Page 26 of The Gods We Defy (All Gods Must Die #2)

CHAPTER 26

W armth flickers across my face. The heat, a welcome relief against the chill that has settled deep within my bones.

My eyes blink open to find a dark sky full of stars above me. Its familiarity is something that soothes the tightness in my chest.

A crackle hits my ears, and I turn my head slightly to find a blazing fire and the source of my soothing warmth.

Something moves behind it, and I glance across the fire to find a pair of dark brown eyes behind a familiar black and gold mask watching me. His dark cloth covering the rest of his face once more.

Hunter.

“Where are we?” I ask and sit up with a wince. Reaching up to my head, I feel the gash the other chosen left.

“Still in the Burren. A small open area. Don’t worry, there’s no chosen near us.” He moves around the fire and passes me two bottles.

“Top up your wound,” he says and hands me the small white bottle of powder. “And keep this on you in case you need it.” He hands me a crystal bottle that looks suspiciously like the immunity from the game.

My eyes flicker to his. “It’s the immunity?” I ask and he nods.

“What happened to the one you took it from?”

His brows raise, and an innocent look seeps into his eyes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. He handed it over graciously.”

I narrow my eyes on him. “I’m sure.”

He chuckles low, a glimmer of mirth in his eyes.

“And the one that hit me in the head?” I ask.

Any humor quickly flees his eyes as they darken with anger. “No longer a threat.”

“Thank you,” I tell him, and he nods before glancing around.

“The sun is coming up, we should get going,” he says.

I quickly top up my wounds with the white healing powder and then pocket the immunity in case we need it.

Hunter snuffs the fire out and we move out into the rocky landscape in silence, our eyes peeled for any more fae that seem to be able to camouflage.

But all too soon, I feel something strange run along my senses as energy ripples around me, making me pause. “What?—”

Monstrous creatures with dagger filled jaws and dark, soulless black eyes surround me and Hunter disappears. The dark night crawls in around me and the monsters start moving closer. I turn and run, but one glance over my shoulder shows them following me.

Where is Hunter?

I keep running but quickly find myself at a dead end. Weaving my Sidus light, I use my thick string to climb up and over the rock to a large open ledge.

Glancing back at the monsters, my eyes widen when they climb up the rock too, their sharp claws digging into the stone as they move upward. I move a step back, trying to think of something.

“SEREN!”

I freeze, hearing Hunter’s voice somewhere behind me. “Listen to my voice. It’s just an illusion. Focus on the energy around you. Please … step away from the ledge.”

Ledge? I see nothing but the monsters coming for me, caging me in.

Illusions… I squeeze my eyes shut and try to calm my racing heart and focus on what Cyra taught me. On the peaceful calm within. But the minute I open my eyes, the monsters draw closer, forcing me back another step.

A monster sneaks up beside me and slashes its claw across my arm, making me hiss in pain before I manage to shove him away from me.

Illusions. Hunter said they are just illusions.

I glance down at the vicious sharp claw mark on my arm before squeezing my eyes shut and attempt to ignore the fact that the monsters have me outnumbered and surrounded.

I grip my stinging arm and try to focus. If they really are illusions, then why do they feel so real?

Feel… Cyra said I needed to feel the energy to separate it, but what if all I need to do is feel the difference between what is real and what is an illusion.

Whipping my blade out, I quickly slide it across my palm and the sting pulses through my hand. The world around me ripples and I finally start to see through the illusion as it falters. Leaving me standing on the top of a huge rock about to step off the ledge.

Just like Hunter said.

Hunter. He climbs over the lip of the rock just as I focus more on the sting from my hand and the real pain. The rest of the illusion disappears, revealing the Burren with its various shaped rocks once more.

“Seren—” Hunter starts as he makes his way over to me.

“I will destroy you,” a familiar voice shouts and I whip my head in its direction, glancing over to where I heard Yasmin, and find her, Indira, and Hael all in and around a group of jutting lava pits.

Indira is using her Sidus light to wrap around the outside of one and is attempting to drag it to her. While Yasmin is using her shadows to break the bottom of a tall, thick rock that is tilting toward her.

