Rhyn's Redemption (Book III, Rhyn Trilogy)

Chapter Thirteen

Katie heard Deidre’s footsteps stop abruptly and turned around.  The woman was facing the opposite direction.

“Deidre, we should hurry,” she called.

“I hear something.”

Katie listened hard and soon heard it as well. It sounded like a herd of horses plowing through the jungle. 

“Demons,” Toby said. “We can take the trees, but sometimes they drop you.”

“Sounds like hundreds of them,” Deidre said, troubled.

“I told you there were – “

“Not now, Toby,” Katie said. “We need to get to safety, and I don’t have enough food to blow up the amount of trees it’ll take to stop a herd of demons.”

“Trees!” Toby yelled. “Hold onto them, Mama.”

Before Katie could respond, one of the nearby trees snatched her and flung her into the air.  She soared above the treetops and let out a cry when she started to fall.  A branch caught her and flung her back up.  She saw Deidre and Toby sailing through the air in a similar fashion.  The second branch almost missed her and snatched her around the leg before throwing her back up.

She gritted her teeth in pain and sucked in a breath as she started to fall again.  She glimpsed demons hovering a short distance away over an opening in the jungle.  They looked like massive, angry hornets before disappearing from her line of sight.  A branch grabbed her arm this time and threw her back over the treetops.  This time, she faced a different direction and saw a sprawling palace the size of a mall. They were closer than she thought.

Deidre screamed, and Katie twisted in midair.  The woman was tumbling towards the treetops.  Branches snatched at her and missed, and Deidre fell through the canopy to the jungle below.

“Toby!” Katie cried. “Toby, Deidre – “ A branch grabbed her around the chest, squeezing out the air in her lungs.  When she was sailing again, she looked around for Deidre and Toby.  The angel was soaring through the air, head over feet, but Deidre was nowhere to be seen.

Helpless until the trees finished flinging them around, Katie struggled to grab the branches, so she didn’t end up like Deidre.  Finally, a branch wrapped around her and pulled her through the canopy, dumping her at the edge of the jungle.  Toby landed with a grunt beside her, and she lay still to catch her breath, still hoping Deidre reappeared.

“Deidre’s okay,” Toby said.

“The trees got her?”

“More or less.”

Katie rolled onto her stomach, almost too tired to get up.  The sky and jungle were growing dark.  Through the bramble, she saw the marble palace.  Death’s palace.  Katie’s heart beat harder as she looked at her destination, not at all certain this was where she should’ve gone but not knowing where else to go.

The sound of the demons’ pursuit reached her again. She stood on wobbly legs and all but dragged Toby to his feet.

“Toby, come on.”

The angel found his footing and took her hand.  They raced through the last of the jungle and across the expanse of grassless yard between the jungle and the palace.  The sounds of demons grew louder.

Katie sought an entrance into the palatial estate, not seeing one along this side.  She ran alongside the marble structure.  It was well over quarter mile in length.  Toby pulled away from her suddenly, and she stopped so fast, she tripped.

“Dammit, Toby, come on!” she yelled.

He faced the jungle.  The trees were battling demons, but one then a few then a dozen of the creatures escaped the jungle’s grip to pursue.