Page 142 of Wings of Ash & Flame
Snarls closed in, icy fingers running down Alaire’s spine. She dropped his arm, drew her weapons, and forced her screaming legs to keep moving. Her breaths burned, ragged and sharp.
“Keep going!” Dawson ordered.
They retraced their path, the stench of rot clinging thicker than smoke. Bones splintered beneath their boots. She kept her eyes forward.Do. Not. Stop.
Claws clip-clacked all around them, the bloodravagers’ skeletal frames gliding like phantoms through the cavern.
Her grip whitened on her daggers.
There—the cave mouth.
Faint rays of light cut through the mist. Morning. Relief surged through her. They were almost?—
Shadows eclipsed the light. Bloodravagers weren’t only behind them. They were waiting.
Had they been there all along? Watching from the shadows? Was it one ofthemthat brushed her back earlier?
The alpha had fallen, but the pack wasn’t fracturing—they were adapting. Hunger outweighed instinct.
They’d have to fight their way out.
Dawson shifted to cover her, blade steady, circling protectively. “Stay close. Get ready.”
Here we go.
A gurgling snarl rose, then the pack lunged.
Pain seared through her side as claws raked across her.
“Fuck!”
She retaliated, driving her dagger into one bloodravager’s ribs. She twisted hard, carved deep, and shoved it back. The beast staggered but didn’t fall.
Dawson blurred beside her, lethal and precise, the wind around him a storm. A burst slammed one creature into a stalagmite with acrunch.
“Move!” he shouted, forcing a path closer to the entrance.
Alaire spun her daggers, ducked low, and slashed. Blood sprayed, hot and vicious across her skin. Her shoulders burned, each impact jolting up her arms.
How much longer could she keep this up?
Another lunged. She rolled, her blade slicing a brutal arc across its throat.
Dawson was everywhere at once—airborne, surging with impossible bursts of speed, a force of nature. But even he couldn’t last forever.
Teeth, claws, steel—it was all a blur. The bloodravagers pressed tighter.
Alaire ducked, breath catching as claws whooshed past her head. She stabbed between shoulder and chest, twisting both blades counterclockwise until the flesh gave.
The beast shrieked, but another lunged for her exposed neck.
Her vision blurred at the edges from exhaustion, blood loss, and lack of sleep.
They just kept coming.How could we possibly survive this?
Sweat stung her eyes.
She pulled one dagger free from the other creature, twisting away as she drove her blade into its neck, slicing downward. The hot spray of black blood splattered across her skin, burning like acid where it touched her. It convulsed on the floor before collapsing.
