Page 107 of Woven Souls

It never makes it.

The Ghost, hoping to land a killing blow, is thrown into the wall. The second Ghost gasps as they stumble backwards, raising their hands in defeat. Their sword clatters to the ground beside me. Cautiously, I lift my head, and my mouth drops open. Standing over me, Theo, and Jonah are six spirits, all dressed as Ghosts with their swords raised and ready. The Elders in the room gasp.

“Elder Marigold, so good to see you again,” one of the spirits says, her voice laced with barely contained anger. “And how satisfying it is to be able to stop you.”

The one standing near Jonah steps towards the Elders, their sword raised high.

“You killed us and thought you had gotten away with it!” the female spirit shrieks. Her sword swings around to point at every living Ghost in the room. “How dare you all allow this to happen. You took vows to be the ones to stop monsters from destroying this realm. Well, here they are! Right under our noses, and you’rehelping them!”

“How is this happening?” Elder Marigold shrieks, still backing up towards the door. “You’re dead! There’s no way you can possibly be here, touching us!”

The spirit chuckles darkly.

“There’s a very powerful young woman giving us just a tiny little boost. I’ll have to make sure to thank her after this.”

Elder Luthasi sputters, but before he can get anything out, the spirit in charge is suddenly in his face. Her sword slices through his body, not as a celestial object, but as a solid one, cutting through skin, muscle, and bone. Elder Luthasi gasps, his eyes widening in horror as his head drops to stare down at the sword protruding from his waist.

“I don’t even know who the fuck you are,” the spirit hisses. “But since you’re involved, I’ll gladly take you out, too.”

She yanks her sword free, and Elder Luthasi falls to his knees hard. He wheezes painfully as his blood pours out of his abdomen. He casts a fearful look around the room before the life flickers out of his eyes, and he collapses into a pool of his own blood. With everyone’s attention on him, I look up at the spirit standing over me. Their sword is pointed at the Ghosts closest to me. Slowly, I get to my feet.

Under us, the ground shakes again. My heart races. I glance at Theodon and Jonah, who get to their feet as well, their faces paling as they look over at me. This has to be the Utikyie causing the shaking. We have to get to Willow before they do. As if sensing our rising alarm, the spirit in charge walks into the middle of the room, her blade swinging around so that she makes sure everyone can see her.

“Simon, grab the keys hanging from the Ghost by the door and free these men. The rest of you go with them and make sure they make it out of here,” the spirit in charge hisses.

I assume it’s Simon who floats across the room to grab the keys from the Ghost by the door, as requested. The spirit moves quickly as the approaching footsteps of the Utikyie grow heavier and heavier. Once Theodon is free, he quickly disarms the unsuspecting Ghost, whose attention is on the spirits in the room rather than on us. When the shackles fall from my wrists, I grunt my thanks and scoop up a fallen sword. As I move towards Theodon and Jonah, the other spirits follow, surrounding us protectively. The Ghost by the door yanks the door open and tries to make a run for it. One of the spirits moves faster. The Ghost is dead before both feet are out of the room.

“Go, get your woman and your friend and get out of here,” the spirit in charge says.

We start to charge out of the room, but Theo pauses to look behind us. I brush past him, eager to get to Willow and Kwil. From the sound of agonizing screams coming from above us, there’s a lot going on. They need our help.

“Let’s go!” I roar over my shoulder.

We don’t have time to thank these spirits. If we don’t hurry, we’ll be joining them sooner rather than later.

Chapter27

KWIL

Somehow, Willow is manipulating both our ability to walk the fine line between realmsandeliminating the demons pursuing us. Whatever danger could harm the civilians is taken care of before any damage can be done.

As I lead her up the main street of Everlast, I can feel her hand shaking under the effort.

If this is how tired she is now, what’s it going to be like when we get to the temple? We’re not going to receive a warm welcome. In fact, I have no doubt we’ll be met with the full force of the Ghost Brotherhood. That thought is solidified as my people scream and run in every which way to avoid us. We’re definitely not giving off friendly vibes. I don’t know what we look like as we run up the street, but based on the reaction we’re receiving, it can’t be great. And the Brotherhood won’t take well to a threat. Especially not on their own turf. We both need to be ready to fight.

I choke down a snarl. I won’t let anything happen to her. Whatever they throw at us, I’ll be there to intercept it.

Behind us, a few of the guards give chase. Now that they no longer have to worry about the creatures from the Realm of the Dead, we have their entire focus. Thankfully, they’ve given up shooting at us. I’m not sure if that’s because they don’t think the bullets will do much against us, or if they’re worried they might hit bystanders. At least that’s one thing I don’t need to worry about.

Besides what we’ll find at the temple, my biggest concern is the Utikyie.

While slow moving, they are extra persistent today. It was always a possibility they would show up, but what we didn’t expect was for them toreappearonce Willow sent them back. At least, not so quickly. Their shrieks send cold chills down my spine. One is giving chase behind us, but I can see another a few miles out to our left. Its head towers over the buildings. There’s a third to our right, coming over the rolling hills. While I can’t see the others, I know there are more of them nearby. Their shrieks seem to be a form of communication because as one lets out a terrible, knee-trembling howl, another one answers. I can hear two answering somewhere way ahead of us, off in the distance. I have a sinking suspicion they’ve surrounded Everlast.

“Willow, we can’t let those things smash through Everlast. There are innocent people here,” I warn her. “We may have to retreat to redirect them.”

“Once we get to the temple, I’ll get rid of them.”

“But they keep coming back.”

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