“There he is!” Leala ran out from behind the tree, stooped over like we were under attack by an army of archers.
No dummy, I leaned to the other side of the tree and peered the way she’d been looking. Sure enough, Hannon’s large frame moved within the patches of moonlight, a T-shirt stretched across his shoulders. He wore plain, worn-in baggy pants and boots, probably full of holes. He was scruffy and unassuming and super nice and still amazingly, incredibly hot. Hopefully also incredibly courageous, because Leala and I definitely needed a little help on that front.
I pushed out from behind the tree, trying not to be self-conscious about my choice of attire. Hannon noticed me immediately and had the decency not to look me up and down. He’d known what I was planning on wearing but had never seen it. The visual was the arresting bit. Hopefully the demons on the other side would think so, too.
He nodded at me in greeting as I approached. The demon creature roared again, still moving away. Hannon barely glanced in that direction, not worried about it.
Courageous, definitely. Good.
“Are we sure we can cross?” he asked me, his red hair swirling around his head like fire. “In the wood to the other side of our village—the regular wood not haunted by the demons—there’s a barrier that kills anyone who tries to cross.”
“Yes…we can cross.”
“He’s not positive about that,” Leala said. “The master couldn’t, but the master is specifically governed by the curse. We’re just caught in the crossfire.”
“Thank you for ratting me out, my love. Much appreciated.” I grimaced at Hannon. “Okay, technically no, I do not know if we can cross. But Finley and…that other guy from your village got through. If there was magic preventing us from crossing, they would’ve had a hard time of it.”
“It’s worth a shot,” Hannon said, adjusting the belt around his hips. I belatedly noticed two sheaths hanging from it—one looked to hold an axe, of all things, and the other…
“Is that a kitchen knife?” I pointed.
He didn’t bother to look where I was pointing. “Yes. I can’t shift yet. I need weapons.”
I was going to press, but…well, it was still a knife, so whatever. It was more than Leala and I had. Neither of us knew how to use weapons, and we didn’t want to accidentally kill ourselves. Or get them taken and then used against us by people who were more knowledgeable. Our only useful weapons were our animals.
“Right, okay, are we doing this?” I got my bearings and started walking before my sense of survival could talk me out of it.
The others followed, thankfully, as I walked between two large trees and scanned the leaf-strewn ground. Brambles curled across it, many of them broken owing to several game trails.
No, not game trails. Creature trails.
As we continued to walk, the various paths in the area mostly converged into a wide thoroughfare of beaten-down plants. A glowing purple fog pulsed up ahead, announcing our certain death or the real beginning of our rescue attempt.
“Okay, what’s the plan?” I asked.
“You know the plan, Hadriel,” Leala whispered, edging closer to the slightly glowing fog. “You created it.”
“Yes, love, but I’m so scared that my mind has gone blank, and it is taking everything in me not to soil myself.”
“We go—” Hannon cut off, and in a terrifying moment, I saw why.
An enormous creature emerged from the fog, walking on all fours—its front feet ended in wicked black claws, while the back two were hooves. It had a great horned head with fangs and glowing red eyes, and it prowled forward like a wolf on some sort of growth magic, a long tail curving up over its back. The tail had another fucking face on the end of it, and my nightmares were complete.
“Fuck,” I bleated.
The creature saw us at the same time that Hannon and Leala burst into action. Hannon ripped out his axe and threw, the weapon turning end over end in the air. It dug into the skull as the creature lunged forward.
Leala ran in a circle, yelling. I stood watching like an idiot.
Hannon ripped his knife out of its sheath and rushed forward, ready to meet the creature head-on. But the axe had done its job. The creature’s legs buckled, dumping it down into the dirt until it skidded to a stop at Hannon’s feet. He stood over it, seemingly calm as fuck, while Leala continued to run in a circle and I drooled a little, my face having frozen in fright.
Hannon slipped his knife into its sheath as gracefully as you please before bending to yank the axe from the creature’s skull.
“Leala, my darling, stop running around like an idiot.” I caught her arm. Then wiped my drool.
Hannon cleaned off his axe and re-sheathed it, looking at the portal like something else might stumble through.
Hell, maybe it would. I’d thought all the creatures would have come through by now, but clearly I was wrong.
“Right, okay. Good job, everyone.” I gave a random thumbs-up because I felt like I needed to do something to help the team out. Moral support would have to do.
Leala breathed hard as she walked beside me, giving the (hopefully dead) creature a wide berth. Hannon, clearly the badass of the group, met us by the tail with the face on it, the thing randomly chomping with sharp little teeth.
“What the fuck?” I whispered, holding Leala’s hand.
“Agreed,” she replied.
We stopped in front of the portal, and she gave me a little nudge. I was supposed to go first.
“I should go in wolf form, probably,” I hastened to say.
No, my wolf replied, the bastard.
“Go. I’ll be right behind you.” Leala nudged me again.
“Fuck.” I clearly needed a thesaurus.
Taking a deep breath, willing Hannon to lend me strength, I held my breath and darted through the portal. Anything worth doing was worth doing so fast you couldn’t lose your nerve.
The landscape changed in an instant, the wood replaced by some sort of scary marsh. My boots sank down into squishy ground, water seeping up to the soles. The moon cast light down on murky waters in random pockets here and there. Bushes dotted the way, some on land, some in water, and thin trees with no branches stuck out at odd angles.
Leala bumped into my back as I surveyed what else was around.
A short distance off, three hunched figures made their way down a glistening path that looked like water. A large boat built in the likeness of a wooden serpent bobbed in what looked like a glistening strip of river. Cages sat around us, large and larger, many with odd-looking creatures stowed inside.
Hannon bumped into the back of Leala, forcing me forward. I took a step I didn’t want to take, and my foot splashed onto the wet path, the water rising over the toe.
“Sorry,” Leala whispered, her voice much too loud in the silent, desolate place.
“Damn it.”
At least I’d changed it up from fuck this time.
A creature beside us growled, and one of the hunched figures slowly turned around.
“Here we go,” I whispered.
Then I said, “Oops,” really loudly, and wiggled in place like I would’ve turned and run back through the portal if not for the others in my way.
Another figure glanced back as the first slowed. The third eventually did too, the three of them stopping.