Page 13 of Vicious Is My Throne

I flung out my free hand and a swirl of stars and shadows shot toward the bugs. When the blast struck the leading creature, the thing melted from the inside out, turning into a steaming pile of goo.

“Okay. Hideous but effective.” I breathed. “One Night Crawler down.”

“Night Crawler?” Tavion’s brow went up. “I like the name. Three to go,” Tavion muttered. “Kill these fucking things, Anaria.”

Tendrils immediately spread out from the steaming pile, creeping over the churned-up soil. The other three creatures split further apart, their hideously pointed teeth gnashing, every impact of their talons echoing up through the soles of my boots.

There were too many and they were too close.

I couldn’t kill them all before they reached us.

Panic sent magic flooding out of me, a surge of power that crushed the closest one to the ground and shoved the other two back while I erected a barrier between us.

A flimsy, shimmering shield that wouldn’t keep these things out for long.

The dying one thrashed, its shrieks echoing through the trees, panicking the horses. “Damn it.” Tavion lunged for the reins and the other two Night Crawlers hit my barrier like battering rams, cracks spreading through my starry magic.

I tasted blood and pain ricocheted down my arms.

“I can’t hold them; these things are strong…even stronger than the Reapers.” Fear rose up inside me. I couldn’t hold the shield in place and fight at the same time. I needed help, but Raz was trapped in the blight.

Tavion didn’t have the right sort of magic.

Pain raced down from my shoulders, then hoarfrost crystallized up my arms, turning me into a glittering white statue as those strange darkling shadows dripped out of my hands. Black, liquidy shadows. With teeth and a band of eyes all the way around their bodies, moving across the ground like liquid night.

Time to meet my monsters, motherfuckers.

The bugs halted. Took a step back.

I swallowed down my fear. “Kill them,” I ordered, not even sure what I was asking the darklings to do, only that I needed these things gone.

My shadows lunged through the barrier and pounced, engulfing the Night Crawlers in a swirl of impenetrable black. The bug’s dying shrieks were muffled, their battle little more than heavy, desperate thuds, but I still heard the absolute rage before all sound ceased.

The next time I swallowed, I tasted meat two days past it’s prime, and I spat a mouthful of saliva onto the trampled-down dirt.

“What the fuck?” Tavion hissed, staring down at the liquid, undulating shadows slowly withdrawing to reveal the three crushed, mutilated forms. “What the fuck are those?”

“They’re…called darklings. I know they’re pretty awful but don’t be too critical since they just saved our lives.”

I held out my hand and gagged as the shadows disappeared into the tips of my fingers, cold washing up my arm until the very last drop of darkness vanished.

“You have some explaining to do, wife.” Tavion kept glancing back and forth at the mutilated pile of bodies and my hand like he was trying to make the connection. “Right when I think things can’t get any stranger, you go and…”

Branches and tree trunks crashed overhead and splintered chips of wood rained down over us when Tristan soared out of the darkness, dropping Raziel straight into the stream. Raz splashed down as the wyvern banked gracefully around the small clearing then raced back into the darkness.

I stared down at Raz, hyperventilating.

He was coated in the black stuff. Coated.

“Anaria. Listen to me, love. I need your help.” Tavion was completely composed as he stripped Raziel, tossing his cloak onto the bank with a splat before he started unbuckling his belt. “Quickly, now. We have to get this poison off him as fast as we can.”

I felt heavy, like I was made out of lead.

My hands were useless weights hanging at my sides, my legs stiff as the trees around me. Raz wasn’t breathing. I couldn’t see him breathing…

“Anaria.” Only Tavion’s utter calmness broke through my stupor, that utter command in his steely, unbending voice. “There is no one but us to help him. The blight has soaked through to his skin. I can’t do this alone; I need you.”

I stumbled through the water, hardly feeling the cold. Hardly feeling anything except my heart slamming against my ribcage.

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