“So Reed and I will create another traveling dome,” Torrence said. “One that surrounds the six of us. The pegasi might be too fragile to fly the domes against the wind, but like you said, we’re physically stronger than they are. Not as fast, but we’re more durable. It’ll take us longer to travel on foot, but you’re right. Together, we should be strong enough to push the dome against the wind.”
Julian glanced at me and said nothing.
He wasn’t going to approve of Torrence tethering her magic to Reed’s again.
That was on me.
But before I could say anything, Torrence grabbed Reed’s hands, and they did the spell. The purple and yellow of their magic lit up the barren landscape and created a shimmering dome around us, inside the super dome that also blocked noise.
The dome turned nearly transparent, and Torrence and Reed pulled away from each other in a daze.
She shook it off, turned her back to him, and tossed her hair over her shoulder. “There we go,” she said with a bright smile. “Easy.”
Reed’s eyes were dilated, and he didn’t say a word.
“We’ll send the pegasi back to our camp at the mountains,” Thomas said. “Once we’re done with the demon, we’ll meet up with them and fly them back to the city.”
Sage kneeled down next to the pegasus she’d been sharing with Thomas and examined the spot where the creature’s wing attached to its body. It was bright red, and the skin was so stretched that there were small tears along the edges. “Will they be able to make it back?” she asked.
None of us said anything.
Because none of us knew.
“Let me try something,” she said, and then she bit the inside of her wrist. Blood flowed to the surface, and she held it up to the pegasus’s mouth. “Here,” she said. “Drink.”
The pegasus snorted and turned its head away.
Thomas hurried to Sage’s side and wrapped his hand around her wrist to stop the bleeding. “Let it heal,” he said sternly. “We’re getting ready to face a demon with strength we’ve never seen before. You need to be at your strongest. You can’t lose any blood.”
They held each others’ gazes for a few seconds.
Then he pulled his hand away. Blood coated Sage’s skin, but the surface was smooth.
Vampire and shifter healing abilities were incredible. Of course, they couldn’t heal like that after being injured with holy weapons—or the Nemean lion’s claws—but I supposed that was why she bit her wrist instead of slicing it with her dagger.
She looked helplessly at her pegasus. “I hoped my blood might be able to heal her,” she said sadly.
“Vampire blood can only heal humans,” Thomas said. “You know that.”
“I know. But I had to try.”
He slowly stood up, bringing her with him.
“The wind is blowing toward the mountains,” I said. “The pegasi won’t have to strain their wings, since they’ll be flying with the wind and not against it. So they should be able to make it back to our campsite in the Western Mountains. They’ll need to heal first, but they have magic. I don’t imagine the healing process will take long.”
“Good idea,” I said, and I looked back at my pegasus.
He bobbed his head up and down—a nod.
We set up camp and made ourselves comfortable.
The next morning, the pegasi were healed enough to fly with the wind behind them. And so we said sorrow-filled goodbyes to our winged horses, joined our hands together, and pushed forward.
18
SELENA
REED TOOK the left side of our “wall,” and I took the right. Julian wasn’t thrilled about having me on the end, but I needed a hand free to hold the wand. With the wand, I could send strength through our linked hands.
Torrence’s pendulum pulsed steadily with light as we continued forward. It was like a game of hot and cold. If she stepped back, the pendulum dimmed. When she moved to the west—toward the demon—it started to pulse again.
Once we were within feet of the demon, it would flash like a strobe light.
We had to leave as much of our supplies as possible with the pegasi to lighten the load. So we carried only the essentials—weapons, food, and water. It was a good thing we’d cast the spell on the pendulum, because the atlas and the four candles had been left behind.
The wind was so strong that each step felt like my shoes were bricks. After hours of walking, the sun set, and we stopped for the night.
Sleeping without bedrolls on the dead, muddy grass wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the world, but we made do.
Sage and Thomas snuggled together, and Julian, Torrence, and I snugged together—with me in the middle facing Julian. Reed slept alone. He glanced at Torrence a few times when we were getting situated, but she ignored him.
We did the same thing the next day, and the next. Pushing against what had to have been category five strength winds was no easy task, even for supernaturals.
Finally, on the third day, we stepped out of the wind. One moment the storm roared, and the next, the air was still. Unnaturally so. Clouds darkened the sky, and red lightning flashed between them, but the wind was gone. The calmness extended for as far as I could see.
I spun around and looked out to where the storm raged on only a few feet away. An invisible line separated the wind from the calm. The protective bubble climbed all the way up to the sky. It was incredible and beautiful, in an exceptionally creepy way.
“It curves toward the horizon,” Thomas said. “We’re in the eye of the storm.”
“What would you bet that the demon and her witch are right in the center?” Sage asked.
“I don’t need to bet,” Julian said. “I was counting each footstep, and I memorized the map. We just walked ten miles. Ten miles more, and we’ll reach the cliffs where the demon made her lair. Now that we’re not walking against the wind, it shouldn’t take long to get there.”
