Page 24

Juniper

I threw my head back a little too hard and winced when it bounced of the rock wall behind me. My groan was from both the pain and what my magic had just informed me after I’d sent it out to scan the tunnels once again. I had been keeping an eye out for any signs of more of those creatures and so far we had been lucky.

Now, however, they were converging on us from all directions.

We couldn’t even get a real break before we needed to suit up for another battle, it seemed, because we were going to need to fight our way out of this one. I just hoped we could all work together because I didn’t think we’d have a choice.

‘Incoming!’ I shouted, grabbing the attention of the people closest to me. Not good enough. ‘We’ve got company on the way with bigger teeth and claws, people! And I’m pretty sure they breathe fire, too!’ I tried again, this time gaining enough traction that those who hadn’t heard me were quickly filled in by their friends and groups began to form. I was pleased when I realised the were mixed with both Humans and Daemons and that at least one in each group had a weapon.

I looked up to where the Angels were still hovering above us and waved at them, but they simply looked back with blank stares. I couldn’t tell if they came from a lack of understanding of it they simply didn’t care about what happened to us. I had a feeling it was both, and my frustration with them grew.

Fine. If they wanted to learn the hard way, then they could suffer the damn consequences.

The Fae thankfully mobilised when they saw the sudden buzz of activity, the air thick with trepidation. It was the Shifters that were going to cause the most problems, but we couldn’t leave them to face that fate alone. At the very least we needed to find some way to warn them.

‘What’s coming, Beautiful? What did you see?’ Phenex asked from his permanent position glued to my side, Abaddon and Oz not far behind.

‘I don’t know. I can only map out the obstacles I find unattached to the Earth as vague shapes so I can’t tell what they are, but I detected a few dozen larger masses that were moving rapidly in our direction from each of the tunnels,’ I told them. ‘The rest is just a gut feeling that they aren’t looking for tea and some gossip.’

‘The Shifters…’ he trailed off.

‘I know we’re not exactly singing each other’s praises, but we can’t let them be ambushed without warning, except I don’t know how to warn them. I don’t think they’re particularly open to listening,’ I voiced my concerns.

‘We go together, then,’ Qarinah suggested and I realised for the first time that she had been hidden behind Oz.

A sudden thought struck me. ‘Hey, do you think your sexy juju would work on-’

‘It only works on people,’ she cut me off. ‘I’m sorry, but I won’t be able to tame that kind of beast.’

I sighed. ‘Right. Oh, well. I guess we just try?’

‘How close are they?’ Abaddon asked, his face a mask of determination.

‘Not far. We should be able to hear them soon.’

‘Then we must hurry. If they do not listen then they will be the ones to suffer the consequences. We will do what we can, the rest is up to them.’

‘When did you become so wise, brother?’ Phenex teased him with an elbow nudge to his side.

Abaddon sniffed. ‘I’ve always been wise, little brother, you’ve just never removed your nose from those books of yours long enough to notice,’ he ribbed right back.

I filed that little morsel of information about my man away for later use and tried to ignore the pang in my chest their brotherly banter caused as I wished I could do the same with Oz more openly. It helped that we now had our mind link, but I knew it wouldn’t be enough to stop this ache until we could be free with our relationship.

As we headed to the tunnel the Shifters had claimed as their own my gaze snagged on George where he was in a group with Kendra and three Daemon. I’d thought once upon a time that we would be friends for life, but my inability to speak about Ozzie had driven a wedge between us I had once wished I could remove. Now, I saw it as a blessing in disguise. Hawthorne and Enid were still friends with Ozzie even though he couldn’t talk about me. They didn’t let that come between them. This curse had at least shown me who was my true friend, and it wasn’t its fault that I apparently hadn’t had any.

And I would never regret choosing Oz all those years ago. He was all the friend I needed, but with Phenex now in the picture that gaping hole in my chest was starting to be filled. Abaddon came with him, the brothers a packaged deal and I was excited to nurture a friendship with him.

And then there was Qarinah. She had given me a taste of what a real friendship looked like, without judgement or letting silly things like boys or curses get between us. In the brief time I had known her I had already come to trust her.

Perhaps I wasn’t doomed to be alone forever after all.

With those thoughts removing a weight from my shoulders I hadn’t realised was so heavy, I approached the Shifters with a smile I hoped came across as friendly. It was only when a feline Shifter hissed at me did I realise the would likely assume it was fake. They didn’t trust me and they hadn’t given me a reason to give them my smiles so why would they believe it genuine?

I shot the others a sheepish look and schooled my features into something a little more serious, but I still couldn’t manage to completely wipe my happiness from my face. Besides, I wasn’t about to let these asshole make me feel bad for feeling good. They could just get over themselves.

When we stopped a nonthreatening distance from the tunnel, Oz asked the question we were all thinking. ‘So… how are we going to do this?’

‘Act it out?’ I suggested.

‘Act out what? Fighting? They’ll just think just think we’re challenging them ,’ Abaddon pointed out, and he wasn’t wrong.’

‘I was thinking more along the lines of the beasts,’ I pouted, curling my hands into an impression of claws and baring my teeth at him.

‘And they were take offense thinking we were mocking them.’

‘Okay, then, Einstein. You got a better idea?’ I snapped.

‘Nope.’

I released a noise of frustration and bit my lip as I thought of the best way to communicate with the last people who wanted us to communicate with them.

I got nothing, so I just pointed at the tunnel behind them then waved them over and hoped they got the gist.

The only response I received were dozens of glowing eyes of assorted colours blinking at me blankly.

