Two Maras swung their swords at me. I shuffled back a couple of feet, then offered a vicious counterattack, slashing from a multitude of angles in a flurry of hits that eventually knocked one sword out of a Correction Officer’s hand, briefly leaving me with just one armed opponent. I shoved my sword through his throat, then sliced outward, listening to the brief crackle of vertebrae separating.
He fell backward, and I quickly shifted my focus to the other Mara, who was halfway through getting his blade off the ground. Unfortunately for him, his position was perfect for a good old-fashioned decapitation. His head rolled, blood spreading at my feet, and I finally had a small window of opportunity to get to Vincent.
I dashed forward, prompting the Lords to jump back, but Vincent wasn’t fast enough. With no intention of handling him right here, so close to Emilian and the others, where they could easily overpower me, I grabbed Vincent by the throat and swiftly pulled him back into the crowd of Correction Officers fighting the rest of my team.
He only managed to open his mouth as he brought his hands out to hit me. I punched him hard, crushing his left cheekbone. He grunted from the pain, but I wasn’t done yet. He was stunned enough to get at least a dozen more punches right in the face—and I obliged. My knuckles were hurting, his sharp bones and even his teeth grazing them whenever I made contact.
But it didn’t matter. This felt good…
“You made me think you were a good Mara,” I growled, punching him again. “You passed yourself off as a decent creature. You lying piece of filth.”
“Fiona, stop…” he managed, though he was close to losing consciousness. My strength was no match for his Mara nature, his abilities useless as long as my punches made his face tender, jostling his brain inside the skull.
“You thought you could get away with it. You still think you’re going to get away with it, but rest assured, Vincent, that sooner or later you will leave this world a complete and utter failure,” I hissed, ramming my fist into his stomach, just for the sake of diversity.
Blood gushed from his nose and mouth, red bruises blossoming on his rapidly swelling face. A scream broke my focus, and I looked up, my blood curdling as I watched Emilian mind-bending Imen into joining the fight.
“Ah, crap!” I groaned, then quickly shouted at Patrik: “Watch out, they’re bringing Imen in! We’ll have to be careful not to kill them.”
“Then knock them unconscious we will!” Patrik shot back, before he set a Mara on blue fire.
I pulled my sword out—I’d put it away so I could handle Vincent hands-on—and brought the blade up to his throat. He whimpered, barely standing, wobbling and pleading for his life.
“Please, Fiona, please, don’t do this… This isn’t you!” he cried out.
“Well, it turns out this wasn’t you, either!” I shot back.
I decided he wasn’t worth keeping alive, so I pushed the sword a little deeper into his throat, drawing a droplet of blood. I was ready to end this. He caught me by surprise when he managed to pull a knife from the inside of his coat and stabbed me with it. He got my side, and the sharp pain quickly spread, white hot, through my torso.
“Aargh,” I grunted, then cursed under my breath, my sword arm weakened in the process. It was enough for Vincent to slither out of my hold, sneering as he flipped the blade in his hand and prepared to strike again.
He charged at me, but he got himself violently halted by an invisible mass. The air rippled in front of me as Vincent landed on his side, smashing his head against the stairs. It wasn’t enough to kill him, but it would keep him in bed for a long time. His blood glazed the stone steps as Rewa pulled him up to relative safety.
I understood then that the Lords didn’t usually engage in combat. My first thought was that they weren’t exactly trained into it. After all, they were, technically speaking, aristocrats, and they had plenty of Correction Officers and Imen to do their bidding for them.
My wound throbbed, and I held my side, staring at the air ripples in front of me, until I caught a glimpse of two red eyes. I froze, anticipating a blow powerful enough to knock me out cold. My hand gripped the sword, and I swung it out fast. The daemon blocked my hit, and sparks flew from where the blade had most likely hit a metal cuff.
“I just saved your life, and this is how you repay me?” Zane’s voice knocked the air out of my lungs. Recovering, I breathed a sigh of relief.
