House of Mages and Raven (Shades of Ruin and Magic #4)

Chapter 31

31

Sy

W hen we first stumbled upon the Veil that separated the mortal world from the magical realm, all we saw was a field of bones, skulls, and shattered black walls.

Until Barbie stripped off the glamour.

Icy terror flowed in our blood at the sight of an army of over two hundred Shriekers as soon as we lurched through the shimmer to the other side of the Veil.

The abominations hadn’t tried to dig a tunnel beneath the Veil, unlike last time. It dawned on us that they’d been waiting for Barbie, knowing she would come to face them. Ruin had allies within the realm.

The horde of Shriekers lined up in a battle formation fifty feet from us. They were part machine and part monster, with primary homo sapiens faces, scorpion claws, and lizard-like scaled necks.

Fear from my soul sister seeped into me, and I pumped courage and strength into her. We’d always stand together to face our enemies.

Her ghost familiar widened his eyes at the sight of so many Shriekers. He tried to stand taller and spread his arms to look larger and intimidating in his phantom form but failed pathetically.

“Fuck, they’re too many. We’ll be overrun,” he said. “We need to retreat, get a backup, and regroup.”

“We can’t leave now that they’re here,” Barbie said, her voice grim.

If we left the scene, the Shriekers would pour into the school. The Veil had been weakened. They’d had help inside.

Barbie swallowed hard, as did I.

The Shriekers started to scream in excitement at the sight of Barbie, their chests making clattering sounds.

“Princess! Yes, princess! She’s come. Come home, princess!” they called.

She was the prize, and the horde had a single purpose—drag her back to our father to be rewarded.

A vision from Barbie flooded my mind?—

We were chained and shackled while Ruin’s foul spells sank into our bone marrow. An iron mask worse than the one she’d worn in the kidnappers’ dungeon in CrimsonTide was clamped over her face. She couldn’t breathe. She clawed at it, rolling in a pit.

We were back in Ruin’s domain of bleakness and depravity and utter evil. The horror we’d suffered came back. The air stank of blood and gore and rotten flesh. Dark lightning slashed across the blackened land and barren sky. Wails rose around us amid bloodcurdling shrieks.

I grabbed Barbie’s shoulders with my claws, pumping my strength and promises into her. We won’t be caught. We won’t suffer that horror again. I’ll find a way to kill us if we’re to fall!

She pressed her hand on my claws and snarled. Let’s kill them all, Sy!

“Come home! Come with us, princess!” the horde shrieked again.

Our vicious stare locked on the largest Shrieker at the front of the enemy’s rank. It had Ruin’s mark—a chain of skulls that represented the dance of death—between its four eyes, which made him the commander of the abomination.

The wind brought its stench, foul power, and violent intention. A breath later, Barbie and I sensed the same—Ruin’s presence. Our father peeked out through the commander’s eyes, inky smoke swirling in them. He wasn’t hiding his presence in his vessel. The commander’s scaled lips pulled up, a cruel, mocking smile pasted on them.

“Time to come home, daughter.” His spine-chilling voice promised a fate worse than death.

Chills slithered up Barbie’s spine, sinking into my bone marrow as well. I could no longer tell if the blood was pounding in her eardrums or in mine. There was no hiding from him anymore. There was no delusion that our cover hadn’t been blown and that we had more time.

Ruin had sent the first wave of his army, and we knew a bigger force would come soon. His hunt wouldn’t end until he had us.

We have the darkest flame now, I said. Burn them all to crisps.

No, we must be cunning when dealing with Ruin, Barbie argued. He knows exactly where we are, but he doesn’t know that we’ve leveled up. We can’t show him our ace yet. We must hide the darkest flame from him. He can’t know that we’ve broken the foul spell he implanted in us when we were a fetus.

Then we should take magic from the Veil and use it against the abomination, I said.

We’ll never drain a drop from the realm, Barbie replied. If we ever take the magic from the Veil, there’ll be no barrier left between Ruin’s army and the realm. We can’t afford to let Shriekers get into the academy grounds. They kill indiscriminately. They’ll kill many supernaturals! One of our friends, Luna, was slain because of us.

It wasn’t our fault, I said, putting down my foot. I wasn’t going to allow her to blame us for that shit.

We’ll use Deathsong to cut our way through and kill his vessel first, Barbie said, her voice hard and fierce. No matter what, we won’t siphon a drop of magic for him.

“But how can you defeat two hundred Shriekers with only a talking blade?” Pucker shook his head in dismay, and then he was gone. He didn’t have the stomach for violence; he was useless in such a battle anyway. We wouldn’t miss him.

Grim determination settled in our middle. Barbie let her rage and hatred burn brightly, as did I. A battle song drummed in her veins, rising to a crescendo. I joined the song, my blood boiling for battle, for violence.

