Page 64 of A Tempest of Intrigue (Tempest of Shadows #4)

CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR

Ellery

“Run, Lery!” Farley shouted.

He didn’t have to tell me twice as I fired my arrow. It struck the monstrosity at the front of the pack in the center of its head.

The impact snapped the ugly beast’s head back and caused it to reel away before it flipped over. Its legs kicked in the air before going still.

The dog behind it rose onto its hind legs and sprinted toward me with its claws curved into a posture meant for tearing out throats and bellies. I fired another arrow, striking it in the abdomen and knocking it back.

Their sulfur stench hit me even though they were still two hundred feet away. I should have smelled them sooner, but I’d taken up position downwind of anything entering my hunting grounds. Which meant these creatures were also downwind of me.

“Shit.”

I fired three more arrows, striking more of the creatures, but not all of them were kill shots, and there were too many of them. Swinging my bow onto my back, I unleashed lightning bolts that took out two more, but the rest were closing in.

“More in the woods!” Farley shouted as Mouse sprinted past me. “Coming up on your right side!”

They were stalking me, and if I stayed here, they’d trap me. There was a chance I could take them out with my lightning, but there was also a chance they’d overpower me.

Deciding that retreating was best, I rose and sprinted after Mouse. Twenty feet ahead of me, the boy dashed through the trees with an easy grace.

Behind me, the snap of branches and heavy thud of clawed feet grew louder as the creatures closed in. I couldn’t open a portal because they might follow me through; plus, there was a chance Mouse could sprint past the portal before seeing it, and there was no way I’d leave the boy to fight these things on his own.

I wasn’t sure the young boy could open a portal. It was a skill he should have learned by now, but he’d been on his own for at least a couple of years, and while he was about ten, I wasn’t sure his parents taught him how to open a portal before they died.

I was guessing they didn’t, but if they had, he might be too panicked to try right now.

Underbrush cracked far too close for my liking, and I could practically feel those devil dogs breathing down my nape. Without looking, I threw my hand behind me and released more lightning.

I didn’t have high hopes of hitting one of them, but I did hope to scare them off or make them rethink their course of action. From what I could tell by the breaking of branches, it didn’t work.

Sweat slid down my forehead, and my bow bounced against my back as I dashed around trees, leapt over logs, and clambered over a boulder. The branches I didn’t shove out of my way in time slapped at my face and arms.

I ignored the sting of their slashes as I closed the distance between me and Mouse. My lungs burned, but I pushed myself faster; I had to get us out of this mess.

“Faster, Lery,” Farley said as he zipped around my head like a blobby, demented pixie.

It took everything I had not to swat him away, but all I’d get for my trouble was an icy hand and an irritated poltergeist. I dashed up the side of a rock and, leaping off the other side, landed only a foot behind Mouse.

We ran around a tree and barely avoided colliding with a patch of briars that would have shredded our skin. If we’d gotten entangled in them, it would have been the end of us.

Instead, we veered into a copse of trees. The scent of pine engulfed me as I shoved the heavy branches out of my way and avoided tripping over the lower ones.

The labored pants of the black dogs came from all around, as did their increasingly excited cries. They loved the hunt, and they were gaining on their prey.

When I knew they were too close to evade me, I spun and, drawing power from the earth, unleashed a wave of lightning on the ones closest to me. It crashed into three demonic dogs, lifted them off the ground, and flung them back.

Their screeching yelps cut off when lightning erupted from their eye sockets and smoke streamed from their mouths. Their deaths didn’t deter the others as they continued to race toward me.

With no skin or fur covering them, the black sinew comprising them was visible, as were the two thick, black cords attaching their heads to their necks. Though there was no indication of eyeballs in their giant skulls, two bright red orbs shone out from their eye sockets.

They were skinny but incredibly powerful and nimble. I’d always despised these persistent, hideous creatures that smelled of Hell and unleashed suffering on all those they encountered.

Grinding my teeth, I pulled more electricity from the earth and within myself before unleashing it on them. I’d love to rain bolts from above, but someone might see them and come looking for me.

I was sure Ivan had amsirah hunting for the female lightning bearer; I doubted any of them were this deep in the woods, but it wasn’t a chance I was willing to take, especially with Mouse so nearby. Even if they weren’t this deep in the woods, if someone saw lightning, they might come looking.

My lightning destroyed three more dogs as a fourth leapt toward me with its claws extended and jaws open to reveal the razor-sharp teeth within. A thick strand of drool dangled from its lower jaw.

I didn’t have enough time to throw lightning into its belly or to remove my bow and arrow. Turning, I sprinted away as I tried to put some distance between us, but Farley’s grunting told me I wasn’t as successful as I’d hoped.

The poltergeist, who I was sure had seen everything there was to see in these woods, sounded terrified. But then, it was a black dog that killed him; even though they couldn’t do anything to him now, he probably still had a whole lot of trauma over being devoured by a monster.

I sure wouldn’t have gotten over it and hoped not to experience it now.