Riders

  Why hadn’t I thought about this sooner?

  I put my arm around her. It wasn’t a solution. But it felt better.

  Then we sat and listened to the snap of the fire and the whistle of the wind as it blew through all the cracks in the hut.

  Daryn’s eyes fluttered open in just seconds.

  “Where’d you see the whales, Jode?” she asked. “I missed it.”

  No comment about delivering the key.

  She’d only nodded off.

  We all looked at each other like, Shit. We need to chill out.

  Bas let out a long, stressed-out sigh. “I’m getting some more firewood.” He hopped up and headed outside.

  “The whales,” Jode said. He narrowed his eyes. “Ah, yes. I saw the whales—three of them, there were three—near an inlet west of Gjende.”

  We talked about that for a while. The whales. Then Gjende, which was beyond my reach with Riot. Travel over land was slow and laborious in these mountains. But folded in with Lucent, in elemental form, Jode was almost invisible by day, like Shadow and Bas were at night. They could travel far. It gave them a lot more range than Marcus and me. Flying mini-clouds of ash were pretty noticeable, and fire? Riot and I didn’t leave the immediate area very often.

  After the false alarm, I was starting to settle down when Daryn’s hand slipped into mine and squeezed. I looked at her, but she was staring at our linked hands.

  She’d gone white. Then her eyes lifted to mine.

  “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

  Dread shot through me and I looked to the door. Sebastian wasn’t back yet.

  “What is it?” Jode said. Marcus had frozen.

  I shot to my feet and barreled through the door, out into the night.

  Several fires burned across the clearing, lighting the area.

  The Kindred were everywhere. Not just the seven.

  Dozens.

  Jode and I had guessed right. Ronwae and Bay commanded hordes.

  Ronwae was the one I noticed first. In her scorpion shape, she had Riot’s heft, but she sat low to the ground on six segmented legs. Her thick shell looked redder than when I’d seen it before. Her claws were as long as my arm, and they opened and closed slowly, in anticipation. But they were nothing compared to the stinger that rose from her back, swaying back and forth.

  She looked like more than enough to contend with on her own, but in the darkness behind her, around her, there were dozens of Ronwae replicas. Not exactly the same. Slightly smaller. Their armored shells not as deep red as Ronwae’s. But still incredibly real threats.

  Further away, Bay stood on top of the stone where I’d huddled under a blanket with Daryn only a few nights earlier. Even from a distance, I could see the power in her shoulders and legs, her mangy pelt and sharp claws. She lifted her head to the night—her canines were so long they resembled tusks—and scented the air, small clouds issuing from her nostrils.

  Like Ronwae’s scorpions, Bay’s multitudes stacked the darkness behind her, each more misshapen and gruesome than the next—a funhouse-worth of beasts.

  A burst of fire erupted by the trailhead, drawing my attention. Pyro stood there, proudly showing off his fangs and the fire in his hands. Like that would intimidate me. If it weren’t for Daryn and the guys, he’d mean nothing.

  I didn’t see Malaphar but Sebastian stood in the middle of the clearing, at the center of everything. He was standing at attention, eyes straight ahead. He wasn’t focusing on me.

  It looked like Sebastian, but …

  I didn’t think it was him.

  I didn’t see Ra’om, but Samrael stepped forward from the darkness in his human form, wearing a reflective jacket and pants, like an ad for outdoor gear. He smiled, totally at home with the horror show around him.

  “Gideon, it’s good to see you again.” His gaze moved past me.

  Marcus and Jode had followed me out of the hut. They had drawn their weapons, scythe and bow. Daryn stood between them.

  When Samrael saw her, his smile vanished and his eyes filled with hunger. Instantly, I remembered Ra’om’s image—Samrael attacking her—and rage ignited inside me. Rage that burned from my core.

  “At last,” he said. “I knew I’d find you.”

  Daryn came to my side. The key hung around her neck, gleaming against her dark jacket. She stood with her usual confidence, but I saw that her fingers were shaking.

  “I wouldn’t be gloating if I were you,” she said. “We’ve been here for weeks.”

  Samrael’s smile came back. “Yes. You were well hidden. But what’s a few weeks of delay when you’re building a kingdom?”

