Page 101 of Shadows of Destiny
Alina swooped overhead before flying across the land. The dragons wanted to stay with her, but she wasn’t the one who commanded them, and their shrieks were growing increasingly loud.
Besides, she didn’t know how much of an effect she still had on Cole, but if he became out of control in the palace, she was the only one who had any chance of reaching him. She couldn’t let him go alone, and she couldn’t let the others go without her; Cole was too much of a danger to them for that.
Lexi took a deep breath before following Cole into the portal and on to whatever destiny lay beyond. Because no matter what, there was no going back after this.
Behind her, the vampires teleported into the portal while the rest of their army rushed out to follow them.
CHAPTERSEVENTY-THREE
The sirens transformedinto birdlike shapes and rose into the sky. With earsplitting shrieks, they battered the giants’ faces, clawed at their eyes, and swarmed around their heads. Phoenixes and pegasuses rose to help the sirens.
The imps ran around, creating the mischief they were known for as they tugged at the giants’ shoes and bit their ankles. They were barely two feet tall, and their little green bodies moved rapidly around the field. Their big, round ears stood straight out from the sides of their heads.
The unicorns rammed into the giants, but their horns had little effect. They didn’t inflict much damage, but they provided enough distraction to keep the giants from stomping on all those beneath them as the giants swatted at them.
Orin snatched a discarded battle-ax from the ground and ran toward one of the giants. Despite believing some of their army would become traitors and join the Lord’s side, he didn’t see any sign of it as the battle raged around him.
He was sure some defected, but not many. The Lord had pissed off too many with his destruction of the realms for them to become traitors.
Leaping forward, Orin swung with all his might and buried the ax in the behemoth’s Achilles tendon. The fucker didn’t even flinch when Orin buried the ax to the hilt in its flesh. He wasn’t sure the giant knew it was there.
He tried to yank the ax free, but it remained wedged in the muscle as the giant leaned back to batter at more of the immortals buzzing around its head. With a grunt, he finally succeeded in tearing the weapon free.
Adjusting his hold on the weapon, Orin swung it into the giant’s ankle bone. Again, the immortal didn’t flinch. If he felt the attack at all, Orin was probably no more annoying than a gnat to this thing.
He ripped the ax free as a dozen dwarves descended on the giant. They hacked at the giant’s flesh and muscle with furious shouts while witches ran around the creature’s feet with rope.
Finally, the giant noticed them, and lifting its foot, it went to step on them, but they dove out of the way before it smashed them into the ground. The damage to the giant’s skin and cartilage was enough that when it stomped its foot into the ground, the ankle bone gave way with a deafening snap.
“Move out of the way!” Orin bellowed as the giant tilted sideways.
It hung precariously in the air for what seemed like an indefinite amount of time before it pitched forward like a felled tree. Immortals scattered to get out of the way as the giant’s shadow spread across the land, but not all of them were fast enough to avoid its path.
The ones who didn’t splatter beneath him were driven into the earth. As soon as the giant hit the ground, it tried to push itself back up, but their army pounced on it. The behemoth’s screams shook the land, as did the other giants, and they lumbered toward their fallen friend.
The giants crushed any immortal not fast enough to flee their path, but it was too late to save their friend. Those still on the giant scrambled to get out of the way as its screams finally ceased.
Orin spun at the sound of hoofbeats. He was prepared to take down any horse or rider, but he was not prepared for what came at him. He nearly recoiled when a wendigo bared down on him.
“Holy shit,” he breathed.
The Lord was more desperate than they’d realized if he’d brought these monsters here and unleashed them. The wendigos were worse than zombies.
Noone on their side had mentioned recruiting them, because no one in their army was completely insane. The zombies at least possessed rational thought most of the time.
Wendigos killed, ate, and killed some more as they tried to quench their insatiable appetite. But that was impossible. They could never be satisfied and would never be full.
Until now, he’d never seen a wendigo out of its realm. They were killed on sight by anyone who did see them elsewhere as they couldn’t be allowed to roam free. They would inflict too much damage if they did.
But the Lord had brought them here and turned them loose. And as he darted back from the wendigo’s swiping claws, the Lord’s men opened the doors to the buildings that hadn’t been here the last time he came to Dragonia, well over a hundred years ago.
He’d wondered what those buildings were, and now he knew they held monsters. And these idiots were setting those monsters free.
The Lord and his army probably believed they would turn and run once they saw the wendigo, and the giants and dragons could stop them once they were gone, but they were mistaken. The wendigo added a whole new level of destruction to this battle, but the Lord had pushed them all too far when he destroyed their realms.
No one was going to run while he lived.
The wendigo’s hands dragged across the ground as its arms were nearly as tall as the seven-foot beast. How the Lord had gotten them to agree to fight was beyond him, but then, he realized the Lord probably hadn’t gotten them to consent.
