Page 28 of The Gods We Defy (All Gods Must Die #2)

CHAPTER 28

T he snake is monstrous. Its jaws could devour me whole, while its tail is nowhere in sight. Its scales are a mottled gray and brown, allowing it to blend seamlessly into its environment.

There’s no way my Sidus light will hold it. I frantically look for a way back to the others.

It senses my movement and rears up over me, its hiss deafening. The snake darts its head forward. I dive to the left as it launches at me with so much force that it slams straight through the wall behind me.

Unperturbed, it slithers back into the room and heads for me.

I scramble to my feet and dive into the nearest passage.

It crashes through the mountain walls like they are made of paper as it hunts me, collapsing entire caves behind it.

Dashing into another enormous cavern, I pause when I spot long, white strings hanging from the high ceiling.

I search for a place to hide among the boulders. and rush across the room, tripping on something rough yet thin like parchment, it cracks as I pull my foot out, and I can see the soft imprint of scales the size of my hand along is transparent tube. Its… Skin . The snake’s skin.

My eyes widen when I realize I've just walked right into its nest.

A low hiss has me whipping around as the snake enters the room.

Maybe I can outsmart it and get past it? But I still haven’t found the gold ore. The thought only comes to me when I spot a glint in the wall behind the snake’s skin. A gold glint.

It’s the ore. It’s here. Of course, it would be inside the nest.

Now how to get it before the snake eats me.

The glint… My Sidus light. I can blind it and buy myself enough time to get to the ore and away from it.

The snake coils itself around the room and I finally see the end of its tail, the beast must be over sixty feet long. Its low hiss scratches against my ears as it makes its way closer to me.

Letting go, my Sidus light rushes out of me straight for the snake’s red eyes but just before it reaches them, the light changes, growing sharper, forming into blades.

The blades of light slash across its eyes over and over as the snake reels back, slamming into the gold covered walls. My Sidus light swords follow, slashing until black blood drips from its eyes, obscuring them completely.

I silently move away, seeing if it follows. But it makes no move.

It’s blind.

Walking as silently as possible, I move around its large body and over to the gold ore. The snake did half the job already, breaking it up for me.

I dip past it as it lifts its head and veers to the left before pausing.

Freezing in my spot, I wait for it to move before getting to the ore and filling my bag up.

The small rocks smack together, and I freeze once more just as the snake whips around and shoots in my direction.

I jump to the side and kick off the wall before diving over its body.

Rolling to my feet, I whip around and start moving backward as it rears up, listening for me.

Staying as silent as possible, I creep slowly toward an opening when a ripple of energy stops me.

This close, I can feel it.

The illusion seeps across the room, and the hairs on my arms raise as the energy shifts and grows, this time far more powerful as it pulls me under.

Instinctively, I calm my mind and drop to the center of my Sidus light and its warmth, but nothing happens. I fall into the light, trying to wrap it around me and guide me out of the illusion. But again, nothing happens, and the illusion continues, forming a golden temple and throne raised above a high dais.

Columns shoot up from each side of me and another ripple of energy has everything becoming cleaner, sharper, with dust blowing away in the sharp breeze.

Wisps of dark smoke seep into the temple and spread out surrounding me. Similar to the shadows in the hall of mirrors, the darkness shrieks before shooting forward and heading straight for me.

I turn to run but something stops me. Glancing down at my feet, my eyes widen as a thick, black liquid substance starts wrapping around my feet and slowly climbing up my legs.

“Bow before the gods of destruction and death, ” a deep voice sounds out, crawling down my spine like ice and slithering around me as the dark liquid substance drags me forward.

“Bow before the rulers of old.” The substance drags me to my knees, shoving me forward. I catch my hands and try to push against it, but it is no use, the substance is too strong.

“Bow, doomed mortals and beasts that stain the world full of darkness where the gods will reign.”

Just as the creepy voice ends, the wisps of smoky darkness fly around me, and a long dark claw reaches out for me.

My Sidus light flares to life and shoves them back with a shriek. I focus, forcing myself to clear my mind of the illusion.

Warmth seeps into my body and the black substance slowly disappears into the floor. The gold floor that’s now shifting back to the cave ground.

I glance up as the illusion starts to peel back and reveal the snake’s nest once more. The last of the strange smoky dark energy gathers and surges before expanding outward and slowly disappearing.

Too late to see the threat in front of me, my eyes widen as two sharp fangs rip through the darkness and strike. I roll out of the way, but one slides along my back with a sharp burn.

Gritting against the pain, I get up and glance over at the ore.

I’m so close…

With silent steps, I move farther and farther away from the snake while reaching down inside me and focusing on my Sidus light.

I need to stay focused in case it tries to pull me under again.

The world tilts around me as the snake twists around and shoots straight for me.

Time slows down as it rushes for me. I realize there is no escape this time. No way out.

But as soon as it reaches me, power rushes out around me blasting the snake and sending it slamming into the wall.

I drop to my knees, trying to catch my breath, my body trembling, but a cool trickle slowly fills my veins.

I’m so close. I can’t give up. I won’t.

Closing my eyes, I focus again on the deepest part of me, reaching my Sidus light and its warmth. I move past it and stop at the veil of thick smoke. Reaching out, I slam my mind against it over and over. Pushing as hard as I can against it.

