Divinity: Immolation: Book Three (The Divinity Saga) (18 page)

Starling and my children.

I had to think about them. They were the only things that meant everything to me and I didn’t want to risk losing them.

It was more than just Grace’s body and her offer, it was the fact that I have been completely wrong about the Psyrens for so long, looking around at her taste in décor and literature. Granted, I couldn’t stand the obnoxious, deafening screams, and laughter, much less the metal teeth. She was bit too freaky looking for my taste but I couldn’t say that I wasn’t intrigued. She was indeed voluptuous.

Damn. I could literally feel that corrupted part of me coming to life again, growing steadily and creeping through my veins. The temptation was rising like the pressure building beneath a large volcano. I actually wanted her, physically, and not the way I would normally engage in sexual activity with women.

Wrestling with my own desire and sin, I had to curse myself for even th
inking it.

No. I couldn’t. I won’t.

Starling had my soul and the only one who would have my physical flesh in such an intimate way.

I had to think logically about this though. This seemed conveniently too easy. Something wasn’t right about the ease of this conversation either. I didn’t trust her, however, wouldn’t seeing me hanging with the Psyrens completely confound Morning Star? He absolutely hated me, so surely he would no longer deal with them if he knew I was involved, would he? What did the Psyrens really have to offer in power, magick, or defense? Morning St
ar wasn’t afraid of them and we sure as hell we weren’t either. What made having them as allies such a necessity? I wondered.

XXII
: Starling

S
omething was pulling and dragging me deeper into the forest. Another tentacle like appendage whipped up and swiftly slipped itself around my neck, like a noose. My arms and legs were flailing wildly to find some sort of purchase of resistance. I couldn’t get a steady grasp of anything let alone cut through the tentacles and free myself.

Reflexively, I brought my hand up to wedge my fingers in between my throat and the fleshy, rough tentacle, in order to keep from being strangled. I had managed to f
lip and turn over onto my back.

With one blade wielded, I desperately attempted to once again, bring my free hand up and cut through the tentacle. As soon as I did, another tentacle shot up from out of nowhere and wrapped itself firmly around my wrist, pulling my h
and down and away from my neck.

It was scary and dangerous enough to be dragged along the ground fast and forcefully by some unseen dark thing; but completely another not be able to do a damned thing about it because I was literally rolling, bouncing, and thumping all over the place unsteadily, like a pinball. I was trying to draw forth my fire, only to be met with more physical exhaustion and nothing was happening!

Though the fear of colliding with a large boulder or a large tree trunk passed through my mind, the burn and sting of the ground scraping my exposed skin raw beneath me began to take its toll.

I was now bound by both feet, one wrist, and my throat. I had no choice but to try and slice through the tendril around my neck again. I removed my fingers from
the coiling vine around my throat in order to wield my other blade and the tentacle quickly closed the gap once I did.

I began to choke, and before I could bring my second blade up to cut it, yet another tentacle gripped my remaining free wrist. It jerked my arm down to my side forcefully, rendering that blade useless to me now too.

Not again! I refused to be taken again so soon!

My mind screamed.

I could hear the others calling after me, their frantic running footsteps pounding the ground in pursuit. Jagged earth, dry leaves and moss, rocks, and thorny brush, continued to scrape and tear at my clothes and my skin. How far back and where was this diabolical being trying to drag me?

I couldn’t get enough air in me to call out to them, so that they’d know which direction I’d been taken. The tendril or tentacle thing began squeezing
again, as if it knew that I was about to inhale in order to scream. It was enough to constrict but not enough to completely strangle. Suddenly, the source of the taunting voice grew closer and I was being lifted up off the ground and suspended vertically.

Both my ankles and m
y wrists were restricted firmly and being pulled taut in opposite directions, which left me spread eagle in mid-air. I was a trapped butterfly in a deadly, thick web—both exposed and vulnerable.

