Page 96 of The Wild Moon
The Alpha call slammed into me like a hurricane, momentarily pushing back the thundering call of my Soulbond as it sought complete control over me. I gasped. That brief reprieve nearly enough to make me cry. Never had I experienced sensations like this in my life. It was too much. I couldn’t handle it.No onecould.
“Better,” the voice grunted, the command in it calmer. “Now get over here, ugh, and help me.”
I looked up to see Vir battling the warrior that had come through the barrier with us. He was still dressed as the Champion, but something about him was…different.
The fire, I realized abruptly. His fire had gone out. The horns were gone as well. The rest of him was still there, but not the fire. And he seemed…diminished. The warrior was pressing him back, and the golden spear still spun but without the whirring scream it’d had before.
He was slower and without his fire. And the warrior was winning.
All at once, I had something to focus on. If I didn’t help Vir, the warrior would dispatch him and then me before I could even get to Johnathan. So, Ihadto help him. It was the only way, I told myself.
Struggling to my feet, naked and in pain, my front and back carved up from the onyx-black blade the warriors wielded, I searched the tunnel for something,anything, that might help me.
I couldn’t find a thing. All I had was myself.
“Guess it’ll have to be enough,” I said, and without thinking about what I was going to do, I flung myself on the warrior’s back.
It was a good thing I didn’t take the time to think it over because what was left of my sanity would have screamed at me for doing something so absolutelystupid. I was way out of the warrior’s league, even when healed. What was I thinking by trying to overpower it in my current state?
My attack caught the creature completely unaware, however, and it stumbled. I was tall and willowy, and most people didn’t think that could amount to much. But when you’re nearly six feet tall yourself, small or not, you’ve still got a certain amount of mass to throw around.
I threw mine hard, locking my arms around what I hoped was its neck and hauling back tightly, using my legs to grab onto its waist like some sort of spider monkey. My shrieks filled the tunnel while I wailed on its head with my fists and elbows, trying desperately to crack its tough skeleton.
The creature reached back with one hand to pull me off, but I batted its arms aside and continued my fight. Vir pressed forward, ensuring it had to focus on him with its weapon.
I found some openings in the darkness that was its body and immediately shoved my fingers in them, scratching, clawing, and driving them as deep as I could. The creature’s roar must have burst an eardrum, it was so loud, but I didn’t stop to check. I held on for dear life.
Then we were falling. I landed on top.
“Off!” Vir commanded, and I was rolling away before I had fully processed what he’d said.
The golden spear plunged through the creature’s back, and at last, it lay still.
Gasping for air, I stayed hunched over. Closer to Vir, I was able to remain in control, the agony in my head reduced to migraine level but staying just shy of debilitating. I didn’t know how much longer I could go on like this, but for now, I had the energy to keep fighting.
“They watch us,” Vir said.
I looked up, then followed his gaze to the barrier. Warriors stood on the other side, shrouded in darkness but clearly staring in our direction.
“Let them,” I said, chest heaving as I tried to come down from the post-fight high. “They can’t harm us here. Not now.”
“Perhaps,” Vir said, turning to face me.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, the lack of flames evident. “I didn’t mean to pull you through with me. I don’t even knowhowI did it. I just sort ofdid. Then you were here, too, and now you…you’re not on fire.”
“Yes,” Vir said. “The barrier seems to have robbed me of my godhood.”
“Oh, no,” I whispered.
“It’s okay,” he said. “This was how it used to be. Back when the path between Earth and the Direen was open and traversable. To bring my full powers to Earth…that would be very bad indeed. Earth is the realm of mortals. Gods do not belong here. Not in full.”
“You’re still strong, though,” I said. “And still…beastly.”
“It would seem not all my powers are gone,” Vir agreed. As he spoke, he changed, the fearsome visage of the Champion fading, replaced with human-Vir.
He shrunk as he did, though my eyes never really noticed it happening. One moment he was nine, ten feet tall—I didn’t have a measuring stick handy—the next heonlytowered over me by half a foot or so.
Seeing him this way, watching him now, had an unexpected side effect. The heavy beating of drums in my head was kept at bay. It wasn’t gone, it would never go away, but I didn’t need to roll around on the floor and claw my face anymore.
