Warrior Everlasting

by Knight, Wendy

  “Yes. So far, only darkness. And screaming. It’s classic horror movie crap.” She was quiet for several minutes and then said, “Do you think this is what Iros goes through every time he sleeps?”

  “Havik says he is plagued by nightmares. Ariston shows him Aella. She’s still alive.”

  Ashra swiveled her head, her horn glinting in the darkness as she watched her rider’s troubled sleep. “Scout plans to save her.”

  This was news to Trey. He knew Scout was here for Lil Bit. The bond between the two was nearly a physical thing. He knew she would save her parents if she could, because that’s what a good daughter would do. He was here to protect her and save his own family. He thought that was the extent of it.

  Apparently, Scout had other plans.

  Of course she would try to save Iros’s long-lost girlfriend. He shouldn’t have been surprised. “She’s going to save them all, isn’t she?” he asked without meaning to.

  Scout stirred, whimpered, and settled quietly against his chest. Her breath on his neck did crazy things to his blood pressure, and he had to remind himself that they were in a dire situation.

  Ashra sighed loudly, the air exploding in frustration around her. “I believe so.” She turned to Torz, whapping him lightly with her wing. “Why did I get the hero rider? Why couldn’t I get the rider who worries only about staying alive herself?”

  Like Kylin. She had refused to fight alongside them over and over. Refused to train, refused to even acknowledge that the unicorns were saving their lives.

  But in the end, when they had needed her, she’d been there. Screaming, bloody, ruining her five-hundred-dollar outfit, and helping them fight the soul stealers. The sight of her had shocked him so much he had nearly fallen off his unicorn.

  Of course, that had been after she’d told him if he tried to save Scout, she hoped he died along with her. Pretty much ended their relationship, if anyone asked Trey. Which they hadn’t. He glanced down at Scout, pressing a kiss against the top of her head. They needed to talk — big time. But having a serious heart-to-heart with the girl you’d been in love with for half your life was difficult with two unicorns who could hear your thoughts.

  Torz was talking again and distracted Trey from the conversation he was having with himself. “You would never have bonded with a rider like that. You bond with the rider your soul speaks to. A hero, like yourself.”

  Ashra snorted in disgust. “I’m no hero.”

  “Scout believes otherwise,” Trey told Torz, since he couldn’t talk directly to Ashra, and he’d learned his lesson trying to speak aloud.

  The big unicorn nodded, relaying the message and adding, “It is true. Scout believes you are a hero. That is enough.”

  Again, Ashra turned to watch Scout. She was hard, mean, and sarcastic. Scout was sweet, funny, and sarcastic. The two personalities shouldn’t have melded so well, but they did. One seemed to balance the other, and they bonded more over mutual pain. Ashra’s mate had been killed by Iros’s brother, the master of the soul stealers — Ariston. And when her mate had died, so did her foal. The entire line of Corste unicorns had died out, in fact. The red unicorns had once escorted souls to heaven on the rays of the sun. Now, all that remained was the reminder of their beauty in the sunsets.

  Scout’s entire family had been taken by soul stealers, but before that, Trey had nearly killed her in a car accident, and then abandoned her because of guilt. While she lay in a hospital bed for months on end, he had watched from the main entrance. It was as close as he could get. She had never forgiven him.

  Until last night.

  All it had taken to prove he still loved her was throwing his soul in front of the Taraxippus — soul stealers — to save hers.

  ****

  “Get up, Scout!” Scout felt something smack her none too gently, and she rolled across the cave floor. She squealed, bouncing to her feet almost before her eyes were open.

  The smell hit her first. She knew that smell.

  “Soul stealers,” she whispered.

  In the mouth of the cave, Ashra’s horn already lit the darkness, her battle armor sliding into place in the dim light. Scout raced across the cave, stooping as she ran to scoop up her cloak. Ashra’s magic covered her, warm and tingly like when she sat on her foot too long and it went to sleep, and Scout’s battle armor clicked into place, the helmet snapping over her head.

  “Where’s my scepter?”

  “I got it. Hurry up already!” Ashra snapped.