“What in the world are you doing here?” I murmured.
Correction Officers came at us, but they were instantly screwed. Zane flashed between them, his claws or his blades cutting them open, before he literally ripped their heads off and tossed them aside like rotten watermelons.
He then got back to me, and I felt his hand touching my hip as he looked at my wound. With trembling fingers, I retrieved some of the healing herbs from one of my belt pockets, and quickly chewed on them.
“I’ll be okay,” I said, my mouth full.
“I have no doubt, now that I’m here,” he replied, and I sensed the amusement in his voice.
“Seriously, though, what are you doing here? Also, you never told me you were a prince!” I shot back.
“Not sure you’ve noticed, but now is not the time for chitchat,” he retorted. Zane was right, as much as I hated to admit it. My people were still outnumbered, despite their stellar ability to fight back. Blaze was still unconscious on the ground. And we really needed to get out of here.
“Why, thank you, Captain Redundant,” I murmured.
“We can talk about my royal provenance later, beautiful,” he replied, too softly for my comfort. “You need to get out, now. Take your team down the main road. Once you reach the plains, make a sharp turn left, right after the sign warning about the gorges. There’s a small tunnel hidden beneath patches of purple flowers. There are Imen from the western plains there, waiting for you. They’ll get you out of here and back with your friends.”
“Whoa, how did that happen? Since when are you friends with the western plains Imen?”
“I really don’t have time to explain this. Just do as I said,” he scoffed, then took on another round of Correction Officers.
“Just don’t hurt the Imen!” I shouted after him. “Their minds are bent; they don’t know what they’re doing!”
A Mara fell flat on the ground, his head separated from his body. Blood spurted out of his neck and spilled onto the cobblestone. Zane groaned, making sure that I heard his frustration, as he tackled another Mara while voicing his discontent toward my request.
“I swear, Fiona, you’ve already softened me up too much!”
I felt a smile tugging the corner of my mouth, but I brushed it aside and focused on getting my team out of here. I scanned the savage crowd, and caught a glimpse of Scarlett, Patrik, and the others.
But Zane wasn’t the last surprise that our—hopefully—last night in Azure Heights offered. Sneaking up on a Correction Officer who was just about to pounce on Avril, Arrah swiftly grabbed his hair and pulled his head back, before cutting it off with a long, broad blade.
My heart skipped a beat, as I was genuinely happy and relieved to see the young Iman girl alive and well. And kicking her fair share of Mara ass.
“Arrah!” I called out, and she looked up at me, giving me a brief nod and a smile.
“Get your people out of here!” she replied. “Go to the western plains. I will see you later, I promise!”
I didn’t get a chance to get closer to her. She got busy fighting the Maras and knocking some of her own people out so they wouldn’t get hurt, or worse, killed. Still, I was thrilled and suddenly energized to see that she had, in fact, kept her promise—though much later than I had hoped.
The truth was out now, but I was certain that she still had a lot to tell me.
I moved over to the edge of the terrace, getting ready to shout after Scarlett. She was fast enough to dart through the crowd and let the others know that it was time to retreat. I noticed another Correction Officer getting dangerou
sly close to Blaze.
I dashed forward, using my full upper body to slam into the Mara and knock him down. Without giving him a chance to react, I took my sword out and ended him. A sharp clang caught my attention, somewhere to my right, as two blades clashed—one belonged to a Correction Officer, and one was wielded by Cadmus.
He briefly looked at me, frowning. “What are you waiting for? Get your dragon and get out of here!” he barked.
I didn’t think twice about it. Equally thankful and surprised to see him fighting on our side, along with Arrah, I hoisted Blaze up and threw him over my shoulder. I stood, then whistled. Scarlett’s head instantly turned, recognizing a sound we’d used since we were little girls to keep from losing each other in the redwood forests of The Shade.
“Get the others,” I shouted. “We’re busting out!”
