Edge of the Darkness (Hell on Earth Book 4)

by Brenda K. Davies

  I had to get my shit together, and I couldn’t do that while I was still so close to her. Out of this forest and away from Bale, I would get my priorities straight again. Then, I would claim my Chosen, bend her to my will, take her away from the varcolac, and if possible, use her to help me destroy him.

  That last part would probably be tricky as she was loyal to her king, but taking her away from the varcolac would be a blow to him. She was a powerful fighter and one he would miss.

  Her words ran through my mind again. “Neither is a vendetta held against a varcolac who doesn’t know you.”

  It didn’t matter if he knew me or not, he’d kept me locked away for millennia, just like the varcolacs before him. They kept me in that seal; they took away my freedom and nearly destroyed me more times than I could count. The confinement wasn’t the worst part; no, it was the never knowing when, or if, we would ever be set free.

  When we were locked away, nothing was said to us. And then, for millennia, we remained trapped within that box, feeding on the leftover wraiths of Hell, fighting and fucking, and sometimes slipping away for days, weeks, and centuries before returning to discover ourselves still trapped within our hideous fate.

  There were times I went insane. We all did. And there were times I was certain I couldn’t take one more second of being in there. Then that second would pass, and the next, and the next until they flowed into thousands of years.

  Tilting my head back, I inhaled the fresh air. It was tainted with the stench of blood and terror, but it was still one of the most amazing things I’d ever experienced. I remembered walking free of the seal, walking away from all the destruction, and emerging into the bowels of Hell.

  At the time, it was falling apart around us. Boulders were breaking off and falling free of the road out of Hell. The stench of death permeated the air, but that rot and the acrid scent of Hell couldn’t stop me from savoring every breath of freedom that filled my lungs.

  Then I arrived on Earth and learned what fresh air really was, and I stopped to inhale it often. I despised that so many demons had allowed this plane to change them, but I was aware it was changing me too.

  I didn’t think the scent of it had permeated me yet like it had the demons who had been here for years, but I appreciated the beauty of this world. The thing I liked about it most was, despite the sparkling blue of its magnificent seas, the scent of its trees, and the freedom of the open plains, it was as brutal as Hell in many ways. Many of the humans and animals here were as ruthless as any demon or hell creature.

  I did not like that so many demons had been corrupted by this place, but I was never going back to Hell, and I would never be locked away again; I’d die first. This was my home, and as soon as the varcolac was dead, I would retreat somewhere else to live. I would breathe the fresh air, create havoc when I was bored, and, whether she liked it or not, my Chosen would be by my side when it happened.

  I considered going back for her, killing her friends, and dragging her away. She’d be pissed, but she would get over it eventually, and if she didn’t, so what?

  However, a low creak from the calamuts doused my plans. I didn’t care what Bale wanted, but these trees would kill us all if I started another fight in this forest. No, I couldn’t take her now, but I would soon.

  Arriving at the corner of the building, I stopped and released a low whistle. I tapped my foot as I searched the shadows for Zorn. Where was he? Even if something happened to him, he would still live while I drew breath.

  However, the more time passed, the more my uneasiness grew. He could be okay, but something could keep him from returning to me. I wouldn’t consider the possibility of never seeing him again. I had survived the seal; I would not survive never seeing Zorn again.

  When the calamuts swayed overhead, I glanced nervously at them. They continued to tear the building apart in their quest to destroy the nuckals, but they seemed unaware of me. I didn’t know how long that would last.

  Then, through the shadows of the trees, Zorn trotted toward me. His scarlet coat and bright red eyes were vivid against the night, and I smiled as he neared. The calamuts shifted around him, and one lowered a branch toward him, but the horse didn’t acknowledge it as he stopped before me.

  I rubbed his velvety muzzle as I rested my head against his. “You had me worried.”

