“How?” Irina glanced back to see the courtyard doors, wide open doors that led into a marbled seating area.
“It’s magic, Irina.” I grinned. “You should know all about that.”
She swallowed and nodded. “Of course. Enchanted.”
The garden was just as I remembered it, tranquil and beautiful in the midst of the deadly Evernight. I led Irina down the pathway bordered by the gorgeous white moonflowers and toward the pool where Adamaris resided. It gleamed in the lunar light, smooth and serene. Erebus had admonished him for trying to drown me, but that hadn’t been what he’d been doing. He’d tried to speak to me, and now I had the means to listen and speak back.
“Remember,” Irina said. “You only have five or six minutes at the most.”
We came to a standstill by the pool’s edge, and she tied the rope securely around my waist. “I’ll pull you up in five minutes, if you start to feel like the potion is wearing off sooner, just tug on the rope and I’ll pull you straight out.”
“Gotcha. Let’s do this.”
She handed me the vial containing the gloopy, vile-looking concoction.
I took it gingerly. “This is gonna taste bad, isn’t it?”
“Yes. I’m afraid so.”
Thumbing off the stopper and exhaling through my nose, I downed the contents, swallowing quickly. It was bitter, and the stench was … I gagged and slapped a hand over my mouth to stop myself spewing. Breathe, slow and easy. Ice-cream and chocolate, that’s what it was. Nice tasty stuff …
The urge to puke subsided. “Is it working?”
“Only one way to find out.” Irina indicated the pool.
Time to take a dip. The water was cold, but not icy. Best to just jump right in. With a final look over my shoulder at Irina, I did just that. The water closed over my head, and I opened my eyes to the murky gloom below. Adamaris was probably hiding further down. Kicking out, I pushed myself toward the depths. How did this work? Could I call out to him? Irina had said the potion would amplify my thoughts. I’d be able to project them and receive his. Okay.
Okay, time to get thinking. “Adamaris. You here? I need to speak with you.”
The water was getting darker, and the sense of being trapped grew stronger. The urge to turn and swim back to the surface gripped my chest in a vice. No. I’d come this far, there was no way I’d leave without answers.
“Adamaris!”
The gloom below shifted, and he appeared below me, his huge dark eyes comically wide.
“You came back.” His mouth didn’t move, but his words were in my head. He swam up to join me, circling me. “Erebus was angry.”
“He thought you were trying to kill me.”
“No. I was trying to warn you.”
“Warn me? About what?”
“About the binding and the flame, that others had come before you and been bound. They’d died.”
“Yeah, I found that out the hard way.”
“But you did not die. You are here.”
“Yes. Turns out I’m special.”
His cocked his bald head. “Yes, yes, I believe you are.”
He inched forward and reached up to cup my face. His fingers were strangely dry against my skin, considering we were submerged.
“I see it now. Oh, Kenna. I see it all.” He released me. “I have wondered why grief did not take me. I wondered why I was spared even though I begged to be gone like my brethren.”
“The grief of the ocean creatures after your land offspring died?”
“Yes.”
“That’s why I’m here. Legion—the thing your children’s blood weakened—is rising. We need to know how to stop it. The Hunt says we must use the harmony of races, so I guess peace will put it to sleep, but that’s kind of impossible when it’s using Orin to attack us and cause chaos and fear. There has to be another way to kill it.”
He moved in close, his green eyes glowing in the gloom. “Legion cannot be killed. Only the harmony of races can expel it from this world.”
“No. I want to kill it, there has to be a way.”
“No. Nothing ever truly dies, Kenna, it just changes form and moves on to another plane of existence. My people’s lives here ended, but their journey continued elsewhere. But Legion knows only one form, and that is destruction.”
“So, what? You’re saying there’s nothing we can do? That this is it? That we lose, and it wins?”
“I wondered why I did not die of grief, and now I know.”
“Huh?” Why was he changing the subject.
He reached for me again. “My bloodline survived. One of my offspring escaped.” He caressed my cheek.