  “You won’t get the key, Samrael. You’ll never get it.”

  He tipped his head. “I don’t know about never. Why don’t we do this simply, for your sake, Daryn. For the sake of Gideon here, who’s so very fond of you.” He held out his hand. “Bring it to me.”

  “You heard me,” she said.

  “Another refusal?” Samrael said. “I thought that might be the case.”

  Time slowed as he looked up, lifting his eyes to the darkness.

  Alevar.

  The night demon was almost invisible in the sky, his black wings tucked like a diving falcon’s. I saw him, high above. Then he was right over us, his wings whipping out, suspended in midair for an instant.

  Daryn and I lunged toward the hut.

  She surged ahead of me. I saw her reach Marcus—reach the shelter of the hut—then I flew back. I slammed into the ground, the wind rushing out of my lungs.

  Alevar was on me. His feathers covered me, putting me in total darkness. I called my armor as his sharp claws raked over my face and my arms. I found his shoulder and summoned my sword. It pierced his wing as it came up.

  He shrieked, the sound deafening. Then he lifted off me, flapping furiously as he retreated in a wounded, awkward flight.

  I came to my feet in time to see Pyro launching fire in my direction. I threw myself back onto the ground, the air shaking with the explosion behind me. Heat washed over me, engulfing me.

  I looked up, blinking through the searing heat. The hut was burning. Consumed with fire, like the sun was in front of me.

  Where were the others?

  They’d been right in front of it.

  I heard my name yelled, and spun.

  One of Bay’s boars galloped toward me, snout wrinkled, canines bared.

  Riot. I needed him.

  He came up in a wash of flames around me, and I folded into him.

  Taking his fire, meeting it with mine.

  We were inseparable now.

  Burning and light.

  Untouchable.

  We climbed into the night, rising high enough that I could see the entire bluff below. Our burning hut. The swarms of demons. The fires, hemming everything in.

  The familiar sweep of the scythe drew my eye. Marcus was mounted on Ruin, Daryn in the saddle behind him. I saw Jode close by, on Lucent. A hail of arrows streaked from his bow, one after another, taking Ronwae and Bay’s creatures down in a lethal barrage. Concussive sounds filled the air as demons erupted in bursts of claws and stingers, fur and thick, dark blood.

  Jode.

  He was a machine.

  But there were too many for him. There was no end to the hordes.

  At the center of everything, I saw Sebastian. He was still in the same place, the middle of the clearing, standing there like a statue. But he wasn’t alone. Samrael stood next to him, holding one of his bone blades at his side.

  Riot and I fell into a dive and soared down to the clearing. I spotted one of Ronwae’s scorpions in the chaos and came in behind it, forming up with Riot at a gallop. I had my sword ready, and took its stinger clean off, then I reversed my grip, and drove the sword down, cracking through the armor on its back. Riot jumped aside, avoiding the whipping tail of the dying scorpion, and I almost flew out of the saddle.

  Finding my balance, I put him into a hard charge toward Marcus and Daryn
. Jode was trying to keep them protected, loosing arrow after arrow, but he was losing ground against the tide of demons that were closing in around them.

  I slashed at anything that got in my way. Almost there.

  Ahead, I saw one of Bay’s creatures make a wild sprint toward Marcus. Then another one. Marcus saw them and chose one, swinging the scythe. The blade hooked into the monster’s thick back. As it fell aside, Marcus twisted hard, tugged like a fish on a line. Ruin saw the other monster and reeled. Caught between the two sharp movements, Daryn flew from behind Marcus and tumbled to the earth.

  “Daryn!” I couldn’t get to her fast enough. Bay’s beasts came from all directions. Riot bucked beneath me, kicking at them with his hooves as I slashed at whichever one came closest.

  Daryn shot to her feet and ran. Ran like a hurdler, strong and fast—but there was nowhere to go. We were on the side of the mountain with only two trails off the bluff. Pyro had set fire to both. I saw her reach the edge of the flames and pull up, then whirl and search around desperately for another way out.

  There was no other way out.

  I had to reach her. Marcus and Jode were in trouble. Sebastian was in trouble. But Daryn had the key. I went to shift to fire, but Riot resisted. He wanted to stand and fight.

