His black, curling claws, that also tipped his bare feet, glinted as he cupped the side of his own face and drew his claws down his jaw. His grin gentled into mocking humour at Lindiwe.
“This is your plan?” He laughed. “Three Phantoms and a human? The least you could have done was to give me the pleasure of killing one of your Mavka.”
His gaze diverted to Reia as she floated through the Demons to return to them.
“It seems pointless to bring three reincarnating Phantoms to a battle they’ll lose. They will return to their Mavka only to dwell with the loss and the pain they suffered beforehand.” His grin twisted back into snide humour. “I’m guessing they don’t even know their females are here.”
“You underestimate our determination,” Lindiwe stated darkly when Reia turned solid at their sides.
“My head, is it?” Jabez asked rhetorically as he swiped his claws across his own throat. “Have to get to it first. You haven’t been successful the many other times you’ve tried.”
“I could just put a sword through your heart like I did to Katerina,” Reia mused. The Demon King’s expression morphed into a dead stare. “I’ll make you pay for everything you put Orpheus through. Should have killed me when you had the chance, Jabez.”
“No. It’s much more fun to see you pitifully fight first. It’s entertaining, just as it was entertaining when you crumbled to ash in Orpheus’ arms and I watched him cry.”
Emerie could almost taste the hateful tension between Jabez and Reia. The fight between them was personal and bitter.
Emerie couldn’t help it. She tucked her hand into the pocket of her borrowed weapons belt and clenched it around the sun stone.
They had one shot at this. If Emerie failed… if she died, they’d have to find someone else willing to make this sacrifice.
That wasn’t what had her feeling like the entire world rested on her shoulders. What if I mess up? What if she shattered the stone at the wrong time and Jabez got away?
They didn’t have a second one. This was it. What was currently nestled in her sweaty palm was their only hope.
To Emerie’s left, the tension of string and wood pulling against each other creaked. An arrow was purposefully loosed, and it sailed through the air with a whistle.
He ducked to the side, his hair fluttering as he caught the arrow aimed for his forehead. He stared at it, inspecting the sharp point of the arrowhead before bringing his gaze to Delora.
“You talk too much,” Delora announced, her usually sweet voice hard as she confidently stomped one foot forward. “I would like to go home.”
They all wanted to go home.
“You,” Jabez chuckled. “I remember you being quite… tasty when–”
“Yes, yes, when you ate me alive,” she bravely cut in, making him scowl. “I remember, and I’m still here. I’m not cowering like you said I would.”
This was personal for Delora as well, and Emerie dearly hoped she didn’t disappoint them all. Every second longer weighed on her fear of failing.
“Enough of this,” Reia shouted, as she stepped forward and sliced her blade through the air.
The surprised silence was swiftly interrupted by the wet plop of a Demon’s severed head falling to the ground.
She backed up when its body fell on top of it.
Nothing happened. No one leapt forward to defend or fight. The tension vibrated to a new height as malice bled from the Demons.
Emerie’s wide gaze trailed from the corpse to Jabez. Although prideful, his expression darkened at his obedient servants.
“Go,” he whispered.
When the remaining Demons all leapt at the same time, a squeal erupted from Emerie, and she ducked down, holding her sword up. A wave of them rained down with their thick, meaty bodies from all around.
She hadn’t expected them to all come at once and to jump like that!
Reia and Delora both turned incorporeal to evade them, while the Witch Owl stood above Emerie with her hands up. A small chalky black dome formed above and held back the Demons trying to smother them.
Emerie stared up at her as Lindiwe connected their gazes.
“I have you,” Lindiwe whispered. “Move, fight. I will be at your side as much as I can.”
With a nod, Lindiwe threw her arms back, and the shield expanded, tossing all the Demons away. Renewed confidence burst within her chest, and Emerie rushed forward with her sword raised.
Reia was gone, already in the middle of a small group of Demons. She evaded swipes and attacks by turning incorporeal, and would become solid only when she knew her attacks would deliver debilitating blows.
As they all moved, strange chalky tentacles would shoot up from the ground, curling their limbs around Demons to toss them. Those Demons were quick to get to their feet or paws and relaunch their attacks.
Delora had taken to standing on top of the stone doorway, but she couldn’t shoot with the wall behind her. Instead, she jumped off it and unleashed arrows as she fell, only to turn ghostly before she landed in the sea of writhing bodies desperate to catch her.
Emerie’s main focus was reaching the Demon King. She fought Demons along the way to the podium, with Lindiwe placing small oval shields up when she needed to protect her. They moved at a snail’s pace, having to divert and back up when charged.
The monsters that towered over her with sharp claws and fangs were the hardest to fight. It wasn’t natural to slash upwards, and her sword would lodge into their arms and sides rather than cleanly slicing. She almost lost her sword when it got jammed in between the ribs of a Demon and they pulled her with them when they yelped and jumped backwards.
Thankfully, they separated, and the motion of her bouncing back accidentally sliced the face of a medium-sized creature sneaking up on her right on all fours. It grabbed her sword with its fangs and tossed its head around to get her to let go.
Lindiwe came up beside her and drove a dagger downward through the top of its skull, effectively piercing its brain and rendering it immobile.
Holy shit, that was close, Emerie thought, thankful for Lindiwe’s interference.
She watched its eyes drift in two different directions as consciousness drained from it. Purple blood bubbled up from its fatal wound when Lindiwe yanked her blade free, and the Demon thudded chest down against the ground.
By the time Emerie turned back to look at the podium, her heart stung on each beat, utterly filled with fear and anxiety. Her chest ached, her lungs working too hard and fast. Her lips dried more and more with each ragged breath, and already she felt parched.
Her muddled, bouncing gaze searched for Jabez near his throne.
He was gone.
A high-pitched, pained shriek behind her had her spinning.
Lindiwe had been lifted off her feet, clutched in Jabez’s fist by her long, curly brown hair. Before she could turn incorporeal to escape, lowering her chin to protect her neck when she was pulled, he ripped his claws across her face.
He laughed when her ghostly body flittered through his fingers.
Lindiwe covered her cheek with her hand and then turned to face Emerie, like Jabez was insignificant. Emerie had just raised her sword up to block, as a set of claws came down while she’d been looking away. The Demon roared as his fingers were chopped off, and Lindiwe pulled Emerie’s shoulder to put her behind her.