Dawn and Demise (The Fated Series, #3)

Chapter 8 - Lance - The Price of Love

Oh, that was absolutely disgusting.

Using my blades to kill an enemy used to be something I enjoyed, but now I'm beginning to loathe it. I just got demon blood splattered all over my face. I suppose that's what happens when you slice a hellhound's throat.

We've been fighting for hours. An everlasting eternity of blood and sore muscles and fatigue plaguing my mind and slowing my reaction times and movements. I duck below the claws of a demon I quickly identify, then spin and drive one blade into its spine and then the other through the back of its neck before snapping it and severing the head from the body.

I turn just in time to catch the offense of the next demon, then the next, and the next...there's no end to their numbers. Arrows take out some demons, steel some more, and the Mystics the rest, but still, they run forward. I've been keeping an eye on how much they push us back or us them, and we're gaining quite a lot for a single day's work.

I don't like it at all.

I check my shoulder when I get a window to do so, happy to still see Rykiel, Julyan, Blaise, and Reynald still behind me and standing. I take out more demons and break the jaw of one with one punch driven by anger.

Not once have any of them taken their usual bloodlust swings or body slams. It's like they're not bothering to try and fight us. Not even the Ravers use their chaotic screams as often as they can to blow a hole in our lines. One goes out every now and then, but it's long minutes before another one follows.

As far as I can tell, still holding the line and pushing forward, the ground has a far less amount of the dead on our side than yesterday. Heathens, even this morning was a rather normal attack on their end, but they've slowed. Backed off...

Tossing a heart into a fire pit a few yards away, I retreat toward the others. The Fae and our own fill in the small gap where I was, and I help get Rykiel free for a moment to be able to scream at him over the loud noise.

"Tell me you're seeing it too?" I ask him.

He takes out an Ashmodai possessing a man's body before responding. "If we go any further, we'll likely end up in the mouth of something."

We get pulled into another wave that has me ending up pinned on my back before the Groushavect is dead and I shove it off. I lay there for a second until Rykiel's hand appears and I take it, feeling every bone in my body asking for rest. If I'm tired out, then many on the lines are too.

I don't know how we're supposed to get through this without our legs giving out for much longer.

"How much longer?" I yell, taking another assessment of those around us. There aren't even that many demons flying in the skies to swarm Kalla and her odyssey above. Some just flap in place, waiting for another screeching creature to take down.

"Your guess is as good as mine," he says, taking a glance up to the sky himself. Still no sign of the sky above. Just darkness.

I catch Blaise as she whips by to head for another demon. She turns, lifting her blade that I catch before it plummets into my eye socket. Her eyes go wide when she realizes what she nearly did.

"You're going to have to be quicker than that if you want to kill me," I joke, though my light tone has left me for days now, making it sound more mocking than funny.

Another smaller demon runs for us through a slip in the lines. Rykiel gives me an annoyed sigh before slowly heading to meet it. When I look back down at Blaise her foot is tapping and her eyes looking toward the brawl with hunger. She and the other three aren't down here as often as the rest of us, so they have the energy to spare. It's a good thing too since I'm about to ask her to run a mile and more. I snap my fingers in front of her to regain her attention since she couldn't hear me calling her name. "I need you to go to the supplies tent and get the tinted pinecones. Have the archers shoot them into the fires," I tell her.