But as I kicked his body free from the blade, I became aware of the weight of footsteps behind me.
Demons. Lots of demons.
I half leapt, half stumbled over the body and raced on. The trembling in the earth was so bad now, thick clouds of dust and stone were swirling around me, making it nigh on impossible to see. I had no idea how to stop it—not without physically pressing my hand against the ground, as I had on King Island, and with the speed of the demons behind me that could prove deadly.
I sucked in another breath and only then realized the air no longer burned my throat and lungs. Instead of thick foulness, it smelled and felt electric—the sort of sensation you got just before a major storm hit.
And that had to mean there was an opening to the world above somewhere ahead.
The knowledge sent a fresh spurt of energy into my aching legs. As I raced on through the muck, the darkness eased and the deeper chill in the air dissipated. But the demons were drawing closer, the walls around me were cracking, and big chunks of the ceiling were now falling. I raised Elysian above my head in the vague hope that she would protect me and ran on.
Another long, sweeping corner. The heavy steps of the demons echoed through the stone under my feet. They were so damn close that if I turned, I’d see the glow of their eyes. It didn’t matter. The bastards were not going to catch me now. If I had to push every last ounce of strength into getting free from this place, I would.
I sucked in another useless breath, then gathered together the flickering remnants of my inner lightning and flung it behind me. The shadows lit up as the multiple forks shot back down the tunnel. A few seconds later, the footsteps stilled and the stench of burning flesh filled the air.
I had minutes, if that, to escape.
I slid to a halt in front of the crack. It was a long, thin channel that promised freedom and yet, at the same time, withheld it. Even my blackbird form wasn’t going to get through it. I had to widen the damn thing.
I plunged Elysian into the crack and called on the earth to widen it. She responded fiercely, her power burning into the soles of my feet, through my body, down Elysian’s blade, and into the stone. The channel’s walls started to glow with a fierce yellow-white light that reminded me somewhat of lava, and then, ever so slowly, the gap began to widen.
Hurry, hurry, I wanted to scream, but there was little point.
My gaze darted back to the tunnel. They were coming.
Fuck.
The channel remained too narrow. I was out of time and out of choices. I swore, briefly closed my eyes against the sting of useless tears, then ripped Elysian free and shoved her through the stone and into the earth underneath. Awareness hit; the heavy weight of over a dozen feet pounding on stone, the ruins of the tunnels I’d destroyed, and the foul stain of blood surrounding a stone pillar driven like a knife into the earth. And, in the deeper distance, something that sat like a whisper on the earth, radiating an energy that was of this world and yet not. That was dark, and yet not.
A gateway?
Elysian pulsed, and something within me sharpened. An odd sort of mist blurred my vision, reminding me of the gray, though I was very definitely anchored to this world, not the other.
The whisper of the gate’s weight on the earth drew me closer—mentally rather than physically—and suddenly I was there, in front of the gate, a ghostly figure watching as dark forms spewed from the portal. Their weight shuddered through the ground, through me, and their screams rent the air, a sound so loud it hurt my ears.
But not all those screams were distant. Some were way too close.
My attention snapped back to the here and now. The demons were so close now, I could smell them; if I didn’t stop the bastards in the next few seconds, they’d be on me.
I reached for the earth’s might and flung it at the tunnel. As the ground began to shake with the force of her response, I called on the lightning. I expected little more than a splutter, but instead got something entirely different. Something that wasn’t just lightning but rather a storm of heat and fury that swept down Elysian’s blade and chased the earth’s wave of power through the ground. As huge cracks appeared in the ceiling, walls, and floor of the tunnel, multiple forks of lightning erupted through the gaps and targeted the demons. By the time the tunnel collapsed, there were none left.
I dropped to my knees and leaned heavily on Elysian, wishing I could move but physically unable to do anything more than breathe. And even that hurt.
I closed my eyes and rested my head against the sword’s hilt. The gentle pulse of her power caressed my skin but gave me no strength or healing. I needed Vita for that, and she was simply too far away.
And yet, had Nex been here, I might not have needed Vita’s help, because I would have been able to channel the power of the storms through her rather than my body.
How I’d been able to do that was certainly something I needed to talk to Mo about. But to have any hope of doing that, I had to get up, had to move. I couldn’t stay here, no matter how much my body and brain hurt. I might have temporarily stopped the demons, but I had no doubt they’d find a way around the blockage. If they hit me again, it would be the end.
And yet, despite the pulsing need to get the hell out of here, I just couldn’t force my legs to move.
I wasn’t sure how much time had passed before I became aware that the earth was again shuddering. I frowned and opened my eyes. Elysian’s light was muted and the earth under my toes still.
A squawk had my gaze jumping to the channel. A familiar black shape emerged. I blinked and wondered if utter exhaustion had made me delusional.
I wasn’t. The shape was real.
My heart leapt. Mo.
Tears stung my eyes, and a sob escaped. She swept into the tunnel, did a quick circle, and then shifted shape in front of me. I dropped Elysian and fell into her embrace, shuddering and crying with relief.
“Hush.” She wrapped her arms around me and held me close. “You’re okay. You’re safe.”
“Mo, he betrayed me.” It came out broken, full of hiccups and tears. “My own fucking brother willingly handed me over to Darkside.”
“I know.” She brushed a kiss on the top of my head. “I know.”
“I hate him.”
“No, you don’t.”
“I am going to kill him.”
“Yes.”
“I have no choice.”
“No. Not now.”
I didn’t say anything else. There was no need to. She knew. She understood.
I wasn’t sure how long we knelt there in the dusty gloom, but it must have been a while, because the daylight was fading fast by the time I pulled back.
She touched a hand to my cheek, her smile understanding. “I’m so sorry, darling girl. I’d truly hoped it would work out differently, that he would at least hold true to you if no one else, but I guess that was not to be.”
Tears stung my eyes again, and I brushed them away resolutely. They were nothing more than the shattered remains of hope and love. My brother had proven himself unworthy of either up on that bridge.
“How long was I missing?” I asked.
“Just a day, but it was the longest day of my life.” Her gaze scanned me. “Let’s get you healed and out of here. You need a feed and a bath, and not necessarily in that order. You, my girl, stink.”
She placed her hands on both my temples. The warm, golden heat of her healing energy flooded my body, fixing the myriad of wounds and chasing away the worst of the pain and tiredness. The deep ache remained in my head, but I suspected at least some of that was a result of severe dehydration.