Demon Untamed (41 page)

Sebastian’s feet beat against the ground, his hand locked with Anya’s as he pulled her along. “If it gives us the advantage, then I’m all for it. Lead the way, Ethan.”

Moments later, they paused just before the edge of the rocky cliff to face their attackers. The cliff was nothing more than an oddly shaped but massive rock that narrowed and then billowed out before dropping off. Perfect for forcing their enemies in a tight bottle-neck and slowing their progress.

From this point, the sky was wide open and Ethan ascertained the battle in its entirety. Ships from both sides sliced through the sky, targeting each other. Many were spewing fire and flames even as they continued their assault. He realized many of the sounds he’d assumed were bombs had been ships ripped from the sky and crashing destructively to the ground, taking out a field of ancient trees.

The city that surrounded the palace in the valley below was in clear view. Ethan’s gaze became transfixed; many of his people raced through the cobblestone streets, engaging in battle. Kayadon attacked with fervor, displaying no pity for their physically smaller opponents.

Well-established fires spewed black smoke from most of the buildings, making Ethan wonder if the battle had started long before he and the others were aware.

Grueling doubt scattered his mind.

Were they too late? Had they made a wrong move? Was the rebellion to be squashed even before it began?

The smell of ash coated his nostrils, punctuating his troubled thoughts.

Struggling against his distress, Ethan focused on the approaching Kayadon. He would not stop fighting until he sucked in his last breath. If this was to be the end, it would be an end to remember.

Rex, Sebastian, and Marik took the foremost positions, garnering first shot at the fiends. All the demons, including Sonya, were fiercely on the Edge, their eyes gleaming with bloodlust, horns burning brighter than the flames spreading over the forest.

Nadua pulled back toward the edge of the cliff, using her arrows on the oncoming army. Anya stood by her side, nervously clutching her sword in case she needed to use it.

Sonya planted herself as Anya and Nadua’s fearsome defender, rapidly felling the Kayadon’s creatures with her gun.

Ethan raised his own gun and proceeded to take out their gaunt faced foes while Tristan joined the demons on the front line.

Soon enough, the Kayadon were climbing over bodies of their own kind to get to them. As far as Ethan could see, Kayadon poured from the thick forest, so many, they were uncountable.

When despair threatened to choke the air from Ethan’s lungs, Tristan sounded a triumphant cry. Ethan turned to see several crafts dotting the sky, approaching. When he looked again, he realized they were not crafts at all, but dragons.

Diving toward the sea of Kayadon, the procession unleashed a long stream of boiling fire. Some of the dragons arched back into the sky to engage an enemy ship heading their way. As a well-organized group, they clung to the hull, their claws ripping through metal as though it were as thin as a sheet of parchment. 

Two dragons broke off from the group and sailed overhead. Hot air blasted over Ethan as the great beasts flapped their massive wings to slow their progress, looking ready to land. Preternatural magic sizzled in the air, and the dragons transformed just feet off the ground, landing softly on two legs near Tristan.

King Mar and his eldest son rose to their full warrior height, greeting their kin with a nod as they unsheathed thick blades. Ethan burned to know what had initiated the attack, but that conversation would have to wait. Kayadon surged forward, managing to push them all back a few steps.

“Come on!” Sonya ground out encouragement to her group as she fired into the deluge.

The battle seemed endless. Both the Kayadon and their pets appeared to multiply each time she took one down. Even through the fog of her Edge-drenched mind, she understood that they couldn’t go on like this. Their enemy’s numbers were too great. Eventually the Kayadon would breach the line and tear them to shreds.

A flurry of impossible movement drew her gun to the right. “By the gods, Portia! I nearly took your head off!”

Portia merely smiled. “Brought you a present!”

Sonya glanced at Portia’s feet, where three bodies huddled, clutching their stomachs and dry heaving.

“Cale!” Sonya’s chest thudded with relief. Kyra crouched next to him, an odd expression on her face. “What’s wrong with them?” Sonya asked Portia.

“Side effect of astral dimensional navigation. They’ll be fine in a minute.”

Kyra and Cale began to rise unsteadily, yet the third body remained on the ground. It took Sonya a moment to rationalize that it was a Kayadon restrained around the torso by thick vines.

Behind Portia stood two individuals Sonya had never seen before. The dark skinned female draped in black exuded a deadly aura by way of her deadpan stare. The male, much like Portia, appeared uncaring about the war waging around him.

“Aren’t you going to help?” Sonya inquired curtly.

“We’re forbidden to engage in battle,” the female replied, her tone almost bare of emotion but for the coldness in it.

Incredulous, Sonya gaped at Portia.

Portia shrugged. “It’s true. The counsel has denied my request in that regard. But I’ve devised a workaround. We’re stirring up some big magic that should offer solid protection. Try not to die till then.”

Together, the Serakians vanished.

Sneering back at the battle, Sonya squeezed off another round of shots.

From her peripheral vision, she saw Cale clutching Kyra, trying to talk to her. Kyra’s eyes were wide as she surveyed the carnage. Cale tried to claim her attention, lightly shaking her. He kept asking if she was alright. She wouldn’t be if the Kayadon broke through.

“Cale, we need you,” Sonya yelled over the clatter while taking out one of the two ravenous creatures that had scrambled past Rex. Ethan dispatched the other. She cast him a hooded look, loving the crooked smile he shot back.

Finally, Kyra seemed to come to her senses, and Cale left her side to add his hefty might to the battle. As he retrieved a dead Kayadon’s fallen sword, he instructed Ethan to join Kyra and the Faieara farther out on the cliff.

Sonya frowned, but didn’t have time to protest. A feral beast had wrapped its jaws around Sebastian’s leg. Sonya stepped forward and blasted it through the neck. Sebastian shook it off and then grated a quick, “Thanks,” before slicing into the chest of his closest opponent.

