Rage filled Tiernan as he darted through the air. He tasted battle-lust and blood on his tongue. The stench of filth, of rotting things, and a sickly-sweet odor filled the air.
He charged the blue demon he knew to be Junga. He reached her and hovered within fighting range. She hadn’t noticed him.
With an angry slice of his blade, his sword connected with her shoulder. Blood spurted and the Fomorii queen shrieked. She swung her long arms up and swiped her claws at him, attempting to rip him from the air.
Blood poured from the wound in her shoulder, but it was already healing. Only two ways made it possible to kill a Fomorii—rip their hearts out or behead them. Otherwise their bodies healed almost immediately.
Tiernan flapped his great wings and dodged the demon’s deadly iron-tipped claws. He prayed to the gods that none of the other Fomorii released from Underworld had coated their claws in iron like Junga and the Fomorii remaining on Earth.
He dodged and feinted as he attempted to gain position in order to behead the demon. She was too strong, too fast and her ape-like arms were too long. She was one of the most powerful and formidable Fomorii he had ever battled.
Tiernan darted up and out of Junga’s reach to give himself a chance to assess the situation. His gaze swept the cavern. With his heightened senses and keen vision, he quickly took in what was going on around him.
D’Danann battle cries filled the air along with the shrieks, roars, and snarls of the beasts they fought. The air was thick with the rank Fomorii odor of rotten fish, the Basilisks’ odor of feces, the filthy stench of the hounds of Underworld, and the smell of bloodlust.
The creatures released from Underworld far outnumbered the thirteen Tuatha D’Danann warriors.
But the warriors were better trained in the art of battle. Thus far not one of the D’Danann had succumbed to any of the beasts they fought.
A couple of the Fomorii had been beheaded, each body turning into silt the moment a warrior sheared off its head. A Basilisk and one of the red-eyed Hounds of Underworld had been destroyed, as well.
Although the D’Danann remained relatively unscathed, Tiernan saw one of the hounds rip open Urien’s leg with its tremendous jaws. Urien seemed oblivious to any pain, flapped his wings, rose, and dove into the fray once again.
Hawk touched down in front of Darkwolf and sliced his sword through the air, straight at the warlock’s neck.
Darkwolf barely had time to throw a shield around himself.
Instead of connecting with flesh, Hawk’s blade rebounded off the protective shield, just as it had happened during the battle of Samhain. Hawk stumbled back.
Hawk barely regained his footing before he was forced to face one of the Fomorii, a red beast with at least six arms.
Keir tore into the fray with the roar of a madman. His dark eyes were like a falcon’s as he ripped through one Fomorii after another.
That fiery-headed woman-creature continued to watch the scene from a rock. It was as if the being were waiting for something. Waiting to attack?
Tiernan darted back to Junga, his sword high. As he prepared to swing, a one-eyed purple demon joined the queen, and Tiernan now fought two beasts. Sweat poured down his face and his veins roared with the lust for battle.
As he took the two demons on, he was grateful Copper and Silver were behind a protective shield.
He glanced their way. His heart nearly stopped and he almost faltered when he saw their shield vanish.
The two witches began to fight the demons with their magic.
From behind the shield, Copper and Silver had looked at one another as the battle raged. As one they nodded, raised their hands, and faced the demons.
They dropped the shield.
Immediately, blue ropes of power whipped from Silver’s fingers to wrap around a red demon charging Hawk. She jerked the demon off its hind feet.
Hawk took the opportunity to slice the beast’s head from its shoulders. The demon’s head and body turned to silt.
Silver wasted no time in snaking her witchcraft around another demon.
Copper had a difficult time keeping her balance on one foot. She focused intently on her witchcraft. Her confidence rose and she knew she could perform hand magic with the strength of her belief and the power that had grown within her.
She gathered some of the golden bubbles that floated from her body and formed them into a large ball. Winding her arm, she prepared to use her best softball pitch. She released the spellfire ball.
It bulleted toward one of the two demons attacking Tiernan and struck one of them. The purple demon’s head burst into fire. With the skill of the finest swordsman, Tiernan beheaded it
The stench of burning flesh joined the malodor of rotten fish. Copper tasted blood in her mouth and realized she was biting the inside of her cheek.
No sooner had she released the first pitch than she flung another one, this time straight at the demon queen.
Junga saw it coming. She leaped through the air, the spellfire barely grazing her back.
Tiernan pumped his wings and started to go after her, but a great Basilisk rose between them.
The Basilisk looked like a giant snake, but the thing had a fan of bone and skin like a crown at the back of its head. It was so damned tall—at least two times the height of one of the D’Danann, and as thick around as the circle of runes that Copper still stood in the middle of.
Tiernan’s sword bounced off the Basilisk’s armor-like scales. Copper’s heart pounded when she saw the green poison dripping from the beast’s fangs as it gnashed them at Tiernan. Copper didn’t know if the poison was deadly to the Fae, but she wasn’t taking any chances.
Nearly without thought, she had another ball of spellfire in her hands. Gray magic threatened to consume her. She couldn’t let the beast hurt Tiernan.
At the same time, she couldn’t let the gray magic turn her to the dark. How could she have so carelessly used gray in the past? How could she have been so cocky? She needed to be more careful. To not use it so blindly.
With all the white magic she could muster, and keeping a tight rein on her gray witchcraft, she pitched the spellfire straight at the Basilisk’s mouth.
