Page 11 of Voidwalker (Beasts of the Void #1)
Moaning, Fi uncurled, hair a snarl of Void and rainbow, face… stinging . Shards of glass coated the floor, the windows shattered. Her silviamesh saved her from the deluge, but shrapnel ripped the sleeves of her robe and left a cut down her jaw. Overhead, the ceiling groaned.
Then a crack.
“Oh, f—”
Fi lurched to her feet. Her vision spun as she stumbled across the room. Ears still ringing as stone scraped above her. She dove into the hallway seconds before a chunk of ceiling broke loose, crashing to the floor in a spray of rubble and snuffed candles.
More cracks split the walls.
She didn’t have time to think. Barely time to catch her breath on the dust-choked air.
With a hearty middle finger to Milana and Erik and everything about this , she hurtled into the halls of the capitol, intent on getting the fuck out of here.
The building was chaos. A flood of well-dressed administrators and secretaries surged out of offices and into hallways.
Guards in midnight uniforms hurried people toward exits, their shouted directions scarcely audible above the din.
Distracted by their own urgency, none bothered Fi with a second glance.
This was no minor explosion. No petty theft. It was a focused attack, and Fi didn’t know why . Buildings weren’t supposed to explode in territories ruled by daeyari, the hard hands of the immortals enough to deter even the bitterest whiffs of insurrection.
Fi pushed counter to the crowd, retracing her path back to the Curtain she’d cut. Milana’s route had been labyrinthine, avoiding points of heavier traffic, but Fi could memorize spatial layouts in her sleep. Otherwise, she’d have lost herself in the Void years ago.
She ran into the final hallway, in sight of the storage room she’d entered through. No sign of Milana or Erik. They’d told her to meet them in the reflection hall, but if they had any sense, they’d either find their own exit from the crumbling building, or get to the Curtain.
Maybe Fi would be charitable and wait an extra minute for them. More than they deserved—and only for the chance to snarl at them herself. If she spotted a hint of this roof coming down, she’d book it through that Curtain with or without—
A third explosion went off. Directly above her.
The force shattered windows, throwing Fi against a wall. By the time her head stopped spinning, rubble blocked her path to the Curtain. A heinous crack sounded as a fissure spread across the ceiling.
Fi clawed into her pockets and yanked out her transport stone.
The polished carnelian was cool in her palm, the spiral shape of a fossilized shell: a Shard ammonite.
Little extra-Planar organisms capable of dematerialization.
As the ceiling groaned, Fi cracked the stone in two, a seam pre-cut down the middle.
The halves pulled to each other like magnets, eager to rejoin.
She hurled one half out a broken window.
The second half, she clutched for dear life. As the ceiling gave way, Fi closed her eyes, palm sizzling as she Shaped energy into the stone.
Hot static shuddered over her skin, stabbing through muscle, through bone. Fi clenched her teeth against the liquifying sensation. A lurch sent her off her feet.
Then she was stumbling. Outside.
Fi careened off balance, skinning her hands as she caught herself on the flagstone of the plaza, hunched over where the thrown half of her transport stone had clattered to a halt.
She shook, stomach reeling, skin like a swarm of ants.
Human bodies weren’t made for dematerialization, but she could survive a jump or two before any organs started melting.
Stone thundered behind her. Fi rolled to face the capitol building, eyes wide as the entire west wing collapsed in a plume of dust. She drew an arm across her face, shielding her eyes as the pulse hit. Mortar struck her arms. The air turned thick as chalk.
Then, an eerie quiet as stone began to settle.
Fi blinked at her surroundings, trying to make sense of silhouettes in the dust, voices shouting across the plaza. How much of the capitol went down?
How many people were in there?
She couldn’t afford to think about any of that.
Shock and adrenaline warred in Fi’s muscles, enough to get her out of here.
When she tried to stand, every joint protested.
She pulled a current of energy out of trembling abdominal muscles, hissing as she Shaped molten silver over scraped hands and chin.
Not a pretty fix, but enough to cauterize the bleeding and kickstart her natural healing.
She shed the heavy attendant cloak, eager to breathe again, though the dust in the air sent her coughing.
Those shouts in the plaza were guards, guiding evacuees to the exit gates.
Either Fi had to slip out with the crowd, or cut another Curtain.
The cold in her muscles, a sign of magic depletion, made the second option less attractive.
Neither did she trust her ability to relax and spot a proper connection point while the world crumbled around her.
She limped toward the nearest voices, ears still ringing from splintering rock. Shifting rubble rumbled in the gloom.
Then, the deep notes of a growl.
Fi froze. The sound was heart-stopping. Otherworldly. Clearly, some type of shock-induced hallucination.
It sounded again, a growl like no human or animal she’d ever heard, low enough to rumble her ribs. She spun in a circle, scanning the dust-shrouded air. She’d already dragged herself out of a collapsing building, what else could possibly…
Atop the wall, something moved.
Something hideously large.
Fi’s mouth fell fully open as a pantherine creature slunk across the red battlements, twenty feet long at least, white skin like a ghost behind the haze.
A long tail swayed behind it. The head tapered like a horse, but too skeletal, skin pulled tight against bones and jaws filled with jagged teeth.
Black antlers curved into a gnarled crown.
The guards atop the wall screamed when they spotted it.
The beast fell upon them in a flurry of teeth, batting away crossbow bolts like gnats.
Fi couldn’t move. Couldn’t tear her eyes away.
Her father had spun countless folktales of forest beasts, exaggerated stories where monsters grew more hideous with each retelling.
She’d seen Summer Plane prairie eagles rip men off their horses, packs of Void hyenas prowling Curtains in search of prey.
She’d never seen a creature like this.
When corpses riddled the wall, the beast’s blood-spattered gaze fell on the plaza. On Fi.
It leapt, too fast for a creature that size, taut sinew propelling clawed limbs with feral force.
Fi didn’t have a single rational thought in her head as she scrambled for her sword.
Nothing more than a shout and raw survival instinct as she cracked an energy capsule into the hilt.
The mouth, the eyes, the neck—no matter the size, every animal had vulnerabilities.
When her swing glanced off thick hide, the beast swatted with one giant paw.
A flail through the air, then her back struck stone with enough force to drive the breath from her lungs, a crack to the back of her skull.
Skulls weren’t supposed to make sounds like that.
Fi slumped against a wall, stars blooming over blurred vision. Too hard to keep her head up. Too hard to even lift her sword as the beast approached with viscera-stained teeth. It regarded Fi with pupil-less red irises, hollow and hungry, the sclera pitch black. A Void-touched creature.
Before it could strike, its attention latched onto other prey.
A group appeared across the plaza, crossbow-armed guards encircling a core of politicians. One of them stood out: a midnight suit with shiny buttons, silver sash across his chest. The territory governor.
The beast moved like no dumb animal. It left Fi and lunged for the group, dodging the first volley of crossbow bolts when the guards spotted it, too close by the time they reloaded. The governor reeled in terror as the beast leapt over his retinue.
A scream, as claws sank into his chest.
Fi tried to move. She really, truly did.
Her head throbbed as she watched an impossible creature rip the governor of Antal Territory into pieces. Vision blackened at the edges as the beast fell upon the remaining retinue.
When a hand settled on her shoulder, she slumped deeper against the wall.
By the black pit of the Void, Fi should have charged double for this.
Then, she didn’t remember anything more.