The Princess & The Lord

Part 14

Elena stood at the front of the pack as she watched the Valg demons trudge through the sand towards them.

"Oh, mother," Tamlin breathed out. "There's too many."

"Call for them," Aelin said to Rhys.

"It won't be enough, there's too many," Nyx said from behind her.

The numbers of the demons continued to increase as they crawled out from the caves.

"I've seen this before," Fenrys said as he, Lorcan, Lysandra, Aedion, Cassian, Azriel, and Mor appeared behind them. Lorcan pulled his axe out from behind him and gripped it with 2 hands.

"I didn't think there would be so many," Cassian awed at the numbers rapidly approaching them.

"Where's Manon?" Dorian asked.

"She left an hour ago. She should be here soon," Lysandra said.

"We need to cut back as many as we can before we engage," Rowan said.

"I can't do much, I've only been diving for a few days. Opening the wyrdgates has drained most of my power," Aelin said.

"I could cut back maybe 100," Dorian said. "But it won't be enough."

"I can do it," Elena said. This was her fight. It was her mess to clean up. She had the power, she had an endless well to tap into. She could make sure they all walked away from this alive.

"Elena-"Aelin began. The demons were getting closer. They didn't have much time. They had to make a decision.

"I can do it. I don't need days to descend into my power. I have enough now. I can make a dent in their numbers so we stand a chance." Elena said confidently. She looked toward Rhys who seemed to agree with her and then she looked towards her father.

Rowan only nodded to her. The simple gesture told her he had all the faith in the world that she could do it.

You, more than anyone, know what it's like when those around you don't trust you. Choose to trust me now. Elena sent to her mother.

Aelin nodded and turned towards the rest of their group.

Elena walked toward a large rock hanging over the beach. She could hear her mother behind her, "your powers won't work on these creatures. So your best shot is to put up a shield to buy you some time and use your weapons to cut off their heads. You two, shred them to pieces," she said towards Tamlin and Taurin.

Elena held her hand out in front of her. And she closed her eyes. She went deep within herself, deep within that pit of power. She kept pushing down and she never seemed to reach the bottom so she kept going.

She opened her eyes and turned her palm towards herself. She could see the orange and yellow colors filling her veins trailing all the way down into her hand. Her fingers began to heat up. So she turned her hand upon the approaching army and she let it all go.

The power flowed seamlessly from her hand as a huge flame erupted onto the beach. The fire turned from orange and yellow to a bright, deep blue as it grew hotter. The demons before her instantaneously turned to ash and the fire snaked its way down the sand leaving only soot in its wake.

The magic kept flowing out from within her. She put out her other hand and the fire spread even wider as the veins in her arms began to burn away the sleeves of her tunic.

She fell to her knees as the fire continued to take hold. She could feel her skin beginning to burn. The fire began to burn brighter and brighter. She tried to hold her bellow in behind her gritted teeth as she struggled to maintain control of the fire.

She could feel the flame behind her colliding with the shield of air Rowan help up to protect her family. She felt his shield slowing beginning to weaken so she rose to her feet and pushed forward drawing the flame with her.

The Valg continued to fall, but with every one she turned to ash, a new one replaced it. She kept pushing forward. She focused her flame on the mouth of the cave. She burned through the rock, it turned to liquid magma and she used her flame to seal up the mouth of the cave, cutting off the endless supply of demons.

She could feel the soothing wind wrapping itself around her. Her father's way of telling her she'd done enough. The breeze grounded her and gave her enough sensibility to reel in the flame as she fell to her knees, her heart beating hard in her chest.

Before she could even stand, Rowan, Aelin, Aedion, Fenrys and Lorcan jumped into the sand and collided with the remaining Valg. A ghost leopard ripped into the demon charging toward her. She turned toward Elena as the black blood dripped from her fangs.

"We can't let them have all the fun," Cassian said as he pulled out his blade and his red stones flared. Cassian, Rhys, and Azriel charged in behind them. Rhys and Azriel winnowing in different directions to cut through the Valg.

Elena continued panting as she tried to catch her breath. Nyx knelt beside her. His eyes were wide with shock.

"Let's get you out of here," Nyx said as he helped her to her feet.

"I'm not done yet," she said in between breaths. "I'm just catching my breath. Let's see what you've got, lordling"

Nyx smirked at her. He winnowed behind one of the Valg. He placed his elbow and forearm on the demons shoulders as he slid his blade across of the front of its neck. Its head tumbled to the ground oozing black blood everywhere.

She could see 2 large blonde blurs moving across the sand as they shredded through demons.

A sharp shriek pierced through the air as Abraxos and Manon dove down and picked up a few Valg from the ground. Abraxos used his talons to rip apart the demons and drop them into water beyond.  Another wyvern shot down through the clouds as Dorian used his shifted claws to toss up a demon as Aelin's blade cut it in half.

Elena picked up her sword and ran her hand across the blade as her weapon engulfed in flame and she joined the fight.

There were only 50 creatures left in the sand. 50 Valg away from surviving this encounter when Elena felt the darkness creeping across the sand. She turned toward the source as she drove her sword through another demon.

The darkness continued to creep towards her and wrapped around her ankle. It pulled her off her feet and she dropped her sword. The darkness began pulling her toward the Valg prince, his eyes black as a starless sky.

Elena tried to dig her fingers into the sand.

"He wants you alive, girl," the prince seethed at her."But he didn't say you had to be in one piece." The prince picked up a fallen spear and aimed it right at her.

She could do nothing as the Prince threw the spear.

"Elena!" She heard Nyx shout from behind her. He picked up her sword and winnowed before her. He used the flame of the sword to cut through the darkness wrapped around her ankle, but it was too late.

She screamed in pain as she felt the spear pierce through her shoulder, ripping through skin, bone muscle. The searing pain was almost blinding.

She reached up to pull out the spear, but she found nothing imbedded in her shoulder.

She looked over to Nyx and she could see the dark red blood spilling out from the wound around the ash spear sticking out from his shoulder.