  He snorted in response and stomped his foot before nudging me with his head. He was as impatient as me to be free of these woods. I gave him another pet before grasping his mane and swinging myself onto his back. I started to turn him away but stopped when my gaze returned to where I last saw Bale.

  Is she okay? I cursed myself for caring. She’d made her bed, and now she would lie in it.

  I nudged Zorn, and we started into the woods together.

  Bale

  With Corson and Wren at my side, we ran in the direction Shax and the others had gone. Cold air brushed against my face and down my back; it chilled the sweat coating me, but I was moving too much to notice it fully. When we got out of this and stopped moving, I was going to miss my warm coat. But first, we would have to get through this for that to become a concern.

  We rounded the corner to discover half a dozen nuckals there. When they spotted us, they let out a garbled cry, and their hooves thundered across the ground as they came at us.

  I reached for my sword before recalling it might cause the calamuts to unleash their fury again. However, I didn’t think the nuckals could reason that out. They would come for us, and they would attack, and they would leave us with no other choice but to fight unless we retreated.

  The idea of backing down from anything went against my nature, but I grated out the words. “We have to go back.”

  “What about the others?” Wren asked.

  “We’ll find them outside the forest, but we can’t take on the nuckals; the calamuts will destroy us if we try.”

  Turning, we retreated around the side of the building and ran back the way we came. We were almost to the hole we escaped through when a calamut branch pierced through the wall.

  I skidded to a halt only inches away from it. A scream resonated from within, and when the branch jerked back, a spray of blood erupted from the hole.

  Not much scared me, but as I gazed at the hole and the blood trickling down the wall, a feeling of unease crept through my belly. The calamuts weren’t attacking us now, but I didn’t think they’d let us leave this forest alive.

  I glanced at Corson and found his orange eyes on me. In them, I saw the same realization that was creeping through me. The calamuts were pissed, and they were going to make everyone pay.

  “We’ll keep going,” I whispered.

  “We will,” he said.

  As we jogged forward, I strained to hear every creak and crack of the trees. It was only a matter of time before they unleashed on us, and I had to be prepared for when it came. We rounded the corner where Wrath disappeared only to find a couple of nuckals there.

  “We either fight or we retreat into the woods,” Corson said.

  “If we’re retreating,” I said, “we better do it fast.”

  I didn’t have to say speed might be the only way we would escape the calamuts; they were aware of that.

  “It wasn’t too far until the edge of the forest,” Corson said. “We can get there.”

  He’d always been the more optimistic of the two of us, but usually, I shrugged it off. Now, I cleaved to it like a mother to her baby. A small ray of hope was all we had left.

  “Go,” I whispered.

  That simple word spurred us into motion. Much faster than humans, we raced across the ground, zigzagging in and out of the trees. When the nuckals released a gurgling moan of excitement and chased after us into the woods, the calamuts came to life again.

  My breath thundered in my ears; every beat of my heart hammered against my ribs. I’d always expected to die in battle, not in a calamut forest while being hunted by some revolting demon Lucifer freed from its seal. The nuckal
s had sent the calamuts into a killing rampage that wouldn’t cease until they were confident the tree nymphs were safe.

  I refused to die here.

  A calamut’s limb slammed into the ground only centimeters away from me. Debris sprayed up from the earth and plastered my face and arms. The branch was so close it sliced down my arm, rent my flesh, and spilled my blood across the forest floor. I darted to the side as another limb lashed out in a blow that would have bashed in my head if I’d been a fraction of a second slower.

  Dirt and rocks pounded against me as more and more limbs hammered the forest floor. I dashed in and out in a zigzagging path that confused the calamuts but also had me doubling back more than I would have liked. Behind me, the enthusiastic, guttural cries of the nuckals propelled me to faster speeds.

  I caught a glimpse of the land beyond the forest; my heart soared as my legs sprinted toward freedom. Fifty feet… thirty… twenty-five…. My breath rushed in and out of my burning lungs and sounded like a windstorm in my ears.

  Twenty….

