Page 24 of Commanding Flame and Shield
My head was spinning. Everything was a blur of dark and light, and Aren was engaged with three of the giants, outrage roaring from him. I slid through the mud, slicing the back of a giant’s knees, and rising in a tight spin as another fell on my sword. It wasmemoryguiding the whirl of blades. The chaos was too tightly wound to wield my bow. I cried out in disgust as my eyes found one of the monsters with its razor teeth embedded in the neck of a thrashing Grayshellian. My sword met his skull with a sickening, meaty thud, and the soul dropped to her knees, clutching the bloody bite at her neck. She nodded at me once, and vanished, leaving only darkness in her wake.
August—Alvara’s internal voice was weak, and I could feel her eyes on me. A barbaric cry ripped from my throat, alien energy surging through my veins as a blinding pain tore through my skull. Blood filled my mouth, and I spat it on the ground below me, tongue tracing the sharp point of my own drawn canines. Instinctively, I threw my arms towards her, and saw sparks cross the gap between us. The sound of a bomb erupting burst into the clearing, and the giants suffocating and battering Alvara were thrown into the air, projected several yards away from her. I was instantly aware of the countless eyes on me now.
Run, August! Run, dammit!Alec.
I dove forward, rolling to avoid the swinging arm of one monster, only to leap over the kick of another. Over the tumult, I could hear Alvara coughing, spluttering, gasping for air, as she rolled to her side. She held her head in her hands, screaming the most blood curdling sob I’d ever heard, goosebumps erupting down my arms, and white-hot pressure building in my head again. She squirmed and writhed in apparent agony. Without fully understanding what I was doing, I threw my energy towards her, envisioning the shield swelling out to cover her. A moment later, she stilled, gasping for air, blinking the pain out of her eyes. She rolled onto her belly, eyes finding me in my mad dash towards her. We locked gazes and her desperation nearly undid me.
Steeling my resolve, I cut down more of the Renown, unwilling to stop to process what was happening.Just get to her. Get to Alvara.
She staggered to her feet right as something hard and heavy smashed into the back of my head, knocking me to the ground. The shield collapsed back into my mind. I rolled and dove onto my feet, lurching to steady myself as my vision blurred. The creature advanced, sadistic smile across the sharp features of his ashy face. Soulless eyes full of pleasure. His sick grin was all teeth, and he swung his giant arm—steel sword flashing through the air. I barely had the reflex to block his assault. Again, and again his heavy arm swung, and it took all the strength my body possessed to press back against him.
His eyes flashed with anger, and before I had time to deflect, his other arm jabbed forward, blade slicing through the thin skin on my ribs. Feet staggering, my hold faltered. Fear stabbed my racing heart as I fell to my knees. But I had to stand. Had to rise. Because Alvara. Was. Screaming.
You will not fall. Not here. Not now. Get. Up.I demanded of my shaking body.
Die a different day.Aren’s voice ordered into my mind. Although if it was to me, or the cadre, or to himself, I wasn’t sure. But the magic obedience demanded that I stand. My sword rose ahead of me, swinging with a rage that echoed in the minds of all our kind. With one irate burst of steel and deep-buried hatred, I put down the giant between me and Alvara.
She was crumpled, hands pressing into her temples, agony rippling through her scream. I fell to her side, horrified at the amount of blood pooling around her, at the desperate piercing cry tearing from her. It was her head that she cradled in her bloody hands. The way her body writhed in unseen agony. I knelt next to her, hands fluttering uselessly over her broken form. She was supposed to be indestructible. This couldn’t happen. Not now. Not to her.
Aren!? Alec?! Anyone?!
Sand, or sea! Something too vast for her mind. They knew her. Wash her clean. Water, August—call forthcleanwater!
What?!
Alec’s bold energy planted the image of pulling water from the ground with magic. The image made me panic. I couldn’t. Didn’t know how.
