the light began to blaze out from inside each and every creature, almost blinding when it reached its peak. Callum waved his arm, calling out to me, his voice sharp and staccato. The bracelet on my wrist sparked. A shield engulfed me just as the Golems exploded. The force knocked us all backwards, throwing us roughly to the ground.
Chapter Thirty·One
The impact knocked the breath from me. I made it to my knees, then gave myself a few seconds to regain my balance and adjust to the ringing in my ears. When I felt like I could open my eyes without losing what little food I’d managed to eat earlier, I gave it a try. Both Callum and Moose were bloody and covered in dirt, but they were very clearly alive. Relief hit me hard. I didn’t fight the tears filling my eyes.
Moose limped over, letting me rest my weight on him as I climbed unsteadily to my feet. Callum met my eyes, then his gaze traveled over me until he was satisfied that I had no pressing injuries. He started toward me but the stricken look that crossed his face as he looked past me made my stomach twist.
Wondering, I turned and gasped. Torren’s body was crumpled on the hard ground, twisted painfully. The force of the blast had thrown him back to where the stones were waiting. The protective ring we’d been trying to get to had caught him, the blood from his head staining the shine of the stone he’d hit. He didn’t move, not even to breathe and I felt my knees start to go out from under me. I wavered on my feet, but Cal was there, bracing me with a strong arm. Together, we made our way to where Torren lay.
Moose joined us, a sad whine communicating his worry. I knelt down next to Torren, reaching out to touch him but pulling back in fear. I didn’t know how to help him or if that was even possible. Cal joined me, taking my hand in his with a comforting squeeze, then placing it on Torren’s chest. There I could feel the smallest of vibrations, reassuring but slight, stuttering between beats. I hated feeling useless, but I really had no idea what to do. Moving him could hurt him more than he already was. The simple fact that he never had to be in harm’s way at all made me angry at the circumstances that had pushed him into the path of the danger stalking me right now.
Callum seemed to know the thoughts plaguing me
. He leaned in, his solid presence offering me support and solace. Quietly, he said, “You can help him. Drop your shields and share some of your energy. It will give his body the time to heal his injuries.”
I held back, reluctant to even attempt something I’d fought to avoid for so long. “You can heal him, like you did when I was hurt.” I could hear the childish stubbornness in my voice but couldn’t stop it. “Even Angus thinks you’re the best at it.”
I could feel him shaking his head. “Delaney, he needs you. I can’t help him the way you can. The two of you have already established a connection. His body recognizes you. His energy knows yours and will welcome it. I don’t have that with him. Anything I try to do may hurt him even more as his body fights against what it thinks is foreign.”
If we were down to this as our only option, things were far worse than I’d thought they would ever be. Understanding my hesitation, Cal covered my hand with his, I couldn’t fight the necessity before me. “Close your eyes,” he whispered. “Find the link between the two of you, focus on it and then drop your shields so that connection can fully open.”
No time for arguing, I did as he said. I closed my eyes, scanning the darkness for whatever it was that kept Torren tied to me. Anxiety clawed at my insides as I saw nothing in the darkness. Cal’s calming voice stopped the panic from rising. “Breathe and relax. You can do this.”
I fought the urge to pull away and nodded, forcing a deep breath in and out, over and over again. As my body relaxed with the rhythm of my breathing, I began to see a thread of light running from Torren into the center of my chest. It seemed to pulse with the beat of my heart, becoming more distinct the longer I watched it. It looked so real, like I could touch it if I tried. Not opening my eyes, I reached a hand toward where I thought it would be. My hand felt nothing, but the connection vibrated as my fingers brushed over it, the sensation spilling into me with little spirals of light pouring off. I heard Torren’s body move on the ground in front of me in reaction, so it was a connection that truly ran both ways.
