Page 207 of Eldritch
The creatures whipped around and scrambled after him.
“Get to the back of the church!” Zevander barked, his scorpion snapping at one of the beasts charging after them.
Panic coiled around my chest. “What about you?”
“Go!” He swung out his sword, lopping off the head of another beast that leapt toward him, and I watched in horror as the others surrounded him, pouring in through the entrance, undoubtedly drawn by the clamor. As the scorpion sank its metallic stinger in the one it’d been fighting, another vyrmish lurched toward it, knocking it backward into the wall. Zevander sent a flame over its body, shriveling the beast within seconds.
My heart clenched, seeing him single-handedly fighting them off.
Corwin scampered along the narrow gap between the pews and the wall, toward me. In his hand, he carried a piece of split wood he must’ve scrounged for defense, the tip of it sharp. The overgrown vegetation snapped beneath his feet, and one of the vyrmish turned toward him, hobbling away from the others that Zevander continued to fight off.
I jumped to my feet, every cell in my body quivering with fear. “Please don’t fail me,” I muttered to myself, exhaling a long breath as I summoned the bone whip to my palm.
Such a clumsy weapon to call upon in a confined space, where these creatures seemed drawn to movement and clamor. But it was my most vicious, and I needed to know these damned things would die when struck.
The whip tumbled from my palm, across the floor, past Father and Aleysia, bones clanking as it unrolled itself. “Get to the back of the church!” I called out to them.
“Isn’t that trapping ourselves?” Aleysia cried out.
“There’s a hole in the wall!” Father pointed toward it. “We can escape if necessary.”
As they headed that way, I twisted back to Corwin, who stood frozen in place as one of the vyrmish stood on the pew behind him, sniffing the air.
“Get down, Corwin!” I said, and just as he ducked low, I swung out the whip.
Bones cracked against its leathery flesh, sending that black oily substance spraying into the air as the heavy whip tore a gash in its flank.
A quick glance over his shoulder, and Corwin scuttled toward me. “Not dead. Not dead!”
The vyrmish charged forward despite its wound.
Oh, no.
Terror vibrated through my muscles, and as Corwin slipped past me, I threw my hand out for the Aeryz glyph, knocking the beast back into the rubble of busted pews. A sharp piece of wood sticking up from the stones pierced the vyrmish through the back, bursting out of its chest as it pinned the creature to the rubble. It let out a wailing cry, thrashing its limbs as it tried to get free.
In my periphery, I caught the quick and hasty movements of Zevander and his scorpion, as some of the beasts broke away for the speared vyrmish. It screeched and howled as they tore away its flesh.
“Maevyth, go!” Zevander barked, and to my horror, the flame he shot out at two of them charging toward me was smaller than before.
Growing weaker.
The beasts continued to pour in through the windows and entrance, undoubtedly drawn by the commotion and clamor of Zevander’s sword, the scorpion’s movements, and the obnoxious clacking of bones from my whip.
“Come on!” I shouted toward Corwin, and the two of us made our way to the back of the church, where Father and Aleysia sat crouched.
A clawed hand swiped through a gaping hole in the wall where the stones had crumbled away, as one of the beasts attempted to climb through. A blast of Aeryz threw it backward, and I peered out to see a few creatures sniffing around—nowhere near as many as those that poured in through the front of the church.
Through panic, I looked back at Zevander, watching the beasts swarm him, the vyrmish scampering over the body of the scorpion and hanging from the top curve of its stinger. Beneath the lethal grace of his sword, and his exceptionally skilled strikes, I caught the occasional falter. The slack in his swing. The weak lash of his flame.
Exhaustion had begun to weigh on him.
A silent scream ripped through my head. My chest clenched with the helpless frustration of wanting to fight alongside him, but I knew all too well how easily I’d put him at risk by jumping in like a fool with my clumsy whip.
Father let out a bellowing cry, drowned by Aleysia’s scream, and I snapped my head to see one of the creatures yanking his legs through the hole.
“No!” I dashed forward, my hands just missing his grasp as he was torn through the wall to the outside.
Without a beat of hesitation, I scrambled through the hole in the wall after him.