Let’s go! I screamed, pumping my strength and speed into my soul sister.

With a lioness’s roar, Barbie charged, raising Deathsong high above her golden head, the evil blade shrieking in bloodlust.

The horde prowled toward us like a monstrous wave, and we crashed—one warrior against over two hundred abominations.

Barbie moved like a flash, whipping Deathsong through the air and bringing it down mercilessly. She was an avenging angel, terrifying and beautiful. Yet no one was here to witness our glory, not even her ghost familiar, who had fled at the first taste of danger.

Barbie charged straight toward the enemy commander, but it retreated to the rear of the rank. One swipe from Deathsong, and two Shriekers’ heads rolled off. The sight was satisfying, but cutting off heads wasn’t an effective way to battle the Shriekers. Their weakness lay between their eyes.

We couldn’t rely on running on adrenaline and rage for long. Barbie soon realized the same and changed her strategy. Though she was short, she could leap high, especially with my aid. She alighted on a female Shrieker’s shoulders and buried Deathsong between its eyes before it could even scream.

Speed was our strong suit, and we had an evil blade that outshone any sword forged in Heaven.

Of course you can count on me, mistress. Deathsong giggled, emitting a cloud of smoke from its dark blade while it was still in the flesh of that female Shrieker.

Barbie yanked out Deathsong and leapt toward another female Shrieker, kicking her boots in the air, thrusting her blade into a male Shrieker that got in the way, before she landed in a crouch on the head of our target. The female Shrieker clawed at her.

Watch out! I shouted.

Tentacles flung toward Barbie from every direction. She brought up the blade in an arc, slicing the attacking tentacles, but they kept coming. Shrieks filled the battlefield, and I winced as they hurt my eardrums.

Barbie was drenched in oily black blood.

Ruin watched the battle from a distance, directing his soldiers of abomination to attack us more effectively. While Barbie had to fend off the tentacles, it was impossible to find purchase and sink Deathsong into the female Shrieker she perched on.

Claws! I called. Use my claws.

I desperately wanted to surface and take over the fight. Barbie might have more magic, but I was stronger and faster. But during a battle, we almost never shifted back and forth. When I shifted, it took three long seconds for me to finish the transition, and we’d be at our most vulnerable.

Barbie shifted partially, and our claws slashed through the tentacles. She tossed Deathsong in the air, and the blade buried itself between the eyes of a Shrieker. Barbie stretched out her clawed hand and summoned Deathsong back, then tossed it at another Shrieker. Her other claws kept fending off the assaulting tentacles.

Rinse and repeat.

I gagged at the stench of the Shriekers’ acid blood as Barbie slaughtered them left and right. Her arms started to grow heavier, yet the abominations kept rushing toward us, swarming us, a single purpose defining their existence—capture us for their master.

The Shrieker that Barbie used as a footstool tumbled to the ground, killed by another Shrieker. It was a countermove against our battle plan. The enemies were changing strategies, directed by Ruin, who could mind-talk to all his creatures like a hive king.

Barbie leapt, but hundreds of tentacles had formed a net over her head and all around her, sealing our escape route, and there was no way could she cut them all at once. As the walls of the tentacles crashed down on her, she went down with the slaughtered Shrieker. She rolled away to avoid being squashed beneath that dead beast. The floor rumbled and rocked like an earthquake had broken out as the Shriekers stomped the ground. The land tilted. Barbie lost her balance.

The Shriekers pinned us down. Scorpion claws pierced Barbie’s left leg. Pain bloomed in her, and I lunged to take it into me, gasping as the pain sank into my insides. I had higher tolerance for pain than Barbie, but it was never easy to absorb so much. The abominations’ claws had impaled her flesh and scraped her bones. They didn’t care if they maimed her, as they wouldn’t be punished. Even if they cut us to pieces, they could still scoop up our bits and bring them to Ruin, and he’d patch us up with his foul magic and revive us for the next torture. The sweet release of a real, final death had always been denied us.

Enraged, Barbie bellowed. She struggled to free a hand, and Deathsong slashed wildly at the abominations, but they pinned us down again by falling on her in heaps, burying her. The tentacles she’d sliced off also dropped on her, splashing black blood all over her face and hair.

I roared with her, pumping strength into her, yet it wasn’t enough. The enemies were too many. They were just too many.

Deathsong fell from her grasp. More claws sank into her, bleeding her. Pain lanced through her, and then it was in me. I snarled and snarled, but it’d be a terrible idea for me to take over and leave us even more vulnerable. I wailed helplessly, then roared in rage, then wailed again.

We have to let out the darkest flame, Barbie said.

And burn his commander first and see how our father likes the pain while he’s in it.