  “Riot!” I yelled, and he understood and finally relented. We folded in fast—finding the place where we were equal, perfect—and we soared to Daryn. Forming back up, I reached down for her hand. “Come on!”

  She clasped it and vaulted into the saddle behind me.

  The chaos across the clearing had intensified and the fires were climbing the woods behind the bluff. Pyro’s burning missiles battled with Jode’s bright white arrows. A frenzy had overtaken Ronwae’s scorpions and Bay’s beasts as they reacted in fear to the fires.

  “Give her to me!” Samrael yelled from across the clearing. He laid the blade across Sebastian’s throat.

  But it wasn’t Bas. It couldn’t be him.

  What if it was?

  I was trusting my gut. But the price of being wrong was Bas’s life.

  I swung at a charging, stoop-backed beast with my sword, and it fell, howling.

  “Gideon, go!” Daryn yelled, delivering a kick across the snout of another.

  There was only one way I’d get her out. Hopefully she’d live through it. I ditched my sword, reached back, and pulled her in front of me. Then I put my heels to Riot’s flanks.

  He leapt forward in a thrust of sheer power, dead ahead.

  Right into a wall of fire.

  I did everything I could to wrap Daryn up with my body, my armor, all of me as Riot thundered through the heart of the fire. The world went bright orange, then white. A high, piercing sound filled my ears. Was that Daryn screaming? Even with my armor, my legs began to heat up, scalding, but worse by far was the feeling of Daryn’s fingers digging into my ribs in pain. Hot went to searing. Then we went past searing and I wondered if I’d pushed too far.

  Then we punched through, into open grass. Into cool dark night.

  I reined Riot in and we came to a stop. Then I prayed the next few moments wouldn’t destroy me.

  “Tell me you’re okay.”

  Daryn was trembling in my arms. “I’m okay.”

  She peeled away from me and slid out of the saddle. As she landed, she sucked in a breath and her right foot came off the ground.

  I dismounted. “Where are you hurt?”

  As I came to stand in front of her, a smell hit me. My stomach seized when I realized what it was. A wound spread over her calf. Red and raw at the center, charred around the edges. I couldn’t look away from it.

  Was it from Riot? Had Riot and I done that? Or had the fire?

  It shouldn’t matter—she was hurt. She was hurt.

  But it mattered. I wanted to know—had I done that?

  Focus. Next step.

  “You need to get somewhere safe. You need a doctor.”

  She nodded tightly. “I’ll go to Isabel.”

  My gaze went to the trail that led back to the tourist station. The Seeker. Daryn’s friend would help.

  Riot pounded the earth with his hoof. His eyes were bright, ferocious, and fire curled all over him. He looked how I felt.

  “He wants to go back,” Daryn said. “You want to go back.”

  I wanted to be everywhere. With her. Back in the fight.

  “I can get down the mountain, Gideon. You have to go back.”

  “The key’s around your neck, Daryn. They’ll track you down.”

  “No. They won’t.” She lifted the chain over her head and dropped it around my neck. “It’s no different. You’ve been protecting it all along.”

  I nodded, agreeing. I had Riot. I could fight to defend the key. And by taking possession of it, I’d take the heat away from her so she could get to Isabel. It was the least bad option.

  I told her how to reach Cory at Fort Benning. “Tell him you’re with me. Tell him we’re in a live, hostile situation and that we need to get airlifted out of here. Have him pull our location up on a satellite.” Cory was smart. He’d go to the right people.

  I knew I was breaking this thing wide open but we were losing. We needed all the help we could get. And I wanted Daryn out of there. As far and as fast as possible.

  “I will,” Daryn said, as she backed away. “I’ll call him, Gideon. I know they’ll come.” She hesitated. “I’ll see you,” she said. Then she ran.… She ran into the darkness, her stride hampered by the burn on her leg.

  I swung into the saddle. Riot and I folded right into fire and shot back to the battle zone. Back into madness. As we reached it, I searched for Marcus, but I didn’t spot him. I didn’t see Sebastian, either. Mounted on Lucent and firing bright arrows, Jode was easier to find.

