Page 48 of The Iron Vow

My ears suddenly throbbed, making me wince. It was that weird sensation you sometimes got on an airplane, that pressure right before your ears popped. There was a faint ringing in my head, and I realized the batsweremaking noise; it was just too high-pitched for us to hear.

“Ugh, tell them to stop it,” Puck said, jamming a pinkie in his ear with a grimace. “My eardrums are about to split open. What are they even doing?”

“They’re calling something,” Ash said grimly.

A cold breeze swept through the mountains, making me shiver. And on the wind, I heard something. It sounded like flapping wings. Only bigger. Much, much bigger.

A single enormous claw rose up to grip the top of the peak directly overhead, an onyx talon digging into the rock. A head followed, wrinkled and leathery, with the same tattered ears and jutting fangs, only a hundred times larger. Huge wings spread out to either side as the enormous dragon-size bat crawled over the mountain and let out an ear-splitting screech that shook the cliffs.

“Okay, I did not sign up to fight a dragon today. Or even a bat dragon.” Puck grimaced and took a step back, gazing up at the huge creature. The monster bat hissed and crawled over the top of the peak, clinging to the side as it glared down at us. “Normally I would say, ‘Hell, yeah, let’s kick some dragon-bat butt,’ but given the circumstances, perhaps a tactical retreat is in order?”

Ash nodded. “Everyone, across the river!” he called, sweeping his sword toward the bank on the other side. “We’ll take cover in the crags—that thing is too big to follow.”

That sounded like a good plan. Sheathing my sword, I bolted for the tree trunk stretching across the water. The others followed, though Ash and Puck stayed behind and made sure everyone had reached the edge before turning and sprinting after us.

With a screech, the monster bat leaped from the cliff wall and hit the ground with a crash that caused several boulders to dislodge and go tumbling down the mountainside. Baring its huge fangs, it crawled after us.

I reached the edge of the bank, where the roots of the tree curled into the air from the trunk. My stomach clenched as I gazed over the river. The trunk of the tree hovered only a foot or two over the rushing water, a narrow strip of wood between us and the tears of the Wailing One. I still didn’t know what would happen if we touched the water, but now was not an ideal time to find out.

A hiss rang out behind me. The giant bat was coming, and it was either stand and fight the monstrous creature or take our chances with the river. Gritting my teeth, I grabbed a root and pulled myself onto the shaky tree bridge.

Faery reflexes, don’t fail me now.

The water churned under my feet. Without thinking about it, I sprinted across the bridge, trusting my natural fey balance and hoping the trunk would not snap beneath me.

Halfway across, something cold and wet hit my face. It was just a drop, but immediately my eyes watered and my throat closed, cutting off my breath. Images flickered through my head, memories that weren’t mine. Faeries dying, turning into Nightmares. The land withering and twisting into a shadow of what it was. A sense of despair, helpless rage, and utter failure. Gasping, I staggered the final few feet and leaped off the trunk to the other side, fighting the sudden urge to scream.

Okay, touching the water wasverybad. If that had been only a drop, I shuddered to think what would happen if someone was submerged. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to warn everyone, as a high-pitched scream cut through my thoughts and a shadow fell over my side of the bank. The huge bat was in the air, leathery wings blotting out the sky, curved talons opening to strike. I clenched my fist. For a moment, silhouetted against the mountain, the bat was a huge floating target, had any of us still had our magic. One lightning bolt, ice barrage, or storm of angry ravens, and it would probably have been over.

No time for regrets, though. The others were sprinting across the bridge, Nyx and Keirran leading the way with Other Nyx, Varyn, and Gilleas close behind. Puck and Ash stood on the other side, waiting for everyone to cross, before they too, hurried to the other side.

“Keep going,” Ash ordered as he dropped off the bridge to the ground. I saw Puck scrubbing at his eyes and Varyn pressing a hand to his face, and realized the water had probably splashed them, too. “If we can get under cover of the mountain, we’ll stand a better chance than out in the open.”

