Endure (48 page)

The Brothers stood on either side, staring at Riley with broad smiles. Their magic danced around him and the clouds above responded, growing thicker and bubbling in the sky. Rayna was on her hands and knees bowing to Riley, reading the blank pages of
The 11th Dimension
. A trio of Visceratti stood behind her, using magic to break her will.

A firework of orange flashed below and all the Visceratti screamed in unison, dropping to the ground. None of the snake demons moved, they all lay frozen against the earth. For a moment I thought killing the Queen had meant they all died, but I was wrong.

One of the three demons behind Rayna began to shudder, gyrating against the earth. An unearthly sound revolted from her mouth and her body snapped in half, folding backward. Something inside her moved like a dozen rodents beneath her flesh. She screamed and her body shifted. Black blood exploded into the air, her skin stretching and remolding. Red eyes opened wide, glowing with power as her body grew. Thorny stems burst from her skull, tearing out mounds of hair and circling her head. Wooden branches plunged into her skull and blood ran down her face. The demon didn’t make another sound. Blood smeared across her eyes. She stood larger than the rest of the demons now, a gem-encrusted circlet sparkling on her head. The other demons roared and cheered as their new Queen was born, and then like nothing had changed, their fight continued.

Rai screeched as we circled the mountain and her talons opened, releasing me from her grip. I hit the ground, rocks and dirt drifting up in a circle around me.

The newly crowned demon grinned, gripping either side of Rayna’s head. Rayna let out a muffled scream as her eyes filled with an inky blackness. Her magic came to life, darker and more powerful than ever before. Rayna was already drawing energy from Ithreal and I could taste the sulfuric power in the air.

“Enough of this,” Darius snapped. “Ithreal’s power is here!” He reached into the air, drawing energy from the clouds that churned above. Thunder crashed and lightning scorched the sky, while arms of darkness bubbled down from the clouds and charged in Darius’s hands. It pooled like liquid between his palms, building and expanding like a storm contained in a jar.

“Brother, no. Do not damage him. Father needs his shell.”

“No more orders from you, Drake. You are not in charge. I am your
brother
, not some minion. Father is coming and Riley’s shell may not be enough. Ithreal can have his pick of any of the others who are alive below.”

“You know that none of them will suffice. If Riley isn’t enough, Chase will be the only one who can contain him.”

“Or you, brother. You would be strong enough to hold Father. You are a demigod after all, aren’t you?”

“Give myself over to Father?”

“Isn’t that all that matters to you, bringing Father back? You don’t care for a throne in the Otherworld, and lately it seems you care more for this…human than you do anything.”

Drake’s eyes lit up and he looked taken aback.

“That’s right,
brother
,” Darius said. “I know you’ve been sneaking off to meet him. Who knows what you’ve been plotting.”

“Plotting? Are you suggesting—”

Darius laughed but it wasn’t out of humor, he sounded hysterical. “You must really think I’m stupid, don’t you? Just the brother who has screwed things up time and time again. Well, this time it was you who made the mistake. You’ve belittled me this entire time and here we are, the Protector standing in our way, and you
defend
him!”

“He is not a human; he is a demigod, like us. He is our brother now too.”

“No! No, that is where you’re wrong. He may be of our kind, but he is not of our blood. We have Ithreal’s blood—the blood of kings. He is no brother of mine.” Darius thrust the black energy forward. The cloud morphed and churned, purple lighting flashing inside. I drew my own elements up to defend, but I was a second too late.

At first it was only a fuzzy sensation that rushed over my body. The hairs rose on my arms and neck and the static electricity in the air grew ripe. Next came the pain, a heat that washed over me in a wave. It singed my chest and arms, searing the skin. Last came the force. An unmatched strength smashed into my chest like the hammer of a god. My feet were off the ground, my body flailing back, and the world falling past me.

