The Bound (Ascension #2)(5)

She bent down to wake them, but movement in the clearing held her still. The beasts were on the move. A low growl signified that one was dangerously close to her. She watched them fan out in a circle. Cyrene had never seen anything like it, and their behavior made her skin crawl.

When she turned back to check on Maelia and Ahlvie, a giant monster stood over them. Spit dripped from one vicious fang, as it was ready to devour its meal. It opened its powerful jaw, prepared to attack.

“Maelia!” Cyrene screamed in warning.

Her friend woke instantly, released her blade from its scabbard, and blocked the beast with such elegance that no one would have guessed she had just been asleep. Ahlvie scrambled out of his bedroll and reached for his weapon.

But the monster was already engaged with Maelia, and it growled its fury at being parted from its meal. Ahlvie tried to divert its attention, but the beast lunged for Maelia. She parried its blows, match for match. Her moves were graceful and precise but fiercely deadly. She ducked and rolled, lashing out at the tough fur, and she fended off the jaw that meant to crush her. She was panting from exhaustion when she finally landed an impressive killing strike. The monster fell to the ground in a pool of putrid black blood.

Ahlvie gagged at the sight of the dead animal. “What the hell was that?”

“I don’t know,” Maelia answered. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“There are at least five others,” Cyrene told them.

“Five?” Maelia gasped.

Ahlvie shook his head in disbelief and then assessed the body. His nose wrinkled as he poked the beast. “It almost looks like—”

“A wolf,” Maelia finished.

Cyrene shook her head. “Worse. They feel wrong.”

“Really wrong,” Ahlvie agreed. “We need to get out of here.”

“Now,” Cyrene said.

Maelia assessed the situation and then nodded. “Let’s get the horses and make a run for it. We can’t kill five more without backup.”

“The only backup in these woods are the blasted guards,” Ahlvie spat.

Maelia sharply eyed him. She seemed to be in her element. “They might be our only choice.”

Get caught by Byern guards, or get killed by monsters in the woods?

They didn’t have to make that decision because, at that moment, another creature appeared. Making its way toward Cyrene, it pounced. She screamed in terror, and on instinct, she raised her sword to meet the creature. Miraculously, the blade bit into the beast’s flesh. She gave it a thrust with all her might, and it drove through the creature, up to the hilt. Black blood gushed out of the dead animal. It smelled horrid as it covered her arms and coated her dress. The beast landed heavily, nearly on top of her, and Ahlvie shoved it aside to release her from its grip. She scrambled to her feet. Her hands were shaking as she tried to yank the blade out of the beast. When she had no luck, Ahlvie put his foot on the beast’s side and wrenched the blade free, handing it back to Cyrene.

Two more beasts appeared. Maelia and Ahlvie were a murderous lot, fighting off the two that had come at them, but nothing they did seemed to dissuade the monsters. They couldn’t keep this up, and the monsters knew it.

Cyrene rose to her feet and took a deep breath. Okay, I can do this. She could make her powers bend to her will. No matter how much time she spent reading the insufferable book or trying to make her powers emerge like they had when she killed the Braj, they had refused to budge. But this was life or death. They had to work this time.

Closing her eyes, she tried to remember what the book had said. She reached deep within herself, to the core of her magic. There, it supposedly lay dormant and untouched, ready to do her bidding. The faintest trickles, like the flutter of a butterfly’s wings, brushed against her. She tried to hold on to it, to do anything to help her friends, but it was like grasping at thin air. She released her breath in a loud gasp.

She could have torn apart the enemy with her anger at her own ineptitude. Just as she went to reach within herself again, a fang bit into her arm.

She went down hard on her knees. Her sword clattered to the ground at her feet, and fire seared her flesh. She couldn’t bite back her piercing shriek. Maelia broke from Ahlvie’s side and sliced through the beast that had attacked Cyrene. The thing dropped with a shuddering cry next to Maelia.

Cyrene’s arm was on fire. It felt like poison burning its way through her soft flesh, and she worried that the monster’s teeth carried venom, like the tip of a Braj’s blade. She shuddered at the thought, but she couldn’t do anything at the moment. Escape first, and assess my wounds later.

Maelia and Ahlvie hauled her to her feet, Ahlvie scooped up her sword and replaced it in its scabbard, and the pair ushered her toward the horses. Cyrene found her stride and started forward at a brisk run, leaving the dead beast behind them. They almost made it to the horses when nearly a dozen creatures attacked.

By the Creator! What can we do against a dozen when we barely survived three?

“Get the horses,” Ahlvie barked as he and Maelia engaged the first.

“I won’t leave you!” Cyrene yelled.

“Go!” he screamed.

“Ahlvie!”

“Go!”

He shoved her in that direction, and she wouldn’t gainsay his honor by denying him.

And so, she took off at a sprint. She had little hope that she could make it to Ceffy or that the horses would outpace these creatures. But she had to try.