Screaming, the smaller bat creatures descended on us again, leaping off the walls and dropping from the sky, probably realizing we were about to escape. Sharp claws latched on to my arm, piercing my skin as the bat tried to fly off and take me with it. With a frustrated snarl, I drew my blade and stabbed the creature’s stomach, and it dropped me with a screech.

As I landed, I saw the others also struggling with warding off the swarm. Gilleas had both arms over his head, shoulders ducked as he tried to avoid getting snatched. Keirran and Puck stood close together, guarding each other’s backs. A cluster of bats had swarmed Varyn and Other Nyx, and just as my gaze landed on them, one of the bats managed to snag Varyn’s arm and drag him away. I saw Puck look up as the assassin was pulled back, and a hard smirk crossed his face as he did nothing. Varyn finally twisted around, slicing himself free, but for just a moment, he stood alone.

The giant bat was nowhere in sight.

“Meghan!”

Ash’s shout and the sudden falling darkness was all the warning I had before a shadow fell over us, and the giant bat landed from above with a roar. Ash lunged forward, grabbed me around the waist, and yanked me sideways as a massive claw smashed into the spot where I’d been standing, talons curling into the ground and crushing the rocks beneath it.

We all staggered back, shielding our faces as wind and stones from the giant wings pelted us. As the dust cleared, I looked up, and my heart seized in my chest. Varyn lay on the ground, pinned beneath the other talon, his body motionless as the claws curled around him. Other Nyx had been knocked back, and was lying several yards away, fending off a bat that had pounced on her. With its smaller kin still screeching and bouncing around us, the giant bat took one step forward and snaked its head down, jaws snapping. I decapitated a bat clawing at me, as Ash finished off two more and turned to face the gaping maw coming at him. His sword flashed, slicing across the monster’s squashed, fleshy nose. At the same time, a streak of black and silver shot through my vision, and Other Nyx landed on the monster’s head, driving her blade into its neck with a snarl.

The bat wailed. Its giant wings opened, flaring to either side, before it sprang into the air. The blast of wind from the downbeat whipped at my clothes and sent me and everyone else stumbling back, shielding our faces as rocks and dirt pelted everything in the area. The monster rose off the ground, a limp Varyn still clutched in its talons as it started to fly away.

“Varyn!” Other Nyx cried, and for the first time, she sounded frantic. A flurry of crescent blades flew through the air, striking the bat but not stopping its ascent. “No! Don’t let it fly away, or we’ll lose him.”

As the bat gave its wings another flap, rising farther into the air, the bright form of Keirran suddenly appeared on a ledge above it. Sword in hand, he leaped onto the monster’s back and brought the weapon slashing down on a wing joint, cutting through muscles and sinew and drawing an agonized shriek from the bat. It faltered in midair, desperately beating its wings, trying to stay aloft. The curved talons opened, and Varyn plummeted like a stone toward the rocky ground.

Our Nyx was suddenly there, managing to get her body between Varyn and the ground just before his head would’ve struck rock. I heard her exhale as she broke the Evenfaery’s fall, and hopefully not any of their bones. In the next heartbeat, Other Nyx appeared, cradling Varyn’s limp body to her. I saw her fingers gently brush his cheek, and his eyes opened, making her slump in relief. Our Nyx rolled to her feet and stepped back, the look on her face unreadable.

Overhead, the bat was screeching and flailing about with wings and claws. Even the smaller bats had scattered, fleeing the whirlwind of noise and erratic movements. Still clinging to its back, Keirran raised his sword and stabbed it again, plunging the weapon deep into the monster’s neck.

With a final wail, the bat tried to flee. Its wings flapped desperately, once, twice, and then the creature plummeted toward the earth again. It struck the cliff where the waterfall poured over the side, and collapsed into the river. As the water crushed the monster beneath it, its wings gave one final flap and went still.

Keirran!

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