Screams rent the air as some of the humans were knocked off their feet and others flung themselves against the walls.
“Silence!” I barked and took a step closer to the edge of the path. I only heard a couple more whimpers before all sound stopped.
Bale, Shax and Corson stepped closer to the edge with me. Below us, a pinpoint of light emerged where none had been before. My fangs lengthened as the light at the bottom of the pit spread.
***
River
“What was that?” I gasped as I pressed my back and palms flat against the wall behind me. My chest heaved with every one of my breaths as my heart beat wildly in my chest. The ground surged again before settling back into place.
“I don’t know,” Hawk muttered from beside me.
Glancing at him, I noticed he was paler than he had been up until now, but he took a step away from the wall and crept toward the edge of the roadway. “Hawk!” I hissed when he stopped at the edge.
The earth had literally moved under our feet and he was leaning over a pit with no railing and no bottom. “It might have been an earthquake,” he said.
“Probably not the best idea to stand so close to the edge then,” I replied.
He didn’t pay me any attention as he stared into the bottomless pit. “There’s light down there.”
“What?”
I peeled myself off the wall and took a cautious step forward. Earthquake or not, I didn’t like the idea of the earth moving beneath my feet one little bit and I was terrified it was going to do so again, but this time it would fling us both over the edge. Despite common sense, I was still drawn irresistibly forward by my curiosity and the perplexed look on Hawk’s face.
Reaching the edge of the road, I leaned forward to peer into the abyss below. What had only been darkness before now had a growing wave of light emanating from it. Knowing I should move away from the edge, I still found myself gawking as the illumination spread over the walls and rose steadily toward us.
“What is that?” Hawk muttered.
“I don’t know, but I don’t think it’s anything good.”
Glancing behind me, my heart leapt into my throat when I spotted the lanavours rounding the corner and coming toward us. “We have to go!”
I grabbed Hawk’s wrist, drawing him away from the edge as one of the lanavours bore down on us at the same time the world exploded in a wash of light from beneath us. The ground lurched out from beneath my feet once more as I was thrown backwards.
***
Kobal
“Get back!” I shouted when light shot up toward us.
Turning, I spread my arms wide to protect as many as I could when the glow increased. I felt no heat against my back but the world around me was brighter than I’d ever seen it in here. The humans ducked and covered their heads. Dropping the girl, Shax threw himself over Erin, using his body to shield her as Vargas draped himself over a couple of others.
Air rushed up around me, tearing at my clothes and beating against my skin as it battered my body. Screams rang in my ears; it took me a minute to realize they weren’t coming from the humans but from the radiance illuminating the jagged walls around us. Within the light, faces rushed past me, heading toward the gateway. The flapping wings blew my hair back as they propelled the creatures ever higher and faster toward the surface.
Most of the faces going past us were weathered and wrinkled. Their heads were tilted back to look at the world above, but one lowered her head to glare at me while another released a scream, folded her wings against her side, and dove at me. The air around her tapered body whistled as she came at me like a missile.
I braced my legs apart and held my hands up in preparation for the attack. At the last second, I took a step to the side and backhanded the creature in her head. She screamed again when her body smacked into the pathway with enough force to crack the rock beneath her. Humans scrambled to get out of the way as Bale leapt forward and drove her foot into the woman’s side.
The woman’s body rose three feet off the ground from Bale’s kick before thumping down again. She remained lying prone on the rock. Corson’s talons extended as he walked over and sliced through the woman’s neck. Her head rolled until it stopped a few feet away from Bale.
My shoulders heaved, my teeth grated together as I spun to watch more of them flying passed us and toward freedom.
***
River
I rested a hand against my ribs as I pushed myself up until I could prop myself on my elbows. I watched the rush of winged, old women flying by us within the upward flow of light. Screams from the women filled my ears, air rushed over me as the women’s wings propelled them higher.
The lanavours, also thrown back by the explosion that had rocked the pit, were regaining their feet. Their heads tilted to the side as they watched the women soaring higher into the air. Rolling to the side, I pushed myself up and stumbled toward where Hawk lay against the wall he’d been thrown into.
I fell at his side and pulled his arm to roll him over. Blood trickled from a gash on his forehead and a bruise marred his right cheek but his chest rose and fell steadily and I could feel his pulse in the wrist I held.
“Hawk,” I said and dragged him back a few feet when a couple of the lanavours turned to look at us. “Hawk, get up, we have to go.”
He groaned and cracked one eye to look at me. “What happened?”
“I think another one of the seals gave way,” I muttered and pulled on his arm again, dragging him toward me when a lanavour stepped in our direction. “We have to go, now. The lanavours are coming again.”
He shoved himself over. His head hung down as he knelt on his hands and feet. Resting my fingers on the rocks beneath me, I drew on the flow of life within this place as I warily watched the lanavours. The flap of wings drew my attention to the women as one of them hovered at the edge of the roadway, her head tilted to the side while she inspected us.
My stomach twisted sickeningly as the snakes she had for hair slithered upward, their tongues flickering out to taste the air. Normally snakes didn’t bother me. Seeing them attached to someone’s head though was more than a little unsettling, as was the dog snout on the woman’s face. Her wings made me think of angels as they were covered with white feathers. Some of the others who flew past her had wings like those of a bat.
“What are they?” Hawk inquired.
“I don’t know and right now I don’t care. We have to get out of here,” I said and stumbled back to my feet.
The woman continued to watch us before she started to smile. “Someone is looking for you.”
With those words, she nosedived at us.
The Road will be releasing 1/3/17 and is now available for pre-order.
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Carved (The Road to Hell Series, Book 2) Page 34