I tilted my head. “Do you know, I don’t think I can move.” My voice was matter-of-fact, and I stared at the creatures of death. “I think I might die here, now. This seems like… fate.”
These aberrations, the mist, this place… all of it was wrong. I often felt wrong, too.
That’s because you’re worthless.Father’s voice was louder here, and I trembled.
“You should go, Daegal,” I whispered. “Run.”
The skull-spiders were getting closer.
“Like hell I’m going to leave you here,” he growled. Sheathing his sword, his hands landed on my hips and he threw me over his shoulder in one swift movement, as if I weighed nothing at all. He gripped my thighs, running towards the others.
The creatures came closer still, peeling off the walls and appearing out of nowhere. Dozens became hundreds, which would soon be thousands.
“Ryllae!” Daegal squeezed my thighs. “Fight, Princess. You can do this.”
My gaze dropped to my hands. The crimson magic seemed so out of place here.
Fight.
I could do this.
I had to do this.
If not for me, then for Daegal.
Fight.
“I’ll try,” I told him.
He grunted, and I opened my fists. Red magic flooded from my palms, and I directed the ribbons toward the hideous creatures. The first wave slammed into them, and they erupted in a burst of crimson. A sharp, high-pitched whine came from the skull-spiders as they disintegrated.
I shuddered, but there was no time for anything else. More and more of them appeared. The black mist rose. Reaching into the well of magic within me, I scooped up as much as I could hold. Again and again, I threw it at the creatures.
They kept coming.
Daegal ran, and my pack slammed painfully into my back. None of that mattered. No matter how many I destroyed, more and more of them came.
At least when I was fighting, the madness didn’t seem so close.
My Fortune Elf turned a corner, running down a thin alley between two tall stone buildings. The black mist was everywhere here.
“Hurry!” Xander’s commanding voice sounded far away, and I couldn’t see him anywhere. “Do not stop fighting!”
Daegal turned, but just then, a spider that wasn’t a spider came barreling down the street. It was the size of a small dog and it snarled, black venom dripping from its teeth.
“Run!” I screamed.
Forming a sphere of magic, I hurled it at the creature. The not-spider gnashed its teeth as it launched itself into the air. My heart pounded and a cold sweat broke out on the back of my neck as I pulled more and more magic out of my well. The sphere struck the skull-spider mid-jump, and an ear-piercing screech erupted from it as it exploded in a flurry of inky blood. Shards of bone flew, and I ducked as one went whizzing past.
The black mist thickened until seeing was practically impossible. The glow of my power was the only source of light as Daegal carried me through the city.
The skull-spiders kept coming. There were so many of them. The mist was so thick that the creatures were almost invisible. But I could hear them. Feel them. Closer. They kept coming closer.
“Run faster!” I yelled.
Heavy, unnatural darkness surrounded us. The city itself was bathed in darkness, the buildings little more than shadowy outlines as we ran from the skull-spiders.
“Believe me, Princess, I’m running,” was Daegal’s breathless reply as he carried me.