Page 125 of Eldritch (The Eating Woods #2)

CHAPTER EIGHTY-ONE

ZEVANDER

T he thorny bushes tore at his leathers as Zevander ripped through the line of shrubs surrounding the archway. Once cleared, he swiped Maevyth into his arms and within the clearing, the four men formed a line, surveying the surrounding trees for any sign of the chasing spiders.

No movement.

Zevander could hear them though. Their collective sound of clicking, somewhere in the distance.

A glistening streak shot through the air and hit the ground beside his boot with a hiss.

Dirt and vegetation curled into itself as the acid burned it away.

Beside him Ravezio let out a growl and he turned to see acid had struck his arm, chewing away at his leather sleeve.

More saliva arced toward them and Dravien cursed.

“Get back!” Zevander shouted.

He summoned the flame around them, creating a boundary that crackled each time the spiders spat at them, the flame consuming it before it reached them.

Shadows unfolded from the darkness as the spiders scampered toward the flame. A grotesque, half-human hybrid streaked between Zevander and Ravezio, a ball of violet flame that breached the fiery wall. It squealed and crackled, twitching on the ground then darted straight for Maevyth.

A fast strike severed the head from its body when Dravien struck with his blade.

As he held the boundary steady, Zevander glanced over his shoulder. “Get to the other side!”

“I’m not leaving without you!” Maevyth argued back.

Two more spiders tumbled past the boundary, their bodies crawling with a violet glow of the flames and Zevander’s growl died in his throat.

Before Dravien could strike again, Maevyth’s whip lashed out with a powerful strike, shattering the bodies on impact.

“Balls of Castero!” Ravezio said beside him. “When did my girl learn that trick?”

“Call her yours again and I’ll have her aim for your groin next time.” In the distance, Zevander caught the hulking shadow of a massive spider—one that might easily step over the boundary.

“Shit on a shamrock, I think our luck just fizzled out,” Kazhimyr said beside him. “Go on, I’ll hold them off.”

“No. The moment I step through that boundary, this flame will die. Go. I need someone I trust on the other side when Maevyth steps through.”

Kazhimyr frowned but nodded. “I’ll see you there,” he said and the two clasped forearms. Kazhimyr gave one more pat on his shoulder and strode toward the shimmering boundary. En route, he swiped up Maevyth’s arm. “Follow after me, yeah?”

Scowling, she gave that stubborn shake of her head that stirred another growl out of Zevander.

He strode toward her and gripped her arm. “Please. I need to know you’re safe. Do this for me.”

Her eyes widened, gaze trailing upward, telling Zevander the beast must’ve loomed over them. “Is that the same one that attacked Raivox?”

A quick glimpse showed no sign of the melted carapace where his flame had burned it earlier. “I don’t think so.”

Before it could reach the flame, Maevyth struck out with her whip again, the spinal bones clanking to a useless pile onto the ground. “Oh gods!”

Sword in hand, Ravezio swung out at its leg as it stepped over the flames and the beast let out a roar that shook the ground. It lurched toward the other Letalisz, snapping its fangs at Ravezio who met each lunge with a fast strike of his sword.

“Go!” Zevander crushed his lips to Maevyth’s wishing it was another time, another place.

“Promise you’ll follow after me.”

“Believe me when I say I’ve no intentions of staying here.” He turned to face the beast, and she tugged on his arm, swinging his gaze back to her.

“I love you.”

“And I love you. Now go!” He spun back around, sending a blast of flames toward the creature which abandoned its attack on Ravezio. Sablefyre skated over the thick black carapace, causing nothing more than a few distortions in the surface.

“Fuck! Something’s pulling me!” Kazhimyr’s shrill outcry cost Zevander a split second when he glanced back toward the archway to see his friend digging his boots into the ground, an unseen force dragging him toward the Umbravale.

A hot searing pain streaked across Zevander’s arm, and he looked down to see the wet glisten of saliva sinking into his leathers.

The creature lunged for Zevander, fangs first, just as Ravezio swung out his sword, slicing through the beast’s hind leg.

