Page 99 of Eldritch (The Eating Woods #2)

The screeching, louder that time, snapped my attention toward the front of the church, where dozens of the creatures piled inside, some of them standing up on their hind legs, their vicious teeth chomping at the air in a way that reminded me of someone sniffing.

One of the creatures leapt up onto the last pew and hopped his way from one row to the next, coming to a stop halfway.

Standing upright on the back of the pew, it sniffed again, claws clutching the rounded wood like a bird.

Movement just below it drew my attention to where Corwin hunched over himself, hidden and trembling.

I exhaled a sharp breath and lifted my gaze back to the creature again. The appendages on the sides of its head slowly searched the air, like palpating fingers.

They can’t see us.

It made sense. They didn’t have eyes nor noses, which left me wondering how they perceived movement.

Corwin turned toward me, and even from that distance, I could see the fear darkening his eyes.

I slowly held out my hand and mouthed, Don’t move .

One of the crushed monster’s limbs sticking out from the rubble twitched and shook, smacking against the piled stones beneath it. The beast looming over Corwin leapt across the pews toward it and clamped its teeth down, easily tearing the flesh from its bones.

Two more scrambled toward the ruins, and ear-piercing screeches echoed through the church as they fought over the carcasses of their own kind.

Too close to where we remained hidden.

Zevander slid his hand in mine and, with slow, careful steps, guided me toward the other side of the pews, only a few down from where Corwin remained crouched.

Father and Aleysia followed behind, and the vyrmish snapped their attention toward them.

I threw out my hands, and both of them ground to a halt.

The creatures rose up, biting at the air again.

“Vibrations,” Zevander whispered beside me. “They sense movement through the ground and in the air.”

As if they’d heard us, Father and Aleysia waited until the vyrmish turned back around, then padded softly toward the pews, where they crouched behind us.

Zevander pushed to his feet and carefully peered out of the window to our rear.

The vyrmish swung their attention back toward us, and he ducked down again.

“We’re surrounded by them,” he whispered. “We’ll have to fight them off.”

A silent dread clogged my lungs. “How many?”

“At least a dozen on this side. Who knows how many on that side.”

I twisted that way to see Raivox still showering the ground in silver flame, as he flew past the window across from us.

One of the vyrmish leapt onto the pew, hovering over Father and Aleysia, and my muscles shook as I watched Aleysia slowly cover her mouth with her hands.

Zevander rose to his feet, and the scorpion stepped from his back. In one vicious strike, it slammed its stinger into the body of the too-close vyrmish, and the creature squirmed as the scorpion jabbed it over and over, sending black fluid to spray over the pews, as well as Father and Aleysia.

A second beast scrambled over the pew, its claws gouging the wood as it ran straight for us.

Before it could so much as pounce, Zevander swung wide, his sword slicing through its neck in one quick strike that freed its head from its body.

The other vyrmish snapped their heads in his direction, and my stomach flipped on itself when he strode in the other direction, toward the cluster of vyrmish at the front of the church, beating his sword against the back of the pews.

The creatures whipped around and scrambled after him.

“Get to the back of the church!” Zevander barked, his scorpion snapping at one of the beasts charging after them.

Panic coiled around my chest. “What about you?”

“Go!” He swung out his sword, lopping off the head of another beast that leapt toward him, and I watched in horror as the others surrounded him, pouring in through the entrance, undoubtedly drawn by the clamor.

As the scorpion sank its metallic stinger in the one it’d been fighting, another vyrmish lurched toward it, knocking it backward into the wall.

Zevander sent a flame over its body, shriveling the beast within seconds.

My heart clenched, seeing him single-handedly fighting them off.

Corwin scampered along the narrow gap between the pews and the wall, toward me.

In his hand, he carried a piece of split wood he must’ve scrounged for defense, the tip of it sharp.

The overgrown vegetation snapped beneath his feet, and one of the vyrmish turned toward him, hobbling away from the others that Zevander continued to fight off.

