Page 45 of Witch Untold
I spun-kicked a walker, slid a potion from my holster, and lobbed it in an arc over the front line of walkers and into the flatlands toward the third wave.
Power exploded outward and the walkers’ screams intensified. They continued to move but as if in slow motion.
Euphoria swelled in my chest. We were doing this. We could totally do this. My body worked on instinct, moving in anticipation of attack. Power shot out of my fingers, slamming into the walkers and throwing them back while Sloane sliced and stabbed. Bramble and Lauris worked like a well-oiled machine—Bramble a whirlwind, with her twin daggers moving between the monsters so fast she was almost a blur, and Lauris a powerhouse, coat in shreds, tearing into the creatures with his bare hands while their talons glanced off his stone skin without leaving a mark.
The potion bomb we’d set off would be out of power soon and then the next wave would hit, but we’d be ready. I struck down the last ice walker, and for a moment there was nothing but the fizz of power holding the rest of the walkers back and the sound of my party’s erratic breathing.
We exchanged glances. Sloane’s mouth tipped up in a confident smile and Bramble’s eyes sparkled with triumph. Lauris’s chest heaved and he grinned, wide and feral.
The shield holding back the walkers died.
I braced myself, waiting for the attack, but the ice walkers remained still and silent, eerily watching us.
“What the hell?” Bramble cried. “Come on, you fuckers!”
The huddle of monsters parted and a clothed figure stepped out. Slender, pale, with silver hair that fell about his shoulders. The young man blinked at us with pale eyes, and then he smiled and his mouth stretched from cheekbone to cheekbone, showcasing hundreds of pointy teeth.
“There’s nothing like a good brawl to whet the appetite.” His voice was almost melodious. Beautiful in comparison to his face. “But now it’s time for the real fun to begin.”
What was he talking about? “Who are you?”
He smiled wider, mouth stretching almost to his ears, so it looked like his face would literally split in half. “Time to arise.”
The dead ice walkers around us began to move, pulling themselves off the ground, bodies knitting and healing.
“What the fuck?” Bramble backed up.
“Time to feed,” the wide-mouthed man said.
The ice walkers around him began to make a moaning sound, as if pleading with him, as if begging him to give the word. The rest of their comrades surrounded us.
Oh, shit. They’d been dead. We’d killed them. How was this happening?
The air above us fluttered, drawing my attention to the sky.
The man looked up and then screeched, an inhuman sound that tore at my soul and made me want to curl into a ball, but I forced my head up and stared at the huge black bats hurtling toward us.
Hurtling toward me!
“Cora!” Lauris yelled.
I brought my hand up, shooting lightning at the creatures, but they dodged.
“No!” The wide-mouthed man’s scream battered my eardrums.
The bats rushed me, and then there was nothing but darkness.
* * *
I surfaced,kicking and punching.
“Enough!” The command penetrated my panic.
I stilled, breathing hard, waiting for my night vision to kick in. The smell of engine oil hit me as the room slowly materialized around me. The hulking shape of a Land Rover sat in front of me. There was a window high up, but the moonlight didn’t reach the lower level, leaving most of the room in shadow, but I made out enough to know I was in a garage or workshop.
And I wasn’t alone.
Two figures approached from around the car, their features undecipherable in the dark. My hands heated, ready to defend me.
