I circled toward her, feeling my body buzzing, the invisibility spell kicking in. I pushed her aside as daemons crashed into me. She landed on her back and most likely saw me swallowed by a horde of invisible daemons. She screamed.
“Jax!”
Forgive me, Hansa…
The fiends couldn’t see me anymore. They stilled and growled. I didn’t move either, waiting to see if they’d sense my presence still there. I’d managed to confuse them for long enough to calculate exactly how I’d kill them all.
Breathe.
I exhaled sharply and cut the head off the first daemon on my right. The blood spurts drew the others’ attention, and they all jumped in to tear the invisible body apart—mistaking it for mine. I avoided direct contact with the bodily fluids spewing out of the scuffle as the fiends ended up slashing and cutting each other. I flung my swords around and opened large gashes wherever my blades made contact, then backed away and watched the air trembling around the mass of invisible daemons tearing each other apart.
Hansa fought off more fiends on her side, her body glowing silver as she chopped their limbs off in a rage-fueled rampage. I managed to sneak to the cage we’d been trying to open. I put my swords away and cracked both padlocks off with a rock. The Imen mumbled and gasped as they poured out and ran toward the western part of the gorge, scattering so they wouldn’t all get trapped or caught again.
I made my way to the second cage, where two armored daemons waited, while Hansa tackled an invisible hunter and shoved her broadsword right between his bright red eyes. She roared as she killed another one on her way to the third cage, just ten yards away from my position. I wanted to say something, but, again, time wasn’t on my side. I took advantage of my invisibility and obliterated the two guards with four strikes, two per jugular. I heard shouting to the left, where the rest of my team was, the stream flowing behind them. I glanced in their direction and quickly assessed the scene. Invisible daemons kept pouring in, with Caia and Patrik taking turns in summoning water to splash and reveal them all.
A peculiar swish caught my eye, followed by movement from the right side. A new, foreign presence flew in, gliding over the brook. She looked like a young woman with long, pale blond—almost white—hair. She didn’t seem a day over twenty, and was petite, with her upper body and hips wrapped in animal skins.
I froze while clutching a rock I was about to use on the second cage’s locks. I was looking at a young fae—her arms were out and her fingers wiggled as enormous sheets of water erupted from the stream and crashed into the swelling mass of invisible daemons. Their cover was blown, making it easier for my team to fight them.
Screams erupted from the thinning crowd of Imen I’d just released. More daemons had come in and were slashing at them with their bare claws. The water fae with platinum hair swooshed in that direction, launching powerful jets of water at specific daemons to help the Imen escape. I exhaled sharply, glad to have another fighter on our side.
She was furious and feral, growling and clawing at the daemons between water hits. She bared her teeth and managed to get her hands on a couple of knives, using them to slash throats as she fought off the fiends chasing the freed Imen. I resumed my task and smashed open the two locks on the second cage, pulling it open.
They looked around, visibly confused since they couldn’t see me, then ran after the others. They were all of different ages, both male and female. They wore animal skins similar to those on the water fae. Two of them even seemed to recognize her, their eyes widening before they rushed toward her—the others pulled them away to keep them from getting involved. That was a wise move, as the young fae was busy shooting water jets at daemons and cutting them with her knives.
What was a fae doing on this planet? Were there more of her kind, on other parts of the continent? I cursed under my breath as I found myself asking more questions, instead of finding answers for the ones I already had about this place.
Meanwhile, Hansa had just reached the third cage, one foot resting on a dead daemon’s chest as she broke its locks and pulled its door open. Twenty more Imen came out, crying and screaming. They ran after the others.
I could see tears rolling down her cheeks as she fought off a few more daemons, then moved to the fourth cage. I wanted to help her and let her know I was okay, but I got sidetracked by a sturdy armored daemon that had just escaped Blaze’s spiked tail. I stabbed him in the stomach, and he painfully realized I was there as some of his blood sprayed me. He charged me with his broken spear, his face contorted with fury and desperation.
