Page 49 of Their Promise

“Is this something the hybrids started? Did they create the demons?” another asked.

Why were people so quick to blame hybrids? The demons had been attacking far longer than my clan was created.

“What do you want?” I demanded. “Do you have a leader? Someone who is ordering you to do these attacks? Why are you here? Why do you keep coming here? Why are you attacking our people?”

The pull became stronger and I reached up, clutching the necklace as it throbbed against my chest almost painfully.

What was through that portal? What would I find on the other side?

The urge to run through was so strong I had to close my eyes and bite the side of my mouth until I drew blood to stop.

The bulls moved forward and reached for me, but I ducked out of the way before they could touch me and Trey kicked the closest one in the chest, making him stumble back a few steps.

The two hellhounds walked out of the portal again, snarling this time.

“Well, two questions answered,” I muttered to Trey as he and I started ducking and dodging the bulls who were trying to grab me. “They aren’t interested in communicating, or can’t, but can understand our language. And they can come and go through the portals without getting injured.”

I ran around the portal, trying to put distance between me and the creatures, but the bulls followed me. It seemed like they were completely unconcerned with Trey and only cared about grabbing me. Their beefy hands reached out anytime they got close, trying to grasp my arm or my hair, but they weren’t attacking me so far.

The hellhounds leapt at Trey, forcing him to take a warrior shift and knock them away with his tail.

“Get farther back,” Trey ordered everyone, including me.

One of the hellhounds jumped towards me and I kicked it in the face, its bone crunching and jaw hanging off its face at a weird angle. Still, it came after me, but not growling like it did when it faced Trey.

Trey breathed fire onto the injured hellhound and it disintegrated.

Distracted by the hellhound and trying to get away from one of the bulls, the second one grabbed my arm and started dragging me towards the portal.

I gasped, stuck my heels in the ground, grabbed his arm, and snapped the bone in half.

He bellowed in pain, released me, and tried to backhand me.

Ducking under his backhand, I rolled away from him and towards Trey.

Mason flew down towards us in raven form, landing on the bull-man with the broken arm’s head, and pecked at his eyes, blinding him.

The bull-man bellowed and started to fall backwards through the portal, with Mason on his head.

“Mason!” I screamed in fear.

He flew off of the bull-man’s head and circled around before shifting and landing on human feet behind me. “Are you injured?”

“No,” I whispered.

Trey killed the last hellhound and all the bodies disintegrated into black smoke.

Mason grabbed my shoulder and jerked me back. “Lily!”

I blinked, shocked to find I was less than two feet from the portal, my hand wrapped around the necklace.

Dropping my hand, the pull lessened, but not fully.

After another thirty seconds, the portal closed and disappeared.

Relief coursed through me and I started to fall, but Trey caught me and picked me up with an arm beneath my legs and one behind my back. “I’ve got you, Princess.”

Chapter

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