“Don’t let go,” Hael shouts and I spot him off to the left, reaching his hand toward a deep lava pit. He’s so close that he’s going to touch it any minute and burn his entire hand off.

“You deal with him,” I tell Hunter before dipping my head toward the girls. “And I’ll take them.”

He nods. “Be careful,” he says before climbing down the rock and running toward Hael.

I climb down after him, using my Sidus light, and dash toward the girls.

Coming up beside Yasmin, I scream her name, but she doesn’t hear me, so I do the only other thing I can think of and grab my blade. I wait for an opening before shooting forward and sliding it across her hand.

She hisses and whips around, her shadows following when she freezes, her eyes blinking a couple of times before she glances around in confusion. “Seren?”

“You were under an illusion. Come on. Let’s help Indira.” I move over to where I saw her. Thankfully, she’s still in the same place. Her Sidus light curled around the jutting lava pit walls.

I step forward to cut her like I did Yasmin and free her from the illusion when Yasmin reaches a hand out and stops me. “I’ve got this.”

Yasmin steps forward and grabs her, holding her hand open and sliding the blade along her palm, creating a much smaller cut than I did with her and me. But it works, and Indira freezes just like Yasmin, blinking away the illusion as she finally sees us.

“Yaz? Seren?” She looks from me to Yasmin and then down to the minor cut on her hand, her brows dipping. “Ow. Why’d you cut me?” she asks Yasmin with a narrowed look.

Yasmin raises a brow and tilts her head toward her as if to say, ‘See what I have to put up with?’

I shake my head at them both as relief spreads throughout me.

Hael and Hunter join us a moment later. Hael’s brows are furrowed, his eyes full of worry as he looks over at Indira.

“I thought I was saving Yasmin from falling.” Indira swallows hard as if re-living the illusion.

“I thought I was saving you ,” Hael mumbles while narrowing his eyes on her. She glances up at him, her eyes full of surprise.

We look at Yasmin to see what she saw. She shrugs. “I was chopping up ugly creatures.”

A laugh ripples through the group, breaking any tension.

We move toward the mountains as a group, and after a while, I spot a glinting up above. I point up to it and we all look up as the clouds fully clear revealing an enormous face of gold carved into the mountains.

Hael whistles. “What a pretty coin that would make.”

Indira rolls her eyes at him. “Yes, but I bet it would cost you your life.”

I ignore their bickering as it picks up and glance up at the golden face once more. It’s about another half a day’s trek away before we reach it but seeing how close we are to the end brings a rush of excitement through me.

Some movement catches the corner of my eye, making me pause. Glancing over in its direction, I spot a small shadow moving behind one of the larger rocks. Unsheathing my dagger, I move toward it, thinking it to be another chosen trying to hide. But when I walk around it, I find nothing.

Moving around the rocks, I scan the area but still find nothing. Hearing the others call me, I move around the rocks and come out in front of them.

“There you are,” Indira says with a sigh of relief. “Where did you?—”

She freezes, her eyes widening in fear. Hael and Yasmin mimic her expression while Hunter makes a run toward me.

I open my mouth to ask them why they look so panicked when I feel something hard and cold coil around my stomach. I glance down at a thick, black tendril as it tightens its grip on me.

“SEREN!” Hunter shouts just as it yanks me backward.

The world flashes by me as my body is jostled back and forth. I try to focus my gaze on the streak of color that moves around me to get my bearings, but whatever has me it its grasp is moving too fast for my eyes to pick out any one thing. But what I do know is that it’s moving me farther into the Burren toward the mountains.

I grip onto the long tendril around my waist and try to move it, but it doesn’t budge and instead tightens its hold, making it harder to breathe.

The world turns on its axis as the creature defies gravity and climbs along the side of one of the taller rocks, holding my body to the side like I weigh nothing. I still can’t get a clear view of what it is as my eyes draw to the steep fall below me and I start to panic as it climbs higher and higher.

My hands flail against my thigh, hitting off something hard, reminding me of my dagger.

