Journey onto the Storm (BOOK 2)

Chapter 40

ADARA

Gods. Gods. Gods!

Adara crashed into the foyer with Yuven as the humanoid creature shuffled along the floorboards, the warhammer bouncing along the ground when they tugged it behind them with a rattled moan. Floorboards groaned with the cry at the heavy movements. It shambled, swayed. One hand limp at their side, where bony fingers cracked and snapped into place to clench into a sharp, flaked fist. Her foot caught a piece of broken floor, and the motion made it quicken its steps with a fatalistic hiss when they kicked their warhammer back into both their strong, but dead hands. Mist swept around her feet, and when it swung downwards, a wall of ice burst from the mist in the air. On the other side, its empty jade eyes shone with rage as it snarled and brought their hand close to the head of the hammer.

"Thanks," she rasped as Yuven tugged her to her feet once more.

Teeth chewed on shed ice, where the wolven shaped-pommel twisted to create misty cracks when it dug deeper into its new prey. Yuven leaned forward with his own draconian hiss leaving his nose in a plume of white smoke. Air escaped her lungs and brought the chill of death when the thing pulled the warhammer out of the wall, before peering through the hole it left. Blank. Empty. Furious. It showed its teeth to them, then shoved its fist through the break.

"Of course," Yuven moaned.

Bony fingers dug into the ice, clutching it with trembling hate. In another snap, she scrambled when it burst through the ice wall as if it was nothing but a veil of mist. Its steps quicker, lighter as it tugged its warhammer closer, hiding in the shadows of the clouds covering their ability to see through the death.

Yuven ducked when they swung the warhammer, where it smashed into the wall and broke a post. Splinters cracked in her ears when it tugged it out of the bannister with a crack of their neck.

"Yuven," she rasped.

Yuven backed her for the door when the thing blocked the front. "This is not a good area to deal with this," he mumbled when it came closer.

"Yuven."

His back pressed against her, a different wall to the horror in front of her. The creature towered over them both, almost having to kneel down to avoid some of the smaller archways. Metal glinted when Yuven brought his seaxs closer to his body. Glyphs spun at his feet, and icy tendrils danced along the edges of the blades. As the thing stepped closer, the glyphs rolled across the foyer. It snapped around when icicles slammed out of the focal points to create a tougher barrier, catching pieces of its rippled clothes and bones. It never screamed like a Derelict, its jaw in a constant grind as they clenched their fist and glared at them through the trap.

"Get that door open, Adara," Yuven growled when he planted his feet in the largest glyph in front of him. "I can't hold it forever."

An icicle cracked when it took a larger step.

"Why not use your bloodline magick and get us out of here the same way you got in?" she hissed under her breath.

One more icicle cracked when it broke it off the wall, dropping it to the ground.

Yuven pressed his lips together, and she frowned at the blood spotting them. He licked his tongue over them, then said, "Now's not the time to be arguing with me, just get the door open." He sent a hand into her shoulder, and she turned her back on him to fumble with the handle gripped in the jaws of wispy, faint jade tendrils. The handle rattled with the noise leaving the beast's throat when it forced its way through the field of icicles.

"Yuven, it's not budging," she gasped in helplessness when her fingers jangled the handle, where it refused to bend, break, or open them to freedom. A shiver crawled through her skin when Yuven refused to talk to her, to explain to her how to use her magick and unleash the relentless inferno on the shades. Adara tugged it upwards instead of down, bouncing on her feet as Yuven stepped into her, raising the seax's when a warhammer crashed through the biggest icicles. "Yuven. I can't get it open."