“I should heal you first,” I said. Even though I wasn’t actually healing Julian, it was easier to refer to the process of pushing back the plague that way. “We’ll make camp again to rest tonight, and launch our attack in the morning.”
From Julian’s steely gaze, he didn’t like that plan. He didn’t like anyone being held back because of him. But he didn’t say no.
Sage spun slowly around and sniffed the air. “You guys?” she said. “We’re gonna have to hold that thought.”
“Zombies?” I asked, and she nodded.
“About half a mile out. They’re heading in this direction.”
“From which way?” Julian asked.
“From all ways. They’re trapping us in a semicircle, with our backs toward the storm. It has to be a planned attack.”
“How many?” he asked.
“A lot. We’re gonna need all hands on deck.”
Thomas’s hand went to the handle of the sword strapped to his weapons belt.
Julian looked around at all of us. “You all know the plan?”
We snapped to attention and said yes, since we’d been through this many times.
“Good,” he said. “Let’s take them down.”
We located the nearest hill and hurried to the top of it, ready with our weapons—and with our magic. Working together, we created another super dome around us. We’d be able to move in and out as we pleased, but it would keep the zombies out. It technically should have been able to hold against endless amounts of them, but we’d yet to put it to the test.
No time like the present.
Rot and decay grew thick in the air, followed by the first of the zombies stumbling into the valley. They were clumped so thickly together that I couldn’t see the grass beneath their feet.
They closed in, and their groans chorused around us. There had to be four times as many as the horde Julian and I had fought on our way to Sibyl’s tree—or more.
But back then, we didn’t have holy weapons. We didn’t know what we were facing. We didn’t have a plan.
<
br /> Now, we were ready.
The others formed a circle around me, faced the zombies, and held out their holy weapons.
Sage had both the slicer and the longsword she’d been loaning me. I’d have no use of the longsword while I was safe inside the dome, so it was more useful with her. The wand was all I’d need.
Reed and Julian had one holy weapon each, since Reed had loaned Julian his extra. They’d insisted it made the most sense for them to be the only ones without two holy weapons, since Julian could pull a regular weapon from the ether if needed, and Reed had his dark mage magic.
I double checked that everyone was ready, raised the Holy Wand above my head, and shot my electricity through it. Just like when I’d freed the half-bloods, the crystals conducted the magic, heightening it and giving me extra strength.
Hundreds of blue lightning bolts shot down from the clouds and struck the zombies below. I rotated around in a circle, making sure to hit them all.
The zombies collapsed to the ground. Smoke drifted off of them, the scent slightly covering the smell of rot. Their sprawled bodies looked like the aftermath of a massacre.
But they still weren’t dead dead.
Julian, Reed, Thomas, Torrence, and Sage bolted toward the approaching zombies.
One, two, three, four, five, I counted the seconds in my mind.
They wielded their holy weapons, and they swung them in a blur, stabbing the zombies through their hearts and turning them to ash. They watched each other’s backs, and ashed the entire inside ring of zombies.
Twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four.
“COME BACK!” I yelled, and they all spun around, quickly rejoining me inside the dome.
Thirty seconds.
That was the shortest length of time it took for a knocked down zombie to start pushing itself back up. Which, sure enough, a few of them did.
We waited another minute, until all of the remaining zombies were back on their feet.
Then we did the same thing again. And again. And again.
I itched to go out there and join them. But the wand thrummed in my hand, as if it was warning me away from my thoughts. Because even though I wasn’t in the midst of the action, my role was important. This entire strategy wouldn’t be possible without me.
By the fifth round, nearly three-fourths of the zombies were gone. Ash covered the majority of the ground in the valley.
The five of them had moved on to slaying the zombies in the outermost ring, nearly half a mile away.
Seven, eight, nine…
A thick bolt of red lightning struck a hill in the distance.
Crap.
So far, the red lightning had stayed up near the clouds. This was the first ground strike I’d seen.
The others were powerful.
But powerful enough to withstand a direct lightning strike?
I wasn’t about to find out.
“COME BACK!” I screamed, but an exploding boom of thunder drowned out my call.
A thick bolt of red lightning struck the top of the dome. I spun around just as it pierced the barrier.
Impossible.
But even more impossibly, it didn’t strike the ground.
It spread out into the shapes of two people made of pure, red electricity. I shot a blast of electricity toward them, but it passed right through.
The electricity around them sizzled out, and two women solidified into place.
One had skin so pale it nearly matched her white dress. Her hair was as black as zombie blood.
The other was as tall as a model, and her dark, wavy hair flowed down to her waist. She smiled at me, and her eyes flashed red.
A demon.
My heart leaped in terror. Because I didn’t have a holy weapon.
So I pointed the wand at her and sent electricity through the top crystal.
But she was a second ahead of me. And that second was all she needed to move out of the way, come at me from the side, grab my wrist, and send a searing pain through my body that boiled my blood and ripped me to shreds.