A spark of hope slashes through me as I rip the dagger from it sheath and grip it tight. Trying to keep my breathing normal, I squeeze my eyes shut and focus my senses on the thick tendril around me.

I wait until the creature slows down and has us over sturdier ground before I raise the dagger and slam it into the thick tendril around my waist.

The creature shrieks, a loud bellowing sound that scrapes across my ears. It loosens its grip but slices its claws across my stomach, making me gasp. I grab the dagger and yank it out before it drops me to the ground.

I roll to my feet, staying low while quickly turning to see what took me. Only to come face to face with a creature born from nightmares.

Two white eyes stare at me in rage. Its monstrous head is twice the size of its body, with four black horns curling around the black covering and matching the thick skin down its long torso and body to its tail. The thing that was wrapped around me.

I snap out of my stunned shock as two pairs of thin, bony hands that look malformed reach out to grab me. Moving quickly, I bend and roll out of its path before making a run for it.

I head towards the large rocky wall and move around it, hoping to find some coverage. I make it a few feet when something slams into the wall beside be.

Jumping back, I whip my head around to find the creature has gained on me, its long tail not hindered by the injury I gave it. It means I’ll have to hit it harder.

I jump backward as bits of jagged rock fly around me, some of them slicing my arms, as the creature’s tail whips out again and again.

It stops suddenly, and I move closer to the small groove in the wall as it yanks its tail back and dips its head to the ground a few feet in front of me. It snaps out and darts toward it, clawing at the ground in a frenzy.

I try to calm my racing heart and slowly move past it, keeping my body tight against the wall. I’m just past it when its long black tongue rolls out of its mouth and licks the rocks it was clawing at.

The rock that looks to have some of my blood on it.

It quickly notices that the blood isn’t attached to a body and lets out another shriek before whipping its colossal head around in my direction and slamming its tail out in attack.

I dive over it, rolling to land on my feet before I give up my attempt at hiding and run as fast as my feet will take me.

The ground rumbles and shakes behind me as it chases me, but I gain a bit of distance from it.

If I can keep up this speed, I should be able to get away from it. But my plan soon crumbles when I realize that the path is turning me back around to where we began. I come to a stop when I spot the upturned broken rock with blood on it.

Damn it. I’m going in a circle.

The creature bellows a shriek as it gains on me again.

Searching for a way out of this mess, I look up, spotting an elevated flat rock and a plan forms.

Moving quickly, I slide my hands along the sharp rocks, reopening the small cuts on my hands and making them freshly bloodied once more. Moving around the path I try to find the best way to climb it.

Taking a deep breath, I reach down inside me and hope my Sidus powers don’t fail me now. They immediately roar to life, destroying my worries as my strings of light flood out of me quickly forming a net I can climb. The creature roars again as I rush up to the top of the rock and let my Sidus light dissolve.

Pulling out my dagger, I tighten my grip on the hilt and ready myself near the edge as the creature moves around the path below me.

It freezes just like last time and darts toward the bloodied rocks. The minute it dips its head, I leap, raising the dagger above my head and aiming straight for it. It looks up just as my dagger pierces the top of its head and drags downward with the force of impact.

Something sharp slices across my stomach, but I don’t loosen my grip, I slide the blade straight through its head.

I land with a roll beside it and pop up to my feet. Turning around, I watch the creature drop to the ground with a thump.

“Well… damn…”

I whip around at hearing Hael’s voice and find him standing beside Hunter, Yasmin, and Indira. All are out of breath as if they just ran up here.

Hunter moves over to me, scanning my body for any injuries. The creature’s body trembles, and he yanks me back from it. It freezes before growing smaller and smaller, morphing and changing into a female. A very familiar female.

Her face changes at last, my eyes widening when I realize who it is.

Nathaira . But it can’t be…

“Well… that’s one less issue in our way,” Hunter mumbles beside me. He nods as if not bothered in the slightest by the fact that a huge monster just turned into a girl. The beautiful brown-haired girl betrothed to Kestral. Who he is possibly in love with.

And I just killed her.