AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Tenah circled the rift in unison with Aeyis. Vibrations from the energy tickled her skin, setting her nerves on edge.
Chaos purred with satisfaction.This. This is where we need to be.
Had she not injured herself to sever her ties with Chaos during the blood rite, she hated to think how big the rift would have grown.
Tenah stopped her pacing, spotting a stain of black ichor in the dirt. Blood from Corrupt. Whatever had been slaughtered here had been dragged off, thank Renix. She couldn’t stomach having to look at what she’d unleashed.
Take higher ground in case anything breaks through,Aeyis instructed, lifting a hand to touch the bottom of the rift. A dozen tendrils of black lightning sprang to meet his palm, sinking tiny hooks into his skin like leeches.You’ll need your concentration to seal it. We’ll handle the rest.
She rushed for the cathedral doors, eyeing the bell tower from which she could overlook the entire camp and sound off alerts to Aeyis and the crew if needed. There was no room for her errors today. She would keep them all safe.
Gireth made it to the cathedral door first and held it open for her. “Did I ever tell you about the time I detonated a sludge monster in training camp?”
Tenah shook her head, darting for the stuffy interior staircase off the entrance.
“Poisoned two dozen hunters,” Gireth continued, “including our chieftain. They were cleaning the goop out of their sinuses for weeks.”
A smile twitched on her lips. “Renton included?”
“Oh, he took the worst of it. Puked all over the battlegrounds. No one told me you had to cut off the beast’s head to keep its poison from spilling. I was more concerned about the eight tentacles.” He wiggled his arms around for emphasis, beaming under her attention.
“Is this some lame attempt to make me feel better about putting my entire isle in danger by choosing dark magic and opening a doorway for otherworldly enemies to pour in?”
Gireth shrugged. “Nah, just trying to make you laugh. Nothing’s funnier than making Renton uncomfortable.”
At the top of the bell tower, Tenah wiped the sweat from her forehead and leaned over the wooden railing. She picked out Renton standing next to her cousin, two seasoned fighters deep in strategic conversation.
“I don’t have a lick of magical talent, or I’d help.” Gireth sighed, laying out on the ground as if he might take a nap, a leg propped up and arms draped over his eyes.
Tenah drew in a deep breath, then she latched on to the fibers of the rift. She wasn’t exactly sure what to do with them. What did healing magic even feel like? She might as well smack her head against a rock a hundred times and hope for a result other than blood and pain. She tried to mimic her mother’s sense of calm, severing ties to distracting emotions and homing in on the thrum of rift magic.
Mend. Heal.
You defy us, little one. Allow us this doorway, and we will devour your enemies,Chaos rumbled.
Lies.
Tenah widened her stance, muscles burning with lactic acid. Too soon, she trembled from the effort of physically tugging the rift fibers back together. Dark magic buzzed through her channels like thousands of angry insects. Beads of sweat rolled down her neck, slipping beneath her damp shirt. Little curls of hair stuck to her slick temples.
The rift shivered in protest as it fought against her hold. Then Aeyis was applying Chaos to the sky’s wound too. She hated that she needed him. Always demanding more from others.Take. Take. Take.
Something’s coming through, Aeyis warned.
Tenah’s heart thumped harder.Not this soon.
She pulled harder on the rift threads. A tremor rolled down the length of it right before it split clean open where she’d been applying pressure. Corrupt tumbled out in a mottled heap of furious limbs, honed claws, and a haze of toxic magic.
Her fragile confidence shriveled as Vesara launched into the pack. The assassin buried knives into the eyes of two Corrupt before Renton and Hakkan joined her, their swords quickly coated in a black, oily sheen of tainted blood.
Gireth jerked to his feet, glaive spinning and hazel eyes ablaze with startling rage.
“Nothing escapes this camp,” Hakkan bellowed, flames jetting from his palm to eat away at the putrid bodies flooding out of the rift.
It was wrong to kill them. But what other choice did they have? It wasn’t like she had the skill to heal them. Even if she could, she was one shadow among an ocean of threats.
Weak. Worthless. Pathetic.
Cool magic trickled through her mind, silencing the chants of Chaos and the clang of weapons and the snarl of creatures that had once had dreams just like her.