I jumped to my feet, every cell in my body quivering with fear. “Please don’t fail me,” I muttered to myself, exhaling a long breath as I summoned the bone whip to my palm.

Such a clumsy weapon to call upon in a confined space, where these creatures seemed drawn to movement and clamor. But it was my most vicious, and I needed to know these damned things would die when struck.

The whip tumbled from my palm, across the floor, past Father and Aleysia, bones clanking as it unrolled itself. “Get to the back of the church!” I called out to them.

“Isn’t that trapping ourselves?” Aleysia cried out.

“There’s a hole in the wall!” Father pointed toward it. “We can escape if necessary.”

As they headed that way, I twisted back to Corwin, who stood frozen in place as one of the vyrmish stood on the pew behind him, sniffing the air.

“Get down, Corwin!” I said, and just as he ducked low, I swung out the whip.

Bones cracked against its leathery flesh, sending that black oily substance spraying into the air as the heavy whip tore a gash in its flank.

A quick glance over his shoulder, and Corwin scuttled toward me. “Not dead. Not dead!”

The vyrmish charged forward despite its wound.

Oh, no.

Terror vibrated through my muscles, and as Corwin slipped past me, I threw my hand out for the Aeryz glyph, knocking the beast back into the rubble of busted pews.

A sharp piece of wood sticking up from the stones pierced the vyrmish through the back, bursting out of its chest as it pinned the creature to the rubble.

It let out a wailing cry, thrashing its limbs as it tried to get free.

In my periphery, I caught the quick and hasty movements of Zevander and his scorpion, as some of the beasts broke away for the speared vyrmish. It screeched and howled as they tore away its flesh.

“Maevyth, go!” Zevander barked, and to my horror, the flame he shot out at two of them charging toward me was smaller than before.

Growing weaker.

The beasts continued to pour in through the windows and entrance, undoubtedly drawn by the commotion and clamor of Zevander’s sword, the scorpion’s movements, and the obnoxious clacking of bones from my whip.

“Come on!” I shouted toward Corwin, and the two of us made our way to the back of the church, where Father and Aleysia sat crouched.

A clawed hand swiped through a gaping hole in the wall where the stones had crumbled away, as one of the beasts attempted to climb through.

A blast of Aeryz threw it backward, and I peered out to see a few creatures sniffing around—nowhere near as many as those that poured in through the front of the church.

Through panic, I looked back at Zevander, watching the beasts swarm him, the vyrmish scampering over the body of the scorpion and hanging from the top curve of its stinger.

Beneath the lethal grace of his sword, and his exceptionally skilled strikes, I caught the occasional falter.

The slack in his swing. The weak lash of his flame.

Exhaustion had begun to weigh on him.

A silent scream ripped through my head. My chest clenched with the helpless frustration of wanting to fight alongside him, but I knew all too well how easily I’d put him at risk by jumping in like a fool with my clumsy whip.

Father let out a bellowing cry, drowned by Aleysia’s scream, and I snapped my head to see one of the creatures yanking his legs through the hole.

“No!” I dashed forward, my hands just missing his grasp as he was torn through the wall to the outside.

Without a beat of hesitation, I scrambled through the hole in the wall after him.

“Maevyth! Wait!” Zevander shouted from inside the church, but I ignored him, tearing across the open snow, gaze locked on the creature carrying Father toward that gaping mouth in the distance.

An upward glance showed Raivox was nowhere overhead, but I didn’t pause to call for him as I forced speed from my exhausted legs.

Father cried out, his hands outstretched for me while seeming to get further away, and a sob beat against my chest. Behind me, two of the creatures scampered after me on all fours, their growls goading me faster.

The beast carrying Father ground to a halt and spun around. A cold branching horror exploded behind my eyes as it bit down on Father’s leg, tearing away the flesh from halfway up his calf.

Father’s head lolled to the side, his body stilled, and I prayed he’d only fainted.