“What are you talking about?”
“Ocean blood runs in your veins, it is weak, diluted by generations, but it is there. It is because you exist that I am still alive.” He swam around me. “Have you any idea how lonely this existence is? How much I have longed for death?” He smiled, showcasing tiny razor-sharp teeth. “And now death is finally in my grasp.”
What was he talking about? My chest began to burn. Oh shit. The potion was wearing off. I reached for the rope, ready to give it a tug and Adamaris lunged, grabbing me around the waist and pinning my arms to my side.
“What are you doing? Let me go.”
“It’s all right, Kenna. It will all be over in a moment. We will enter a beautiful dream, free and at peace.”
Peace. He wanted to die, and if I was his last surviving descendant, then killing me would end him. He meant to kill me …
Oh god, I needed to breathe. “What if I’m not the last? What if there are others?”
He didn’t falter in his grip. “I have to try.”
Five minutes should be up. Come on Irina. The urge to take a breath was an inferno in my lungs. I couldn’t take this much long—
My body jerked and Adamaris’s grip loosened a fraction. Irina tugged again. Yes! I kicked out as Adamaris made a grab for me. My foot connected with his face, stunning him momentarily. It was the chance I needed. I kicked out again and used Irina’s pull to propel myself upwards. Fingers grazed my ankle but failed to gain purchase, and then I was breaking the surface of the water.
“Dammit Kenna,” Irina held out her hand to me. “What the heck—”
Adamaris surfaced and slammed into me. “No. No more life.”
“Kenna!”
The rope around my waist tightened and I was ripped out of Adamaris’s grip and pulled onto land.
I spat out water and pushed my wet hair off my face. “I fucking hate lakes.”
Behind me Adamaris’s wail of woe swelled to fill the night garden.
Irina helped me to my feet and away from the lake edge. “What happened?”
“He tried to kill me. Apparently, I’m a descendant. He thinks I’m the reason he’s still here while the rest of his kind moved on to some other plane.”
I turned to face him. “Adamaris, you fucking suck!”
He stared at me with his sparkling green eyes, as if a revelation had occurred to him. “Should tell you truth. Other way to be free. Harmony of races in you. All in you.”
“What does he mean?” Irina asked.
“I have no idea, and there is no way I’m going back in there to find out.” I untied the rope from my waist. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
This whole trip had been a huge waste of time.
“Kenna!” Erebus appeared in courtyard ahead. “We have to leave now. Lindrealm is under attack.”
***
The gate was a covered in denizens. They crawled and flew, slithered and scuttled. There was no sign of Vale, Aidan, or Baron. The other dark djinn were on the outskirts of the mass, hacking away at the surge. It was ineffectual, all pointless now, because the barrier had been breached and the monsters were in Lindrealm.
I grabbed Erebus’s arm “I have to get through,”
He readied his sword. “And we will.” He nodded at Irina and then locked gazes with me. “Are you ready?”
/>
I drew Frieda and flicked my wrist to activate her, and tested my leg by pushing down with my knee and flexing. It was solid, smooth motion.
“I’m ready.”
Irina drew her twin blades. “So am I.”
I didn’t ask her if she was sure, didn’t tell her she needn’t come with us. Lindrealm was in danger and we needed all the help we could get.
Erebus’s battle cry reverberated through Evernight, and we charged. The night was replaced by a different kind of darkness as we plunged into the fray of squeals and hisses. The buzz from the airborne denizens filled my head, disorienting me for a moment, and then a black limb slammed into my shoulder, knocking me back a step. I lashed out with Frieda, cutting an arc through the denizen’s bodies, back and forth, back and forth, making a path to the gate. Somewhere along the line I lost Irina and Erebus to the madness, but they’d make it through. Irina was a warrior mage in Baal’s army, and Erebus … well, he was Erebus.
The shimmering portal came into view, glimpses caught between the hairy, furry, bodies of the monsters of the night. Up above, the flying hybrids poured through the portal, vanishing into the mortal realm.
