Page 54 of Cry of the Damned
“Kill you?” she asked, her voice gruff with ill-contained anger. “Who said I will kill you? You will pay every single day for the rest of your miserable lives.”
“You won’t take us alive, Novus,” I shot back, then launched forward, bursting into my wolf form.
I went for the closest magistrate, who was standing next to Novus. It was Celox. He lifted his hands, preparing an electric attack, but I was too fast and pushed his arms out of the way with my paws and clamped my jaw around his neck. Carrying him down with my momentum, I jerked my head to one side, twisting until I heard a snap. He fell limp to the floor, dead.
As I released my grip around his neck, a sword sang through the air. I ducked and rolled out of the way just in time to avoid getting my neck sliced in two. I found myself against a wall, but I didn’t cower against it. Instead, I pushed with my back legs and flew toward the attacking guard. Piercing through skin and bone, I crunched on his wrist. He screamed and dropped the sword, and I used my hind legs to push it into the spring. As he tried to go for his weapon, I pushed him too, and he fell after the sword.
I wasn’t expecting what happened next. As soon as he hit the water, he started screaming in agony. The milky liquid bubbled around him, eating away at his flesh. Bethel hadn’t mentioned this would happen, but it was a welcome side effect that I would use to my advantage.
Running through the line of guards that stood close to the spring, I knocked them off balance, causing several to fall into the bubbling water to never come out again.
Through the tetrad bond, I knew that Kall, Maki, and Novuk were fighting, managing to remain unharmed like me, even though the magistrates were focusing their efforts on them, using electric attacks that the wolves did their best to avoid. I had a general sense of their location and a vague sense of their thoughts and feelings. So when I finally had a moment to glance around, I didn’t look for them. Instead, I searched for Ila, Bethel, and Rob to make sure they were all right.
Rob was fighting a guard, parrying blows, and delivering his own. Ila was a few yards away, wrestling down another guard, her jaw clamped around his arm like a vise. But where was Bethel? At first glance, I couldn’t find her, and it took me a few beats to spot her pushed against the wall, while a guard aimed his sword at her heart. Her hands were moving frantically as she tried to produce a spell, but I knew her energy was diminished.
Jumping into action, I bounded in the guard’s direction, took a leap, and dove for him. He flew sideways and hit the floor, his sword coming free. Going for his throat, I opened my mouth wide, but a second guard appeared out of nowhere, slicing his sword downward and wounding my side. I yelped and jumped out of the way. The guard moved fast, slashing with his sword at my neck. I reared back but too slowly for the whistling sword coming at me. I closed my eyes and waited for the blow, which never came. When I looked again, I found the guard standing wide-eyed, a hand on his throat as he struggled for air. Behind him, Bethel had mustered a spell and had cut off his airflow. She finished him while I pounced and finished the first guard as he tried to reach for his fallen sword.
I felt the triad’s concern over the bond. At once, all three lent me some of their strength, and my wound healed, the pain disappearing completely. Our shared strength was magnificent, and maybe, just maybe, if we could hold on, we might be able to prop each other up until every single one of our enemies was down.
Bethel’s shoulders slumped forward, confirming her weakness.
Ila, we need to protect Bethel. She’s weak.
I wanted to protect the witch, but also I wanted my sister near me so I could keep an eye on her.
Hearing my message, Ila ducked from a guard’s attack, leaped back, and headed in our direction. We flanked Bethel on either side protectively.
“No,” she protested. “If you don’t fight, we don’t stand a chance. I can take care of myself.” Whirling, she picked up a fallen sword, ran to the wall, pressed her back against it, and held the sword in both hands, ready to defend herself.
I felt torn.
Go help them,Ila said.I’ll stay with her.
She’d barely finished pushing the thought into my head when a guard charged Bethel and Ila hit him from the side. Together, Bethel and Ila attacked, putting him out of commission in a matter of seconds. Seeing them fight side-by-side eased some of my concern, so I ran toward one of the cloaked magistrates, the one I suspected was Novus. If I could take her out, maybe the other ones would lose their confidence and reconsider what they were doing.
Two magistrates were on Kall, their hands holding balls of crackling energy as they sought an angle to launch their attack on the crouching white wolf.
As I ran at full pelt, my claws scraped against the stones, announcing my presence. One of the magistrates turned to face me, but it wasn’t Novus. It was Magistrate Fideles. I leaped and barreled straight in his direction, growling with vicious hatred.
His eyes went wide, and he drew his hand back and released his attack.
Sheela!Kall’s voice reverberated in my head as the magistrate’s magic hit me square in the chest.
Pain seared my skin and singed my fur. I clenched my teeth as I kept sailing toward my target. I slammed against Fideles, knocking him off his feet. I crumbled against him, my body convulsing with electric energy. Dimly, I was aware of Fideles reaching under the folds of his cloak, likely to find his dagger. I tried to take control of my twitching extremities, but it was impossible.
Fideles struggled to push me off, but I was heavy. His hand appeared at his side, the dagger glinting in his grip. He pulled his hand back, aiming for my exposed belly.
As if someone had turned off a switch, the spasms coursing through my body abruptly stopped. I heard a whimper and was dimly aware of Kall twisting in pain. I didn’t know how, but it seemed he’d taken my pain for himself. I didn’t have time to contemplate the answer. He’d given me the control of my limbs back, and I had to take advantage of that.
Slashing at Fideles’s incoming arm, I blocked him, cutting deeply with my sharp claws.
Even as he growled in pain, he drew his arm back and tried to stab me again, but he was no match for my speed. In one swift motion, I jumped off him and swiped my paw, claws outstretched, at his exposed neck. Blood surged from three parallel wounds. He sputtered, gargling, as blood bubbled through his mouth.
Leaving him behind, I turned to my wolves. My first concern was for Kall, though the initial agony I’d sensed from him when he took away my pain seemed diminished. In my confusion, I tried to decipher what was happening, then realized that Maki and Novuk had, in turn, taken equal parts of my pain from Kall.
I sensed they were all in a fair amount of pain, but not enough to incapacitate them. Sifting through our bond, I quickly intuited how they’d distributed the assault I’d suffered between them. As understanding donned on me, I did the same, taking my share of it, too.
I clenched my teeth as the pain transferred through our bond. All my nerves jolted, firing off at the same time, but it was nothing I couldn’t handle.
