Page 26 of Whispers of Ruin
The rapid fire of electricity pierced the treetops, but a few jagged bolts made it through to take out the snakes. The impact of the lightning gouged craters in the earth as sparks flew into the air. The hair on Kaylia’s nape stood up as the air pulsated and crackled with electricity.
Despite her every intention to keep a wall between her and Brokk, her fingers encircled the corded muscles of his forearms, and she squeezed. She needed this connection between them, this assurance he was okay as anarchy reigned around them.
“We have to get out of here,” Brokk whispered in her ear.
Kaylia nodded, but before she could suggest escaping through a portal, more lightning hammered the earth around them, making it almost impossible to move. Brokk flattened his back against a tree as he held her closer, sheltering her from the worst of the storm.
The whistle of another barrage of arrows peppered the air. Brokk shifted her so she stood behind him, caught between him and the tree as he used his body to shield her from the worst of it.
“I can cast a protection spell!” she shouted.
Another round of thunder drowned out her words as more lightning sizzled across the sky and crashed into the earth. She kept expecting a deluge of rain to start pounding the ground, but it remained dry.
In front of her, Brokk moved his head a little to the side a second before an arrow hit the tree. His instincts had told him it was coming, and he’d moved out of the way in time to avoid it, but it had been so close.
Too close.And what if he’s not fast enough next time?
CHAPTERTWENTY-EIGHT
Her fingers bitinto his back before reluctantly releasing him to sheath her sword. After she finished, she lifted her hands to cast a protection spell. She’d just started it when Brokk reached behind him, grasped her wrist, and pulled her before him again. He returned his sword to its holster.
“Wait!” she shouted, but the storm swallowed her voice.
Brokk hunched protectively around her again as his arms cinched around her waist. Kaylia turned her head to shout into his ear that she could cast a protection spell, but before the words left her, a passing snakelike immortal whipped out its tail.
The immortal had no idea they were there, but it struck a lucky blow as its tail whipped across her legs and knocked her feet out from under her. She would have hit the ground if Brokk’s arms weren’t locked securely around her.
Unfortunately, the blow happened simultaneously with a lull in the thunder, and her cry drew their attention. The creature’s head swiveled toward her, and its yellow eyes with their elliptical pupils locked on her.
The snakelike man couldn’t see her, but he knew she was there. She could tell by the flare of his nostrils and the flicker of his forked tongue as his lips skimmed back to reveal his hooked fangs. Her skin crawled at this serpent characteristic in the face of a handsome man.
Before she could blink, that tongue lashed out and slapped her in the face. Kaylia recoiled as a low growl rumbled up Brokk’s chest. He pulled her back a few steps as the scent of her blood permeated the air, and a warm trickle ran down her cheek.
When the man eagerly scented the air, Kaylia placed a hand over her face, hoping to stifle the blood he smelled. Brokk swung her around and stepped before her as the man detoured from his attack on the immortals behind the fire and came toward them.
With panic fueling her magic, Kaylia lowered her hand from her face and started weaving her fingers through the air as she recited the words that would protect them. They could either flee this area or open a portal and leave Doomed Valley once they were sure none of these monsters would follow them through.
Thanks to the mirror realm, they no longer knew where they were in Doomed Valley. For all she knew, they were back near where they first started and heading back into land they’d already traversed.
Or you could be within feet of it.
That was the worst thing about this place; it hideverythingwhile fucking with their heads and unleashing countless nightmares on them.
Before she could finish her spell, lightning slammed into the top of a tree to her right. A zigzagging pattern cut through the tree’s center as another bolt hit the ground only inches away from her.
The impact lifted them off their feet and flung them backward. They hit the ground and bounced across it before Brokk crashed into a tree. He came to an abrupt stop while her momentum caused her to tumble head over heels.
His fingers clawed at her, seeking to draw her back as she was torn from his embrace and into one of those awful creatures. Kaylia’s weight knocked the woman off her path and almost toppled her over, but she managed to return her balance as she swung a sword down.
The monster would have cleaved her in two if Kaylia hadn’t gathered her hands against her chest and pushed up with them both while shouting the words, “Wall of air, protect me. Wall of air, shelter me. Wall of air, belong to me!”
She shoved upward to knock the woman’s sword aside. A blast of air hit the woman in the face, lifting and pushing her back. Kaylia dodged the tip of the tail streaking toward her face as another crash of thunder rocked the earth.
Twisting, Kaylia watched in horror as another jagged crack raced across the ground… straight toward her and the woman rising onto her tail. Fury etched the woman’s features as she searched for Kaylia, but before she could start forward again, the earth opened below her, and the woman screamed as she tumbled into oblivion.
Turning onto her belly, Kaylia clawed at the dirt as she got to her feet and started sprinting. She only made it two steps before the ground gave way beneath her feet.
Her scream was cut off by her heart lurching into her throat as her body fell toward certain death. Desperate to keep herself from tumbling into oblivion, her nails broke as she clawed at the earth, but gravity kept dragging her down… down… down.