Almost there. Just a few metres more. I took out a scuttler to my left, disabling it by slicing off its legs. It fell to the ground, crushing a creeper with its huge mass. And then I was at the gate. The viscous surface shimmered and pulsed.
Something slammed into my back.
I was propelled through the gate head first.
27
BRETT
Everything was happening too fast. There was no time to set up, no time to prepare, only time to react. Brett manned the gate line—killing the fuckers as they came through. The Fearless at his back took up the slack. But the influx of denizens was too great. With regards to the airborne, there was only one line of defence. The pop and whirr of gunfire erupted around him as the regular enforcement officers took out the fliers using luma bullets—an ingenious new invention by Shamatech. Only problem was they’d had to use up their luma reserves making the damn bullets, and there weren’t nearly enough. But the enforcement officers manning the mounted guns and the snipers stationed around the gate, were all expert marksman. The airborne winked out one by one as the bullets did their work.
He focused on the gate, on the creepers and scuttlers and all the new shit he’d never had the displeasure of dispatching before. At least when he killed them here they folded in and vanished. At least there’d be no bodies to dispose of when this was over.
He had to believe it would be over. That the invasion would come to an end and humanity would prevail.
“Brett, watch out!” Karl’s shoulder slammed him into him, knocking him out of the way just in time to prevent him being impaled by a scorpion stinger. The appendage smashed into the ground, exactly where he’d been a moment ago, sending a cloud of cement dust flying up into the air.
Karl yelled and staggered back clutching his arm. Shit. He was hurt—torn shirt and blood tinged green. The stinger had grazed him on its downward arch. Poison, those things were poison. Brett dispatched the scorpion with a neat slice, lopping off its head, and then grabbed Karl’s arm, pulling him to the side-lines of the battle.
“You need anti-venom. Now.”
Karl gritted his teeth and fumbled in his cargo pants pocket. He pulled out a slender case, but his hands were shaking too much.
“Let me,” Brett grabbed it, flipped it open, and retrieved the syringe.
He injected Karl in the neck. Someone screamed, a high-pitched sound followed by a gurgle. Brett turned in time to see a body, no, half a body flying through the air. Blood spattered his face as the Fearless torso sailed past him. It hit the ground with a wet thud.
Another Fearless down.
Another comrade lost.
Rage bubbled up inside him and a red haze descended on his vision. An inhuman roar exploded from his lips, shaking his chest and leaving his lungs aching. For a split second it was as if the world stood still. And then he was careening into the thick of it, into the midst of the carnage. Block, punch, slice, and twist—these fuckers had to die. There was nothing except the thunderous beat of his heart and the wet slice and pop of denizen death.
Time stood still as he dispatched the monsters, as his Fearless comrades ended those that managed to get past him, but the invasion kept coming. How many more were there? There were too many fallen Fearless, too many monsters to take on. All he could do was keep on killing. No sooner had he banished one, another took its place. He spun to face his next target. Its mouth was open, showcasing a spiral of deathly teeth descending into its gut. Brett froze for a fraction too long, mesmerised by the display of pink and white.
The jaws were almost on him. Shit. He brought Lance round, but the thing exploded in a spray of black before he could land a blow—the tiny pieces folding away to nothing. The mist dispersed, leaving Kenna standing before him, chest heaving and silver hair flying.
Her lips curved in a wicked smile. “Getting sloppy soldier. Need me to show you how it’s done?”
He grinned, the knot in his chest loosening. He swept out a hand. “Be my guest.”
Kenna dropped him a wink and then spun into action. He allowed himself a brief moment to admire her form, her balance, her thrusts and her jabs, and then he joined her. Back to back, side by side. Like the good old days. Yeah, Kenna Carter was fucking back.
The dynamic duo was back.
28
This felt good, this felt right. Being here with Brett, fighting beside him, I was my old self again, the Kenna that killed denizens for a living. Except this time the pay check would need to be ten times the usual size.