She gave me a half-smile and a brief nod, then shot through the crowd like the Bullet she was, and let Patrik, Caia, Avril, and Heron know that it was time to go. One by one, they killed off their opponents, then rushed after me before others could engage them further.
I ran the main road, while both Caia and Patrik shot a variety of fireballs at the Lords on the stairs above, to stop them from taking any action. Flames engulfed them, and they screamed and wailed. Several Correction Officers ran to their aid, knocking them down and patting the fires out.
We headed toward the lower level, light on our feet as the Maras still standing outside the infirmary came after us. Caia and Patrik continued to keep them at bay, one using her firepower, while the other engaged in a series of Druid defense spells to help increase the distance between us and them.
“Where are we going?” Scarlett asked, as she ran by my side.
“There’s a tunnel down there, with Imen from the western plains waiting to take us to Harper,” I replied, holding an unconscious Blaze over my shoulders.
“Was there a daemon back there?” Avril huffed.
“Yup. That was Zane. Helping us. Still wrapping my head around that one, but he’s the one who told me about the tunnel.” I chuckled.
Despite everything that had just happened—all the fighting, the anger, and the betrayal—I couldn’t help but breathe easier, now that we were getting as far away from Azure Heights as possible.
“And was that Cadmus lending us a hand?” Heron added.
“And Arrah.” I nodded, my heart beating a little faster as the warning sign Zane had mentioned came into view, just fifty yards away. “Turns out we’re not all helpless and without allies in this world, huh?”
“Yeah, you can definitely say that again!” Scarlett replied.
Somehow, I picked up speed, despite my heavy load. Just the thought of reaching the western plains and getting back to Harper and the others seemed to give me the extra boost I needed. We’d made it this far, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to let those soul-eating bastards from either species beat us. My key takeaway from that whole ordeal was the confirmation that there was a swamp witch on Neraka.
Once we regrouped and put together a proper action plan, I knew exactly what our main objective was. It was as clear as my eagerness to ultimately crush Vincent’s skull upon our next encounter.
We find the swamp witch, and we put an end to this.
Avril
(Daughter of Lucas & Marion)
I’d gone from horrified to surprisingly optimistic in less than an hour. After Heron and I had witnessed the Mara nurses feeding off the souls of Imen back in the infirmary, and after we’d killed the ones who’d thought they were strong enough to take us on, I had felt queasy.
But then, upon returning to the front of the building to find Correction Officers attacking our team, I had to shove all that aside and focus on getting ourselves out of there. I quickly made the link to what we’d seen in the infirmary, the rest of the puzzle pieces falling into place afterward.
I knew we’d have some time later in the night to fully process everything, so, in the meantime, I ran alongside Fiona and Scarlett, with Caia, Patrik, and Heron right behind us, and Blaze unconscious over Fiona’s shoulder.
“We caught a Mara nurse feeding on an Iman’s soul,” I told Fiona as we reached the gorge warning sign and made a sharp turn to the left. I could hear the Maras shouting and rumbling down the main road, but Patrik and Caia had done a good job of keeping them away. Just as our feet sank into the tall grass at the base of the mountain, Patrik shot out a flurry of blue fires and white sparks, leaving our pursuers dazed and unable to see where we went. “Sorry we took a while to get back—we had to deal with her and her colleagues.”
“That’s cool, I figured you were caught up,” Fiona breathed, leading us farther along the mountain base.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” I replied. “I mean, I do believe it, but still… wow. Just, wow!”
“What the hell were they thinking, though? Luring us here like that?” Caia muttered.
“I have no idea, but I think the western tribe will be able to tell us more,” I said.
“Or Zane.” Fiona narrowed her eyes as she looked ahead. “Lord Kifo clearly can’t. You heard the Lords. The poor guy, it’s why he’s been trying to warn us since we first got here!”
Two dark figures emerged from a patch of purple flower bushes, their big, round eyes glimmering with what looked like relief, as they beamed their smiles at us. They were two young Imen boys, maybe sixteen years old, covered in brown leathers and dark green capes. The orange dots on their temples caught my eye.