The dim woods masked the four forms into nothing more that dark silhouettes, however, one was obvious even in the minimal light.

There was no mistaking the wings, and I could see where the tentacles had been coming from now. A dark figure of a woman stood right below me, grinning deviously as the freakishly long, living tentacles of her wild hair continued to hold me captive.

The other two appeared human on the surface to me, aside from the smell
, but once their eyes began to glow it was evident that they weren’t.

“Sedate her, quickly!” Tentacle head hissed.

I tried to manipulate movement around the strong tendrils secured around my wrists but it was useless. Something sticky, like a mesh netting, began to slide over my forearms, feeling like nasty insects with a million furry legs. I cringed, wanting to scream in revulsion.

Whatever it was, it was keeping me from using my blades.

My only hope was my fire but I couldn’t bring it forth at all when I tried a moment ago! I had to try again. Now that I was no longer being ping-ponged along the ground, it might make it a bit easier to focus.

I inhaled deeply, concentrating hard on pulling together every ounce
of energy that I had left to salvage. Despite how I felt physically after what I had done for Devlin, I couldn’t afford to simply give up and attempt nothing.

My body began to quiver with fatigue in response.

Please, if I didn’t have any fire left in me, I was dead.

“Open the portal now!” the fallen shouted to the other two human looking demons. They were both as black as pitch, with this exception of their irises; those were all white, surrounding a small pinpoint of black in the centers. They were the most disturbing and
scariest looking beings that I’ve ever seen on this side so far—aside from the severe medusa woman with the possessed, monstrous, killer hair holding me hostage.

There was no way
that I would be able to dodge whatever magic she planned to throw at me, and she was definitely conjuring up something big and bad.

A sickly, yellow ball of light began to form in the middle of her hands. I panicked once she raised her arm, pulled back and then launched it at me. I turned my head as if that would help or make a difference, and at the last minute, a short burst of white flames enveloped me just in time to keep most of the magic from hitting me full on.

The part of the magical, electrified field that did manage to permeate through and hit me, immediately began to take effect. I felt like passing out cold, only one heartbeat away from fainting altogether. A portal shot up a few feet from me and the darkness beyond was lit up sporadically by both red and purple flashes of lightning against a dark, steel gray sky.

I fought hard against giving in and succumbing to the magic while trying to maintain alertness for my own defense. Then I felt myself being lowered to the ground and my head began to droop forward. The urge to go to sleep was undeniably super strong but I managed to quickly catch myself and forcibly snap my head up, thankfully jarred by the impact of the ground.

Though my vision was growing blurry with fatigue, I realized that both of my hands were finally free for the moment. I had to take advantage of that, drowsy or not, or I’d never have the chance again.

My fire had burned off all of the restricting tentacles that were coiled around my wrists and ankles, along with whatever it was that attempted to suppress the movement of my arms and the use of my blades.

My instinct for survival and the fight began to rouse wildly, which made me automatically think of the unborn babies that I had to do everything in my power to protect. I tapped into every grain of remaining energy and strength that I could gather.

The demons bega
n to advance on me quickly. Gripping my blades firmly in my hands, I waited until they were close enough before forcing fire to lick down my arm and into the length of one blade. I swiped forward in a horizontal arc, catching the first demon in the thigh.

At first, he had no clue what just happened, smiling evilly as if what I had done was pointless; until the fire began to grow, expanding, and bursting to consume his entire torso. He began screaming, instantly collapsing as the fire continued to disintegrate him completely where he fell. The smell was horrendous.

“Do it again, quickly! I won’t last against her flames! Put her to sleep quickly!” tentacle woman shouted, and then right after— her agonizing scream was cut short. I heard voices, rampant footfalls all around, and I hadn’t realized what had happened or who it had done it until I caught sight of all the auras.

The others had finally found me.

A sparking rope was wound tightly around her neck, chest, and waist. It burned into her flesh and she was yanked backwards, the rope pulling through and slicing her into three sections. The pieces began to smoke and melt down into a viscous, dark puddle.