  Half a dozen branches crashed into the ground a foot in front of me. I skidded to a halt as rocks and dirt showered my face, but I couldn’t stop myself from crashing into the trees. I bounced off them and almost fell, but I somehow managed to catch my balance as I stumbled back.

  Something warm trickled down my cheek; one of the branches had cut me. I lifted my hand to my face and wiped away the blood as I studied the limbs blocking the freedom only fifteen feet away from me.

  They were screwing with me. They’d let me get this close to freedom only to snatch it away because they were playing with me. Tree nymphs died tonight, and they would make everyone pay for that.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Bale

  I backed away from the trees as I tried to figure out a plan. They would keep blocking my escape, but I wasn’t going to give up. I would not die in this forest.

  Darting to the side, I swung my sword at a branch slithering toward me. The sword deflected that branch, but another one whipped against my ribs. The air exploded from my lungs as the blow staggered me back.

  I didn’t dare press a hand against my ribs; the action would slow me down, and I couldn’t let the calamuts or nuckals know I was wounded enough to react. They would pounce on me like the hounds on meat.

  “Bale! Where are you?” Corson shouted from somewhere in the woods, but I’d lost him and Wren.

  “Keep going!” I yelled and winced when the motion caused a needle to jab into my chest.

  When more branches came at me, I viciously swung my sword at them. If I didn’t make it out of here, I was going to inflict as much damage as I could on these things before I died.

  I deflected more branches, but one snaked around and caught me in the back of the knee. My leg buckled. I stopped myself from collapsing by planting the tip of my sword in the ground, but that allowed them to come at me harder.

  I threw myself back and rolled to the side as a branch slapped across my back. I didn’t think I’d ever catch my breath again, but I couldn’t stop moving to try. If I stopped for a fraction of a second, they would destroy me.

  Leaping back to my feet, I spun in a circle meant to confuse the calamuts. It succeeded as a new row of branches shot straight past me. And then I was running again, except this time, I had no idea which way I was going.

  Before, I was sure I was heading out of the woods. Now, I didn’t know if I was going toward the school, heading out of the woods, or deeper into the forest. If I was running deeper into the woods, then I was as good as dead, but I couldn’t stop.

  From the corner of my eye, I spotted a nuckal racing toward me. Its hooves pounded across the ground, and the excitement emanating from the monster rippled across my skin. I hated Lucifer and the fallen angels, but that hatred was nothing compared to my loathing of these bastards.

  The increased vibration of the ground from the irate calamuts and the ravenous nuckals made it difficult to keep my footing as the earth quaked like it was going to come apart. Normally, I never faltered in my step, but now I tripped over a tree branch and crashed into the trunk of a calamut that responded by whipping a limb at my head.

  I leapt over another tree branch, sliced through three more, and turned in time to sever the head of the horse from a nuckal. The blood spraying my face blinded me, but somehow it didn’t add to the confusion. Instead, a strange sense of peace settled over me.

  This was what I was born to do. My parents were fighters, and their parents before them. I’d been fighting since I could hold a sword, which my father put in my hands when I was three. That sword was as much a part of me as my hand, and I would get it back from Wrath.

  The nuckal’s claws scoured the earth as the rider dragged itself and the body of its headless mount toward me. I shut out the awful sounds of the beast and the booms of the trees as they crashed into the earth.

  A stillness settled around me. I no longer heard my labored breathing or the riotous beat of my heart. A pathway through it all unfolded before me, and I took it.

  Running toward the nuckal, I leapt into the air and swung my sword down to sever the rider’s head. It thumped across the earth before settling against the trunk of a calamut. I ran at the nuckals barreling toward me and threw myself to the ground. Rolling, I used my blade to sever the legs from some of their mounts.

  Blood sprayed me and screams echoed through the night, but I was already up and running as the nuckals hit the ground. Then, something hit me in the back of the head. Stars burst before my eyes, blood sprayed from my mouth, and I flew forward.