Over and over, I slam harder, pushing my anger, my frustration and terror of leaving this world without seeing my mother and family straight into every punch.

I scream with one last slam, and I finally hear a crack.

The crack is barely there, but the dark shadows that spill from it only grow.

Opening my eyes, I force myself to my feet and watch a vast mass of shadows swirl around balls of light that slowly fuse.

The shadows break away, becoming small dust particles, spinning and swirling in and around the light.

The snake, finally recovered from my last blast of power, rears up once more, ready to strike. I keep my focus and aim the essence of my joined power.

The shadows and light morph into a magnificent sword.

With the glint of light as its blade, I shove it directly down onto the snake’s colossal head and straight through to the other side.

The snake’s head sways and drops to the ground with a slam.

I glance across to find my bag, the ore still inside it. I make a move toward it when my body sways, my vision darkening as the world tilts, and I meet the hard ground.

A shadow crosses my vision, the sound of boots echoing across from me just as darkness embraces me.

“ S eren! Wake up. Come on, we’re so close. Please …”

My eyes blink open and find Hunter’s brown panicked gaze staring down at me.

“What happened?” he asks as he checks the wound on my back.

“The snake… tried to bite me,” I rasp.

He freezes, his eyes finding mine. A myriad of emotions pass too quick to catch, but I spot one of them. Fear .

I know it’s bad. I can feel the heaviness in my body set in, the tightness in my chest growing. The snake’s fang must have had venom in it. I don’t have long, and he knows it.

“The… others?” I ask, hoping they at least got out of the illusions.

“Safe,” he says while continuing to check the wound. “The other side of the mountain is just through that passage.” He tilts his head toward it, his gaze not leaving his inspection.

“They thought you left,” he says. “The illusions made them think you walked through the portal, and they followed.”

Wincing when I try to frown, I look up at him. “You didn’t… leave…”

His gaze finds mine, his brown eyes full of fear and sadness. “Something told me to come back…” He swallows hard and nods to himself before closing his eyes. I flinch at the warmth of his hand as he moves it along the wound.

“Stay still,” he says, just as the warmth grows and expands out and around me. A moment later, a tugging sensation draws the pain out of my body and mind.

“Hunter…”

“I’ve got you…” he whispers, and the tugging sensation continues, a calmness envelops me until the pain completely disappears.

The fog clears from my mind, and my body grows stronger.

I move to a sitting position and Hunter dips toward me.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

“Just a little tired,” he mumbles and glances at me with relief and happiness. He moves to his feet and turns, heading toward the gold ore.

Ripping off the end of his cloak, he collects some of the raw gold and wraps it up.

“I had a bag…” I tell him and glance around, looking for the one I had already filled. But it’s nowhere to be seen.

“Forget it.” Hunter joins me, helping me to my feet.

“You said the portal was through these passages?” I ask.

He nods. “Let’s go.”

We move through the passages and out of the mountain to a large clearing of green. At the end of it sits the large purple portal.

But just as relief fills me, Hunter leans toward me, his weight becoming heavier and heavier as he falls.

Catching him, I ease him to the ground and watch his chest rise and fall with effort as each breath looks to cost him.

“What did you do?” I ask. Was he injured and didn’t tell me? I search his body for wounds, but he places a hand on mine, stopping me.

“Something I would gladly do… over and over again…” he says, his breaths becoming shallower and strained.

Something he would… the warmth from his hand. He didn’t heal me. My eyes widen with fear when I realize what he did. “You took the venom. You didn’t heal me. You took it into you.” He knew it would kill him. He knew it and still he took it.

“You’re worth it,” he breathes. “You’re worth it all… and more…”

“Please, Hunter. Please tell me what to do. I can’t… I can’t heal you… I?—”

His body convulses, shaking, trembling. I reach out and grab his hand, he stiffens, his entire body going rigid before arching with a pained gasp.

My eyes widen in horror as I watch him float two feet above the ground, his body still arched as a thick, black liquid seeps from him in a slow, horrifying shriek.

“What the…”

Almost as quick as it happened, Hunter drops to the ground, his chest heaving, his eyes rolling as he mumbles.

“Curse… curse… broken…”

I blanch, my chest tightening, my stomach churning as blood starts seeping from his ears and nose.

“Hunter…” I plead and beg anyone to help me. Help me heal him. He doesn’t deserve to die. He protected me at every turn, watched out for me, retrieved the immunity— The immunity.

I search my pockets and quickly find the small crystal bottle still intact. It must have a protection spell on it, as the container of healing powder from the same pocket is ruined.

I send a silent prayer to the Goddess Brigid, begging for her help before pulling down Hunter’s cloth, tilting his head up, and pouring the liquid into his mouth.

He coughs as he swallows, choking and spewing up some of it, but I manage to get most of it into his mouth.

Within seconds, his breathing evens out, his heart rate steadying.

I scoop some of the healing powder from my pocket and start searching his body for any wounds, finding some on his arms, legs, and chest.

Feeling relief, I apply the powder as Hunter grows stronger by the minute.

Spotting another on the side of his head, I lift his mask, not thinking he’d care after everything, only to freeze when I find a pale Kestral beneath it.