She had chopped off two heads. Three, actually.
But who was counting?
This would be easier without the backpack, but she couldn’t risk taking it off and losing the contents. Her heart hadn’t received her earlier confidence pep talk and urged her to panic.
Crashing sounds sounded like elephants coming through.
She had training.
Not for bright yellow monsters or demons, but she could do this.
Far over to her left, a hideous glowing beast running on all fours burst through thick undergrowth. Horns protruded from each side of its bald head, all of it shining bright yellow. Unholy human eyes stared at her. Black hair grew down its chest. It howled insanely.
What was that thing?
She planted both feet. I can do this. I can do this.
Another beast clawed through a stand of small trees on her right, knocking two over. Tall, bony, and with a bush of white hair standing like a mohawk that ran down his back, it raged and screamed. The only similarity between the two was that distinctive yellow.
She couldn’t fight on both fronts at once.
She didn’t have a choice and the odds were not in her favor.
She hoped Fenella had made it to safety.
The first beast rushed her. She swung back and forth, trying to gash its thick hide. The crazed thing swiped a sharp claw at her. She dodged, slashing and chopping as fast as she could. She made contact.
The beast lost a limb and wailed.
Blaring noises erupted behind her.
She flinched at the idea of being ripped apart from behind, but the now three-legged beast she fought jumped at her again. Swinging her blade on a horizontal arc, she put her shoulder into it.
Her sword slammed the body, jarring her teeth, but the blade buried deep. The beast lurched to the side, yanking her with him. She landed on top of the sprawling body, flinching. She expected the claws to gouge her, but this thing was dead.
Blood gushed from her strike.
Had she hit its heart?
Did it have one?
She leaped up, yanking her blade free and wanting to cheer in victory, but a demon followed this one out of the forest.
Lifting her sword, she swung it shoulder height horizontally. The sharp edge whisked through muscle and bone, lopping off head number four.
She’d have to start putting notches in her sheath at this rate.
Breathing hard, she backed up and bumped into something.
Another yellow being!
She shrieked and brought her sword around in a wide sweep for the kill.
Chapter 17
Daegan bumped into Luigsech from where he’d been protecting her back from an Imortik that looked part wendigo and part demon.
Quinn shouted in his head, Watch your back!
Daegan yanked his sword up in defense, turning to meet a sword coming at him fast. The blades collided, his blocking hers from a vicious wound. His sword had been known to break an opponent’s weapon, but not the sword she held.
It sizzled with energy.
The clash of metal on metal boomed in a loud clang.
Her sword bounced off his.
She still held on and kept her balance in spite of that heavy pack on her back.
They both held mighty weapons, but he had a hundred pounds of muscle on this little warrior.
She stared at him with glowing violet-blue eyes, heaving every breath. “What the hell? Where’d you come from?”
The only reason she hadn’t come close to decapitating him had been due to a mismatch in height.
It had nothing to do with restraint on her part. “Ya show a lack of appreciation when I just saved your life.” He glanced at Quinn to confirm his Maistir had finished off another glowing troll sixty feet away. Satisfied Quinn was safe, Daegan took in Luigsech.
Her eyes blazed with fire and fear. An odd mixture for those unusual blue eyes. She kept breathing as if she’d been running for the past five miles that he and Quinn had been tracking her.
After having given Daegan a slice of her attention and quick berating, she leaned to stare past him.
Daegan turned to follow her line of sight.
Her gaze turned down to take in the no-longer-glowing body he’d slashed in half after Quinn had used kinetics to knock the troll-Imortik off its feet.
She hadn’t lowered her sword an inch. “Or maybe you’re the reason I keep bein’ attacked.”
He couldn’t deny that since she’d struck the truth of it. “Ya clearly expected to defend yourself or ya would not have carried that sword.”
“Well, we can’t all conjure one out of thin air,” she snapped back. “Now what are you doin’ stalkin’ me again?”
Daegan sent Quinn a silent message. Stand back and allow me to deal with this woman.
Quinn nodded, probably thinking that meant Daegan understood her.
Not a bit.
She’d taken off all alone through this forest after Imortiks had attacked her at home last night. She swung that damn sword without looking to see what she attacked and had a penchant for separating heads from bodies.
Daegan didn’t understand anything about her.
He just needed Quinn a safe distance away while he attempted to talk to her without having to raise his sword again.
When she continued to stare in silence, Daegan ignored her demand of why he was here. “Ya sure are hell on a head.” He hadn’t meant to sound impressed, but ... damn, he was.
She lowered her sword, but kept it at ready. “Says the man who just cut off a head,” she challenged with an eyebrow cocked at the Imortik behind him.
“I never said decapitation ’twas not good use of a sword, but ya would have cut off mine had ya stood another foot taller.”
“I can remove your head just fine from here if I’d wanted to, buster,” she countered, too smug for her own good. Her arms trembled, likely from adrenaline overload. “Why are you followin’ me, intruder-with-no-name?”
“I made it clear last night ya were to go nowhere without me until I found Cavan.”
“And I made it clear I don’t take orders from you. Besides, looks like you found your friend.” She angled her head in Quinn’s direction.
“He is a friend,