19
SELENA
I SCREAMED.
At least, I tried to scream.
But I couldn’t. Because I wasn’t anything. I was split into nano-sized bits down to the cellular level, zooming through the air as energy stronger than any voltage I’d ever conjured rushed through me.
No, not through me.
The energy was me.
I was light. Pure electricity zooming through the clouds. I was free.
Am I dead?
Then, piercing pain. The bits of me snapped into place, and the cells rearranged themselves like a jigsaw puzzle piecing itself together at super speed.
Please, stop, I pleaded to whoever might be listening.
It didn’t stop. Instead, thousands of needles stabbed through me, stitching me back together.
Finally, the pieces settled into place.
Bright red light surrounded me.
I tried screaming again.
Again, nothing.
Just when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore, the pain vanished. Ground solidified beneath my feet. The red light dimmed, and went out.
A hand was wrapped around my arm.
The demon.
I slammed my knee into her groin, and she released me. Then I pushed her down with my other foot for good measure, hurried away to put space between us, and spun back around.
I shot a beam of blue, violet, and silver magic through the wand’s crystal and out at her.
Red magic shot from her hands and crashed into mine. It was like hitting a wall.
“How’d you like the ride?” She grinned.
I grunted and pushed harder. But her magic didn’t budge. She didn’t even look like she was trying.
“It hurt, didn’t it?” she continued. “I wish I could say you’d get used to it, but I can’t. Not that it matters, since there won’t be anything left of you to get used to once we’re done here.”
Still holding onto my magic, I glanced up at the dark red sky. We were at the bottom of a huge crater that must have been fifty feet deep. Zombies crowded around the perimeter of the circular cliff, pulling at an invisible fence as they stared down at me like angry fans watching a wrestling match.
The landscape behind them was flatter than where we’d been fighting a minute ago.
Whatever the demon had done to me had transported us somewhere else.
How?
It wasn’t teleporting—teleporting didn’t hurt like that. Plus, teleporting was blocked in the Otherworld.
It was some other method of travel.
But I’d worry about that later. Right now, my focus needed to be on defeating the demon.
I opened the hand that wasn’t holding the wand.
Blue lightning struck down from the sky toward the demon.
She dropped her hold on her magic and rolled out of the way. My magic slammed into the rock wall behind where she’d been standing. Then, she stood up and opened her hand.
Move.
I jumped out of the way a split second before red lightning struck where I’d been standing.
I raised the wand and brought down ten bolts at once—all aimed at the demon.
A dome of red electricity surrounded her and absorbed the blast.
I slammed it with another bolt, and then another. But the dome was an impenetrable cage. No matter how much lightning I struck it with, I couldn’t get through.
“I’m Fallon, by the way.” Her long hair blew behind her as she maintained her hold on the electricity surrounding her. “In case you were wondering.”
“I wasn’t.”
“That’s too bad. Because I’m a fan of yours, Selena. I loved watching you in the Faerie Games.”
I sent another lightning strike at her, although of course, it did nothing.
“This is a Faraday cage.” She laughed and motioned around at the electrical cage-like dome around her. “There’s a whole scientific re
ason behind how it works, but basically, it blocks electromagnetic fields to protect whatever and whoever’s inside.”
“So you’re just gonna stand in that thing and taunt me?” It seemed like it, since if she was going to attack from in there, she would have done it by now.
Apparently, the cage blocked magic from both the outside and the inside.
“You’re easy to rile up.” She smirked. “I learned that while watching the Games. It’s fun watching you waste your energy trying to get through.”
I raised the wand, its crystals glowing, but I didn’t attack. Because as much as I hated it, she had a point about wasting energy.
Plus, the more she talked, the more time the others had to use the pendulum to track her here and bring me a holy weapon.
I couldn’t kill her without one. Not even blowing up everything around me like a bomb—like how I’d killed Octavia—would do it. That would just drain me so much that I wouldn’t be able to defend myself.
I needed a holy weapon.
The longer she stayed in that cage, unable to attack me, the better. Although since she found it “fun” to watch me try to get through, I’d have to keep her entertained by throwing a bit of electricity at her every so often.
“I also figured I’d give Lavinia some time to take care of your friends back there,” she continued. “She gets real pissy if she doesn’t feel like she’s being useful.”
Lavinia, I thought, and it clicked into place.
Lavinia Foster. A notorious traitor witch who’d been working with the demons since they’d escaped from Hell. Before I was born, she’d bound Sage and the rest of the Montgomery pack to the greater demon Azazel, which forced them to serve him. They were finally released after the Queen of Swords killed Azazel.
After being freed, Sage had tried to kill Lavinia. But Lavinia ran away before she could.
Sage better keep herself from killing Lavinia now. We need the witch alive so she can give us the cure.
The Faerie Plague (Dark World: The Faerie Games Book 5) Page 9