Page 26 of Shadowed Summer Sun

Moira quickly followed, traveling into the sky through the power of the Taking’s cloud of raw hunger. I recalled the Hungries, and my mouth fell open. They had been the Taking’s, its horrid servants that sought to make way for it, and the abomination in front of me had fully opened the door.

What’s more, I remembered what they had not enjoyed. Channeling a ball of the Sun’s rays into my hand, I threw down my attack at Moira as she raised into the sky. It crashed into her, charring the fabric and flesh that hung from her bones, and she screamed.

The sound cut through me and sent Badb careening backward. Moira’s gaping hole looked toward me, and a knife of the Taking sliced through the air in my direction. Holding up a vine, I caught it in the wood, agony penetrating my being.

Black and hollow swam through the vine, creating a husk as it devoured the meal presented. It spread through the vine, hunting for the source of its power. I howled into the sky as I sliced my claws through the infected vine, severing it from me. The pain overtook my vision, forcing the breath from my lungs.

Another attack aimed toward me, and the King’s Servant leaped into the air with impressive range, taking the hit.

“Noooo!” I screamed with my arm outstretched.

In seconds, the headless wolf was swallowed up by rancid black and dropped from the sky like a stone. The husk created hit the Earth with a dull crack.

Rage lit up my insides and flared the Sunlight within my skin. My gaze snapped to Moira, who floated level with me, and the King’s Darkness swelled in my veins.

“My, you do taste delicious. Feasting on your spirit will empower me to new heights.” Her gargling voice wormed around her tongue as the Taking around her wafted up, lifting the veil nailed to her head and slapping her skirts against her legs.

As the fabric pulled back from her head, it revealed the pronounced hollow of her collar bones. Moira raised her skin-and-bone arms, and the flesh began to slough off her in small melting strips as she hovered in the air.

Badb flew higher, zigzagging through the air as she put distance between me and Moira.

“Mistress, what do you need of me? How can I enhance your attacks?”

Answering her in my mind, I spoke,“I have contended with the Taking but once. The Hungries feared flame and radiance. It does seem to harm her, but it was the strength of the World of Below that severed the connection between the husk and the Taking.”

A wave of power attempted to ground us, and Badb narrowly dodged out of the way.

“Then perhaps, you must bring it to you. Trap it within a conjured portal.”

I patted Badb’s side as she flew me back down toward the Earth. “I love you, dear friend. Bring her to me.”

I jumped off her, rolling across the ground and sinking some of my vines into the Earth. Badb cawed loudly and swooped around Moira, spinning her around and enticing her toward the grass where I waited.

“I always hated your fucking bird!”

“Says the abomination that was never granted a familiar!” I yelled back, taunting her.

Unsure if I was glad it worked, Moira took the bait and headed straight toward me, streaking through the sky like a smear of sludge. A spear of the Taking sailed through the air toward me. I made no effort to move.

The pointed tip of it pierced into my stomach, sinking deep and sucking at my insides. My organs boiled as it slurped for them. My vision flickered, and sweat drenched my brow. It wormed its way inside me, seeking out the heart of my radiant Sun. A black tunnel crept around the world’s edges, and I pushed my vines deeper into the ground. Deeper, deeper, deeper.

Moira landed a few feet from me, slithering across the ashen grass as her knees clacked together from her bow-legged gait. The Taking was gulping me down, and Moira’s form stretched and thinned out, her exposed throat swallowing rhythmically. I fell to my knees.

Still existing in a suspended state, hanging between the seconds, everything slowed further, and the agonizing weight in my limbs made it impossible to lift them.

“You failed, Summer. Just like your precious Betty, your Coven. And I’ll never stop. The Taking is always hungry, and we will spread our servants across the land until we’ve consumed. Every. Last. Drop.”

Moira’s rubbery tongue seized me around the throat. It burned like hot acid tearing through my flesh. Her maw widened, reaching around my head to stuff me in. Her pointed rat teeth grazed my cheek.

Shadows traveled up from the Earth, claws raking up the black of my limbs and squeezing my hair tightly in their grip. A howling roar sounded in the distance as thunder rumbled up from the ground.

“Now, Summer.”

My King’s voice sang in my head like Death bells, and I unleashed everything I had been drawing up from the Earth and the World of Below.

A shattering light cut through the grayed-out landscape, illuminating Moira’s form and coating her in radiant flame. The core of my Sun burned like molten in my chest, shining so brightly through my skin that I could see my ribs backlit as Moira held my head down.

My golden eye blazed, and the clouds overhead split perfectly down the middle revealing a Sun-ringed moon lighting up the sky.

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