BOOK THREE - promised series
Espheros is inhabited by more than just the human species. Shifters and Immortals walk the earth amongst them, hiding in the shadows.
There are some humans, however, who are very much aware of what moves through the dar...
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I managed to find my brothers, one after the other, on the other side of the gates. The battlefield had expanded, the more enemies came. Most of the hooded Immortals however were beyond the gates and only the new soldiers came from behind it. Reece was trying his best to keep them from crossing over, aided by Emmet. Their fur was soaked in blood. Reece's dark brown fur glistened red as the dawning sun hit it.
The furious, bloodshot, and crazed look in his eyes nearly made me back up, though it turned soft once he noticed that it was me and not an enemy approaching.
He's here, isn't he? Reece asked and with a heavy feeling for what was to come, I nodded silently.
Emmet should be over there, he said, nudging to his left, and albeit I followed his movement, too much was going on to pinpoint where Emmet was exactly.
Every piece of light brown fur I caught a glimpse of was drenched in red, barely distinguishable from the mass of shifters that tried hard to fend off anyone that attacked.
The lightning bolts continued to surge into the ground, thunder cracking through the sky, numbing not only my soul but my hearing. Everything was so loud. So incredibly loud.
And with one abrupt slap in the face, the world suddenly stopped.
It was as though the sun disappeared from the horizon; the land blanketed in a darkness that chilled me to the bones. A cold settled in then, the voices in my mind blaring so loud that I wondered if my ears would soon begin to bleed.
The voices stopped as soon as I saw shadows creep across the grassland, straight towards me, with a speed that felt both tantalizingly slow and incredibly fast. I lost all sense of time, suddenly no longer in touch with reality, as everything around me blurred in and out of focus, the only clear thing the shadows that slithered to me.
And although the fleeting thought of backing up crossed my mind, it was not enough to trigger a physical reaction, and so I remained rooted to the ground.
"I told you we would ssssee each other ssssssoon," a shrill voice hissed, drawing out every 's' like it was a snake.
Kintar's voice made my insides go cold with a captivating fear that made me want to disappear and crawl away, far away from his chilling presence.
"And asssss I sssaid before, your gift isssss nothing compared to what you're about to feel, little wilding."
His threat was barely spoken when an invisible fist punched straight into my gut, making me reel back and nearly fall. But, thanks to Feiran's training, my footing was good enough to keep me from losing balance easily. Though his punch came quite literally out of thin air, I felt that he would physically assault me. Just like I felt that it wouldn't end with the punch.
Bracing myself for it, I tried to rely solely on my gut.
Maybe this was exactly what Feiran had prepared me for. With Kintar, my senses, no matter how sharp, were worth nothing.
Kintar was a master of illusions, and it was quite likely that he was not physically here but projecting enough to make me think he was.
Closing my eyes and drawing out every ounce of concentration, I focused on my breathing. When my gut pushed to the right, my body followed, and his next blow hit the same air it was made of. His hollow laughter echoed in my ears.
"The little wildling sssseemsssss to have learned ssssince our lassst encounter," Kintar said, another sneering laugh reaching me.
The acknowledgement of my improvement and the way he voiced it made me feel like he continued not to take me seriously, underestimating my abilities.
I was counting on that, but pretended to cower behind the shadows, trying to seem fearful of what they would do to me.
Even if they would hurt me, Kintar wouldn't stop me unless he managed to kill me before I got the chance.
A smile with white, sharp teeth floated before me, closing in like a memory before my mind. The smile was framed by smoke, largening as it flew closer. I stepped back, trying to make myself small as it towered right in front of me.
It bellowed with laughter. "But sssstill ssso weak and naive," his voice hissed.
When a sharp pain sliced through my skin like butter, I winced and let myself fall to the ground, though it barely really hurt. Kintar's sneer sounded then, and another cut opened my skin, parting nearly my entire back. Though that definitely hurt, and my scream was real, it wouldn't slow me.
Pain would not slow me.
And then a brutal punch cracked my nose and both my jaws, shattering my facial bones into a million pieces. It reminded me of the punch he threw back in Everett Valley and the bruises my mother hadn't cared about...
The thought of my mother made my concentration waver and my heartbeat began to speed up.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
Not her.
She won't ruin this. Not now.
Don't let her move you, a soothing voice resounded in my mind, like a light beckoning my mind not to drown in the darkness that enveloped my body.
I drank in the light Reagan's voice brought, letting it fill and strengthen me. I fleetingly thought about asking him where he was, but the fact that he felt me and sent me strength assured me that he was okay and that was all that mattered.
And with newfound strength and concentration, I tried not to show it but rather transformed it into a charade. I screamed again for good measure, letting a pained expression linger on my face. I tried to labor my breathing.
Another sting sliced across the skin of my body, this time lining my thigh. I watched as an unbelievable amount of blood gushed out of me, making me feel slightly dizzy at the loss of blood.
And suddenly another punch came at me, landing in my ribs, snapping them like twigs. Instinctively I stepped away from where the punch had come from and gripped my side, the breath knocked out of my lungs.
I reminded myself that this wasn't the first time my ribs had been broken, or the bones in my face shattered, or my skin torn apart. Feiran's regular blows and cuts had hardened me to the pain, even if I still felt it. It didn't bring me to my knees.
But I let my body plump into the grass regardless, wailing as if everything was unbearable.
Coming from a million kilometers away, a roar sounded that undoubtedly shook the trees, and Kintar's own concentration must have been interrupted.
The shadows slithered away, and the illusion ended.
