ENTANGLED (#2 The Valkyries)

Chapter 44 - Escape

An arm swept around my waist and yanked me backwards. Heart thundering with fear a metallic taste on my tongue, I opened my mouth to scream as air whooshed past us. But before the sound could escape me, a hand clapped over my lips.

"Quiet," hissed a voice in my ear.

Panic had me fighting and thrashing against the hold on my waist and face, hot tears coating my dirty skin as we continued to the far side of the cavern. It took a second hissed, "Stop that! Don't make a sound," to recognize the exasperated tone as I bit at the fingers pressing into my cheeks. When I stopped fighting her and nodded, Mist lowered my feet to the ground and shoved me against the rocky cavern wall, tucking me behind her. Blinking, I took in some kind of silvery fog surrounding us.

A shape swooped by and I ducked, biting back my pained cry as I jarred my arm, but Mist continued to guide us along the wall, staying in front of me with a pair of swords raised in defence. Poised on the balls of her feet and in armour I'd never seen, she looked fierce, every bit the Valkyrie I'd only seen glimpses of when she sparred with Pazuzu.

Outside of the fog, growls, grunts, and meaty thuds churned together in a mass of dark grey hairy bodies. Wings flapped and the creatures screeched as they dived, joining in to attack someone on the ground. Between the moving forms, the occasional flash of silver blurred, reflecting the torchlight, and the stink of blood grew stronger. I shuddered. How could anyone survive so many of those nasty gorilla demons all at once?

My gaze flicked to Mist and the worried crease to her forehead. She continued to scan our surroundings, alert to any of Lamashtu's minions spotting us as she moved us toward some destination, but couldn't keep her eyes from that writhing mass. Who was fighting them? Pazuzu?

I squinted, but couldn't catch a glimpse of the person. Surely Pazuzu would take his dragon form to battle so many and wait... didn't they say he was battling Lamashtu?

A gorilla demon staggered and dropped to the stone, leaving a gap for just a moment. Just enough for me to see blue hair and a large muscular back. I sucked in a gasp and almost stumbled, catching myself on the wall and wincing at the lightning spike of pain flaring up my arm. Had I been too hard on Manannan? Too judgmental? That he'd come to help rescue me, taking on so many at once... a sinking sensation curled in my gut as I recalled all the times I'd been short with him, resenting his pursuit of Mist.

Another gap opened up as two more demons fell back and Manannan came into view again, his upper body covered in claw wounds and splashed in dark demon blood. The fierce snarl on his face didn't detract from his purely masculine features. The tension in Mist's expression increased and she moved us along faster. Maybe he wasn't such a selfish asshole after all. Maybe I should have listened to his side and found out his take on what had happened between him and Mist. It was obvious that she still cared. More than she'd let on.

Gods, how long could he battle them and keep them off him? I scanned our surroundings, spotting a dark opening further along our wall. Was that where Mist was taking me? If we could get out of this hellish lair, she could go back and help him. I picked up my pace.

Mist's breath caught and she almost lunged away from the wall, stopping herself mid-motion. I whipped my gaze back to the battle and Manannan was rising to his feet, sword flashing with blasts of blue something... magic?... coming from his other hand. Damn it. I didn't want him dying for me. Not after I'd been such a bitch to him. I stepped faster.

Mist halted me. "Slow down," she murmured. "Fast movement will draw their eye even through my camouflaging mists."

I nodded my agreement and continued at our slower pace. My nerves jangled with every step. Urgency thrummed in my muscles, the need to run, to flee, to escape. Not just for me, although I'd be a liar if I tried to convince myself I wasn't scared. I was damn well terrified with every beat of my heart and rasped breath in my lungs. But we had to get out of there so Mist could help Manannan. We just had to.

Yet every time I looked towards our destination, it barely seemed any closer. How could we not be there yet?

The thundering of my pulse pounded in my arm like a second heartbeat. Every misstep or bump speared agony through me. Grit under my shoe scuffed and a pebble shot away from me, ricocheted off a demon's foot and hit a second. Both turned in our direction and Mist and I froze.

Black eyes searched, seeking the source. I didn't dare breathe, fine trembles breaking out over my skin. Gods, I wanted to squeeze my eyes closed like a child playing hide and seek, as if they couldn't see me if I couldn't see them.

One snarled and stepped closer, sniffing in great huffs of air. The second hairy beast cocked his head and beat his wings, yet Mist kept the silvery fog around us despite the blasts of air wafting over us. Still, both growled and lunged, snapping their teeth, barely missing us. At the same time, Mist whirled, slicing across the necks of both demons, then tugging me out of the way as the bodies fell.

Several more nearby demons looked our way and started moving across the stone cavern toward us as they took in the sight of their dead compatriots left revealed as our concealing fog drew away with us stepping toward the dark opening. Mist hurried us faster and I knew she wanted distance between the bodies and us.

A bellow of fury echoed as the demons took in the cut throats, drawing more to the site, despite the ongoing battle with Manannan. Mist caught my eye, her mouth tight. The gorillas knew they weren't alone, that more than Manannan was in the cavern.

"Check on the captive," snarled a massive beast and several flew across to where I'd been held.

"Run," Mist said, pushing me in front as she guarded my back. We sprinted toward the dubious refuge of the opening and its hopeful means of escape. But before we'd closed even half the remaining distance, a savage roar and accompanying black smoke blasted out of that very same opening, halting us in our tracks. Power surged with it, trumpeting the arrival of a top predator. Something so fearsome, the very stone walls seemed to shake in fear and it vibrated in my chest and bones.

Every demon in the massive cavern froze.