A tremendous flash blinded the beast, giving Tiernan the opportunity to lop off the Basilisk’s head.
That was the second time she’d saved Tiernan’s ass. But who was counting?
A green demon roared and leaped at her, diverting her attention. The Fomorii’s several eyes flashed with the red glow in the cavern. Shit. She pitched a spellfire ball at it, but this one bounced off.
The demon was close now. Too close. Still she drew back to pitch—
A blade sliced the demon’s head from its body. As the Fomorii fell to the cavern floor in a pile of silt, she saw Tiernan standing on the other side of it, his blade covered in blood. Their eyes met for just a fraction of time before they turned back to the battle.
Copper pitched again and again. Her magic slammed into two hounds of the Underworld, and she saw Zephyr attacking the hounds, as well. They howled at her magic and his powerful stings. The beasts snapped their jaws at him, but he easily dodged their mouths and stung them again on their faces, their eyelids, their snouts. He traveled from one to the other like a tiny whirlwind. The hounds howled continuously and rubbed at their heads with their paws. They were distracted just enough that two of the D’Danann were able to kill them with ease.
With two more pitches, Copper brought down another Fomorii that was immediately beheaded by a D’Danann warrior.
She whirled to fight another demon and came nearly face to snout with Junga. The demon lunged at Copper.
Copper dropped, rolled, and screamed as she wrenched her ankle again. The pain caused stars to burst behind her eyes.
Copper didn’t let the agony slow her down. She continued to roll away from Junga at the same time she gathered a spellfire ball in her hands. Her heart slammed against her breastbone as the demon leaped into the air.
She wasn’t going to have enough space to throw the spellfire ball. Her magic would consume them both. She’d be damned if she’d die without taking the demon out. Resolution filled her and she held the ball in front of her, prepared to die.
Just as the queen demon made her descent over Copper, an arrow caught Junga in the shoulder. The impact and resulting explosion was so powerful it flung the demon away in mid-leap. She slammed into a stalagmite.
Instantly Copper recognized the shaft. A Drow arrow.
In the next moment she was yanked to her feet by a strong hand. Again, she almost passed out from the pain of the pressure on her ankle. Before she had time to process the pain or the hand on her arm, she was flung over a great naked shoulder. Whoever had taken her had the bluish-gray skin of the Dark Elves.
In no time the Drow warrior deposited Copper on her backside off to the side of the battle. Her gaze shot to her protector. Garran.
She tried to push herself to her feet, but he put his hand on her shoulder and forced her back down. He gave her an intense look. “I never meant to jeopardize your life, Copper.”
His features were grim. “This evil—we thought only to release Balor to allow the Drow to walk in daylight once again. Not this. We never wanted to free such creatures.”
His long silvery-blue hair was wild about his shoulders and his gem-studded metal and leather straps that crisscrossed his broad bare chest glinted in what red light was now in the cavern. He turned away from her and faced Junga.
She saw the other Drow had joined in the melee against the beasts. Drow arrows pierced demon flesh, the arrows’ diamond-heads exploding.
Where the arrows ripped the flesh, the wound immediately healed in the Fomorii—unless the arrowhead reached the demon’s heart. Then the diamond-head exploded within that pulsing organ and killed the demon.
The Sara-creature scowled and began pacing back and forth, glancing at the closed door with fury on her features. Drow arrows exploded in the air around her, not a single one reaching her flesh. The D’Danann who tried to attack her simply rebounded backward as if the being had shielded herself.
Copper took this all in within a moment. Much of what she realized came from her witch’s intuition.
When her attention snapped back to Garran, his jaw was clenched as he turned, nocked another arrow in his bow, and aimed it at Junga.
The demon leaped into the air again, this time directly for Garran. Standing firm, no emotion on his face, he shot his arrow straight toward her chest. Junga twisted her body while in flight. The arrow entered the flesh beneath her forearm and blood splattered as the tip exploded in her flesh.
But it had missed her heart.
Junga pounced on Garran.
Slammed him to the floor.
His head struck with such power that Copper heard a crack. His head fell to the side.
Junga raised her claws to dig into his flesh.
A Drow arrow exploded in her hip.
Naal!
Garran’s brother stood behind Junga.
Junga screamed and toppled off Garran. She was to her feet in a fraction of a moment.
She whirled on Naal and flung him to the cavern floor, his head hitting a huge cone of stalagmite. Before Naal could react, Junga raised her powerful arm.
Dug her claws into his chest.
Ripped his heart out.
And ate it as it still pulsed in her claws.
Naal’s body disappeared like sparkles of obsidian.
Horror widened Copper’s eyes and she screamed, “Nooo!” Such fury raged through her, hot and molten, that she gathered the biggest spellfire ball yet.
She poured all the magic she could into that ball without tipping too close to the dark, wound her arm, and flung it at the demon.
From her position on the floor she wasn’t able to pitch accurately. The spellfire hit Junga on her side, but it was powerful enough to knock her a good twenty feet away from where Naal had died.
The demon slammed into a large stalagmite. This one cracked and a huge chunk of it fell onto Junga, striking her temple.
Junga shook her head as she rose and stumbled as if dizzy.
Copper pushed herself up and balanced on her left foot. She readied another ball of spellfire.
The demon glanced from Copper, toward the battle. With one more look of demon hatred at Copper, Junga leaped toward Darkwolf.