Once again, the Kayadon gained ground, pushing Sebastian and the others back till they were all fanned out in a line of gunshot blasts and swinging blades.

Cale yelled back to the group, “Kyra! What’s the holdup?”

That piqued Sonya’s curiosity, but she didn’t have time to inquire what they were up to. Two gnarled creatures leapt on Cale. The first sank its fangs into his shoulder, clinging to him with lengthy limbs. The other came for his jugular. Sonya adjusted her aim and fired, bursting the skull of the latter. 

“Cale, get it together!” she said. Then she swung around and dispatched a group of Kayadon as they lunged at Marik.

Cale snapped the neck of the creature attached to his shoulder. “You get it together! That shot was a little too close to my head.”

Sonya laughed.

“What are they doing back there?” Cale asked.

She glanced at the Faieara. They were poised in a circle, hands clasped, eyes closed. “They’re holding hands. Maybe they’re praying for a quick death.”

As if feeling her gaze on him, Ethan glanced her way. Something in his expression gave her understanding. Whatever they were doing, magic was most definitely involved, and might even be the only thing to save them when exhaustion finally overpowered their resolve. They just had to hold the Kayadon back till then.

Sonya turned with renewed energy and a fierce determination to do just that. She squeezed the trigger of her gun so much her fingers were starting to go numb.

Without warning, a heavy blast smashed into her back, throwing her forward.
A bomb
, her mind quickly rationalized, even before her body settled from the jarring hit.

Oh gods! Ethan!

She rolled to a stop and heaved her torso off the gravel, her eyes landing in the spot she had last seen him. In his stead, a blinding light engulfed the entire edge of the cliff.

“What the hell is that?” Marik barked from right next to her on the ground. Everyone gasped for breath, pulling themselves to stand. Sonya dared a look behind her, finding the Kayadon just as stunned, yet recovering just as quickly.

Sebastian noticed the bound Kayadon that had been delivered alongside Cale and Kyra.

Cale ground out, “That one belongs to Kyra.”

As what? A pet?

Sonya and Marik shared a look. Then Marik started for the odd light imitating from the Faieara. Sonya took a step to follow.

Cale motioned them back. “I don’t suggest getting too close to that.”

Whatever was happening, he didn’t seem worried, which eased Sonya since his own female was lost in the light.

Sonya turned to fend off the Kayadon, expecting them to take full advantage of the confusion. Yet nearly all of them were motionless, shocked expressions tilted to the sky.

Sonya looked up and sucked in a harsh gasp. “By the gods,” she muttered.

A translucent blanket wrapped over the sky above, stretching out and pouring down like water over an upside-down bowl. An array of electric-like veins writhed, morphing from blue to white and back. She couldn’t tell if it met the ground or just went on forever.

Her lungs suddenly felt heavy. She fought for breath, fending off a full-blown panic.

The Kayadon seemed equally disconcerted, some of them retreating entirely while others remained transfixed.

“What’s going on?” Sonya managed, glancing at Cale.

His lost expression was not comforting. He shrugged. “This is new.”

Chapter 35

Ethan clasped hands with Anya and Nadua as Kyra completed the circle. Almost instantly, he could feel their prospective powers tingle through his skin. Rituals such as this worked to intensify the magic of a chosen individual. Each of them would be sifting their energy into Kyra, hoping to merge their gifts as one.

The moment Kyra had suggested it, the king’s words had echoed in Ethan’s head. “Restore, enhance, sacrifice, sustain. This you must do.” Ethan had looked around, expecting to see the king’s phantom form watching over them, but all he found was unending carnage as his world delved deeper into chaos.

Was this the moment the king had spoken of? Was something in his actions now imperative? He couldn’t help but focus on the suspicion that had haunted him for ages.

Sacrifice?

Using magic extensively, pushing too hard, could harm the yielder beyond repair. This circle could overexert one or more of the princesses, essentially risking their well-being, or worse, their lives—especially because they were still considered novices by normal standards.

With his advanced experience, he could spare them the consequences of what was to come—what they probably didn’t even know to expect—and enhance Kyra’s magic. But to do that, he would have to deflect the repercussions onto himself. A harrowing—as well as dangerous—task for even the most powerful of his kind.

Could he risk himself like that? Sacrifice himself so that others could possibly live?

He would have liked to say it was the desire to save his people that made up his mind. After all, it was all he’d ever worked for. But when he imagined Sonya dying at the hands of her greatest enemy, the decision was easy to accept. 

He turned to take one last look at her and found himself trapped by her gaze. The concern that transformed her expression broke his heart. In that second, he knew without a doubt that she loved him. He cherished the realization, claiming it as his greatest success. He would hold onto the thought with his last breath, and then, if it came to that, beyond.

He consoled himself with the knowledge that he would be giving her a chance at survival, and was oddly grateful that she had not mated him. There was a chance she would be gifted with new love…if the gods were merciful. 

He closed his eyes and opened his magic to Kyra. He sensed Anya and Nadua do the same. Then he manipulated the circle to take the magical recoil.

When the pain started like fire in his veins, Ethan pictured Sonya’s beautiful violet eyes, her begrudging smile every time he’d managed to force it from her. He imagined her soft skin relenting under his touch and her sexy moans in his ear when they lost themselves in the other’s body. He called on every memory they had created together and would use them as a distraction when the energy became too great for his mind to comprehend.

His magic flared, gouging into his energy. He struggled to sustain his efforts. Sustain the circle and the power flowing through it. He could tell Kyra was making progress, taking control of her volatile magic as if wrestling with a feral beast and winning, and then latching onto theirs to feed it.