Page 55 of When Monsters Fight
This fragment was powerful, and so far, the terrain was clear. No Ioness guarding it. The tentacle woman must have old intel.
We flew over the rocks, and a glowing crater was visible. The relic was in it. It had to be.
We landed beside the crater, which was surrounded by the rocky mountains.
“I don’t see any threat,” Jilyana said. “But we should hurry.”
“Agreed,” Gabriel said. “I’ll take Rue down and?—”
The ground trembled, and the sand shifted to swallow our boots. I grabbed hold of Gabriel as we both lost our balance. His wings flared to catch us and keep us upright.
Jilyana cried out from behind me, and Asbeel called her name.
The rocks around us shook and began to rise, and my pulse hammered in my throat because the rocks weren’t rocks: They were huge shells. Shells set on top of massive crab-like creatures.
“I think we just found the Ioness,” Kabiel called out. “Gabriel, get Rue and Jilyana to the relic. We’ll hold them off.”
I turned, wild-eyed, searching for Jilyana.
She was a few feet away in Asbeel’s arms.
I reached for her, but my path was interrupted as a jet of light lanced out of the crater. It bounced off an Ioness’s shell and hit Kokabel in the chest.
He was thrown several feet away and landed on his ass.
His chest was charred, and he coughed up blood, hand going to the wound.
“Kokabel!” Yomiel rushed forward but was intercepted by another jet of light. It hit another Ioness and missed Kabiel by a mere foot.
“It’s the relic!” Jilyana said. “It’s protecting itself. We have to get to it. We have to show it that it belongs with us.”
The Ioness roared and advanced as more streams of light exploded out of the crater.
“Evade!” Kabiel yelled. “Get Rue and Jilyana to the relic!”
Gabriel dropped the bat, then grabbed me with one arm and Jilyana with the other before diving into the crater with us.
His wings shot out, catching air. We swerved to avoid a blast of light, then again to avoid another, rising then diving to avoid being hit.
But this was the relic.
This was a connection to the Morningstar.
It was awake somehow.
Alive somehow.
Which meant I could connect to it.
I opened the channel and allowed the Morningstar power to fill me. “Drop me.”
“What?” Gabriel asked incredulously.
“Drop me into the light.”
“That’s insane.”
“It’s the only way. Do it. Do it now!”
