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I nodded. He began the short countdown and then, as one, we plunged our weapons into the black hands.

And unleashed a fucking nightmare.

Chapter

Twelve

It erupted out of the water so fast, I got little more than a glimpse of a tree-like structure before I was sent flying. I tumbled through the air for several yards, then dropped face-first into the water, mashing my nose against the stony bottom and scraping my forehead on something long and sharp. I instinctively gasped, regretting it the instant water rushed into my lungs rather than air, and hurriedly pushed up onto my hands and knees, coughing and spluttering and trying to breathe.

The distant tremor of Cynwrig’s power ran through the ground, but it never reached beyond the stony ledge surrounding the lake, let alone to where the creature stood. Cynwrig might be able to manipulate the cavern’s walls, but there was definitely magic here even if I couldn’t feel it, and it was preventing him from controlling the lake’s rocky base. He wouldn’t be able to cage the creature. Not unless it left the lake’s shallows.

A gunshot echoed, followed by an ungodly scream, the noise piercing and furious. Dust fell like rain all around me, and I glanced up sharply. The headlamp’s light wasn’t strong enough to fully illuminate the roofline, but I could still see cracks forming as the stalactites shuddered. If the creature kept screaming, he’d bring the roof down on top of us.

Maybe that was his intention. It was certainly one way of stopping any threat to the shield it clung to.

I pushed upright and swung around, my knives raised and blood oozing from skinned knuckles. As each drop hit the water, an odd sort of chime sounded, and the creature—a spindly thing with multiple branch-like limbs connected to its trunk—grew fractionally taller, looked fractionally stronger.

It wasn’t only a goddamn living, moving tree that had no song, it was feeding on my blood.

Lugh stood on the other side of the nightmare, deftly using Jack and Jill to swat away the multiple branches attacking him. Every hit had splinters spinning into the air, but the creature seemed unharmed by the loss. Worse still, perhaps, was the fact that those splinters didn’t fall; they just hovered several feet away from Lugh’s body, as if waiting for the right opportunity to attack.

It was then I realized the air I’d spun around us both was not only intact but protecting him from those splinters.

At least that was something.

I plowed through the water toward them, but it was thick and gloopy and made any sort of speed impossible.

Another gunshot reverberated. The bullet hit the creature’s head and lodged deep into wooden flesh, sheering away a big chunk of its featureless face. The creature howled and clawed at its head with fine, fingerlike branches, and it took me a second to realize why—flames now flickered where silver met wood.

The keening grew in volume, and the whole cavern trembled. Chunks of stone and stalactites fell from the roof, hitting the water hard enough to send thick sprays into the air.

What didn’t fall were the splintered remains of the creature’s face. They simply spun and arrowed into the darkness, heading toward the exit and the two men standing there.

I sent the air chasing after the deadly counterattack, pushing hard to ensure it had enough speed to reach Cynwrig and Mathi before those splinters did.

Something in my head twinged, but I ignored it. From the edges of my vision, I spotted silver drop into the water. The bullet... Then the air howled a warning, and I glanced up to see a thick limb sweeping toward me so fast, its outer branches were little more than a blur. I ducked, twisted around, and slashed at the limb as it flew over my head. My knives sheered through the wood as easily as butter, and multiple branches fell. But this time, instead of hovering or attacking, they dropped lifeless to the water’s surface and swiftly sank.

The knives might not be sensing the magic giving this thing life, but they could kill it.

More branches swept toward me, coming in from the left and the right, this time skimming the water’s surface to prevent me from ducking again. I swore and did the only thing I could—reached for the wind, leapt up, and then thrust the gathered air under my feet to push me even higher.

One branch snagged my boot and sliced down its side, cutting leather and drawing blood. Pain slithered through me, but I pushed it to one side and, with every ounce of strength I had, threw a knife at what remained of the creature’s head. It must have sensed the movement at the last moment, even if it had no idea what was coming, because it half turned, revealing a broken face that held no eye or nose.

The knife pierced the center of its forehead rather than the side of its head, thudding hilt deep into wooden brain.

This time, it didn’t simply roar but rather, opened its mouth and emitted a high-pitched keening. It echoed so sharply, so violently, that the cavern’s walls shuddered, and thicker chunks of roof started coming down.

The air under my feet gave way, and I hit the turbulent water hard. I swore, but gathered my balance and ran toward the creature. It was flailing wildly, its movements erratic and seemingly uncontrolled. The knife remained lodged in its forehead, but a black wave of deadness was now spreading out from the point of its entry, sweeping down onto the creature’s trunk and then across its various limbs. As that wave hit each portion of its body, it froze.

Lugh stepped through the forest of deadness and plunged Jack and Jill deep into its wooden heart. There was heavy thunk not unlike that of an axe cutting into a tree, then the creature toppled backward, into the water, into the ground.

Through the ground.

And it was taking my knife with it.

I swore, lunged forward, and pulled the blade from its forehead. Almost instantly, the deadness began to retreat.

The knife hadn’t killed it, as it had the outer branches. It had merely immobilized it.