Suddenly Alec was standing by my side, eyes hard with focus, blood dripping from his brow, and Ansel guarding his six, in a mad duel with two of the monsters, masterfully parrying their attacks. Though he had been engaged with the giants the longest, he didn’t even seem winded, arms still steady. Lethal, as he drove his sword into the heart of one, before pulling it to cut the throat of the other. Only the bead of sweat on his brow revealed the effort. Behind them, it seemed Aren had taken on six himself.
Alec inhaled deeply, planting his feet in the Earth, and reached his fingers downward with an energy I couldn’t explain. As he exhaled, beads of water rose from the ground, spiraling around his outstretched hands. He brought his arms upwards over his head, and the droplets merged into an enormous stream of water.Clay cleanses and grounds the energy.That was all the explanation we had time for.
Alec swung his arms forward, an invisible axe slicing through the air. The water poured over Alvara in waves so heavy I panicked she’d drown, but slowly, her body stilled. The wind kicked up viciously and I knew that was my friend too—drying Alvara, perhaps.
“Shield her!” Was all he said to me. He released his magic flow of water and air, scooped up the trembling black-haired girl behind Alvara, and vanished. He reappeared alone only a moment later and threw himself back into the skirmish. Ansel took his place between us, and the clash of bodies and steel. The metallic smell of blood and reek of sweat overwhelmed me. The cries of the injured engulfing all my senses.
I knelt by her side, took a breath, and focused on expanding my shield. As it enveloped her, her body went limp, shoulders collapsing in on themselves, head falling into the mud to her side.
“How do we get her out of here?!” I barked at Ansel.
“I need a cloak!” He roared into the void, sword slashing violently, tearing blood from our enemies. “She can’t handle a read right now! Find something to wrap her in!” He bellowed over his shoulder.
I felt them before I saw them. The eerie chill reaching up into my bones. The shadows seemed to slither and stretch.Crawlers. That’s what she’d called them.
Frantically searching for a cloak, blanket, anything—panic wrapped around my throat as the demons snaked through the compact crowd towards us. I started to tear my own shirt from my sweat and blood-soaked body, but a spark of golden light caught my eyes.
I looked down at Alvara—gold electricity was dancing between her fingers, and an adrenaline chill shook down my body with inexplicableknowing. Slowly, she opened those piercing green eyes. The gold encircling her irises seemed to glow, the same electric color of the sparks on her fingers. She pushed her torso off the ground, lethal eyes surveying the chaos of twisting bodies, of swirling airy white, and heavy black fabrics.
She snarled, lips pulling back over bared teeth. “Enough!” She growled. Outrage flashed across her haunting features. She wiped the blood from her mouth as she bowed onto her hands.
“I said enough!” Her voice magically amplified to echo out over the clash. Her irises glowed gold, as the sparks popped and sizzled on her fingertips, tendrils dancing out into the ground around her hands.
Without explanation, I turned to the group, throwing my shield out as far as I could push it, envisioning a web of protection around our kind, and screamed in my mindFLY, dammit!
I just knew that we could. Knew what she was about to do.
And we all leapt into the air, as though they had to heed my command. As her kin safely left the ground, Alvara slammed her hands further into the Earth, which bent under her fury. The electricity surged through her, the ground erupting into an explosion of crackling, gold lightning. Everything in contact with the Earth scattered into the air—rocks, branches, dirt and grass flying up under our feet to suspend midair. The crawlers and Men of Renown were tossed into the void, electricity sending their bodies and shadows into quivering seizures. I saw the eyes of those closest roll into the back of their sockets. And with an enormous crash, they collapsed to the ground, sparks still surging through them.
Our comrades gracefully landed, gliding in a unified movement towards Alvara, white shirts and cloaks billowing out in the wind behind them eerily. Some slowed to scoop up injured. Or dead? I didn’t know. We all moved towards her as she leaned back on her haunches, her shoulders curled in with exhaustion.