  Scout jumped, sliding across Ashra’s back. It had taken her at least a thousand tries to be able to do that, given how big Ashra was and how tall Scout was not. But adrenaline seemed to give her the boost she needed. Adrenaline and sheer determination not to look stupid as she fell off.

  Beyond the cave, Trey and Torz were just rising into the sky. Scout ducked low as they escaped through the opening, then raised her eyes, searching the skies for the hordes of soul stealers she knew were coming.

  They weren’t there.

  “Where are they?” she yelled.

  Ashra didn’t answer, instead snapping out her big wings. Flames erupted from the feathers and her bright horn shot sparks. Scout’s pretty unicorn had just morphed herself into a terrifying demon-killer.

  Scout grinned.

  They leaped into the sky, Ashra’s mane holding Scout in place as they darted through the pale clouds. Still, Scout couldn’t see the Taraxippus, but she could hear their screams. “A little help here!” she called.

  Ashra used the smoke-like tendrils of her mane to plug Scout’s ears against the noise. Otherwise, it would split her skull. She didn’t have time for a headache right now. Or a shattered brain.

  “There.” Torz voice found its way into Scout’s mind as he and Trey flew next to them. She followed where he pointed his horn, squinting into the rising sun — which was blue, like everything else. There were only seven creatures on the horizon. Not the hundreds and hundreds they had faced when they had been outside Aptavaras. Only seven.

  “Piece of cake,” Trey said, but Scout shook her head.

  “Look at their eyes. These ones have souls!” Most soul stealers had no soul. That’s why they couldn’t get into Paradesos. Their eyes were empty. It also made them easier to kill, because their only goal was to steal the soul within. They were drawn to it the way zombies were to brains in all the bad movies Scout had ever seen. But these ones, these creatures they were facing, their eyes glowed red with evil. They were faster, smarter, and stronger than regular soul stealers.

  Scout remembered too well the darkness in Iros’s voice as he explained the Corruption. Ten thousand souls equal one soul stealer’s soul. They tear the good souls apart and piece them back together to create one evil soul. When my brother has an army, then they will march on Paradesos.

  She felt Ashra tense beneath her and braced herself for the bone-shattering burst of speed she knew was coming. Ashra pumped her powerful wings up then swept them down hard. They shot forward, past Torz and Trey, straight at the soul stealers. The wind ripped past them which made her eyes tear up, and it was impossible to speak. Scout was grateful for the ability to speak to Ashra in her mind. “After everything we’ve been through, you’re still so anxious to kill me.”

  “It keeps life interesting, doesn’t it? If I never tried to kill you, this whole adventure would just be boring.” Ashra flicked an ear back toward her, which Scout decided was the equivalent of raising an eyebrow. Since unicorns didn’t have eyebrows.

  Scout was in the process of trying to convince her tired, terrified brain to focus when they hit the first demon. She forgot her internal conversation and jerked her scepter up, throwing her arm out as fire writhed with sparkles shot from the glowing orb at the end. It found Ashra’s attack, winding around it, giving it power, and together they raced toward the soul stealer. But it moved at the last second, so the attack only glanced off its skeletal ribcage. Scout’s jaw dropped in horror. These things were fast. Way faster than soulless
Taraxippus.

  “Less quality, more quantity!” Trey yelled as Torz soared past them. Trey held his scepter like a gun, shooting bursts of fire at the soul stealers as Torz dipped and dived away from the sharp claws. Their attack knocked the soul stealers back, and Scout could see it was physically weakening them, but not fast enough. There were seven of them, and only two unicorns.

  “Fight, Scout! Sitting here in terror isn’t going to do anything but get us killed!”

  Scout jerked out of her own head, swinging her scepter like a bat as the nearest demon dove at her. She smacked it in the jaw and nearly gagged as the bone broke off and fell to the mossy blue ground, hundreds of feet below. Ashra pumped her wings, and they danced across the air backward, strands of her misty mane sweeping out to blind the soul stealer. But they were attacked from behind.

