Page 23 of The War of Wings
Every one of my muscles tensed when a chittering sound echoed over the land, the same sinister sound that filled the Darkness Beyond. I whirled in place, my eyes wildly searching the land for the source of the noise, and I froze when I saw the mass of smoke pouring out from behind the castle. No, not smoke.
Occulti.
“We need to go,” Cal said, his hand closing over mine as he turned on his heel. Before I could reconcile what was going on, we were back on the horse, pounding over the charred earth.
I didn’t want to turn around, didn’t want to face the truth. I burrowed deep within myself, trying to conjure something,anythingfrom the deepest parts of me. I cast a hand behind me without looking.
“How close?” Cal asked, his feet digging into the horse’s side over and over.
“I don’t want to look,” I answered, shaking my head. But it couldn’t be avoided, and I craned my neck backward. “Fuck.”
Cal managed to look back for a split second, long enough to see the Occulti had covered an impossible amount of ground and were gaining on us with unnatural speed. I burrowed into myself, rifling through my soul for any spark, even an echo of a spark. I cast my hand out behind me, hoping maybe, just fucking maybe, I’d surprise myself and a blast of fire would come hurtling forth.
But there was nothing. Just the cold realization that the Occulti behind us were moving impossibly fast. Much faster than we were.
“How are they so fast?” I shouted into the wind, my arms wound so tightly around Cal I had to be hurting him. “They weren’t like this in Eserene!”
Cal didn’t answer me, just pushed the horse faster. “Come on!” he called. “That’s it, faster!”
I turned to see the Occulti shoot forward in a terrifying surge, and we had maybe a minute, if that. “Go, go, go!” I screamed, as if I could will the horse to move faster. Cal’s knuckles were white where they were tangled in the horse’s mane. Talons snapped behind us, and my scream died in my throat when I turned back again.
They were a hundred feet away, and I could finally make out their figures. What ran toward us now were not the same monsters we’d battled in Eserene. No. With bone-chilling horror, I realized…this was their true form. Translucent skin was pulled over bony frames as tall as Cal. The robes draping over their angular bodies were shredded and threadbare. The demons were cut straight from the fabric of a nightmare, fabric they probably cut themselves with those lethally pointed fingernails. They lurched toward us in a mass of snarling maws filled with jagged, snapping teeth.
The only thing reminiscent of the beings we saw in Eserene were those eyes that looked like swirling storms of ash, endless and empty and haunting.
We. Were. Fucked.
An ear-piercing screech sounded from the throng, and our horse’s steps faltered. I shrieked as he reared back on his hind legs, his front legs furiously pawing through the air as my legs squeezed around his belly and my arms clung to Cal. But it was no use, and the gray sky blurred as we fell backward. I hit the ground hard enough to send stars swarming through my vision. Cal managed to turn his body just enough so he didn’t land on top of me, and I heard the air leave his lungs in a painfulwhoosh, the same way it had left mine. I gasped for that lost breath, my ears ringing from the impact as I fought to get to my feet, my blurry eyes landing on the horse who’d taken off like a cannonball in the opposite direction, his presence ignored by the Occulti. Cal was already on his feet and pulling me along with him, my own feet scrambling to keep up.
Escape would be more likely if we didn’t run hand in hand. I knew Cal was aware of that. But it was like we had a silent understanding, a silent agreement. We weren’t outrunning the Occulti, even under the best of circumstances. We’d reached the end of the line, our final moments.
Come on, Petra.Of all the times I faced death, this was going to be it? Dying in a decimated paradise at the hands of monsters?
“I love you,” Cal shouted, breathless as he stared down at me.
I opened my mouth to tell him I loved him, too. That I’d loved him for years, had never stopped, even when betrayal was a river running red between us. But his declaration felt so final, and if I said it back now, it would mean admitting defeat.
And I decided I wasn’t ready for that.
My steps slowed, my arm jerking as Cal tried to pull me onward. “What are you doing?” he called, his voice frantic. “Come on, Petra! Let’s–” But his words stopped abruptly at whatever he saw on my face. He came to a stop beside me. TheOcculti were seconds away, the impending end we wouldn’t have outrun no matter how hard we fought.
With slanted brows, he pushed a lock of hair from my forehead. I laced our fingers together and squeezed hard, binding our palms. A soft, sorrowful smile pulled at the corners of his lips as he stared down at me. He thought I’d accepted our fate. He thought I was surrendering, abandoning hope.
I was tapping into my last resort.
One final surge and the Occulti caught up to us. And in the split second before I closed my eyes, in the split second before taloned fingers closed around my throat, I swore I saw the demons rear back, as if we were repelling magnets.
Anywhere but here.
Everything went black. But it wasn’t death.
It was the Darkness Beyond.
Yes.
Instinctually I blinked, attempting to adjust to the light of my surroundings, but there was none. Just inky darkness and an incorporeal form. Wherever we were in the Darkness Beyond was devoid of Occulti, disconcertingly silent.
My stomach dropped. “Cal?” I called frantically.