This was his last attempt to kill one of us, and I was more than happy to make sure he failed.
Caia
(Daughter of Grace & Lawrence)
I never fully mastered controlling the other natural elements, as I’d always been strongest and most proficient with fire. But I managed to draw water from the stream in flimsy jets to help with revealing the daemons I saw coming toward me. I held my ground, oscillating between fire and sword attacks, using the stream whenever I caught a second in between.
I’d heard Hansa scream a couple of minutes earlier, but I didn’t see what happened. I only caught glimpses of her furiously taking down more daemons, growling as she swung her broadsword around, drawing blood and severing horned heads.
Two daemons came at me just as I noticed the fae flying in over the brook and pushing water over the invisible hunters. I let loose on the fire side, sending out two blazing columns that swallowed the fiends whole. They screamed and wailed as their skin burned, until Avril jumped in and severed their heads, putting them out of their misery.
“What the hell is happening?” I shouted, dodging a spear from an incoming hostile.
“They… They got Jax!” Hansa cried out, shoving her sword through another daemon’s throat.
Claws tightened around my heart as I looked around. I couldn’t see Jax anywhere.
This can’t be…
“Where is he?” I managed, launching another round of fireballs, while Avril and Heron finished the daemons off. I tried to find him, even on the ground, among the daemon corpses, but there was no sign of him.
Hansa stilled, frowning as she quickly scanned the area around her and came to the same conclusion.
“I… I don’t know,” she croaked, her eyes puffy and her lower lip trembling.
I heard a clang and saw Imen escaping from the fourth cage. My pulse raced as the conclusion of our fight got closer with every passing second. A buzzing sound caught my attention. I glanced up and saw the tracking spell at the end of the open area, where the gorge’s walls tightened back toward the west. It glowed and hummed, then darted off to the right, toward a redwood cluster that masked several crevices.
“The tracking spell!” I yelled.
We were too busy surviving and fighting off daemons to follow it. But based on the speed with which it had suddenly decided to move, Fiona was very close.
What is going on here?
Everything was happening at once, and I had trouble processing. Jax was missing. The Imen were running free. We were all fighting a constant stream of daemons. There was a water fae helping us. The tracking spell had caught Fiona’s trail. And all hell was about to break loose, as Blaze was less than a minute away from letting out the devastating fire from his throat.
I didn’t even have time to experience anger or dismay. I barely had a second to shoot out more fireballs before stabbing another daemon in his side, right after he lunged and failed to hit Avril.
Then I paused, holding my breath. I noticed movement by the trees where the tracking spell had vanished. Fiona popped out of a crevice, drawing her long knives and running toward us.
“Fiona!” I screamed, my heart bursting with joy. Relief washed over me.
At this point, nothing could stop me. Two more daemons charged me, but I fashioned a thick fire whip and lashed it around, blocking rapier and spear hits with my swords as I advanced through the hostile crowd to get to Fiona.
br /> She looked well, healthy and in one piece, with her hood and mask on—her eyes flaring with determination. She jumped in, slashing and hacking left and right with her blades. We met in the middle and took advantage of a few spare seconds to hug.
“Holy hell, Fiona!” I gasped, clutching her shoulder with one hand. “How’d you make it back here? Where have you been? Are you okay?”
“I’m good, don’t worry!” She grinned, then nodded at Blaze. “I’ll tell you everything once this is all over. Why isn’t he burning everything down?”
“There were Imen in those cages.” I pointed at the empty enclosures, then at the Imen running in the distance. Fiona followed my gaze, then frowned and took a deep breath.
“Okay.” She nodded. “Let’s get out of the way, then. There are way too many daemons still standing here!”
“Everybody out of the way!” I shouted to the rest of our team. “Fire in the hole!”
My heart thudded with the joy of seeing Fiona again and the excitement of watching all the daemons burned. We ran for cover, with Avril and Heron following us.
“Good to see you, Fi!” Avril breathed as we made for a cluster of tall rocks.