It tumbled backward, those vicious fangs just missing Zevander’s face.

“Help, Kaz!” Ravezio shouted, drawing the spider back toward him. “I got this one!”

Zevander joined Dravien who yanked at Kazhimyr’s arm in a futile attempt to pull him away from the archway.

“Godsdamn, I see the chasm!” Kazhimyr shouted, his voice pitched with panic.

No. The Umbravale was rejecting his passage.

Zevander glanced back to see Ravezio fighting off the spider’s snapping fangs.

He exhaled a long breath, in an attempt to clear his head, and summoned the new glyph to mind.

Each intricate symbol was memorized in perfect detail—the one he’d learned back in the Lyverian mountains.

He held out his palm and shot a torrent of flame toward the barrier that was absorbed into its shimmering surface.

It flickered and wavered, the silvery barrier dulling to a dark gray.

Kazhimyr flew backward as it released its hold, and the gap in the barrier flickered back to silver as if it repaired itself.

Zevander lowered his hand and breathed hard through his nose. “I’m going to open it again. You have to slip through quickly before it seals itself again.”

Dravien stepped forward. “I’ll go first, just in case.”

Zevander frowned but didn’t dwell too much on it as the Elvyniran rolled his shoulders back and hunched forward, ready to dart through it. “I’m ready,” he said.

Again, Zevander let out a long exhale and called upon the glyph one more time, focusing on the shimmering wall. “Go!”

Dravien leapt through, just before the barrier sealed itself again.

Zevander’s knees buckled beneath him, his energy slowly fading, as his body shook with weakness, but he held his hand out again. “Both of you! Go!”

Kazhimyr nodded, pushing to his feet, and before she could protest, he swiped Maevyth into his arms.

“Put me down! No!” she screamed, clawing at his grip, but thankfully, Kazhimyr held steady. As much as it crushed Zevander to see her in distress, he had to ensure her safety.

The moment he shot the flame toward the barrier again, Kazhimyr slipped through, Maevyth’s screams fading behind them.

Zevander collapsed to his palms, breathing hard as the glyph devoured what little energy he’d gotten from the vivicantem. He twisted around to see the massive spider had pinned Ravezio to the ground, but the beast didn’t snap at him. Instead, its eyes were focused elsewhere.

Mesmerized.

A crackling sound emerged over the dying hiss of the creature as the black carapace of its body slowly turned gray, the lifeless shade crawling over it like frost. A quick twitch of its leg slowed as the joints froze, its entire body turning to granite.

“Fucking hell,” Ravezio said, sliding from beneath the spider’s monstrous maw.

“Glad those things have a hundred eyes. Think that was the fastest I’ve turned anything that size to stone.

” The moment he’d cleared it, the stony statue fell forward, the spider’s face smacking into the ground with a hard thud.

Both Letalisz chuckled as Ravezio rose to his feet.

“Come on,” Zevander said. “Everyone else is already through.”

As Ravezio stepped forward, his spine snapped ramrod straight, eyes wide with panic. A figure stepped through the wall of flames that fizzled away at his back. Gnarled antlers at his head. Long bony limbs that looked like tree branches. Cloven feet.

Cadavros.

In his beastly form, he stood with his hand outstretched toward Ravezio, his other palm, which appeared to be missing fingers, was directed at Zevander.

“Let him go,” Zevander growled.

“Yes. I will let him go freely on the condition that you join me in burning down the Umbravale.”

It was then Zevander realized there was no pull at his mind, none of the strange tugging at his thoughts that he usually felt around the mage.

Their connection must’ve been severed when he’d consumed Maevyth’s blood.

“I do not wish to fight you. Agree to help me and your friend will live.”

“No!” Ravezio rasped, his voice tight with tension. “Don’t…do it!”

Zevander summoned a flame to his palm. “I’ll not tell you again. Release him!”

A deep, ominous chuckle rumbled out of the mage as he turned his palm upright and a flame appeared there.

Cold shock crawled over Zevander’s chest as he watched the telling black fire flicker over the flat of the mage’s hand.

