Page 90 of Wicked Curses
“That’s okay. I’ll find somewhere safe until this is over.”
Fred fluttered down to hover in front of him. “Good luck.”
Before Orin could reply, the pixie darted away, and Belda lifted the bar. Orin threw the locks and pulled the door open.
The creak of the door drew the attention of some scarog beetles. They scuttled down the street toward him as the door closed and the bar settled into place with a click behind him.
Orin enveloped himself in shadows and descended the stairs as the beetles charged toward where he once stood but no longer did. With the shadows tucked securely around him, he headed down the street in pursuit of a witch with an attitude.
CHAPTERSIXTY-FOUR
Sahira heldoff one of the scarog beetles with her spear while she kept her back to Elsa, who fought another one off with a sword she’d scooped up from a fallen imp. Her spear had been broken in half shortly after they left the library.
About half of the remaining immortals with them had pulled away and fled down the street. Their screams rebounded off the buildings surrounding them as the scarogs peeled their flesh away and crunched their bones with sickening precision.
She couldn’t decide if the screams or the crunching was worse, and her stomach continued to roll as she focused all her energy on surviving this battle. Gromuck, Boris, and the pixies led the way as Gromuck used her battle-ax to hack through the beetles.
Their wings fluttered overhead, and Sahira ducked as one of them dove toward her. When its legs skimmed her neck, a shudder of revulsion ran through her.
She threw up one hand; air circled through her fingers as she weaved them in an intricate pattern until power built between them. “Air beneath my fingers, air beneath my hands, swell and grow and make a stand.”
With that, she thrust up her palm. A wall of air rose to shield her, Elsa, and those who remained from the beetles above.
As soon as the spell was in place, a beetle, unaware of its casting, dove down and crashed into the wall of air. The impact caused it to shriek while spiraling away.
Its legs and mandibles flailed before it crashed into another, and they both fell to the ground. They bounced down the road together before jumping up with a screech.
“That’s not good,” Sahira said as they skittered toward her with mandibles snapping and antennae whipping. If one of those things hit her, they’d crack her back.
Sahira yanked her spear from the scarog she’d been holding back and spun in time to smack one of the charging insects upside the head with the bottom of the shaft. She threw all her weight into the blow, knocking its head down as its momentum carried it forward.
Leaping out of the way, Sahira managed to avoid the thing hitting her, but she also separated herself from Elsa by doing so. A battle-ax crashed onto the back of the second one, severing it in half.
Sahira gave Boris a nod of thanks as he ripped the ax free of the still-squirming creature before chopping off its head. Elsa twisted to look over her shoulder at Sahira and stretched her hand toward her before another scarog cut them off.
The first charging scarog came back at her as more of them swarmed between her and Boris. He was swept away by the crush of beetles pursuing what remained of their group.
She lost sight of Elsa as their distance weakened her spell over the others. It became mostly centered above her. Spinning, she grasped her spear in both hands as she backed down the street.
She’d give anything to be able to teleport right now; it would come in handy for saving her life, but this realm seemed determined to destroy her. She couldn’t see them, but Sahira tried to catch up with the others.
She knew where they were going… or at least they hoped to reach the stable. And she hoped to get there too.
Until then, she had to find somewhere safe to shelter, but she didn’t think any of these buildings could survive the wrath of these creatures.
When more of them scampered closer, she used her spear to beat them back. She didn’t dare plunge it into one of them; the others would charge once it stuck in a beetle.
She didn’t have time to cast another spell. The second she had to stop beating them away, they would pounce like a cat on a mouse.
The best she could do was hold them back, and it was working… for now. She glanced at the buildings surrounding her as she tried to decide if she could make it into one.
She glimpsed Boris’s tall, blond head about thirty feet away before he turned a corner and vanished. She was completely on her own out here.
The scraping of feet rapidly approaching her back alerted her they were trying to surround her. If that happened, she would be dead.
Twisting, she turned to face the scarogs coming from both directions as she backed toward the steps of a small home with a farmer’s porch. Her feet thudded against the wood as she battled the scarog lunging for her.
This one, faster than the others, snatched her spear between one of its claws and snapped it. With her weapon ruined, Sahira threw the broken ends of the spear at it before turning and fleeing the rest of the way up the steps.
