Page 76 of Tales of a Monstrous Heart
‘Norac,’ I hissed in response, wrath corrupting my reasoning.
Coward. A language spoken by its blood enemy. The reason for its Old Gods’ demise and upon hearing the taunt, it revealed itself.
The earth began to shift, shaking as dirt rained down from the edges of the opening.
‘What is that !?’ Alma called, pushing herself in front of William’s prone form.
The earth before us rose and fell, twisting with the cursed roots beneath. Shards of the dark stone and bleached white bones mixing with it. Scraps of chain and moss-covered rope. Fragments of weapons and the telling curve of jawbones. Formed of nothing but hate and the remains of what had died here. What they’d taken.
That inferno inside of me rose, my hands curling into fists as I bared my teeth, allowing the warrior blood in my veins to sing true.
A waft of dead air and the tartness of old magic carried towards me, as the thing rose, its rock-and-earth body tangled with bones, impossibly tall. Face all sharp angles with stone and thorns, its mouth wide and made with the rusted fragments of forgotten blades – a humanoid form, but the limbs were too long, too jagged as thorny claws scraped at the ground.
A caymor. A creature of nightmares formed to protect cursed earth from those who would wish to take it back. To cleanse it.
The earth shook as the beast roared. William let out a cry of alarm and Alma swore, reminding me I wasn’t alone.
I brought my hands together, feeling the fire crackle and build between my palms. The chaos of my magic seeped from my skin as I forced my rage outwards, sending a large ball of sacred flame flying towards the creature. The light almost blinding me with its brightness as it took the caymor off its feet, smashing itagainst the damp wall of the chamber from which it had escaped. Large chunks of soil and rock rained down on top of it.
There was a flash of movement from my right, a ripping and snapping of bone. Alma’s clothes fluttered in pieces across the barren ground. In her place before me, blocking the caymor’s path, was the silver-scaled wrywing. Its tail was lethally thumping into the wet earth as it considered the darkness. A roar pealing from its razor-sharp jaws.
Alma.
In a moment of clarity, I watched the sharp points on her back as the rumbling from the caymor getting back to its feet echoed through that cavern. I could hear William panting for breath, his pain still restricting his movements.
‘Alma !’ I called, watching that sharp maw turn in my direction, green eyes gleaming with threat. ‘Go and get Emrys,’ I commanded, watching her eyes narrow with annoyance. ‘William needs help !’ I might have been filled with fury, but I wasn’t a fool.
She growled in complaint, those beast eyes looking to the boy before she shot skyward with a strong pull of her wings.
Relief eased the tightness of my chest. Emrys would come. All I needed to do now was keep the beast distracted.
While the nightmare still reformed in that darkness, I turned, grabbed the lapel of William’s coat and I used my Kysillian strength to toss him back up the steep embankment onto a small outcropping of stone, out of the demon’s path. He cried out, tumbling out of view and back into the safety of the wood.
The earth cracked and crumbled, another scream coming from the creature’s mouth. Whatever dry leaves had survived the damp were alight. Illuminating the remains of the temple.
Magic erupted from my hands, wrapping around my wrists and licking up my arms. I didn’t know much about theworkings of a caymor, but I’d kill it. Needed to. Some ancient and feral part of me demanded it.
I withdrew my father’s sword from my bag, the blade long and lethal as I remembered who I should be.
Steady is the heart. Swift is the flame.The memory of his voice calmed my breathing just as the monster lurched from the dark in a mess of sharp stone and gleaming metal.
I darted past its attack, one fluid turn, slicing down its rocky back with the glowing blade. It roared, its form shifting as it shed rock and bone. It threw out a clawed hand but I managed to lurch back, only for a rock to detach from its form, colliding with me.
The impact threw me back against the stone ruins, head making painful contact as I dropped to my side, gasping for breath.
‘Kat !’ William cried as the thing howled, dropping and reshaping into a form closer to a large spider as it scuttled towards me.
Before pouncing to pin me, I rolled away just as those blade teeth sank into the wet earth. Rocks cracking under the power of its bite.
I pressed my free palm to the earth, drawing on my flames, still devouring the leaves around us. Those flames roared across the earth, charring and striking the thing like a molten snake, wrapping around the darkness and trying to restrict it from another change.
It thrashed wildly, almost breaking my hold as I panted.
‘I think you’ve annoyed it,’ William called, half leaning over the ledge with a pale face of worry.
‘I gathered that, William,’ I hissed back, ducking as a newly formed long dark tail swiped close to my head, as it continued to struggle under the power of my flame. Snapping and screaming.
I charged into my own fire, feeling its reassuring heat lick across my exposed skin. Burying the blade in the centre of the creature’s chest as it reared back on its hind legs, making my blade slip free.