  Ashra screamed as the claws dug into her flanks. Scout whirled in the saddle, swinging her scepter and willing it to attack. The flames exploded from it, and she shoved it viciously into the soul stealer’s chest. He exploded from the inside, bits of bone and rotted cloth covering Scout’s face. She squealed and frantically brushed it away as Ashra roared, diving forward with her horn glowing. The Taraxippus in front of her dodged out of the way, but a glowing rope of fire dropped over its head. Scout raised her eyes, full of soul stealer bits, to see Trey and Torz pulling the demon backward. But it wasn’t slicing him through like it should have.

  “Trey! Move!” Scout screamed. Another soul stealer flew up from behind, somehow sneaking around them, and reached for Trey. Without even looking, he flattened himself backward as the creature’s hands flew through empty air. The rope holding the demon off Ashra dropped as Trey plunged his scepter into the soul stealer’s face. It screamed, clawing at its empty skull as Trey ripped his scepter free and shoved it between its ribs. Then Torz’s attack joined Trey’s, and the thing exploded.

  “From the inside. We have to attack from the inside,” Scout murmured.

  “Get on that, would ya?” Ashra shrieked as she tucked her right wing, and they plummeted sideways through the air to avoid a soul stealer Scout hadn’t even seen. It flew over them with an enraged scream that surely would have deafened the dead. The wing shot out again, igniting in flames, and Ashra surged straight up. Scout lit her scepter again, feeling her already-waning strength begging for mercy. Her arms shook; she hadn’t fully recovered from the two battles the day before.

  Lil Bit, if you can still hear me, I need you.

  She didn’t hear her little sister’s voice in her head like she had so many times before. She wasn’t sure if Lil Bit had ever really been in her head, or if it had been Scout’s own imagination, but the silence now hurt like a claw to the heart. She gritted her teeth, holding her arms steady. She would have to find her own strength.

  Black flames shot from the orb, and Scout jabbed her scepter viciously at the demon’s chest, where a heart should beat.

  It danced out of the way, claws swiping viciously across Scout’s cheek, catching in her hair and jerking like it would rip her entire scalp right off. Ashra screamed and reared her head back, her flaming horn jamming into the creature’s temple. The claws released Scout, and she swung her scepter up into the soul stealer’s head. Black flames erupted and it fell, headless, to the ground below, exploding into ash and bone.

  “Four more.” Ashra sounded winded, even in Scout’s head.

  Scout looked across the sky to Trey and Torz, who both looked as exhausted and broken as Scout and Ashra. But Ashra didn’t hesitate, galloping across the sky to their side. Scout had no idea what attack they were planning; Ashra had a habit of deciding at the very last second, so when a fine mist escaped from Scout’s orb, she was surprised. It slid through the sky like an assassin, smoothing into place over the creature’s head, attacking Trey’s left. Blinding it.

  “You’re a very smart unicorn,” Scout said dizzily, fighting to hold the mist in place.

  “You say this like I don’t know it already.” Ashra’s sarcasm lacked its usual enthusiasm. Instead, she just sounded exhausted.

  “I’m here, Scout. You don’t need me, but I’m here. Remember where your strengths lie.” Scout sobbed. Lil Bit was with her.

  She felt her spine straighten, felt Ashra’s wings burn more furiously. And she started to scream.

  Her screams dissolved into words, and she railed at the creature before her, whacking it with her scepter. “You might be bigger than us.” Smash, smash. “You might be stronger than us.” She slammed her scepter into the blinded creature, somehow still holding on to the attack. “But you will always lose. Do you know why?”

  Trey’s scepter plunged into its chest from behind before it ripped back out, leaving a burning hole. The soul stealer clawed at its wound, but it was too late.

  “Because we have a reason to live.” Scout panted, watching it fall from the sky. “And you don’t.”

  She met Trey’s eyes and he smiled, exhausted, bloody, hurt, but he smiled, his dark eyes crinkling at the corners. Torz tossed his head, and they faced the last three together, giant wings brushing at the tips — just barely — as they flew through the air. Somehow, when Scout’s fiery rope launched from her orb, it matched Trey’s. Both lassoed through the air, sliding over the demon nearest them, and Ashra and Torz flew in opposite directions. The creature snapped into three pieces.

  All of this, with no words or thoughts exchanged.

