“Word, sister.” Fury high-fived her, and Eva looked surprised by the Earth slang coming from the alien-like, red-skinned Crais half.
I chuckled. “Lucy,” I said. There was no other explanation needed.
“Yes, my awesomeness is catching,” I heard the pixie trill from where she stood a few yards behind us.
“Join us together, Abby. We can blow away their little storm, no problem.” Delane interrupted our joking. Forcing us back on point.
My tether sprung to life with barely a thought from me. It was almost developing a life of its own, and thankfully I didn’t feel as if some alien worm was living inside me. It was still me, just more connected to my subconscious thoughts and needs. Which saved a lot of time. At the last second, before the tether connected us, I realized that we weren’t touching our sacred animals. Holy crap. I tried to reel it back in, but it was too late.
We connected.
I rocked back on my feet at the sheer force of the energy. I had so much already rattling inside from Que. Thankfully, though, the original power was locked away in my filing cabinet. So I didn’t have to deal with that too.
We didn’t black out this time, although it took a few moments for our equilibrium to right itself. For our bodies to adjust to the sheer force of energy blazing between us. But we did it. Somehow we were strong enough.
The moment we had the power under control we moved, starting at a slow jog before we were all-out sprinting toward the Seventine. We had mentally agreed that there was no more time to hold back or hesitate. This was our chance. We needed to subdue them and get them into the cave. Jedi would be waiting for us. I knew he would be. Everything was prepared, and we would perform the ritual.
The animal guides kept pace with us. Even if we no longer needed them to connect, we still needed them. Most of us had lost our weapons. Only Delane and Eva still held their precious stabby-objects. Those two slept with their blades, so they weren’t going to be letting them go easily.
Our pace picked up as we dashed across the land toward the Seventine. My heart pounded so hard I could hear the rush of blood in my ears. I was afraid, but I was also angry. My sorrow about Francesca, the pain I knew my mother would be in, I wanted – no needed – to do something to take my mind from that. And fighting the Seventine was definitely the ticket.
Although, I did take a second to be grateful that Josian and Lallielle had missed my ‘almost dying’ at the hands of Que. That was a stress no parent needed to live through.
We were fast, moving as a single unit of seven girls and seven majestic animals. Brace and the others followed; my mate would always have my back. I also noticed that Dune, Ladre and Lucas had joined our small group. Looked like the other girls would be going into battle with their mates by their side.
We might be the ones with the power to beat the Seventine, but our interconnected network of mates and family were important too.
As we closed in Delane drew on our collective energy. Her winds whipped out and crashed against the barrier of the Seventine.
The moment our energy touched theirs, a cold and biting power slapped out at us. It was the antithesis to our warm and living energy, the true opposite. Repelling and yet wanting to be joined with each other.
The wind whipped across the shadows and, with very little effort, we blew through the scary aura surrounding the Seventine. Delane’s wind started to round up the shadows, like a sheep dog would its flock. Once she had it all in a tight ball, the darkness was zoomed off into the atmosphere. Then, just like that, after all the time we’d been fighting them in their ghostly specters, the Seventine were revealed.
In all their ugly glory.
Chapter 17
I couldn’t stop looking at them. It was ironic really that those morons thought the shadow and smoke show was scary; their actual faces were worse. Much worse. They were like the messed-up version of a garden gnome. For reals. One part of me wanted to laugh, but for the most part there was nothing funny about the fact that they looked like that freaking doll. The one which used to come to life and creep around stabbing people. They were unsettling and wrong – just plain wrong.
“Of all the bodies they could have chosen for themselves, they went with demon munchkins,” Lucy said from behind us. “Just the way they were in my fake vision.”
I remembered her vague descriptions of them from the vision she had had during that battle on First World. Three slanted eyes, holes for a nose and slashes of mouths. She was pretty spot on. They were also shorter than all of the half-Walkers. Around five feet. Wearing black yoda-style robes which skimmed their calf muscles. Then, to add even more creep to this creeptastic image, they were all carbon copies of each other. Except for their hair.
They had the same freaking hair as each of us half-Walkers. What the eff?