  He was in a standoff with the fire demon. Pyro had taken cover behind a cluster of rocks. Jode’s arrows were keeping him pinned there, but Jode had the hordes to contend with, too.

  Riot and I formed up behind Pyro at a full gallop. Jode spotted me and immediately withheld fire. Pyro popped up, thinking he had an opening.

  Mistake.

  I swung the sword with everything I had but Riot’s power did most of the work, cleaving the demon in half.

  That was one. Six more to go.

  Riot and I kept on, picking the monsters off, but they never ended. There were always more and I saw why. The smaller scorpions rolled off Ronwae’s body like marbles, and then grew steadily in size. And the gruesome humps on Bay’s thick fur came off, like grizzly amoebas, forming into her mutated replicas.

  Time took on a bizarre quality. I saw flashes of Marcus’s scythe swinging in wide arcs. Jode and Lucent, at the center of a hail of bright arrows. Every second felt isolated, clear as a picture. Every instant was endless. I was in a fog. I was in the smoke and spatter of war, fighting to live. Nothing had ever felt more distant and real.

  Nearby, Jode nocked an arrow, swung to the left, and fired. Behind me—almost on me—one of the smaller scorpions scuttled through shrubs, snapping branches.

  I didn’t have to tell Riot to go after it—he went.

  The creature was fast on its six skittering legs, but Riot and I shifted and made up ground, re-forming as we came even. The scorpion let out a shriek as it saw us, and its stinger lashed down. Riot surged to the side, dodging, then let out a roar and responded with a burst of power, his legs and mane lighting up.

  We came up on it, drawing closer. Close enough. I firmed my hands on my sword, reached up, and buried the blade in its armor.

  The scorpion veered sharply. My elbows slammed straight, my shoulders almost tearing out of their sockets. I flew off the saddle, and my knees smashed into the ground, then I was dragging along beside it.

  The creature jerked left and right, trying to toss me as I hung on to the sword buried in its side, trying to get my feet under me. Trying not to get trampled. The skin on my palms ripped as my grip slipped. I couldn’t hold on much longer.

  A f
lare of flames came up fast on my right—it was Riot, gone to fire. He flew a tight circle around the creature. It screamed and screeched to a halt. Then its body rocked up, rising like a boat on a swell. I knew what was coming before I saw the stinger whip down.

  I released my sword, dropped, and rolled beneath the scorpion’s body—the only safe place around. The stinger struck the spot where I’d just been, driving into the dirt. I saw it lash back up. Then I heard a sharp crack as the scorpion’s underbelly shuddered above me.

  Stupid thing had stung itself—and I was underneath it.

  Tucking my arms, I rolled to my left as fast as I could. Not fast enough. A huge weight collapsed onto my leg. I felt a sharp jerk in my knee and pain shot up my thigh. I tried to free myself, but the scorpion weighed a thousand pounds, at least, and my foot was too far beneath it.

  Riot thundered up, nostrils flared, his entire body blazing. One look at the frenzy in his eyes and I knew he didn’t understand. He thought the scorpion was hurting me, which it was. But his answer was to slam his hooves into the creature’s armor.

  “Whoa, Riot!” I yelled. “Riot, no!”

  He kept going, every stamp cracking the creature’s thick shell into a mash as he worked closer to where my foot was trapped. He was going to crush my leg.

  Marcus ran up. He took Riot’s reins and pulled him back. I collapsed on the dirt, needing a second to absorb the relief. My own horse had almost maimed me. Marcus came back and stood over me.

  “What did you go and do, Blake?” With a tug, he withdrew my sword and slid it beneath the creature’s body, leveraging the weight off my leg.

  As I rolled up, climbing to my feet, I felt a strain on the outside of my knee. My eyes burned. My throat was raw. A dull, muted ring sounded in my ears.

  “Where’s Sebastian?” I asked.

  The fires around the bluff seemed to be losing some intensity.

  “Not here,” Marcus said. “It wasn’t him before. It was Malaphar. Samrael was bluffing.”

  “Yeah, but where is he?” I focused in on the signals from the cuff. Bas didn’t feel close.

  Marcus’s gaze fell to the key around my neck. “Where’s Daryn?”

  “Getting help.”