Fire erupted from my hands and seared into the leg I held. Pride screeched as he pummeled my face and shoulders while the fire spread up his leg toward his torso. It was nearly to his chest when he pulled the knife at his side free.
Panic made him stronger, and jerking his leg free, he kicked me under my chin; my head shot back. I started to roll to the side as, still on fire, Pride lunged at me. His blade pierced through skin and bone before embedding in my heart.
The organ gave a stuttering beat as it tried to pump around the metal embedded within it while blood gushed free. Each beat caused blood to pour through my body like water springing free of a hole. It spread throughout me as the knife kept the hole in me plugged.
I didn’t require my heart to survive, but weakness seeped into my body. It wasn’t lethal, but the injury would slow me. My flames sputtered and then surged back to life as Pride twisted the knife deeper.
Chapter Forty-Four
Bale
I clawedat the demon’s face before battering its stomach; it was like hitting solid rock. My lungs burned from lack of air, but I refused to wheeze or make a sound. I was sure my face was turning red, and there was nothing I could do about that, but I wouldn’t give this thing the satisfaction of making a sound.
The demon grinned at me as he pushed his thumb up and under my chin. Flesh and muscles stretched more than I ever believed they could, and I realized he intended to tear off my head.
I lost my sword when this asshole tackled me; my hand fumbled through the snow as I searched for it. My numb fingers brushed against something metal, and I closed my hand around it. Lifting my sword, I twisted it in my grasp and drove it through the demon’s ribs until it burst out the other side.
The demon howled, its body bowed, and its hands eased their grip on my throat. I knocked its hands aside as talons broke through its neck. Its head lifted back, and Corson sliced to the side, severing the craeton’s head from its shoulders.
Its heavy body collapsed on me as its powerful hands released my throat. Shoving against its body, I pushed it away from me and tossed it into the snow. I wheezed air into my lungs as my hand flew to my brutalized throat.
“Are you okay?” Corson demanded as Wren arrived at his side.
“Yes,” I choked out. “Thank you.”
His talons retracted as he held his remaining hand out to me. I clasped it, and he pulled me from the snow. I yanked my sword free of the craeton and rested the bloody tip in the snow while I searched for Wrath.
My heart plummeted when I saw him and Pride fighting in the snow. Flames engulfed Pride as he twisted his knife further into Wrath’s chest.
“No!” I gasped and lunged forward.
Before I could get too far, Corson grabbed my arm and pulled me back as he pointed to the right. It was then I saw Death coming toward us. His skull remained on top of his head, but I recalled what it was like to see it tucked under his elbow as he carried it.
The putrid thing, with eyes the blue-green color of rotting flesh and bones sticking out from beneath his clothes, was focused entirely onme. When the wind kicked up a wave of snow, the red orbs of his horse’s eyes burned like hot coals through the white swirling around them. For a moment, the only thing visible were those two red eyes, and then Death reappeared.
The ground rumbled again, and a fissure raced across the earth toward Death. Snow fell into the gaping hole Shax created in front of the horseman, but his horse’s hooves continued to move as if it were walking on the earth while it floated over the chasm. When they hit solid ground again, they continued relentlessly forward.
Without knowing how powerful he was, none of us dared to get too close to him. Across the way, Raphael changed his stance to focus on Death. Corson, Wren, and I backed steadily away from the approaching figure as a golden-white glow came to life at the ends of Raphael’s hands. Just as he unleashed the bolt of life, Death kicked free of his mount and landed in the snow.
The lifeforce Raphael created slammed into the side of the horse. It exploded into ashes that billowed through the air as the wind whipped up snow again. Unrelenting, Death continued toward us.
Raphael was getting another ball of energy ready to release when Death’s horse suddenly materialized at his side again. It looked identical to the mount Raphael destroyed, and it kept itself firmly planted between Death and Raphael.
“Shit,” Corson muttered.
We retreated as we attempted to leave at least fifty feet between Death and us, but the craetons were closing in, and they still greatly outnumbered us. Hawk and Aisling, along with Magnus and Amalia, fell back to join us. Caim, Fiora, and Shax were cut off from us by the hole in the earth, the hounds were still destroying craetons, but a couple of their bodies littered the ground, and I still hadn’t seen Lix reappear.
“The rest of you should get away from me,” I said. “It’s me he wants.”
“It’sallof us he wants,” Corson said.
Raphael took to the air to get a better angle at Death, but the horseman was undeterred by the golden angel’s flight.
Because he’s almost close enough to kill us,I realized as more craetons ringed us.
* * *
Wrath