  I hit the ground and spit dirt from my mouth as I lifted my ringing head. Every beat of my heart caused my head to hammer with the rush of blood. A branch whipped above me, the same one that I assumed bashed me.

  My head felt like one of the nuckals was digging its claws into the back of my skull, piercing deeper and peeling away flesh.

  And then I realized that’s exactly what was happening. A calamut didn’t hit me; it was one of those things. Placing my hands beneath me, I tried to push myself up, but a cloven hoof slammed into the small of my back and buried me deeper into the earth.

  I choked on the dirt clogging my mouth and nostrils as the tremendous weight of the beast leaned more firmly onto me. I scrambled to find the sword I lost when I fell. Dirt and rocks dug into my fingers and palms, but I couldn’t find my sword.

  My movements became more frantic, and my lungs burned for air as the nuckal peeled away a strip of skin from my neck. I refused to acknowledge the pain as warm blood seeped down my throat.

  When my fingertips landed on something cool and solid, I wrapped my hand around the hilt, dragged my sword toward me, and blindly jabbed it over my head. I grinned when it sank into muscle and the nuckal screeched. As it reeled back, it tore my sword from it, but I managed to hold on to the weapon.

  Scrambling to my feet, I staggered when a wave of dizziness left me reeling. The ground heaved beneath my feet and, unable to see through my double vision, I swung in a wild arc to protect myself from whatever else was coming.

  Arms encircled my waist and plucked me from the ground. Flames crackled before my eyes as I swung my sword. A hand clasped my wrist and pulled the sword away as I landed on something. Another arm cinched around both of mine, pinning them to my chest.

  “Don’t fight me,” a voice hissed in my ear.

  Despite the ringing in my ears and the spinning in my head, I recognize that voice. I probably would have been better off if the nuckal ate me.

  Wrath

  Zorn flew across the ground with such speed, it felt as if his hooves didn’t touch the earth. Branches whipped out of the darkness at us, but I’d discovered the calamuts weren’t a big fan of fire. Because of that, flames engulfed me and Zorn.

  I’d learned in the minotaur’s cave that fire didn’t affect Bale; she didn’t seem to possess any of her own, but it didn’t burn her. I kept my flames high as the wind whipped them around us, and the calamu
t’s frustration grew.

  Bale struggled in my grasp for a few seconds before going limp. Her head fell back against my shoulder and lulled to the side. Her acquiescence troubled me more than all the blood covering her.

  I’d seen what the nuckals did to her. I’d been fighting my way through the nuckals and calamuts to get to her, but it felt as if for every three feet of progress I made, I lost six feet.

  Then I saw that thing hit her, and the rage I’d been trying to contain erupted, and fire engulfed me. Zorn, so in tune with my emotions, also became encased in flames until they trailed off his tail.

  That was when I discovered the calamuts weren’t quite so eager to get as close to us, which helped me get to Bale. I had to be careful not to let my ability ooze out to affect others; if I did, I would only fuel the calamuts and nuckals.

  A branch lashed out and circled my wrist. I bared my teeth at it as my flames licked higher. The limb turned to ashes as the trees swayed back and forth overhead. Limbs slithered across the sky like snakes in a pit as they tried to figure out some way to get us or stop us.

  Dozens of branches impaled the ground all around us as the trees tried to cage us in or slaughter us. Somehow, Zorn’s powerful gait and fleet movements kept us from being impaled, but up ahead, the calamuts had created a wall.

  Zorn turned away from the wall and fled further into the forest. I had no idea where we were in the woods anymore; I only knew I had to get us out of here. I lost sight of the building and nuckals as Zorn galloped faster and faster.

  The woods became so dark that the only source of illumination was the fire enveloping us. The fire crackled around us as the agitated movements of the calamuts created a wind that kicked up leaves. I was beginning to think we would never be free of the forest when I saw the faintest hint of light ahead.