Page 128 of Lost and Stolen Gods
“You bastard!” The clang of metal on metal rang out behind us.
Araz slowed his pace.
Two elite fought behind us, while another two tried to break them up.
Pashim ran by us. “Don’t stop! We cannot stop.”
Guru Mihir confirmed the same as he flew overhead. “Get the potentials to the vortex. Don’t look back!”
He circled back, swooped down, and landed between the brawling elite. A wave of light sprang out of his body, obscuring them all and momentarily blinding me. When my vision cleared, we’d turned a corner, and Guru Mihir and the battling demigods were out of view.
“Exit is close!” Pashim said. “We can make it.”
My head vibrated with pressure as the spirits tried to enter my mind, and I gritted my teeth, focusing on Araz’s body heat and the pressure of his form against mine to ground myself.
Priti screamed and thrashed on Keyton’s back, attempting to be free, clearly in the grip of the spirits’ control. He held on to her as best as he could, and Pashim veered toward them to help.
Dharma had her head down, her face buried in Chaya’s neck, and Joe clung to Mahira a few feet ahead.
“Almost there, Leela.” Araz sounded strained. “Almost…there…”
Images of fire and blood filled my mind. A child screamed. A woman begged for mercy, her beautiful golden face bloody as she reached for someone, and then the glint of a sword and?—
Araz shot forward, jolting me against his back, and the images died. The pressure winked out.
We were out of the gorge.
But Araz didn’t falter.
He didn’t stop.
He kept running, and I clung to him and thememory of that face. I knew who it was. I’d felt it through our bond via the shared shield he’d put up.
The woman in my mind had been his mother, and Araz had watched her die.
I’d somehow seeninto Araz’s mind and shared a memory that now sat like a lead weight on my chest.
A wide river came into view, spanned by a bridge.
“The vortex will set down on the other side,” Pashim called out. “Keep moving.”
“What about the others?” Dharma asked.
“They’re right behind us.”
I looked over my shoulder at the fast-approaching group, and the tangle of dread in my belly eased off. But as we hurtled toward the bridge, a bellow rose behind us.
Ice rushed up my spine at the sight of the four beasts attacking the elite.
Revenants.
Where had they come from?
“Keep moving!” Pashim ordered, falling back so he was abreast of us.
We hit the bridge with Chaya and Keyton ahead of us and Mahira behind.
We were about halfway across when the bridge trembled, and Joe screamed.
