Page 73 of Hellish Witch

Green streaked through my peripherals. A troop of orcs flowed across the plains, further along the tree-line.

My heart stuttered as it pumped liquid panic through my veins. I put on a burst of speed, ignoring the screaming pain in my torso. A few orcs in the group shot more arrows in my direction, barely pausing their loping strides.

I ducked and swerved to avoid the deadly missiles. It slowed my pace dramatically, though, and with the ground they were eating up, they’d beat me to the portal.

There was no way I could fight off this many demons. Not alone.

I reached for my dark power, pleading with the hungry beast to lash out as the group loomed closer.

Nothing happened.

“That’s the magic bitch!” the orc in front crowed, lifting his sword overhead with a victorious roar. “Take her alive.”

He must be one of the slavers that had escaped my massacre.

Terror made me miss a step, and my ankle rolled painfully in an unseen dip. Another spike of pain thudded into my upper back, hitting close enough to my spine for my nerves to spasm. Hissing a ragged breath, I stuffed the pain deep and shoved myself on.

Even if it came to a fight, I might be able to slip through before they could actually get their claws on me.

The logical voice in the back of my head called me a liar, but what choice did I have? If I didn’t get through now, Killian would catch up to me.

He’d get hurt fighting these brutes, or my magic would take him down.

Determination pushed my legs that bit faster despite the agony ricocheting through my body with every jarring step.

Shadows materialised around the portal, dark wisps almost impossible to see in the gloom.

They condensed until a group of shadow-walkers emerged, wreathed in smoke. Their eyes glowed like molten metal. I sucked in a ragged gasp but didn’t stop.

“Hey!” I screamed, breathless. “I’m a hybrid!”

We were allies, dammit. They might not take on an orc horde for me, but they’d at least let me past while they glared with glowy eyes at the orcs trying to murder me.

Another arrow whizzed by my head, nicking my ear.

I just had to get there.

The orcs loomed closer until I could see the bright-white tusks of the male in charge. He leered at me, arms pumping as his thundering steps shook the ground.

I crossed into the dead zone, smothered by a blanket of crackling power. Barely a hundred metres separated me and the shadow-walkers.

But I wasn’t going to make it.

The demons guarding the portal drew onyx swords, angling them towards the oncoming horde.

The female shadow-walker in the front roared, “Defend the hybrid!”

The slaver leaped towards me, his hand lashing out. I ducked, and his claws passed overhead, yanking out a few strands of hair instead of tearing my face off.

He snarled, sprinting behind me, and reached out again. In my periphery, an arrow sailed towards my head at the same time.

I made the split-second decision to lurch away from the arrow rather than the claws.

They sank beneath my ribs.

I hissed at the pain but managed to stay upright, momentum propelling me forwards. The orc tugged back, and my hiss ended in a scream as he pulled me to a halt with a handful of flesh in my side.

He snarled in my ear, “You’re going to regret killing my fucking brother, you filthy abomin–”

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