I refused to die here.
A calamut’s limb slammed into the ground only centimeters away from me. Debris sprayed up from the earth and plastered my face and arms. The branch was so close it sliced down my arm, rent my flesh, and spilled my blood across the forest floor. I darted to the side as another limb lashed out in a blow that would have bashed in my head if I’d been a fraction of a second slower.
Dirt and rocks pounded against me as more and more limbs hammered the forest floor. I dashed in and out in a zigzagging path that confused the calamuts but also had me doubling back more than I would have liked. Behind me, the enthusiastic, guttural cries of the nuckals propelled me to faster speeds.
I caught a glimpse of the land beyond the forest; my heart soared as my legs sprinted toward freedom. Fifty feet… thirty… twenty-five…. My breath rushed in and out of my burning lungs and sounded like a windstorm in my ears.
Twenty….
Half a dozen branches crashed into the ground a foot in front of me. I skidded to a halt as rocks and dirt showered my face, but I couldn’t stop myself from crashing into the trees. I bounced off them and almost fell, but I somehow managed to catch my balance as I stumbled back.
Something warm trickled down my cheek; one of the branches had cut me. I lifted my hand to my face and wiped away the blood as I studied the limbs blocking the freedom only fifteen feet away from me.
They were screwing with me. They’d let me get this close to freedom only to snatch it away because they were playing with me. Tree nymphs died tonight, and they would make everyone pay for that.
Chapter Fourteen
Bale
I backedaway from the trees as I tried to figure out a plan. They would keep blocking my escape, but I wasn’t going to give up. I wouldnotdie in this forest.
Darting to the side, I swung my sword at a branch slithering toward me. The sword deflected that branch, but another one whipped against my ribs. The air exploded from my lungs as the blow staggered me back.
I didn’t dare press a hand against my ribs; the action would slow me down, and I couldn’t let the calamuts or nuckals know I was wounded enough to react. They would pounce on me like the hounds on meat.
“Bale! Where are you?” Corson shouted from somewhere in the woods, but I’d lost him and Wren.
“Keep going!” I yelled and winced when the motion caused a needle to jab into my chest.
When more branches came at me, I viciously swung my sword at them. If I didn’t make it out of here, I was going to inflict as much damage as I could on these things before I died.
I deflected more branches, but one snaked around and caught me in the back of the knee. My leg buckled. I stopped myself from collapsing by planting the tip of my sword in the ground, but that allowed them to come at me harder.
I threw myself back and rolled to the side as a branch slapped across my back. I didn’t think I’d ever catch my breath again, but I couldn’t stop moving to try. If I stopped for a fraction of a second, they would destroy me.
Leaping back to my feet, I spun in a circle meant to confuse the calamuts. It succeeded as a new row of branches shot straight past me. And then I was running again, except this time, I had no idea which way I was going.
Before, I was sure I was heading out of the woods. Now, I didn’t know if I was going toward the school, heading out of the woods, or deeper into the forest. If I was running deeper into the woods, then I was as good as dead, but I couldn’t stop.
From the corner of my eye, I spotted a nuckal racing toward me. Its hooves pounded across the ground, and the excitement emanating from the monster rippled across my skin. I hated Lucifer and the fallen angels, but that hatred was nothing compared to myloathingof these bastards.
The increased vibration of the ground from the irate calamuts and the ravenous nuckals made it difficult to keep my footing as the earth quaked like it was going to come apart. Normally, I never faltered in my step, but now I tripped over a tree branch and crashed into the trunk of a calamut that responded by whipping a limb at my head.
I leapt over another tree branch, sliced through three more, and turned in time to sever the head of the horse from a nuckal. The blood spraying my face blinded me, but somehow it didn’t add to the confusion. Instead, a strange sense of peace settled over me.
Thiswas what I was born to do. My parents were fighters, and their parents before them. I’d been fighting since I could hold a sword, which my father put in my hands when I was three. That sword was as much a part of me as my hand, and I would get it back from Wrath.
The nuckal’s claws scoured the earth as the rider dragged itself and the body of its headless mount toward me. I shut out the awful sounds of the beast and the booms of the trees as they crashed into the earth.
A stillness settled around me. I no longer heard my labored breathing or the riotous beat of my heart. A pathway through it all unfolded before me, and I took it.
Running toward the nuckal, I leapt into the air and swung my sword down to sever the rider’s head. It thumped across the earth before settling against the trunk of a calamut. I ran at the nuckals barreling toward me and threw myself to the ground. Rolling, I used my blade to sever the legs from some of their mounts.
Blood sprayed me and screams echoed through the night, but I was already up and running as the nuckals hit the ground. Then, something hit me in the back of the head. Stars burst before my eyes, blood sprayed from my mouth, and I flew forward.
I hit the ground and spit dirt from my mouth as I lifted my ringing head. Every beat of my heart caused my head to hammer with the rush of blood. A branch whipped above me, the same one that I assumed bashed me.
My head felt like one of the nuckals was digging its claws into the back of my skull, piercing deeper and peeling away flesh.
