Page 27 of The Dark Rises
Brixton laughs. “He’s going to be pissed when he regenerates.”
Madoc snarls back at him. “He shouldn’t touch what isn’t his.”
Impulsively, I swipe my foot across the ashes, sending them into the water beside us, then use the wind to send the rest out of the mouth of the cave. “It might take him a while.”
“Bitch,” Brixton snarls, back handing me across the face. “We’ll make sure to scatter your ashes to the four corners. See if Denir can track you there.”
I spit out the blood in my mouth. “Weak. Leandra hit harder than you.”
Leandra’s name does what Denir’s didn’t, and a sliver of fear crosses Brixton’s face. “How do you know that old hag?”
I snort. “Say it louder. She’s got ears everywhere. The last person to call her a hag ended up in The Pit.”
Yep, that was me. It was literally the last word I threw at her before she sent me into the depths of hell. This is fun. Who knew the truth could be so freeing?
His lips clamp together as he contemplates me. He motions to one of Madoc’s guards. “Lock her up. Send Nya to Denir to ask about her.”
Saved from instant death, at least. My eyes meet Madoc’s, and he nods. When the guard steps away from him to grab me, Madoc slams into Hyne, knocking him into the sea.
Brixton chortles and grabs for Madoc only to rear back in astonishment, gold handcuffs clamped around his wrists.
Something tickles my side, and I turn to find the guard trying to stab through my shield. I open my hand, hoping the Killian blade will appear but nothing happens. The next time he thrusts it forward, I change it to a feather.
“Sorry, not ticklish.” I sneer, then add power to my fists. With a right cross and left hook, I hit him hard enough to knock him backward.
In response, he gives me a maniacal grin and rushes forward, tackling me to the ground, but instead of attacking me, he raises the knife and slices across his throat. Faery fire erupts acrosshis body, and I hear Madoc yelling behind me. Unable to do anything, I hold my palms up and throw everything into my shield. A thin, silver stream appears between the two of us, then wraps itself around him. His mouth opens in a silent scream as he turns to ash.
Coughing from the dust, I scramble away from his remains and stand. Eyes glued to the ground, I plant my feet and wait for him to regenerate.
Grunts behind me has me shuffling to the side until I can see Madoc. The first guard, whose ashes I swept into the water, finally regenerated and made it back. Madoc is fighting fiercely, but every time he kills one, the other keeps him busy until his friend regenerates.
Brixton erupts into flames, killing himself, and the cuffs drop to the floor. Madoc shifts until his back is to the wall and continues fighting. Brixton’s ashes swirl in a tornado like wind and begin to reform.
Damn, that’s fast.
I swivel around to the one I somehow killed a moment ago, but he hasn’t regenerated. Puzzled, I step closer. There’s a silver sheen laying across the ashes. Is that preventing him from returning?
Desperate, I replay the scene in my head. All I did was raise my palms. I hold them up toward the guards fighting with Madoc, but nothing happens. I turn further and hold them out toward Brixton’s ashes, but they continue to swirl and reform.
I step toward one of the guards battling Madoc and tap him on the shoulder. He turns and throws his hand out, but I duck and punch him in the balls. His face scrunches up in pain, but it doesn’t slow him down. Fire balls don’t deter him either. A large fist connects with my head, and pain explodes across my temple. It recedes a second later.
Harnessing the wind, I wrap it around him and let it carry him out, but large fiery gold wings snap out, and he stops himself. No wonder the war went on for so long. Phoenix are damn hard to defeat.
Cormal emerges from the shadows at the mouth of the sea and binds him with magic, then hangs him from the hook I saw earlier.
Two massive blue serpents rise out of the sea, teeth snapping, and grab him. With a single jerk of their heads, his body tears in two, each of them swallowing their half before disappearing again beneath the surface.
Cormal puts his back to Madoc’s. Dividing the final two guards, they quickly eliminate them. This time, they’re able to cast magic against them regenerating. Separating, they both turn to face Brixton.
Fire and magic rip through the cave as the battle starts.
Suddenly, a massive plume of water shoots out of the sea like a geyser, and Hyne comes surging up with it in kraken form. Eyes the blackest of black stare down at all of us in one of the most terrifying sights I’ve ever seen. No wonder Fisk thought I’d be afraid to fight Hyne. If I had seen him in this form, I would have peed my pants and begged for mercy.
In a flash of light, Hyne’s human form emerges, and he throws the gold cuffs on the ground. “Bastard. Don’t kill him until I get a piece.” A spear of water forms in his hands.
Hurry.
It has to be Rivan’s voice. I rush toward the entrance, careful to step over the ashes from the guard I fought. When I do, I see the silver is spreading across the surface of the cave.
