Page 40 of Spirit Rites
He scowls. “Youdoknow my name.”
“Yep.” She pops thep. “I make it a habit of trying to be respectful and actually call people by their name.” Her words have the intended impact. Jorren inclines his head slightly, acknowledging her words.
“Harper, Taren will see you through to the other side. Do you have a weapon on you?” She holds up her knife. “Do you know how to use it?”
“Would you like a demonstration?” she asks, way too sweetly for any of us to be fooled.
“No. Stay beside Taren and keep your weapon ready. And be absolutely quiet.” He gives her a tiny smirk. “If that’s possible.” Harper scowls at him, and I hide my smile because I don’t want her to use that knife on me. It kind of cracks me up because usually I’m the talkative one, but this whole situation I guess has made me quiet.
Taren guides his horse next to hers. “Ready?”
Harper turns to me, exasperation in her eyes. “Guess I'll see you on the other side. Don’t die.”
Taren meets my gaze. “I’ll keep her safe.”
They disappear, and then I watch as Jespar and Veyra walk through the portal and disappear as well.
Chapter 20
I watch the two of them closely. One minute they’re there, the next they disappear. I blink. “That’s crazy,” I mutter more to myself than anyone.
“Arielle will take your mate through, and I—” Jorren begins, but Kaldar cuts him off.
“Kinsley goes through with me.”
Jorren opens his mouth to argue but must think better of it because he nods tightly instead. “All right. We will be right behind you.”
I glance over at Kaldar. “Can only two go through at a time?”
“Yes. You have your knife ready?”
I hold up the knife I’m fisting. He nods. “It won’t do anything against a guivre, but you can at least slash at it if it gets close. Reika will be on the other side, ready with her bow.” He must catch the grimace on my face because he smiles slightly. “She may have the personality of a tree, but she’s a crack shot. She can hit something at a hairsbreadth.”
“A tree?” I can’t help but ask.
He gives me a smirk, and I feel my breath catch. He hasn’t given me one of those since we were in the Rites together. For just a moment, time suspends, and it’s just him and I alone trying to survive the Rites together. “That’s all I could think of.”
“Ready?” Jorren asks from behind us, breaking the spell.
The smile drops from my face, and I prepare to enter the portal. Kaldar’s eyes meet mine. “Ready?” I nod. “Stay right next to me.” He has a sword in one hand and his long knife in the other. We ride side by side towards the large tree. One minute, we’re on this side; the next, we’re on the other side. The onlyreason I know is that I instantly feel the temperature difference. That, and I see the others that went ahead of us. Nobody makes a sound as we wait for Jorren and Arrielle to come through. Once we’re all through, Jorren takes the lead and waves us forward. Once again, they make a circle around Kaldar and me. I glance over to make sure Jespar and Veyra are with us as well. They continue to stay just outside our group. I wonder if they do that so they don’t spook the horses.
We’ve only gone a few minutes when I hear a terrible screeching. My entire body locks up because I know what that sound is. I must instinctively have pulled on my reins, because Kaldar taps my leg and motions me forward. I tap my horse’s side with my heels, and we’re moving once again. I clench my fist tightly around my knife and look up at the sky and immediately wish I hadn’t. I see one of those hideous creatures, and it makes my blood run cold. I fight every instinct I have to dig my heels into the horse's side and take off. We ride almost soundlessly, and I realize we’re going to try to pass without engaging. I wonder if that’s possible, but I certainly don’t ask. The sun is blocked for a moment as it passes overhead, and bite my tongue when I see it’s not just one overhead. My heart thunders in my chest, and I wonder how in the world we’re going to escape them. We keep moving slowly, and I will my racing heart to settle, certain the creatures will hear it and attack. We make it a little further before one swoops down again. This time it nearly knocks into Arrielle. Only her ducking really low saves her from making contact with it. It swoops towards us again, and I watch it open its mouth. My panic flares bright. It's going to—
“Engage.” It’s a quiet one-word command from Kaldar, but it’s enough. Everybody seems to move at once in a fluid dance of sorts. Reika shoots multiple arrows into its body. It screeches horribly, and thrashes. Jorren throws something that looks like a long stick into its side. The creatures bellows its rage. Morearrows hit it from one of the other warriors; I didn’t see which one. And then Kaldar is riding towards it with Taren at his side. My heart is in my throat as I watch in terror. They both stand in their saddles, and I throw a hand over my mouth to keep from gasping or making any other noises. When they get close to the guivre, Jorren lets out a bellow. The guivre turns towards the sound and opens its mouth to probably blow fire. Before it can, Reika and the guy with dark ink stains on his skin fire a round off arrows into its mouth. Then Taren stabs its side with a long weapon of sorts, and Kaldar comes underneath it, still on his horse and literally cuts its heart from its chest. I look away and try not to throw up as Kaldar pulls out the bloodied organ. I don’t get a chance to see how I feel about that because the other guivre comes flying at us. They go through the same fluid dance of death, and seconds later, Kaldar is pulling another bloodied heart from its chest, and it crashes to the ground. I stare in shock at the two dead guivre. The way they took them both down in seconds was pretty impressive. Moments later, Jorren sets fire to their bodies. Even though they meant to hurt us, I can’t stand to see them burn. I walk a little distance away, being sure to keep the group in view. That’s all I need—to get lost in this new, terrifying world. The smell is awful, and my eyes water and I try to plug my nose, but it doesn’t really help. I can only hope that smell doesn’t stay with me; I have a feeling it will, though. Harper’s solemn gaze meets mine, and we convey a world of terror in our shared look.
