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“A thousand curses on Ahone’s head.” She spat again.
A glob of a spit landed on the homeless man’s arm and sizzled. Smoke rose from the spot and he screamed.
Her eyes narrowed with hatred. “Soon he will pay for his transgressions.”
So if they weren’t working for either of the gods, whowerethey working for and why were they here now?
The only way to defeat them was to take the offensive. I stood at the corner of the doorway, the homeless man shrieking in pain behind me. He grabbed at the hem of my shirt, pulling me backward.
“Help me!” he screamed.
Collin was a good fifteen feet away from me now, with the male Raven Mocker circling around and separating us. Collin’s gaze shifted from the male Mocker to the female one and then to me, his eyes flying open in horror as I fought to untangle myself from the homeless man’s grasp. I jerked free and moved several feet to the side, but the injured man fell face-first on the street.
The old woman took advantage of my distraction and rushed toward us, clawing the man’s back. The angle was wrong—her side was to me—but maybe an injury would slow her down. I grabbed the sword with both hands and lifted it like a bat, swinging with all my strength and embedding the blade into her back.
She shrieked and bolted upright, nearly pulling the weapon from my grasp. “You will pay for that, Curse Keeper.” Thick, black blood spilled onto the pavement as I wrenched my weapon free.
Collin’s face hardened as he glanced from me to the Raven Mockers, the homeless man still screaming in pain. Fear and anger filled his eyes as he ran between the demons and then turned to face me, lifting his palm. The mark on his hand began to glow.
“I am the son of the earth.”
The wind howled and a pinpoint vortex appeared.
“No, Collin!” I shouted above the gusts. “Let me destroy them!”
The old man’s face contorted in anger, and he ran toward me, lashing out as a bird’s scream came out of his mouth. I held the sword in front of me with both hands and planted my feet, bracing myself. It was a risky move. Even if I dealt a killing blow, there was a strong likelihood he’d be able to claw me before he succumbed.
“…born of space and heaven.” Collin’s firm voice boomed through the open space and my head.
The vortex widened and the suction increased. The old man was struggling to reach me while the old woman turned her attention to Collin. I decided to take the offensive and surged forward, sinking the sword deep into his chest. But even as I pushed the blade in with the continued momentum of my lunge, I knew it was too low. I had missed his heart. With the sword embedded in his chest, I was close enough for him to wrap his arms around my back. His claws sunk deep into my shoulder blades. A maniacal laugh escaped his mouth, followed by a putrid odor. The scent and the pain overwhelmed my senses, and the edges of my vision turned black.
Who would save David if something happened to me?
“I am black earth and sandy loams…”
I could hear the panic in Collin’s voice. The pure terror in it registered as a sticky warmth coated my back, plastering my shirt to my skin and trickled down, seeping into the waistband of my pants. How I separated his voice from the chaos going on around me was a mystery. But somehow it gave me strength. I couldn’t leave him either.
The wind grew stronger. The monster still had his claws embedded in my back, and they sank deeper yet, digging into my muscles and dragging outward toward my sides. I gritted my teeth to keep from giving him the satisfaction of a scream. His feet began to slide, and I realized he was being pulled into the vortex.
And he planned on taking me with him.
“Don’t kill her,you fool!” the old woman shouted in anger. “The Great One needs her!”
“The mountain ranges and the rolling hills.” Collin’s voice faltered as he realized what was happening. The vortex shrank slightly, and the wind lessened.
Fighting to keep conscious despite my pain, I instinctively bent at the knees and forced the sword higher into the monster’s chest, then to my right.
The old man’s eyes widened, and he screamed before sinking his teeth into my shoulder. Then his body evaporated into a plume of black smoke.
I fell to my hands and knees, the sword tumbling from my hand and clattering onto the pavement. The old woman moved deliberately toward me, stopping only a few feet away from the screaming homeless man. He still lay on his stomach, his jacket ripped open, the muscles and skin of his back ripped into ribbons, blood covering his clothes and the street beneath him.
I realized my own back must look the same. Probably worse.
“I am the foundation of life and the receiver of death…”
The woman laughed, only it sounded like cackle. “So the Great One is right after all. You are a fighter.”
I looked up at her, my hair hanging in my face, my blood dripping into alarmingly large pools around me. “Go to fucking hell,” I snarled, trying to summon the strength to grab the sword and kill her, an unlikely act given the fact I was moments away from passing out from blood loss.
