Page 99 of The Stone Secret
“Fuck!” Sharniza ground to a halt beside me, her body in a crouch, eyes narrow slits. “There are too many. We won’t make it through.”
She was right. We’d be crushed—forced to our knees by the sheer number of these creatures. How had the Stone Council managed to capture so many?
“We need to turn back,” Dayn said,
“There are more of those things up there,” Hawke replied. “They’ll block us off if we retreat, and we’ll end up trapped.”
The grotesque held the line, no longer attacking, knowing that we had no choice but to move forward. To move toward them.
Levi had said they weren’t the most intelligent of creatures, so this maneuver had to be engineered somehow.
But why? Why lock us in like this…Wait…
All this time Yarrow and Levi had been training us on how to use our shields. How to draw on nature to strengthen them.
The sky was dark and gray with the threat of a storm. There was power in a storm.
Power at our fingertips.
“I know what we have to do.” I turned to the others. “We use our shields. We use the impending storm.”
At first, all I got were confused expressions, but then Curi cursed softly. “Of course. We push back with our shields and force a path through.”
“Genius!” Touron said.
“Good call.” Hawke looked almost impressed. Hard to tell for sure because the guy was rocking a poker face.
I looked up at Derek. “You ready to do this, buddy? We got to help clear a path. There are too many of them. It’s too dangerous to fight our way through.” I allowed myself to feel the fear, to acknowledge the threat of being pulled to the ground and ripped to shreds.
Derek’s form grew larger, his diamond eyes brighter. “I won’t let them touch you.”
Perfect. “We ready?”
A chorus of yeses filled the air.
I put my head down and charged at the stone wall of creatures. My skin tingled, hardening at the perceived threat. Then a blinding light seared my eyes, and they were knocked on their asses as Derek blasted a hole through the mass.
“Mother fucker!” Waxen cried. “Get behind Basque. We can use her as a battering ram!”
My boots pounded the ground, arms pumping as Derek blasted the creatures out of the way. The air cracked with charged particles. The sharp scent of the storm was heavy on the air as everyone drew from the elements, creating a bubble of protection around them as we ran.
Grotesque attacked in my periphery, but they hit our shields and were flung back.
Their screams of rage and frustration rent the air then died abruptly.
Derek materialized ahead and came to a stop, his shadowy form hunched over, shoulders heaving.
“We did it!” Ginia let out a whoop and punched the air. “We fucking did it.”
“They’ve stopped,” Shar said. “I can’t hear them, but they’re screaming.”
“Must be some kind of ward between those lines,” Touron said.
But my attention was on Derek. “Hey…” I hurried over to him. “Are you okay?”
He nodded and looked up at me with a smile. But his eyes were dull, and his frame looked smaller than usual.
“Is he okay?” Shar joined us. “Derek?”
