Page 34 of Destined to the Reaper

In that instant, I realized how foolish it had been of me to ever think I could make it out of here alive. There was a reason people said the journey into Hemdell Crypt was a one-way ticket. Tears pricked my eyes as I braced myself for the inevitable. But I wouldn’t go down passively. I would take as many of these abominations with me as possible.

I threw all the blood darts I still had and raised what inert skeletons I could to impede the advance of the monsters. Between a flurry of Blood Magic spells to repel their attacks or shield myself from theirs, and Bone Magic to dislocate joints and break limbs and spines, I frantically tried to keep up with Pharos who was desperately trying to open a path for me. But climbing out of the depths of hell was far more trying than descending into it.

My legs were burning from running up the stairs while dodging the vicious assaults of my would-be assassins. My lungs were on fire as I tried to catch my breath between incantations.

And we were only halfway up the second platform.

A scream of pain escaped me as a boned dart pierced through the fleshy part of my upper arm and flew right through. I instinctively slapped my hand over it and whispered a healing spell. From the way it burned, the thrice damned thing hadbeen poisoned. I could only cast a blood spell to keep it from spreading until I hopefully had a chance to properly cure myself.

Pharos looked at me over his shoulder. The fear on his face wrecked me. It wasn’t fear for himself, but for me. He knew I wasn’t going to make it. He spread his wings wide so that another volley of bone spikes from the Fiends would strike him instead of me, allowing him to slay the creatures that had launched them.

But he couldn’t cover me from every angle.

On the upper levels, the Bone Fiends were lining the edges of the platforms, pressing their foreheads to the floor so their spiked backs would face towards me before launching their deadly weapons at me. Between the Skarachs, mutants, and Bone Fiends, it felt like a swarm of locusts closing in on all sides, blotting out the light, and choking the very air out of the room.

With my blood shield too weak to withstand the brute force of the bone spikes, I summoned the Shield of Azriel instead. It was powerful against both physical and magical attacks, but it was meant to be used while stationary. Walking around with the shield active weakened it. But it would still be more powerful than the other one. And it proved useful until we reached the next landing.

However, a Skarach crawling on the wall suddenly launched itself at me, striking me violently on the right side. Too busy trying to shield me from the darts of the Bone Fiends on the other levels, Pharos didn’t notice until I screamed from the force of the impact. It sent me flying across the narrow platform. In slow motion, I felt myself lose my footing and fall over the edge.

“KALI!” Pharos yelled.

Time froze as I prepared to plummet to my death and for my body to shatter on the dark stones of the staircase below. The surface of the somber pool of murky water rippled as themassive silhouette of the creature that lurked in its depths stirred. If I survived the fall, it would undoubtedly devour me.

But Pharos dove down, caught my wrist, and all but threw me back onto the platform. I landed so hard, it knocked the wind out of me. In the distance, I heard Pharos cry out. I wanted to glance his way to see what had caused him pain, but the Skarach that had nearly sent me to my death rose on to its two feet. Towering over me at an impossible height, he raised his remaining six limbs to stab me. I barely had time to restore my Shield of Azriel before he repeatedly pummeled it with the dagger-like tips of his limbs.

I scrambled back onto my feet as the shield flickered under the brutal assault from both the Skarach and the other darts being fired at me. Using my Bone Magic, I shattered both his legs, but as he collapsed, he viciously swiped two of his upper limbs at me, sending me crashing against the wall. I crumbled to the floor, dazed. My teeth rattled in my head, and the room spun.

Pharos once more yelling my name was buried by my own strident scream of agony as a heavy weight settled on my right leg, followed by a sizzling sound as the acid of a Skarach’s phlegm began eating through the leather of my pants and then my flesh. I cast a repulsion spell to throw it off me. It felt as if it was tearing half of my skin off as it flew away.

As too many shadows closed in on me, I cast the bone bomb spell in one last desperate effort. It caused every bone in range to shatter and detonate like an explosive device, sending fragments flying in every direction, shredding everything in its path. The room blurred in a shower of bones and semi-mummified flesh. Feeling drained, I attempted to cast another repulsion spell on the massive silhouette that appeared before me only to realize it was Pharos.

Guilt fleetingly coursed through me as I realized my spell could have seriously damaged him. However, he looked unscathed but for a huge gash across his palm and disappearing under the bracer on his forearm to reappear at the other end and taper off below his elbow. I didn’t have time to dwell on it as he grabbed my upper arm and dragged me after him to one of the semi-hidden passages along the platform. He didn’t continue straight ahead but slapped his hand against what I had assumed to be a textured section of the wall. To my shock, a red light glowed around the edges of a massive set of doors, which parted open before us.

I blindly cast another repulsion spell behind me as Pharos pulled me inside a huge, empty room. My spell had been too weak, and three Skarachs managed to lunge inside. One of them crawled up the ceiling before leaping at me. I screamed, knowing I’d never have time to dodge. It vanished in a rain of ashes, as did the other two that had squeezed inside before Pharos slammed the doors shut.

He roared in pain and fell to his knees. Resting his palms on the dust covered floor, his wings hanging limply on the sides of his broad shoulders, Pharos was shaking, head bowed, as if on the verge of going into shock.

Despite the excruciating pain radiating from my wounded leg, I limped to his side, ignoring the pounding sounds of the monsters trying to break into the room.

“Pharos! Are you okay?!” I shouted, falling to my knees next to him.

Teeth clenched, he lifted his face to look at me. I covered my mouth with my palm, horrified to see deep cuts, similar to the one I’d previously noticed on his hand and wrist. This time, they sliced his face from the forehead, across his right eye, and through the base of his jaw. Other similar gaping wounds lacerated his chest and arms. Although wet with blood, hisaccelerated generation kept them from dripping. But they were closing at a snail’s pace.

And then it dawned on me.

Those wounds were his punishment for breaking the covenant… for killing without being attacked.

For protecting me…

Without a word, he painfully got back on his feet. I imitated him, grinding my teeth through the pain ravaging my leg, ignoring the throbbing bruising in my side, and the burning in my upper arm.

The look on Pharos’s face tore me apart. It was a devastating mix of sorrow, anger, resignation, and defeat. He straightened and cupped my face between his hands.

“You will not survive this, my Kali. I cannot protect you. Please, give me your soul. I don’t want to lose you,” he pleaded, his voice raw from the pain he visibly still felt.

My lips quivered, and my throat constricted as a wave of despair crashed over me. There was no arguing against the truth of his words. By rights, I should already be dead. The minute the doors opened, it would be all over for me.

I don’t want to die. But am I willing to give away my soul?

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