When the bodies are mostly ash, the fire burns out; and we’re ready to start moving again. Nobody talks as we get back into the same formation we had earlier and Jorren waves us forward. We ride in silence, and I’m still trying to take in everything that happened. It all happened so fast. They’ve obviously done this so many times before. My heart rate finally settles a little. I don’t relax my guard though; my body is strung tight. Maybethat’s why I feel it. There’s no warning, no screeching...just a feeling. The hair on the back of my neck stand up, and I whip my head around in time to see a guivre with its mouth wide open approach us from behind. There’s not time to do anything. Fire shoots out of its mouth even as I shout a warning at Arielle, the warrior in its path. I scream as the fire consumes her and her horse in an instant. There’s nothing left, and I can’t stop screaming, even as they all battle against the guivre. Somebody hits me hard on my thigh, and I jerk towards Harper.
Stop! She mouths to me, her eyes wide. My scream cuts off, and I stare in horror at the place where Arielle and her horse once stood. I want to be sick, but I can’t, not when everybody is fighting for their lives. Within seconds, though, the guivre is dead. Jorren sets it ablaze, and I cover my mouth with my shaky hand and glance around our group, making sure everybody else is accounted for. My eyes run over Kaldar, assessing him. He doesn’t seem to have any injuries, but his jaw is set. I grieve over their loss. I didn’t really know her, but she was actually nice to me. We start forward once again. A sort of numbness overcomes me, and I wonder if I’m cut out for this harsh land. I can’t fathom that we’ve already battled three guivres and lost one of our own. My gut clenches, and I feel that sick feeling again. I push it away, willing myself to stay strong. Once I’m alone somewhere, I’ll let myself fall apart. But right now, we have to survive this trek. I glance over my shoulder multiple times a minute, jumping at every sound and shadow.
We travel in peace for a little while, and I think that maybe the worst is behind us. But then a screech in the distance has my muscles locking up tight again. We keep moving forward, and I can only hope and pray that it doesn’t come our way. But when the screeching gets closer, we prepare to engage. I watch the sky, waiting for it to appear. It doesn’t disappoint. Moments later, a large guivre soars above us. He’s joined a moment laterby another one, and my body trembles in fear. I clutch my knife in my sweaty hand, knowing I’m all but useless in these fights. Kaldar makes motions with his hands to his warriors, and they prepare to defend themselves again. We ride in silence, keeping an eye on the skies. I think maybe we’re going to get lucky and make it past them, but one of the horses kicks up some rocks. It’s just enough to alert the guivres to our presence. They dart towards the sound, and Reika and the guy with the dark swirls on his skin send arrow after arrow into the creatures. The creatures howl their displeasure. They go after the closest guivre in a well-timed, coordinated attack. They’ve almost got that one down when suddenly, the other one is on top of us. It opens its mouth wide towards Kaldar’s back. I don’t stop to think as terror courses through me. I don’t even have time to call out a warning. I leap from my horse and crash into him, taking both of us to the ground. Scalding heat brushes my arm, and I bite my tongue so hard it bleeds to keep from crying out. The pain is so intense I can barely breathe. Black spots dot my vision, and I think I’m going to die. Somebody grabs me, and this time I whimper.
There are quiet, hushed, intense voices, and then somebody picks me up. We’re moving seconds later. I can’t process anything except the excruciating pain in my arm. Every bump, every jostle makes it worse. Tears stream down my face, and I can’t see the path forward. I’m aware that I’m riding with someone, and my subconscious tells me I’m with Kaldar. I fight to stay conscious as we ride, and I grind my teeth together in pain. I don’t know how much more of this pain I can take. The black spots get worse, and I fight to stay conscious. “Stay with me, Kinsley,” a voice right next to my ear says. I want to respond, but I can’t. It’s like I’ve forgotten how to talk, how to form words. I can hear the horse’s hooves pounding against the ground, and I want to tell him to slow down. Making all this sound will attract the guivre, but no words form.
We ride forever, and I come in and out of it. Only a strong arm banded around my waist keeps me from falling off. I am aware that we stop, but I can’t bring myself to move. Strong arms wrap around my waist, and then I’m moving. I cry out in pain and try to breathe through the pain that I’m pretty sure means my arm is gone. I can’t bring myself to look. If it is still there, it has to be black and burnt to a crisp. That’s how it feels anyway. I’m aware of voices all around me, and somewhere in my sub-conscious, I yell at everyone to be quiet so we don’t get attacked. But no actual sound comes out of my mouth. We're moving again, and I close my eyes because the movement makes me sick. Suddenly, the movement stops. Through blurry eyes, I take in the fact that there’s a ceiling above me. A face I don’t recognize swims into view and says something I don’t compute. Then somebody moves my arm. I scream in pain, and then there is only blessed nothingness.
Chapter 21
When I wake up, I am instantly aware of two things. My arm no longer hurts, and Kaldar is not happy. I don’t know how exactly I know; I just know. His face looks calm, but it’s like I can feel the anger coming off him. Harper notices me first. “Look who decided to wake up.”