Lorelei was r
eeling back her scyoto whip, ready to strike again.

Seeing the fate of both of her partners, the other demon began to back away from me but I was already infuriated. I launched myself to my feet, still woozy, and
dove at her with blades raised and positioned to both stab and slash.

My flames were gone completely and there was no pulling forth any more. I couldn’t even if I w
anted to and now a different kind of exhaustion was taking over. I was going to pass out whether I liked it or not.

Seeing that potential weakness in me, the demon reclaimed confidence and watched me closely, waiting for the right moment.

She lunged herself at me, ducking low so that she could go for my legs and waist. I thought she was going to tackle me, so I only managed to slash her once across the chest, quickly bringing my other blade down on her back just as she hoisted me off of my feet while howling in pain, and threw me —straight through the portal of darkness.

I went sailing through, grunting when I landed hard. My head made contact with the ground first and an explosion of stars burst behind my eyelids. My body followed in a crunching slam, skidding, and rolling, which left me momentarily limp and discombobulated all at once.

Damn that hurt! It felt like a few ribs cracked on impact and it was confirmed when I tried to take in a deep breath. I winced and bit my lip to keep from crying out, tasting foul dirt caked to my lips. I spit and gagged, the simple act sending a spike of white hot pain ripping through my body.

I had no choice but to lie still and wait until I healed completely, feeling my bones begin to repair themselves already. The grinding was loud inside my ears and I grit my teeth to stifle the whimpe
r trying to escape my throat.

Looking around, I didn’t have to see much to realize where I was. The sky was a dark and depressing gray hue and there was no sign of the sun in sight. The air was humid and fetid, the breeze leaving an oily residue on my ski
n.

There were many things crawling all over the ground. Oh God…and there were other things too…things that looked like cats, but cats don’t have glowing red eyes and they surely don’t cackle and snicker.

The portal beyond that I had initially been thrown through, had already closed. Nothing followed me through, thank goodness, but I was beyond screwed and I had no kind of portal gems on me at all. Even if I had hall gems, I would surely be thrown right back out just as easily as I had stepped through it, pending that they would even work. Come to think of it, Lorelei’s house gems no longer worked either.

One of the mysterious and potentially deadly creatures began to stalk towards me slowly, scenting me and making the decision whether or not to regard me as prey.

I winced. My bones were still fusing back together but it didn’t stop me from backing up and sliding away from it anyway. Keeping my eyes on it, I readied myself to respond to any sudden moves it decided to make. However, that was becoming increasingly difficult for me, being that the effects of the strong magic that had been thrown at me was still working. All I wanted to desperately do right this second, was to close my eyes and sleep.

The closer it got, the more I could see just how big it actually was. It was about the size of a medium-
sized tiger —and there were…many of them, all slowly surrounding me.

The strange creature gave a guttural growl and then crouched low, ready to pounce. I quickly pulled myself up to my knees painfully just as it leapt.  Swaying slightly, I held my arm up and bent across me protectively with the hilt side pointing towards me. It was a natural defensive action.

When faced with certain death, or painful dismemberment, one was often surprised by the fighting and defensive expertise naturally hidden within.

I jabbed forward, plunging my blade
deep into its soft belly and sliced upwards. The beast bellowed as the full, fifteen inches cut through with the ease and power of a laser beam through flesh. Foul, putrid viscera began to spill from its wound and ooze warmly over my hand as it fell onto its side, twitching. I was far too sleepy to be disgusted with both the feel and the smell of it.

And then, they all began to swarm in for the attack at once. All I found myself aware of, besides the angry mob of demonic creatures about to jump me, was the sound of rapidly approaching hoof beats hitting the ground rhythmically. I barely managed to call out,
“Cam…,”
right before I fell forward face down, finally collapsing in helpless exhaustion.