“Oh, you have no idea how good it is to be back!” Fiona replied.
We jumped over the boulders and hid behind them. I could see Blaze from that angle, straightening his back and stretching his long neck as spears flew at him. They were, of course, useless, given his thick skin and sturdy scales.
I saw Scarlett and Patrik hiding inside one of the crevices, as did Harper and Caspian.
Hansa was still fighting a daemon. Blaze’s throat swelled. He stretched his wings and cast a heavy, dark shadow over the gorge. If she didn’t get out of the way, she’d be in the line of fire.
“Hansa!” I yelled.
She was pulled out of the way by something invisible, and dragged behind one of the limestone slabs closer to the eastern side of the gorge. My stomach dropped. I realized what had happened to Jax. He’d used the daemons’ prime hunting tool against them. I knew he carried the invisibility spell ingredients with him, but it hadn’t occurred to me that he’d been carrying them already mixed and ready to use.
The water fae caught my attention. She was still fighting daemons, hitting them with violent water jets and puncturing their jugulars with a sharp knife. She’d been pushed to the side, about fifteen yards from our position.
Blaze roared, and his jaws cracked open, a bright orange light erupting from his throat.
Oh, crap!
The fae was going to be obliterated there. I ran out. I had to save her. She didn’t stand a chance.
“Caia, no!” I heard Avril scream after me.
I moved as fast as I could and flicked my lighter open. The fae was left with one daemon, while the thirty or so others tried to go after our team, scattering across the now-open field.
I threw my fire whip out and lashed it at the daemon, knocking him back several feet. His face burned red from my hit. He growled and moved to come after me as I grabbed the fae’s hand. She gasped, and I followed her gaze. Blaze released his destructive flames in a titanic column, aimed twenty feet from where we were.
“Hold on!” I shouted, and fashioned a large fire sphere from my lighter, pulling her close to me.
She obeyed and wrapped her arms around my waist, holding me tight as the dragon inferno spread out like a devastating flood, burning everything in its path. Blaze roared again and let out another firestorm. I held my ground, my flaming sphere protecting us from the conflagration.
Everything burned in his path. The dragon bent forward on his front claws, his gathered wings twitching as he spat another blazing round. The daemons didn’t even get to scream. The combustion was so sudden, so powerful, that they were instantly disintegrated.
The hellish rain went on for a few minutes, until every daemon had been reduced to ashes.
It all burned down. Every tree, every shrub, every creature that didn’t think to run as fast as it could from the giant dragon, they were all gone, leaving behind black wisps and carbonized bones. I cleared my fire sphere as soon as I heard Blaze’s grunt during his transformation.
“Are you okay?” I asked the water fae.
She gave me a wide-eyed nod, then both our heads turned toward Heron, whose painful groans were suddenly audible. He and Avril had left the stone refuge we’d found together—and I quickly understood why. The fire had been so powerful on that side that it had toppled the limestone slabs, leaving Heron, Fiona, and Avril vulnerable.
Heron’s leather suit was burned on its back side, leaving parts of his skin exposed and severely injured. He’d covered Avril with his body to protect her from the fire. She dragged herself out from underneath him, and breathed heavily as she tried to assess his wounds.
Fiona had made it into the crevice behind, but Avril and Heron hadn’t. Everything must have happened too fast.
We ran toward them as the rest of our team emerged from their hiding places.
Hansa
I was dazed. I’d been pulled out of a fight with a daemon. I’d seen a curtain of fire come down as I was dragged behind a large slab of limestone. I was lying on my side, a heavy body protecting me from the heat. Sweat bloomed on my forehead nonetheless, as Blaze’s inferno had bumped the temperature up by several degrees.
My heart weighed a ton, my stomach burning as I remembered the past ten minutes. Where was Jax? Had he died with those daemons? Had he been killed earlier?
I didn’t even think to see who had gotten me out of the fire’s way.
“Did you really believe I’d be foolish enough to leave you behind and get myself killed?” Jax’s voice trickled in my ear.