The entire world slowed, and light jolted from the sky, striking Riley and Rayna simultaneously. An arc of electricity linked them together and Riley’s eyes finally opened, matching the same pure darkness as Rayna’s. They exchanged power, magic coursing from one and into the other. Rayna’s hands pinned
The 11th Dimension
to the ground, blank pages staring back at her. Her lips moved and the new Visceratti Queen who gripped Rayna’s head mouthed the same words.

The dirt below was not a fade of brown and green landscapes but rather a mural of black and red. The Visceratti numbers were down and they slithered across the battlefield. The hunters—with the aid of some of their air elements—were not gaining any ground against the vampires, but they were holding them at bay.

Tiki and the Dunopai faced off against the Kivrakai. Their numbers seemed even, but the Dunopai couldn’t hold up to the lion-men’s attacks. One by one they dropped to the earth, flickers of life fading from their eyes. Grayson was one of those creatures. His body, covered in purple blood, lay lifelessly on the ground. His wide eyes stared upward with a glossy haze and his skin had faded to a near-yellow shade. Willy’s face flashed in my mind, then back to Grayson’s. My heart ached at the realization that I’d lost another soldier, but it was short-lived as the world came rushing back to me.

“No!” Drake yelled, and my body soared over the edge. His magic reached out to grab me, coils of black and purple, but he missed.

The cliff became a wash of brown as I fell. Tendrils of Darius’s magic pushed me to the earth with god-like speed. I tried to gain some traction on the air, using my element to balance me, but it wasn’t enough. With Darius’s power pushing against me and mine an even match, it was an empty free fall.

Hitting the ground was a very real future for me. It wouldn’t kill me, but it would hurt like hell. The closer it appeared, the tenser my body became, prepping for the impact. Rai’s screech cut through the air, sharp talons wrapping around my ankles and tearing me back into the sky.

“Holy crap,” I gasped, looking at the ground just a few feet away. Rai cawed, lifting me higher and I arched my body to look up at her. “Thanks, girl.”

Rai’s wings pulled us higher. At the top of the cliff her talons swung forward and released me, and the falling began again. Her talons struck together like nails on a chalkboard and lightning burned the air. It jerked left and then right before smashing into Darius, followed with an angry cry from Rai. She disappeared in a dive-bomb toward the ground, taking out a swarm of Riley’s witches.

I hit the ground in a roll, absorbing the force. As I came up, I pushed off and leapt forward. Darius rose to his feet, a hole burned in his shirt and black soot marring his flesh. Both my hands wrapped around his throat and we tumbled to the ground. I kept a solid grip, using my legs as leverage and rolling on top of him. Darius laughed and gagged at the same time, his pale skin patchy with black dirt. His hands gripped mine, but he wasn’t strong enough to break my hold. He attempted to call more of his magic and coils of black began to form over his fingers, but I didn’t give him time to focus. I released his throat with one hand, pinning it against the earth with the other, and hammered my fist into his face. Punch after punch landed on his cheekbone and each time I felt the bone break, it re-formed seconds later. He screamed and cursed, kicking his legs behind me. I didn’t stop; instead, I supercharged each hit with magic.

Earth tore itself from the cliff, wrapping my arm in rock and clay. Each time I hit him, the magic shattered his skin. Black blood exploded from his face. Although the wounds closed as quickly as they formed, he became exhausted from the impact. His struggling slowed and he flailed, his open hands pawing at my chest. I reached back to grip the glass blade on my spine when Drake grabbed around my wrist.

“No!” he shouted. He was stronger than his brother, twisting my arm at an angle I thought might break it. It forced me to turn and crawl off Darius to avoid the pain. “He is my brother, my blood.”

Riley screamed suddenly and it was in tune with Rayna; an unnatural screech that spilled from both their mouths.

“It’s happening,” Darius said, wincing in pain. Magic flexed under his skin, veins rippling against the pale flesh and his wounds closed all at once. “He’s here.”

“No,” I gasped. Both my hands burst into scorching flames. Drake was forced to release his grip and I shoved him back with transcendent force. He skidded across the ground and rolled off the edge of the cliff. Darius moved in a blur, grabbing his brother as he tumbled over the side.