“It seems I’ve acquired the power of both Pestilios and Deimos.”

“Then what do you need me for?”

“Unfortunately, the body can only accommodate so much power. What little I’ve acquired from Deimos isn’t enough to destroy it myself.”

Zevander threw out his palm, sending a torrent of flames toward the mage.

Cadavros released Ravezio and, with both hands, parried a blast of his own flame that collided with Zevander’s.

Zevander’s arms shook as he held them steady, pushing past the force opposing him. In his periphery, he watched Ravezio jump to his feet and charge toward the mage.

“Ravezio! No!” The distraction sent Zevander flying backward beneath the force of Cadavros’s flame slamming into his chest and knocking the air from his lungs.

He gasped and wheezed, twisting around to see Ravezio floating in the air, his arms outstretched either side of him.

His leather tunic stripped away from his body by an unseen force and the sight of him took Zevander back to the days in the mines when the guards would hold him outstretched that way.

“No!” Zevander gasped again and clawed at the dirt toward them.

Ravezio managed one small glance over his shoulder and the look of fear in his eyes sent a slithering dread beneath Zevander’s skin.

The wet sound of tearing flesh echoed over Ravezio’s agonizing bellow of pain.

All of his scales ripped away from his body at once, exposing the raw, glistening flesh beneath.

A frigid jolt ground Zevander’s muscles to a halt like the slow-moving granite that’d crawled over the spider moments before.

Ravezio collapsed to the ground in a bloody heap, wheezing and writhing.

“No!” Zevander roared and with as much strength as he could muster, he sent a blast of flame back at the mage.

Cadavros blocked it with his own counter flame and the two once again stood locked in a battle of power.

Muscles shaking with rage and wrath, Zevander held steady. He yanked his sword from its scabbard and against the unbearable force pushing against him, he stepped closer. Closer.

Cadavros side-stepped and circled around Zevander, breaking the clash of flames. He swiped up Ravezio’s fallen blade and held it outstretched as he inched closer toward the Umbravale. “I told you. I don’t want to fight you.”

As Zevander drew nearer to Ravezio, he took in the state of his friend and felt a tight clench in his chest. The irreparable damage that would ultimately kill him.

He collapsed to his knees.

Blood seeped out of the small pockets scattered over Ravezio’s raw flesh where his scales had been torn away. Long, ragged breaths sawed in and out of Ravezio as he lay on his side and he coughed, sputtering blood onto the snowy ground. “Kill me,” he rasped, coughing again. “Please.”

Zevander wanted to take his hand and assure him that he’d live but touching him in his state would be deadly. “I’m going to return you to Aethyria. You’re going to get help.”

Ravezio sucked in a sharp, strained breath. “No. I won’t…make it.”

“It’s true,” Cadavros said, standing at the archway, as if he intended to block their passage.

A deadly fury burned in Zevander’s heart as he stared back at his dying friend through a mist of tears. His muscles trembled, teeth clenched so hard they could’ve cracked from the pressure.

“Please. Do it.” A tear spilled down Ravezio’s temple and Zevander turned away, nostrils flaring as he fought to hold himself together.

He nodded.

“Thank you …” Ravezio wheezed and sucked in another rattling breath. “For your…friendship.”

“ Dormisz qumeht lunadei, meh’amij .” Rest with the gods, my friend. Zevander rose to his feet and held a trembling hand out to the man he’d known as a brother. One who’d never hesitated to fight on his behalf. He closed his eyes and summoned the flame.

Ravezio let out a single quiet grunt and when Zevander opened his eyes again, nothing but small blood stone remained on the ground where his friend had lain only moments ago. He swiped it up, stuffing it in his pocket and turned his attention toward the mage still standing at the archway.

“I didn’t want to harm your friend. And I don’t wish to fight you,” he said, as if that would erase the wrath Zevander intended to inflict on him.

Zevander let out a bitter and mirthless chuckle and shifted his sword in his hand. “Perhaps you should’ve thought of that before you killed him,” he said, and charged toward Cadavros.