Erebus burst through the gate, followed closely by Irina and his clan. The dark djinn came through a moment later. With the djinn aid, the denizens began to fall rapidly. These warriors were beasts of a different kind, unrelenting, untiring. They sliced and dispatched so fast that my head span.
“We’re doing it. The flow is slowing,” Brett said
As if sensing our imminent victory, the Fearless let up a morale-boosting battle cry and surged toward the gate with renewed vigour. An answering rush of heat gripped my chest. And then the denizens faltered. We took out several before we realised they weren’t actually fighting back. A low rumble shook the ground, and a low-level buzz filled the air. The hairs on the back of my neck stood to attention.
“Something’s coming,” Irina said. She turned her wrists, her blades glinting in the sunlight.
They burst through the gate like a fresh wave of death. Twice as large as the regular denizens and ten times as lethal—hybrid denizens. They cannibalised the regular denizens in an attempt to cut a path toward us. There were too many—hundreds against maybe thirty Fearless, half of which were wounded, running on their last puffs of steam. They came to a halt several metres from the gate, twitching and salivating as if awaiting further instruction.
And then Legion spoke—its voice emanating from every hybrid maw with cutting clarity. “Submit to me and no more will die.”
My inked hand burned and stung, and the edges of my vision darkened until I was looking down a tunnel, travelling down it, fast. Too fast to see my surroundings, my momentum slowed, and black-leaved trees surrounded me, pulling me forward until a huge blackened trunk loomed over me. The tree was as wide as a house and covered in moss, but my journey didn’t stop there, I was moving forward, toward the trunk, toward the moss. It was in my face, soft and inviting, sucking me in, into the tree. No. The illusion evaporated, my vision cleared, and I was back on the battlefield.
“Join me and all shall live.” Legion continued. “There is no hope against my force. Become the force, and you all shall be spared.”
What had just happened? What had I just seen? Now wasn’t the time. I needed to focus. This was it. We were battered and tired and severely outnumbered. Legion had us by the balls, and he knew it. There was no way we were taking out these fuckers hand to hand. I was good, but ev
en I had my limits.
“We need to fall back.” I turned to Brett. “We need to fall back, take cover. If we stay out in the open, we’ll die.”
Brett nodded. “Fall back! Take cover.”
The hybrids remained stationary. Maybe they saw our retreat as compliance. But like fuck was I giving Legion anything. If it was a choice between a clean death and becoming a soldier of darkness, I’d take a clean death any day. Yes, it was unfair not to offer Lindrealm a choice, unfair to make a decision for them, but if I allowed them to decide I knew they’d want to live, no matter the cost, because humanity … humanity coveted survival above all. If Legion got its claws into them, then the millions of djinn in the fifth dimension would be lost. If Legion took Lindrealm, these people were as good as dead anyway. There was only one course of action—a fight to the death. A sharp pang of regret had my eyes stinging. Baal … I wouldn’t get to see him again.
Shaking off the grief, I ducked and ran toward the mounted guns, our last line of defence. “How much luma ammo have you got?”
“Not enough,” the enforcement officer manning the guns said.
Erebus yelled instructions to the dark djinn, telling them to fall back alongside the Fearless.
“Kenna, you need to get out of here,” Irina said. “You need to get back to the fifth dimension. Once this is over, your people will need you. They’ll need their queen.”
Once this was over. Once the humans were dead, she meant. Like this didn’t matter. My eyes pricked. Bella and Mum had given their lives to save mine. Bella had given me her humanity, and Lindrealm was also my home. These were also my people. I would not abandon them.
“Lindrealm needs me right now, Irina.” I smiled. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Dammit!” She made an exasperated noise in the back of her throat.
I gripped her upper arm, “But you are. Get back to the fifth dimension. Tell Baal … tell him to take care of the realm for me. To do whatever it takes to protect our people.”
Irina pressed her lips together. “I’m not leaving you.”
I stood tall, staring down my nose at her. “That wasn’t a request. It was an order.”
Under Twilight: an Urban Fantasy Novel (Fearless Destiny Book 3) Page 15