Page 5 of Whispers of Ruin
Every rapid beat of her heart screamed at her to move faster, but it was impossible as branches, leaves, and vines slapped and stuck to her. It was as if they were trying to capture and hold her prisoner so that whatever followed could destroy her.
Frustration filled her as she yanked against a vine clinging to her forearm and threw herself forward. She barely managed to keep herself from plunging to the ground, and the only reason she succeeded in staying on her feet was because her shoulder slammed into a tree and jerked her backward and upright again.
She jumped over a fallen tree and skidded further down the hill as thunderous crashes followed her. The ground vibrated so violently it pitched her off her feet a few times while breaking trees screeched their protests and crashed to the earth.
Halfway down the hill, she encountered a thick wall of brambles spreading through the jungle. In front of her, Brokk elegantly darted to the side to avoid the thorns and sprinted down the hill.
Kaylia spun to the side to avoid plunging into them and successfully trapping herself for whatever hunted her. Thorns ripped at her arms, shredded her flesh, and spilled her blood as they tore across her.
A cry alerted her that one of the dwarfs wasn’t fast enough to escape the brambles. She looked up in time to see the pained expression on the man’s face before momentum carried her further down the hill and away from the dwarf.
There wasn’t anything she could have done to save him as the vibrations closed in on them, but guilt tore at her as she left him behind. She could only hope he managed to get a portal open in time to flee or somehow managed to free himself.
She doubted the portal was an option as he’d have to free himself from the brambles enough to enter it. Kaylia almost looked back to see what happened but stopped herself; seeing the outcome wouldn’t accomplish anything. All she could do was run.
But no matter how fast she ran, the vibrations grew closer, the earth shook more, and the trees around her swayed from the impact. She didn’t dare look back to see what awaited them, but she practically felt it breathing down her neck.
She could open a portal but might never locate this spot in Doomed Valley again if she did. She might be leaving behind everyone who had come to rely on her, and worse, whatever chased them could follow her through the portal and into another realm.
She didn’t have to see it to know she could never set the monster behind her free on the realms; it would only result in a lot of death if she did. Leaving the dwarf behind was bad enough; being the cause of the loss of numerous lives would be far worse.
Brokk jumped onto a log and leapt over it as he hurtled down the hill. She’d always considered herself graceful, but he moved with the speed and dexterity of the dark fae and the vampires; it was breathtaking to watch… if she had any breath left in her lungs.
Kaylia stopped skidding enough to leap onto the log and over it. When she landed, she stumbled a few feet before a tree branch caught in the back of her shirt. She jerked herself free and followed Brokk down the hill.
Somewhere behind her, someone shrieked. A few seconds later, one of the dark fae flew past her. She couldn’t tell which one it was as it flashed past her in a tumult of black hair and streaks of red. It took her a few seconds to realize the red was blood.
When the dark fae crashed into a tree, a massive beast raced past her. With a snap of its hooked, bony snout, it bit down on the fae’s legs and snatched him off the ground.
The man howled as he beat at the creature while it chomped down on him again. Kaylia inwardly screamed against the brutality of the attack and threw up her hands to… to… she had no idea what spell could free the man from this when she couldn’t have freed the dwarf, but she hated the helpless feeling engulfing her.
Ahead of her, Brokk turned back like he was going to help the fae, but before he could do anything, another enormous creature surged out of the woods and clamped down on the top half of the fae. They tore at the man, each fighting over their half until they ripped him in two.
Before she could blink, they gulped down their prizes. Wrath crossed Brokk’s face as he sprinted back toward her, but his movements slowed as he tried to scale the hill.
“Hurry!” he yelled at her.
He had given up trying to flee these beasts and would now stand his ground, but she didn’t know how any of them could make a stance against these monstrosities. From what she’d glimpsed of them, they consisted of more bone than flesh, and that bone didn’t reveal any weak spots.
They looked like armored dinosaurs with thick plates surrounding heads larger than a rhino’s.Oh, Hecate.
They had to open a portal; it was their only chance of surviving this, but they’d lose so much if they did and risked hurting so many others. Every survival instinct she had screamed at her to flee this place, but she kept her hands by her side and didn’t open a path to freedom.
Arriving at her side, Brokk gripped her arms and pulled her in front of him as a lycan soared over their head and smashed into a tree. The tall, powerful woman hung there briefly before sliding down to the ground.
Brokk nudged her forward. “Run!”
Only five feet separated them from the lycan, and Brokk ran toward the woman. Before he could get to her, a mouth fastened onto the woman.
CHAPTEREIGHT
Brokk staggered backas the gigantic jaws closed inches away from him. Before he could do anything more than stare, it gulped the lycan down.
When the woman’s feet vanished from view, the beast’s head swiveled toward him. Knowing it would eat him even if it was full, Brokk unleashed a punch that shot the creature’s head to the side. A crack accompanied the blow as his knuckles caved in, and agony exploded up his arm.
With the creature distracted, he sprinted back into the woods in pursuit of Kaylia and the others. He wasn’t sure how many others were still out there or ahead of them.
He glimpsed some of them running through the woods, barreling toward an unknown future. They all could have fled through a portal, but they must have all come to the same conclusion as him… opening a portal now could end in disaster if these things were allowed free in the realms.