I stilled, realizing whose arms were holding me tight, whose body heat was enveloping me. My pulse started racing, my chest about to burst. I turned around and saw Jax reappearing as his invisibility spell wore off.
Of course… He used the invisibility spell. He took a page out of the daemons’ playbook.
His jade eyes scanned me from head to toe as he helped me stand.
“Are you okay?” he asked, his mouth and nose still obscured by the mask.
I nodded slowly, readjusting myself to reality. Anger soon replaced the temporary relief I’d felt upon seeing him alive. I now wanted to kill him for putting me through hell, for letting me think he’d been torn to shreds by daemons. My fists balled at my sides, but I said nothing. I saved my wrath for later because I was even more thrilled by Fiona’s return.
I’d seen her just before Jax had dragged me away. I hadn’t even had a chance to relish the sight of her, seemingly unharmed.
I left Jax and ran straight for the girls, who gathered around Heron. Patrik handed Blaze a pair of pants from his backpack. The water fae stood silently a couple of feet away, while Scarlett, Avril, Fiona, Caia, and Harper were kneeling around Heron. Caspian was next to Patrik and Blaze. The gorge around us was coated in dark ashes, the limestone walls covered in black.
Avril was looking after Heron, who’d suffered serious burns during Blaze’s firestorm. Mara and vampire blood would cure him fast enough, though, so I scratched that concern off my list. Fiona stood up, beaming at me.
I rushed toward her and took her in my arms, holding her tight. I let out a long, tortured sigh.
“You have no idea how good it is to see you,” I whispered.
“I could say the same thing,” she replied gently. “I’m sorry I went ahead in that tunnel… What happened to you back there? I didn’t even hear you after it collapsed.”
“I got knocked out… I don’t know by whom, but that tunnel was deliberately blown apart.” I frowned, pushing her back and resting my hands on her shoulders. “What happened to you? Caia and Blaze had you in that prison, then lost you to a daemon… We came here looking for you.”
“I know.” She nodded. “I’m sorry, Hansa… I… It happened so fast. I’ll tell you all about it in a bit, I promise. We need to get as far away from he
re as possible. More daemons will come, eventually.”
I hugged her again, relief washing over me and soothing my ragged nerves. My team was back together, and, with the exception of a few serious flesh wounds, they were all okay. We’d made it this far into the gorge without getting killed.
My whole body hurt, and tension was still gathering in the back of my head, as I glanced at Jax. I’d thought him gone. I’d thought I’d seen his body being ripped apart and flung around, chunks of raw, bloody flesh hitting the hard, dusty ground. I’d thought I’d lost him to daemons, and the pain had been unbearable. It had fueled a rage I hadn’t experienced since the war with Azazel. Since I’d cut off Goren’s head in exchange for what he’d done to my tribe, my sisters… my daughters.
The agony was familiar. The grief had eaten away at me over the course of about fifteen minutes. I wanted to punish him for making me feel like this. I needed to hurt him the way he’d hurt me, or worse. I needed him to feel as ravaged as I’d felt when I’d seen him vanish into a vicious crowd of daemons.
I loved him. And I wanted him to feel the brunt of it, too.
You don’t hurt me and expect to walk away unscathed.
Avril
(Daughter of Lucas & Marion)
I slit my palm and pushed it against Heron’s lips, to help him heal from the deep third-degree burns on his back and legs. We’d already assessed back on Calliope that Mara and vampire blood had similar properties, especially where healing was concerned. The intensity of Blaze’s fire had caught us by surprise. We’d thought we’d be safe behind those rocks, but the sheer blast and the temperature were so intense, we had to dash into the crevice just twenty feet in front of us.
Fiona had managed to slip into it, with just the tips of her hair and parts of her suit burned. I went in second, but my move had coincided with Blaze’s second wave of fire. Heron had pushed me to the ground, shielding me with his body. He’d sustained serious wounds, his leather suit burned and portions of the skin on his back simply gone.