Page 81 of Claimed By Shadow and Blood
Hot pain sliced across my left foreleg, and blood trickled down the limb. My eyes snapped to the left, and a deep growl rose in my chest.
Two figures in black stood on a dark slate ledge lower down on the mountain, just outside the thicker parts of the fog. Gray, wisping magic spiraled around them as if they’d teleported in. Their clothing was simple and well-fitted, complete with a glowing silver pendants hanging by silver chains. One held a sword while the other held a bow.
The one with the bow lowered it, and the silver pendants around their necks glinted in the golden light from the orbs above.
“Give up now, bitch, and you’ll die fast,” Arrow Assassin shouted, his baritone echoing off the rocks. He plucked another arrow from his quiver and nocked it.
The second assassin charged in my direction, the sword gripped tightly in his hand. The tip of the blade had the same iridescent green coating as the first assassin’s dagger. “Coming for you, filth blood. Make this harder than it has to be, and you’ll suffer like you wouldn’t believe.”
The fog curled around them, but it parted as Sword Assassin jogged in my direction. The first assassin who had attacked me hadn’t been touched by the fog until the end—after I’d shattered his pendant.
Arrow Assassin laughed, and his bow creaked as he drew it taut. “The folgan is almost all around the mountain now. No one can get away from it until that gong sounds. And before you got here, one of our associates made sure you wouldn’t have any of the tools. You’re doomed, girl, so why don’t you just come here and make it easier on all of us?”
Jumping onto another ledge, Sword Assassin’s boots slid half a step, but his pace remained steady. He adjusted his grip on the sword hilt and laughed.
I huffed. He had better balance than I’d hoped. Veering hard left, I ducked into a narrow run of broken stone, using the natural terrain as cover. Another arrow hissed through the air and skipped off a rock behind me.
I leaped across a chasm and landed on a sharply angled slab of stone. My claws clicked and slid as I forced myself upward.
A deep, wet clicking noise, like jaws opening and closing, sounded. Fog spilled over the ledge above me, bubbling and building. Three more pairs of eyes opened and then shut... and surged forward.
Shit!It was going to cut me off.
I refused to die, especially after surviving that prison for as long as I had.
To my left, the mountain terrain formed an island of rock with larger blocks of stone and natural pillars amid the sand and clay.
My heart lurched. I could use them for cover.
Maybe the folgan couldn’t cross the chasm because of all the empty space below it. If I could jump the fifteenish-foot narrowest section, I should be home free.
Summoning all my strength and ignoring the burning in my foreleg, I ran and leaped. I shot through the air and struck a boulder on the other side.
An arrow shot past me into the rock near my paw. The relative safety of the natural pillars was only a few feet away. The folgan, or whatever the hell it was, rolled down from the top left of the ledge at an angle and poured into the chasm surrounding the island. It wasn’t crossing.
Oh, thank Fate!
“NEEEE-iiih.” A terrified whine rose above the whipping wind. The agonized sound cut into me.
I leaped onto another ledge formed of numerous jagged rock columns protruding like broken teeth. The edge crumbled, bits of rock and sand sliding down into the rising fog. Fear clawed through me as I scrambled to stronger, higher ground. Some of the naturally formed pillars blocked Arrow Assassin from reaching me.
“Mmmrrhh—neeehh.” A throatier, broken sound whinnied through the dry air. I spun and peered through the stone pillars.
A delicate unicorn foal with a pearly gray horn was scrambling up the mountainside toward the spot where I’d just been, its gray coat streaked with dirt and blood. Its spindly legs trembled with each frantic step while the fog monster continued to build behind it. The fog filled every crack and crevice as the unicorn continued to move closer and closer. Some of its blood oozed down into the chasm.
Another arrow whistled past my ear. Veering away, I ducked behind a line of rough boulders and natural pillars and peeked back out.
Below me, the unicorn squealed and redoubled its efforts to escape, slipping on the loose gravel. Its charcoal hoofs kicked out the stones, and it slid back.
Would it be able to jump the chasm? My wolf strength had propelled me far, but this unicorn barely looked old enough to run.
Another arrow snapped past and embedded itself into the rock pile ahead of the unicorn. The foal screamed again, high and wild. It almost fell, and the fog reached for it from behind while also seeping in from the top left.
Now, almost half of the ledge was covered.
I bared my teeth at Arrow Assassin and scanned the mountain for any advantage. There was more sand and soil here than I’d expected, and it looked like there was more the higher it went.
"Focus!" Sword Assassin shouted above the wails, his voice close. “At least wound the bitch again before you start going for the unicorn. She’s acting like she didn’t feel it at all.”