“You made it!” one of them exclaimed.
“Yeah, sorry we’re late. It got… busy up there,” Fiona replied as we all came to a halt.
“I’m Alles, and this is Dion,” the young Iman said. “Vesta and Miss Hellswan sent us. I take it you have a better idea of what’s going on now?”
“Sort of, but I’m sure Vesta will fill in the blanks. In the meantime, we need to go. Now.”
They both nodded and motioned for us to follow them. They disappeared beneath the flower bushes, and we went in after them. A tunnel opened before us, its walls covered in red clay. One by one, we snuck through, and the Imen boys led us down into a loop, then a straight line beneath the two-mile plain.
“Patrik, can you make sure they don’t follow us through here?” I asked the Druid.
He gave me a brief nod when I glanced over my shoulder at him, then muttered a spell and reached his hands out, his fingers brushing against the walls on both sides. They left incandescent green traces, which quickly turned to massive cracks that collapsed the structure behind us with a deafening rumble.
We kept running, the Imen boys right in front of us.
“How do you two know Zane?” Fiona asked.
“Who?” Dion replied, his breath short.
“The daemon who sent us down here in the first place. How do you two know him?”
“We don’t! Not personally, anyway,” Dion explained. “We’d just made it out of the tunnel and were on our way up, when he popped up out of nowhere and started questioning us, asking what we were doing there. Our first instinct was to run, but… let’s just say he was faster.”
“And convincing,” Alles muttered. “We thought he was going to kill us, until we all heard the fighting upstairs. We’d never seen a prince of daemons up close before, you see. We certainly didn’t expect him to tell us to wait by the tunnel. It was weird, neither Dion nor I could understand what was going on.”
“Then he said that he’d send you all down here, for us to take you out of the city,” Dion added. “He said he didn’t care who we were or what we were doing there, anyway. He just wanted us to get you all to safety. So, you know, we watched him turn invisible before he went up to the infirmary. He’s not the first daemon we’ve had help from, but he’s definitely the first prince. The tides are changing…”
“That is just so sweet!” I chuckled, then grunted as Fiona nudged me with her elbow.
“We have two indigo horses with us,” Dion then said. �
��Two of you can get on them, with us, and we’ll lead the way through the Valley of Screams. The daemons are still recovering after what your friends did to them.”
“We barely saw any of them out in the gorges earlier,” Alles chuckled. “Whatever damage your friends caused, it’ll take them some time to get over.”
“Good, it means the gorges won’t be much trouble tonight,” Fiona muttered. “Caia and Blaze here will join you on the horses. The rest of us can keep up without a problem.”
I could still hear the commotion behind us. The Maras had tracked us to the tunnel, but they were stuck on the other side.
“There are about eighty feet of dirt and rocks between us and them,” Patrik said. “They’ve got their work cut out for them. We’ll reach the ravine long before they can even get past the blockage.”
I gave him a brief thumbs-up, then followed Fiona and the Imen boys as the tunnel began its smooth ascension toward the surface. We made it out into a narrow ravine, with maybe twenty feet of space between its tall limestone walls. Two indigo horses waited by a sharp rock poking out from the ground, and the Imen boys got on them. Caia climbed onto Dion’s horse, while Fiona plopped Blaze behind Alles, using a rope to hold him in place, tied to the saddle.
“Just make sure you don’t lose him along the way,” Fiona muttered. “We can’t do much without our dragon.”
Alles’s eyes grew wide with surprise, and he stared at Blaze. “This is the dragon?”
“Yeah, he’s out of it for the time being,” Fiona replied.
“Why? What happened to him?”
“He got all… murderous…” Caia sighed, her expression pained as she glanced at Blaze, whose large body was bent over the horse’s hindquarters.
“The Maras mind-bent him,” I clarified.
Alles and Dion nudged the horses with their heels, and the creatures darted forward. We followed, keeping up as we moved through the zigzagging ravine, the first moon glowing overhead.
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