All five of us motioned again for them to come inside the chamber and away from the tunnel, but this time they just turned their backs and ignored us. Message received, but when I heard claws scraping against rock and the faint sound of panting breaths in the distance I knew it wasn’t the Shifters. They hadn’t seemed to notice it themselves, but now I was panicked. They were lambs for the slaughter and I didn’t know what to do about it.

‘They’re not listening,’ I said, my anxiety levels rising. I didn’t like them but the didn’t deserve to suffer the way they would if they continued to ignore us. ‘I don’t know what to do.’

‘Can you protect them with a spell?’ Phenex asked, rubbing my arms in an attempt to soothe me. It worked marginally, but as the beasts drew closer nothing could stop me from tensing.

‘I could block off the tunnel, but they might perceive it as an attack and become another enemy to fight,’ I admitted.

‘What about caving in the tunnels?’ Abaddon asked.

I had thought of it, but I couldn’t see a way that ended well for us. ‘Then we would have to fight them again and we can’t afford that when we need to be working together. The only other option would be trapping them inside, but I don’t think any of us are cruel enough to do that to them. Plus, again, we need to be getting them on our side not killing them off.’

The brothers released similar sounding grunts, acknowledging my words as well as the wall we’d been unhelpfully backed into.

A snuffling noise that reminded me of a dog sniffing out a bone made me pause and tilt my head to listen. Shivers of ice-cold fear skittered down my spine and I knew that sound would haunt me for the rest of my life. They were so close…

‘Come on!’ I shouted at them and pointed more vehemently at the darkness behind them.

Our gestures became more frantic as Phenex, Oz, Abaddon and Qarinah caught on to what I was hearing as well, our panic pushing through into our actions. Finally, finally , a few of the Shifters clocked the sounds that weren’t coming from them, their eyes darting to where we were now backing away, desperately urging them to get the fuck away from the damn tunnel.

It wasn’t until a deep, rattling growl echoed through the darkness that they clued in to what we were trying to tell them, but they still didn’t leave. Instead, the fire from the sconces glinted off large onyx scales as the Alpha dude slithered from where he’d been licking his wounded ego. He released a bone-chilling hiss in response to the growl and that seemed to mobilise them as well.

The scene we’d created had drawn more attention from the Angels and the Fae. The Fae, already understanding that something was happening, had moved into a battle formation, blades raised and ready to slice. Their expressions were serious. Deadly. They would be fine.

The Angels, however, merely watched on with interest like they couldn’t wait for the show and I wanted to lob a fucking rock at their heads and watch them tumble back down to our level, both physically and metaphorically. They needed to pull their heads out of the own asses and realise that this wasn’t a joke, and we weren’t their fucking entertainment.

I chose to ignore them. They could see for themselves what was happening and if they chose to sit back and watch rather than help then they could suffer whatever befell them.

‘Ready?’ Oz called out and he received confirmation from both Humans and Daemons, and even a head nod from Evander as if he had understood. Perhaps he had, but I didn’t have the time to test the theory because the first beast was upon us.

A fireball came barrelling down a tunnel to our left but was quickly put out by a hurriedly uttered spell from the group closest. That blood-chilling rattling growl came next as claws clicked and scratched against the rocks slowly, deliberately. A predator’s pace as it stalked its prey.

And then a different sound that my brain couldn’t process came from within the chamber. Something dripped on my forehead. I lifted a hand to swipe at it, and my breath froze in my lungs when I saw it wasn’t water. It was too red.

I tilted my head back to look my knees almost gave way at what I found. Blood spurted as bones crunched and flesh rendered, the Angel dead before she could even scream. Red dripped down upon us in a macabre waterfall while we all stared in disbelief, and then I jumped back, stumbling into Oz and Qarinah as gravity tore the lower half of her body form the thin tendons that were struggling to hold her together and her legs fell right where I’d been standing.

I wanted to wretch at the wet slapping sound they made as they hit the floor, bouncing up momentarily and rolling a small distance away before coming to a stop, but my body refused to wake up enough to do even that. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. All I could do was just stare at the severed limbs and pray to the gods that it was all in my head. It couldn’t be real. It just couldn’t .

Another rattling growl vibrated the ground, closer than before, and my head snapped back up. The beasts were now inside the chamber, blocking the tunnels and trapping us inside with them. They were at least three times our size, covered in a thick, leathery hide littered with scars that blended into the walls. If they were curled up asleep I would have walked right past them believing them nothing more than large boulders. They were anything but. Soulless black eyes bore down on us, scanning for which prey to consume first. Thin grey lips pulled back over elongated snouts tipped with four slits for nostrils to reveal row after row of sharp, yellowed, snaggled teeth. Saliva dripped menacingly from their jaws, their hunger evident in more ways than one. I followed the path of one particular drop as if fell, landing between two feet tipped with sharp, black, serrated claws that extended probably as long as my entire forearm.

The Shifters had fully joined us, backed into the chamber by the massive beasts, and I caught the Alpha’s eye. He was frowning at me, something indecipherable flashing behind his eyes that I didn’t even try to catch. I let myself wonder, just for a moment, why he had shifted back into his humanoid form rather than stay a serpent, but there was no time to dwell on answers that I wouldn’t receive.

I felt so stupid. In every single horror movie ever made, the victims always made the same mistake. It was like Alien and Jurassic Park combined. They were hunting in packs, distracting us down below while their friends attacked from above. I should have known better after shouting at the TV so many times. No one ever looked up.

And neither had we.