“Caleb,” I snarled. “Think of the best memory you have and hold onto it with everything you’ve got.”
“What are you talking about?” he muttered, trying to pull free again, his eyes falling back to the blade, but I clung on, getting up in his face so he had to look at me instead of that portal or the weapon it wanted him to wield against himself. Though I wasn’t much use to him considering he hated me.
“Think of the Heirs,” I tried. “Of Darius, Max, Seth.”
His eyes softened as I said that last name and the tension rolled out of his posture.
“Think of Seth,” I latched onto the change in him and he nodded, slowly relaxing and taking a step away from the rift.
“Have you got a good memory to hold onto?” I asked, not wanting to let go of him in case he decided to use his speed to dive into that portal headfirst.
“Yeah, yeah, Tinkerbell,” he muttered. “I’ve got my happy fucking memory. You can let go of me now.” He shoved me away and I bared my fangs at him in irritation, only causing him to bare his back at me, the rivalry between us flaring up. But we didn’t have time for that shit, we needed to close the portal and get the hell out of here.
“This place is tainted by the Shadow Princess,” I said thickly, looking to the rift which must have been cut directly into the Shadow Realm.
A Nymph shriek made us both whip around in the direction of the exit and we shot forward, working together to shut the doors and Caleb picked up a huge wooden pole beside it, slotting it into place through a latch to lock it. The door shuddered as a weight of Nymphs collided against it and Caleb used his earth magic to seal the door more thoroughly, hissing a curse.
“Hurry up then, asshole,” he said. “I’ll keep this door shut, you close that fucking shadow portal.”
“On it,” I growled, striding towards the swirling rift in the air and taking the enchanted binding needle from my pocket which would help me seal it up. But the immensity of the power in this place said it was going to take a lot from me.
I’d manage it somehow though. Because this felt like striking right at the heart of Lavinia herself, the bitch who’d killed my sister, who’d tried to curse Blue. And though I didn’t understand exactly what this place was used for, it was clear some sort of offerings had been placed here for the Shadow Princess over the years. The dark power in those artifacts on the altar were no doubt feeding power into the Shadow Realm and on to the shadow bitch herself.
“Hi Lavinia.” I smirked at the dark portal, raising my hands as I prepared to start the spell which would cut her off from this pool of power. “I just came here to say fuck you.”
M ore Nymphs than we possibly could have anticipated spilled from the trees, each of them in their shifted forms and screaming with the full force of their rattles as they ran between the thick trunks to come to the aid of their brethren.
We’d formed a ring surrounding the clearing, each of us in the trees above them as we waited for the carnage to descend, but there were so many of them that it was impossible to stick to our plan of picking them off from above.
Max swept between the trees to my right, firing his bow and arrow as he used his air magic to keep himself aloft, fighting to maintain a hold on his Elemental magic, but remaining high enough above them to lessen the effects of their rattles.
The twins swept across the clearing ahead of me, Phoenix fire pouring from their hands as they created a giant blazing X which cut through the ground and set fire to it, effectively dividing the Nymphs as they were forced to retreat from the flames and several of them were destroyed by their power.
“Stay close to me!” I bellowed, my eyes on Roxy as she tore across the clearing in her fully shifted form, fire gilding the armour Geraldine had given her and her hair a blaze of scarlet flames.
“Try to keep up, asshole!” she called back and I snarled, my grip on my axe tightening as I looked down into the clearing below, shooting more magic down at the Nymphs from my perch in the treetops.
But as Roxy and her sister beat their wings and launched themselves further away from me with the clear intention to keep going instead of following my orders, I gritted my teeth and leapt from my perch with my axe raised.
I roared a challenge as I landed on a Nymph who had been charging between the trees beneath me, colliding with it and cleaving my axe down upon its head just as I felt the sharp slice of its probes against my side.
I had no room to shift here with the trees packed so tightly, so I took off on foot, my flaming axe burning in the darkness as I ran to meet my next opponent, my gaze flicking between the Nymph and the two Phoenixes who were speeding away between the trees ahead of me.