“It isn’t her, it’s not Shiphra!” she screamed.
The invisible rope around her burned as it tightened, and she just had time to look at Cole pleadingly before she was pulled off her feet and disappeared into the forest.
20
Her flesh burned, and her body cried out in pain as she flew through the forest, sharp branches tearing chunks out of her exposed skin. Tears streamed down her cheeks in a reaction to pain or anger, she wasn’t sure which.
Why couldn’t she have listen to Armaan? Shiphra had given her so many signs.
As she drew nearer, the entity pulling her in, she hoped Cole and Armaan would stay away. They didn’t stand a chance. The power of an Ancient was nearly limitless, and they were just two young men.
“No!” Amanda screamed, holding back tears. She was so sick of people that she loved being hurt because of her. She thought of Madgie and how close her old friend had come to death. Amanda would try to stand on her own, even though she could feel her energy draining with every inch put between her and her wolf.
Just as Amanda began wondering how long she’d be dragged through the forest, she started feeling the dark energy of the Guard. There weren’t as many as the last time Amanda had encountered them, maybe seven or eight, but she barely noticed them. The brilliance of a single Ancient drowned them out like a full moon blots out the stars.
She came to a halt twenty feet from the towering figure, still in the air and held captive by the invisible rope. He was stroking a large peacock with disjointed hands, looking bored. The bird was dazzling and larger than any she’d ever seen. It seemed to light up the dim forest like a strange sun.
Tearing her eyes from the creature, she glared into the Ancient’s hollowed face, attempting to convey as much confidence as possible in her current state.
“All of this trouble for such a little thing?” He studied her so intently she felt the need to cover herself. “You seem hardly worth the effort. If it were up to me, I would gladly let you frolic off into the sunset. But Baal was quite insistent. It’s a pecking order thing, you understand,” he said sympathetically. “I’m ready to go back home; may Heaven receive you and all that.”
Amanda didn’t feel him gather energy; he didn’t need to. It wouldn’t take much for him to do what he had in mind. Before she could close her eyes, she felt something tear through her chest. She screamed out as the pain rippled across her body. The dank smell of sulfur reached her nostrils, and she looked down at her still smoldering shirt. A terrible wound peeked through the hole in her clothing, dark red and charred around the edges. In her shocked state, she wondered why blood wasn’t gushing from her wound.
Madgie’s shoulder had looked like a river of blood, and Baal loved the sight of blood. Her blurred vision turned the colored light of the peacock into a mesmerizing kaleidoscope. Shaking her head, she regained her vision slowly, and she noticed that The Ancient’s face was full of confusion.
“Taunt him,” a familiar voice urged her.
“What? You’ve got to be kidding me! Did you not notice what he just did to me without any taunting?” Amanda asked internally as her head cleared up.
“He will hurt you more, but if you listen to me, you will live. Amanda, trust me. We must weaken him,” Shiphra’s voice commanded in her mind.
She decided that she’d be dead no matter what, so she might as well go out in style. Her energy started coming back to her. “I know that you said I wasn’t worth the effort, but really, you could put in just a little,” she said, trying to keep her teeth from chattering.
She had to get control of herself. She drew in a large breath to get her body out of shock, but before she could exhale, she felt The Ancient’s temper rise. She knew he was angry. She felt it, but she couldn’t read the Ancient’s emotions in the arena. Why could she now?
He gathered his energy, and another attack ripped at her chest. Her head was spinning, but miraculously she was still breathing, though she was surprised that she still had lungs.
“Make him draw more energy,” Shiphra’s voice encouraged. Amanda put her faith in her since they’d left the Hovel and couldn’t turn back now. “You can’t kill me? But I’m just a little thing, and you are supposed to be all powerful, right?” She coughed out every word. Her chest heaved in and out painfully, and she wished her wolf were at her side giving her the energy to heal herself.
“No! Don’t call him… not yet. Tell him to stay away. He mustn’t see your wolf!” Shiphra’s voice shouted quickly. “Tell him to stay away, Amanda.” Shiphra’s every instruction went against her instincts, but trusting her was her only option.
“Stop it! You are stronger than you know. Now face him, and fight him. Make him waste his energy in anger.”
Amanda drew in a shaky breath and took the blinding pain that came with the oxygen. The last thing she wanted to do was make him angrier. After the attacks she had endured, she wasn’t sure why she was still alive.
An Ancient could snuff out a Healer’s life in the blink of an eye, so how was she still be alive? Of course, a demon attack wasn’t something a person normally lived through either.
The same question seemed to be ringing in the minds of the Guard. Their faces were contorted in anger and confusion. Some of them seemed to think there was something wrong with their vision, shaking their heads and blinking their eyes as if in doing this they would see her lifeless on the ground, but floating in the air she stayed. She was wincing in pain, and her clothes were in tatters, but alive nonetheless.
The Ancient must have read the Guard as she had, because his bored demeanor changed from that of a person on an errand to someone with a personal vendetta. The invisible ropes tightened in on her, shooting more pain through her body.
“Enough of this!” she screamed, tired of being held against her will. She imagined a pair of scissors cutting her ties, and she fell to the ground. Her captor let out an audible gasp. The Guard, looking unsure, inched away from where she landed. Amanda straightened and gazed into the Ancient’s hollow eyes.
“What are you?” he demanded.
“Nothing special, just a Healer. What are you? Surely you can’t really be an Ancient,” she said, blocking an attack seconds after the words left her mouth.
The temperature seemed to rise with his anger, and the cool breezy morning was replaced by hundred degree temperatures. The attacks were getting more powerful! He was pulling more and more energy. She cried internally, not letting the pain show on her heat-reddened face.
“An Ancient would be able to keep me contained!” she shouted, wiping the trail of blood that was running down her chin.
Sweat poured off one of the Guards, landing on the ground with a muffled sizzle.
“Attack him,” Shiphra prompted.
“No.”
“You must weaken him. Defend yourself. He is trying to kill you!” Shiphra urged.
Carter’s last sputtering words ran through her mind.
”Murderer! You did this to me…” and the gruesome hacking that followed.
“I won’t. I defended myself against Carter, and I will forever have to live with his blood on my hands. I will never choose my life above another’s again.”
“Do what you must,” Shiphra said.
Do what she must? How was she supposed to know what the right choice was? Another blast of dark energy hit her shield.
“An Ancient would be able to kill me!” she screamed as loudly as she could manage through the pain.
A wave of heat erupted as The Ancient shouted, “This ends now!”
She stood tall, as the plants around her burst into flame.
