Page 90 of Cloak of Night
“You sure?”
“Yes. Don’t lose your momentum. Every second is going to count once we begin our attacks.” They unfastened themselves from the harness.
“All right. Then here we go.” Daemon veered around the waterfall, arcing out wide enough that the skeletons wouldn’t notice him, then curved back inland. He slowed a little but not much as he flew close to the ground. “Jump in three, two,...”
Fairy and Broomstick leaped like acrobats and tucked themselves into their bodies. They hit the ground in somersaults, rolling rather than hitting the rock face hard.
“Beautiful,” Sora said as she and Daemon rose back into the sky.
She watched as Fairy sprinted toward Dera Falls and Broomstick scaled the side of the rocky island to a vantage point where he could see the ships.
“They’ll be in place soon,” she said.
“Let me know when,” Daemon said. “They’ll need some light, and so will we, to find Skeleton and Skullcrusher.”
They circled above for a few more minutes. Fairy found a cluster of bushes to hide behind at the top of the waterfall.
“Fairy’s ready,” Sora said.
“Broomstick?” Daemon asked.
“Not yet.” Sora squinted at where she’d last seen him and caught movement along a rocky outcropping. Not long after, there was a flash. Broomstick had set off a very small explosion.
“Now!” Sora said.
A deep rumble resonated through Daemon’s body, and adrenaline surged through their bond. Daemon stopped dimming his power, and bright blue electricity lit all around him and Sora as they tore through the air, leaving a streak behind them like lightning, the rumble in his chest bursting out and shaking the sky with his thunder.
The skeletons below froze at the light and the noise.
Fairy whipped into action, running through the nearest troop of warriors with her swords out, decapitating some and hacking at others at the ribs and knees. Another troop charged at her from farther out, and she launched a grenade at them. Bones flew everywhere, splashing into the water and careening over the edge of the falls.
Below, Broomstick set off an explosion in the helm of one of the ships. A few more blasts followed. The skeleton sailors on board scurried around in confusion.
“Now it’s our turn,” Sora said. “Let’s find Skullcrusher and Skeleton.”
Daemon swooped over the top of the island, his electric glow lighting the ground as if it were midday.
“There’s one of them!” Sora shouted, leaning so far off Daemon’s back she would have tumbled off but for the harness.
Skullcrusher was running from the other side of Dera Falls, yelling furiously at his warriors. Daemon charged down at him.
Sora commanded the ryuu particles around her to form stakes. She aimed them at Skullcrusher’s eyes and threw.
He flung up a shield of his own particles. The stakes bounced off and disintegrated back into emerald dust.
Fairy blew up another group of skeletons. Meanwhile, a loud blast sounded in the ocean. Broomstick had managed to sink one of the ships, and the skeletons fell overboard.
Skullcrusher stood immobile, looking from the waterfall to the edge of the island.
Where is his brother?Sora wondered.
But the fact that he was alone benefitted her. Skullcrusher’s indecisiveness allowed Fairy to destroy a few more warriors, and some of the skeletons in the water began to sink, since they weren’t given commands to swim.
Suddenly, though, the corpses on land began to fight back. They coordinated themselves and came at Fairy all at once, rather than in haphazard attacks. As they closed in, they eliminated her ability to use Broomstick’s bombs; if she threw a grenade, it would kill her as well as them.
Skullcrusher sneered up at Sora and Daemon. “Is that all you’ve got?”
“We have to try something new,” Sora said. “He’s onto our methods. Can you use your other powers while flying?”