I took the moment to charge Riley, hoping it wasn’t too late. Thunder rang like gunshots and when my body collided with his, the electric force that linked Rayna and him together blew me to the side. The heat from the blast was so intense it numbed my skin. The power tore my shirt to shreds and left a white burn across my chest. Riley screamed again, and the wind charged around us in a conduit of rage. The clouds dropped down from the sky and dark walls encircled us. We were inside a funnel of magic now. I was too late.

The clouds swallowed the entire mountain of land, spiraling lower to the earth. When it hit the base, the island of earth rumbled and fell, collapsing downward.

Everyone’s feet left the platform and flailed up in the air, the mountain of land falling faster than we were. Riley stayed stuck to the black pedestal, his arms stretched out and his eyes black. Lightning arced out of the cyclone of clouds and over his arms and body. As the power reached a peak of intensity, a demonic roar erupted from below, more primal than any sound I could fathom. It was full of energy, hate, and pain—pure darkness.

When the platform suddenly stopped, we all crashed down against it. We were now only a hundred feet from the ground, and the sound of swords clanging echoed in the distance. The clouds that turned around us were sucked into the earth, and then they were gone.

Streaks of fire burned the sky. Tornadoes ripped across the earth, swallowing demons and tearing them apart. Screams of pain and anger filled my ears, mixed with the howls and roars of shifters. The war was still happening. We hadn’t lost yet.

With that thought came an eruption that rocked the land, and a black doorway opened in the distance. Cyclops pooled from the portal, charging into the battle, followed by spider-like demons I’d never seen.

The black pedestal that Riley had stood on was gone, and so was he. A perfectly round hole sat in its place, burrowing down into the platform and disappearing into shadows. The mountain shook and a crack formed down the center—the Brothers, Rayna, and the Visceratti on one side, with me stranded on the other. The quake split the platform in half and my side broke away and dropped back into the earth. The black clouds that had swirled around us now pooled at the base of the mountain. The portal was like a giant beast, consuming the earth one bite at a time. I clambered to my feet in between the violent quakes. The darkness had almost swallowed the mountain entirely and its power blackened my skin like soot. I jumped off the cliff, hitting the shelf of ground at the edge of the portal. The portal’s grasp was tight and it dragged my body back toward its pit. I dug my hands into the dirt but the ground broke away with each attempt I made. The portal seared my legs like boiling water poured over my skin. I screamed, using my voice to tear shards of stone from the ground. I wrapped my fingers around them, and although the portal burned and roared, trying to pull me deeper, I was still for the moment.

A splatter of black blood hit my face and painted the ground around me, the head of a Visceratti rolled off to the side. A loud roar came and Tiki stood a few feet away, dark blood dripping off his claws and multiple gashes open and raw across his chest. Several spikes along his forearms and shins had been broken off, bleeding as though a vein ran through the center.

Tiki cocked back his fist and punched his claws into the earth. With his claws embedded, he reached toward me with his other hand. The stone column grips I’d created began to crack and I didn’t waste any time. I pulled myself forward as much as I could and as the stone shattered and the portal threatened to pull me in, my grip locked with Tiki’s. Long claws cut into my arm, an unfortunate side effect to the angle we were at, but Tiki’s demonic strength won out over the portal and the force threw me in the opposite direction. My body flailed over his, our grips still locked, and I landed on my back.

I sucked air into my lungs, my chest sore and legs burning. Water floated beneath my skin, closing the wounds it could, but the portal had done intense damage and my magic wasn’t enough.

“You must go, Chase Williams.” Tiki’s voice slurred between razor-sharp fangs. “You must stop this!”

I wanted to yell at him and tell him I was trying, but there wasn’t time. Tiki’s body jerked forward and hit the ground, a pool of black and purple magic tearing through his skin. Tiki screamed and as the magic faded, it left a wound that spread across his back. White pus filled the crevices of the burn and Tiki clambered to his feet. He turned and roared at Darius, who stood with a smirk painted across his face.