I stumbled backward because it was larger than any ungodly I’d ever seen. Its head scraped across the towering ceiling.
Twirling my sword, I sliced off one of its arms.
A pincer slammed into my chest and flung me backward.
It lunged again, and I barely dodged the blow.
I needed a plan of attack. It was too tall for me to swing my sword and slice its head off. I would have to jump if I was going to pierce through its chest.
“Run!” Jinx’s voice shrieked in my head.
I turned and sprinted down the dark corridor as fast as I could. A horrible chittering clack echoed loudly behind as the ungodly sprinted after.
In a split second, I processed everything that had happened and all my options.
“HELP!” I shouted as I ran, my heart sinking in my chest. I couldn’t hear anything but the ungodly chasing me, which meant no one could hear me. I needed that earpiece. Of all the times for the bond sickness to be gone.
“HELP!” I screamed again with all my might, because while it was a long shot, it was my only option.
I just needed one person to hear me.
Just one.
I squinted as I tried to discern what glowed up ahead. Maybe the corridors looped together in a circle? Maybe the other soldiers were up ahead?
Jinx screamed in my head, “Wait, don’t ru—”
A sword swung forward, and instinctive reflexes were the only thing that stopped me from getting my head removed. Sparks flew as our swords slammed together. Multiple swords glowed, and I backed up, blocking blow after blow with everything I had.
“Behind you!” Jinx screamed, and I threw myself to the side as I remembered what was chasing me.
The ungodly was unable to change its trajectory and slammed into the infected, pincers slashing.
Not good.
My stomach tightened with horror.
Ungodly exploded out of the downed bodies, and I was surrounded by slashing pincers and screeches.
For a second, the world slowed.
The analytical side of my brain took over.
I could hear my heart pounding through my veins; I could feel every ridge of the metal hilt in my fingers.
There were two possibilities: (1) I could let them tear me apart (chances were high that they wouldn’t know to eat my heart and I would wake up after the battle was over), or (2) I could fight with the goal of creating an opening and running away from the group.
Enchanted smoke filled my lungs, and I rolled my pipe with my tongue.
Even if I survived, the oversized ungodly would still pose a threat to the men.
A pincer swung toward me. I sliced it off.
I made my choice.
My thoughts went blank, and I fought desperately, blue swinging in an unfollowable blur as pieces of ungodly rained down. I tried to create a path for myself.
For each one I downed, another seemed to appear.
The shadow of the oversized ungodly loomed behind the fray like he was waiting for me to tire.
He was smarter than the rest.
But I also wasn’t stupid.
Mind blank with concentration, I barely processed the vibration that shook the stone beneath my feet.
There was a bone-chilling roar.
Something immense slammed against me. My head cracked against the wall, and I fell, slumping against the stone.
I braced myself for the attack.
A furry body moved, and I squinted in the dark.
Ungodly shrieked as they were slaughtered, and razor-sharp claws glinted as they sliced mercilessly.
Groggily, I rubbed at my eyes as I tried to push the confusion from my brain.
“Stand up!” Jinx’s voice was fuzzy and barely audible. “S—protect—you. Find—sword. Do—now!”
Head aching, vision spinning, I crawled through the debris toward the blue glow.
I reached toward a sword.
My fingers…just…barely…wrapped around metal. A wall of muscle and fur slammed against me.
Everything went silent.
In slow motion, as if I was merely spectating, I sailed through a brick wall, and my teeth chattered against my pipe.
A white-and-black, striped creature flew through the air with me. Razor-sharp claws were bright pink and decorated with rhinestones. It had twin fangs longer than my arm.
Moisture blurred my vision.
Sadie had heard me.
Against all odds, she’d heard my call for help.
The ceiling where we’d stood fell down on the ungodly, and the corridor disappeared in a pile of rubble.
My body turning midair like a rag doll, my eyes widened as I saw what we were flying toward: A vacuum of swirling energy.
A portal.
This can’t be good.
We slipped through time and space and kept falling.
Sadie turned midair and cushioned me.
We slammed into concrete.
Time lost all meaning as we lay in a pile of bruises and broken bones. Everything was silent. It was almost peaceful—until it wasn’t. The saber-toothed tiger cushioning me shifted back into a scrawny woman.
The world snapped, and sounds rushed back into my ears.
Fear mixed with adrenaline, and I stumbled to my feet. I stood in front of Sadie’s naked body.
The room spun, my vision blurred, and my hips ached with throbbing pain as I pointed my sword forward protectively.
Blue glowed all around.
I blinked furiously to clear my vision.
A rock pinched the side of my mouth, so I pulled out my pipe and spit it into my palm. It was my tooth.
I shoved my pipe back between my lips and inhaled smoke desperately as my eyes slowly focused.
We were in a sprawling brick room.
The temperature was unbearably warm, and my clothes were suffocatingly heavy. I broke out in a sweat.
The walls were covered in pictures. Flame sconces provided the only source of light. The ceiling towered high above and was at least thirty feet tall. There were no windows or doors.
On the far wall, an expansive tartan hung off the ceiling and showed the locations of the mountains, valleys, and infested settlements within the realm.
It was a map.
In the far north, next to the third battle location, large red Xs were once again laid out across the mountain range near the valley. I squinted. At the bottom corner of the map, there was a key that said “X - villages.”
My stomach pitted with unease, because even if we were successful in clearing the last compound, there was likely still more infected.
The war wasn’t done.
I exhaled with shock, a puff of smoke curling from my lips as I took in the rest of the room.
I stared forward numbly.
A hundred or so people stood before me, most of whom had enchanted swords hanging off their hips.
My brain processed anomalies: there didn’t seem to be any bathrooms, and there weren’t signs of food, but the room didn’t stink of waste, and the people weren’t starving.
The portal swirled in the center of the towering ceiling.
A rushing sound filled my ears.
I backed up slowly. We were lucky we’d fallen near the corner of the room so we had protection at our backs.
That was where our luck ended.
In the dim lighting, the crowd of people’s eyes glowed with a familiar, vibrant green sheen.
The nearest infected were about ten feet away.
They stared at us.
I crouched low, stance wide and protective. No one was going to hurt Sadie. Not on my watch.
Chapter 52
Jinx
SURVIVAL