“Father!” I skidded to a halt and threw out my hand for a blast of violent wind that knocked the creature backward. Fear gripped my lungs as I reached Father, and standing over him, I stretched out my arm toward the beasts crawling closer, their bodies poised to pounce.

A roar overhead told me Raivox was still nearby. Not a minute later, a flap of black wings blotted out the moonlight, and the ground shook beneath us as the Corvugon landed beside me. Only a few yards away stood the gaping hole in the ground.

That eerie silence settled over us once again.

More creatures burst from the hole and bounded toward us.

Silver blasted out of Raivox, showering a number of them, just as before.

I drew my whip and snapped at the ones that shot toward us outside the arc of silver flames, sending limbs and flesh flying into the air.

Raivox hopped away from me, the pounding of his massive claws against the ground leading some of them away. The beasts scampered up his body, clawing at his scales as they attempted to swarm him.

Please, Morsana! Help me!

“ Strike the ground with your whip .”

The voice drew my attention to the little girl, who stood behind me. Everything around me moved slow, too slow. As if time had been spun backward, somehow, the beasts crawled at a snail’s pace. It was then I noticed her eyes—silver eyes, like my own.

“Morsana?”

The little girl smiled, her body vanishing into a cloud of black smoke, and from it, a raven shot upward into the sky.

I exhaled a breath, and my surroundings sped back into motion. Raivox roared and hopped, as the beasts crawled over him, their bodies turning from gray to black, like his scales. Claws tore at his scales, and Raivox thrashed his spiny tail, hissing and lashing out at the relentless beasts.

Vyrmish surrounded Father and me.

My whole body trembled as I gripped the bone whip in my hand.

The beasts growled, closing in, their teeth snapping in a threat of pain and death.

Jaw clenched, I turned away from Father, and with a held breath, I slammed my whip hard against the ground.

A rippling vibration shook every nerve in my body, rattling my teeth. Below me, Father’s body bounced along the hill’s slope, his limbs flopping like a puppet without strings.

A splitting crack was the only warning, before the vyrmish around me exploded, sending guts and skin flying into the air, and I dropped low, covering the back of my neck with my hands.

The ground below Father and I rumbled, my heart hammering as a deep fissure crawled from where the end of my whip lay on the ground, across the snow, toward the church.

I stood slowly, watching the crack widen as it slinked along like branching ice across the landscape.

No.

I dashed after it, chasing the vibrating fissure, watching the vyrmish explode around me. “Zevander! Aleysia!”

Corwin screamed, hobbling toward me. Behind him, two vyrmish burst into bits of gore and black ichor.

He ducked as meat and shattered bones rained over him.

A third reared back to pounce, and exploded midair, its torso landing hard in Corwin’s path.

Another scream tore from his throat and he slammed to a halt, arms flailing when he nearly tumbled over it.

As I approached, he doubled over, wheezing to catch his breath, and pointed toward a figure hunched in the distance. “Aleysia! She’s…she’s…not…herself!”

“Go, stay with my father!” I ordered and kept on toward her and the church. “Aleysia!”

I closed the distance, slowing my pace when she craned her neck toward me, her eyes two black orbs.

“ Four, three, two, one. One, two, three, four ,” she quietly muttered, and when she turned back around, twitching and coughing, I frowned.

“Aleysia?”

Before I could ask her if she was okay, a bellowing roar of agony tore through the church and split the air like a blade across a delicate petal. My heart shot to my throat.

“Zevander!” I raced toward the church, catching sight of the fissure slipping beneath the foundation.

The ground parted, leaving a gaping trench, and cracks spidered down the ancient stones of the building.

Panes of glass from the few intact windows shattered as the stone wall collapsed and crumbled to the ground, sending up debris and snow.

“Zevander! No!”

The impact shook the ground beneath my feet and buckled my knees. I collapsed, reaching out for him. A sharp, disorienting pain struck the side of my head in a flash of light.

The world flipped to blackness.