  “That was new,” Scout gasped.

  “Yes, yes it was,” Ashra said thoughtfully.

  The remaining soul stealers turned away from them and shot through the sky, trying to escape.

  “They’re going home to their master! Follow them!” Trey bellowed. Torz leapt into action and Ashra followed. They soared through the sky, hooves galloping on air that somehow propelled them forward.

  “We’re losing them!” Trey yelled, and the unicorns redoubled their efforts, foam lathering their necks as their breath came in simultaneous gasps. The creatures in front of them dove into a canyon and disappeared.

  “We need to rest. Down, Ashra,” Scout said, although it broke her heart. Those demons were leading her to Lil Bit, and she’d lost them.

  “You think I’m some sort of puppy now?”

  “Don’t sass me, horse. I’m tired.”

  Chapter Three

  The unicorns slowly glided to the mossy floor, hesitating outside the mouth of the canyon. The blue rocks rose hundreds of feet straight up, obliterating any view of the azure sun hanging in the sky. Who knew what waited in the gloom beyond? There could be a thousand soul stealers waiting to attack. They would die.

  I would never save Lil Bit.

  “Do we go up and around or straight through? We could see more if we went up, but straight through offers us protection… unless there’s a whole bunch of demons in there.” Torz tossed his head, wide brown eyes searching the darkness.

  “We’ll follow them. I don’t think there is an ambush waiting for us on the other side,” Ashra answered, big eyes narrowed as they searched the darkness.

  Trey slid off Torz’s back and walked toward Scout, ripping off the sleeve of his soft, once-black, now-covered-in-blood shirt. He wrapped it around his fist and held his hands up to her.

  Exhausted, she let herself fall in an ungraceful heap into his arms.

  “You’re bleeding.” He held the cloth to the gash across her cheek, his eyes searching her face as he held her tight against him.

  “So are you,” she whispered, her lungs refusing to give her enough air to speak normally. She was locked in his gaze, safe in his arms, and her heart felt like it might beat completely free of her chest. It was like they’d stepped back in time — before the unicorns, before the soul stealers, before the hospital he never visited. Before the accident. To when he had been the love of her life and she never thought he would hurt her.

  Holy snowballs.

  She let her hands drop from his biceps, away from the black tattoo that was visible now that
he’d torn the sleeve off. Forgive me. She pushed away from him, pushed him toward Torz. His eyes flashed with pain, confusion, but she turned to Ashra so she couldn’t see it. “You’re both hurt, too. And we have no Leerhas here.”

  Ashra blinked at her. “We’re warriors. We’ll live. You, on the other hand…”

  “I will live. My sister needs me.”

  “Then might I suggest we not stand out here all night? If I’m right, the only soul stealers we will meet beyond their master’s castle will be the ones with souls, and there are probably only a handful.” Without explaining herself further, Ashra tromped off toward the mouth of the canyon.

  “Wait, you giant bird. At least let me get on so we can fight if you’re wrong.”

  “I’m not wrong.” But Ashra paused, her horn creating the staircase so Scout could climb up without using energy she didn’t have to jump onto Ashra’s back.

  She could feel Trey’s eyes on her back as they stepped from the weak sunlight into darkness. She’d hurt him. She hadn’t meant to, but she couldn’t get close to him again. Not like that. It had nearly killed her the first time. “Time. I just need time,” she murmured aloud, but of course he couldn’t hear her.

  There were no soul stealers waiting in the canyon to ambush them. They followed a lazy river winding its way through the mountain, sometimes crossing over it or through it because no one had the energy to fly.

  “Ashra, explain this theory of yours.” Scout tapped Ashra’s flanks with her heels.

  Ashra’s head came up sharply, and she blew an angry breath out. Scout snickered, despite her exhaustion. Ashra detested being treated even remotely like a horse. Except for the whole ride-on-her-back thing, which she only put up with because it made her more powerful. “The Taraxippus are drawn to souls. There are no souls here, except ours, and we aren’t enough to draw their scent. They’ll be where the souls are.”

  “Where the master is keeping the souls trapped, that’s where the Taraxippus are,” Torz finished for her.