Yasmine Galenorn - 08 Witching Bones by Yasmine Galenorn

Author:Yasmine Galenorn [Galenorn, Yasmine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Fire to flame, flame to fire,

build and burn, higher and higher.

Flare to life, take form and strike, attack now, fiery spike.

The ball coalesced in my hand, a brilliant orb of flickering orange and red flames with hints of purple tingeing the ends. I held it up, aimed carefully for the wight, and sent it flying. The fire hit the amorphous creature—it looked like a mass of steel wool and twigs with tentacles coming out of it—and the land wight screeched, letting go of Llew as it stumbled back.

Neil turned to me as I pulled the soul stone out of my jacket. I tossed it on the ground near his feet and he brought the hammer up. The wight must have realized what was going on because it rushed at Neil, flailing a hail of tentacles toward him, but the massive priest brought his hammer down, slamming it against the stone.

The air seemed to pulse, and for a moment I thought we were having an earthquake, as every nerve in my body jangled. But then, with another strike, Neil splintered the stone and it smashed into the snow, into a thousand shards of glass.

The land wight shrieked, then slowly deflated, melting into the primordial ooze that so many of the sub-Fae came from. A hiss of steam rose from the puddling mass as the heat of its body met the icy snow, and then, seeped through the blanket of white, leaching into the ground.

I ran over to Llew. “Are you okay?”

He grunted, and I could tell he was having trouble standing. I made him let me look him over, and as I pulled his jacket open, I could see the slick of blood pooling around his waist.

“No! Llew, listen to me. We have to get you back to my house.” I motioned to Neil. “Can you carry him? He’s losing blood.”

“I can. What about the nest?”

I glanced over my shoulder. “Get him up the hill. I’ll dart in and take a quick look around and then follow you.”

I hurried back into the hole, cringing at the smell. I didn’t relish staying any longer than I had to, but I needed to make certain we had found everything. A moment later, as I shone the flashlight around and moved debris out of the way, I suddenly froze. There, under a pile of steaming compost, were three large eggs. Land wight eggs. I stared at them for a moment, then slowly backed up. Land wights didn’t eject their soul stones from their bodies until they were born, and then their mother hid it until they left the nest to build their own. If I destroyed the eggs, I’d destroy the young as well.

Finally, I gathered my wits and backed out to the edge of the tunnel leading in. Where there were three eggs, there might be more, and I didn’t have the time to go through the entire nest. I could just douse it with fire, but I wasn’t certain it could be contained—it might spread through roots beneath the ground and light the park on fire.

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