Chapter Forty
Bale
Fresh, cooler air caressed my skin when I stepped into the cave and took a deep breath. I had only a second to enjoy my relief over the minotaur’s death and the destruction of the labyrinth before the reverberating sound of hoofbeats filled my ears.
My eyes flew open, and I lifted my sword as I leapt away from the wall. I glimpsed a scarlet horse before it hit me in the chest, lifted me off the ground, and carried me into the cave. When I punched the horse’s face, it captured my arm and flung me into the flames.
I soared twenty feet through the air before I crashed onto the ground. My lungs seized as air flooded out of them, and none returned. Knocked from my hand, my sword clattered against the rocky terrain as it bounced a few feet away from me. My fingers clawed at the ground as I tried to grasp the handle while my lungs still screamed for air.
A fiery wave of heat filled my lungs as I finally breathed in what little oxygen there was in the inferno. The approach of hoofbeats had me rolling to the side in time to avoid the hooves that would have trampled me.
As the beast and rider disappeared into the flames, I glimpsed broad shoulders and a sword strapped to the rider’s back.
Wrath!I realized when mind-numbing rage coursed through my veins. I didn’t know how I knew it was Wrath and not War, but I felt the identity of this rider deep in my bones.
Kill him! Kill him! Kill! Kill! Kill!
I rested my hand against my forehead as I tried to regain some control over the rage pulsing in my temples while I struggled to recall whose head I wanted to chop off.
It’s Wrath; you want to kill Wrath!
My breath hissed in through my teeth as I pushed myself to my feet and staggered over to reclaim my sword. The familiar weight of it in my hand helped steady me further as I searched the flames for the rider.
Through the fire, I spotted Wrath turning and charging back toward me. The flames licked at the sides of his legs and horse, but neither of them caught fire.
This bastard’s immune to the inferno.
Lifting my sword, I braced my legs apart as I waited for them to draw closer before dropping suddenly. When I acted like I planned to take out the horse’s legs, Wrath jerked up on his reins to steer the horse away, but at the last second, I leapt up and plunged my sword into his thigh.
He grunted as he clutched his leg, but keeping hold of my sword, I jerked it to the side and yanked him from his steed. As Wrath hit the ground, he wrenched his leg back to free it from my blade. I went to plunge my sword into his heart, but it crashed into stone as he rolled into the fire.
I shifted my hold on my sword and lifted it above my shoulder as I searched for him in the inferno. The second he reemerged, I was going to use every ounce of the fury he’d created to chop his head off.
The ring of hooves against rock turned my head as the red horse came back at me. At first, I thought the flames got the best of the beast and it was on fire, and then I realized itwasfire. Either it possessed the ability to make the inferno encompass it, or it could make flames sprout from its body.
“Shit,” I whispered.
Shifting my stance, I prepared to take the beast out, but before I could chop off its head, something hit me in the side. I somehow managed to retain my weapon as I was thrown to the ground.
Twisting beneath the weight of whatever was on top of me, I found myself gazing into a set of red and orange eyes that looked like they mirrored the inferno. But as they searched my face, I realized thatwasthe color of Wrath’s eyes.
Despite my hatred for this bastard and his kind, a sense of awe stole through me. He was a magnificent, lethal, killing machine. And if I didn’t stop staring into those eyes, I was going to be his next kill.
Pulling my arm back, I hammered my left fist into his face and smiled when I felt his cheekbone give beneath the blow. The red in his eyes blazed hotter, but before he could punish me for what I’d done, I lifted my knees and somehow managed to wedge my feet between us.
He scrambled to hold on to me but failed to do so as I put all my strength behind my legs and shoved him away from me. He flew backward and disappeared into the inferno. I didn’t kid myself into thinking it was over; he’d be back soon. Rolling over, I searched for his horse but didn’t see it anywhere. That beast was as lethal as its rider, maybe more so.
Through the flames, the opening of the cave beckoned me, but I couldn’t leave here without destroying this monster. I’d cut off his head and stick it on my sword to show to his friends.
Rising, I gripped my sword with both hands and stalked a few feet into the fire. I couldn’t go too far, or I’d allow him to slip up behind me, so I stayed close enough to see the exit. Motion to my left caused me to turn in that direction. I blinked as flames rolled within flames to create a spinning ball of fire.
It can’t be…
And then the flames parted.
No… that wasn’t right. The flames didn’t part; they coalesced into a figure.
A figure that was coming straight at me. I barely managed to keep from croaking out a holy shit as I saw that, like his steed, Wrath could become fire too.
