The dread that’s gathering over me scatters into a thousand fragments and creates a sickly insect-crawling sensation across my nerves when I see what I couldn’t see before.
Back before my mind knew to look harder, because these guys can blend in with their surroundings. And they’re much better at it than those assassins who camouflaged themselves in the last trial, because these very naked guys have skin that actually changes with the landscape.
With the newly educated eye, I can see them almost too clearly.
I can see too many.
Hundreds.
They’re on every tree. They’re crawling over the ground, moving slowly but deliberately, the shades effortlessly shifting over them to confuse the eye with yet another illusion.
Every surface of the forest that I can see has men stuck to it, and I’ve been walking right through them.
“They look like the forest!” I shout as I zap myself back in front of the cave entrance, wishing those books had warned us about this. “They blend!”
My eyes widen, seeing all the camouflaged bodies stuck all over the side of the cave’s entrance that I remain just outside of, looking in.
“Watch out!” I shout as Jude’s eyes finally spot the first one who has crept just inside of the cave.
The man lunges, his skin flaring several bright colors before Jude narrowly dodges him. Ezekiel’s hand slams on his shoulder as those bright colors suddenly light up the entire forest, and a wild, throaty set of animal calls ring loudly through the air.
“I really hope that’s not a war cry!” I shout, just as the one Ezekiel releases takes off charging toward his own people, a spear appearing in his hand as he launches it through several men.
Well then. That was unexpected.
Another spear slices through me, thrown by a different tribesman from my side, and I watch as it catches the traitor in the gut, sending him to the ground.
“Now would be a good time to prove you can handle this. Momma’s not holding back much longer,” I caution as Ezekiel grabs two more guys and slings them.
Those two guys charge their men, but the sheer volume of them is not going to be deterred by a couple of new traitors.
The forest is thundering with all of them racing this way.
The guys are fighting, doing whatever they can to hold their place and not retreat.
Power launches out of me, taking down at least twenty of them, but they heal quickly and bounce back to their feet.
Shit! That’s not supposed to happen!
“The spears are all that will kill them!” Gage shouts.
I zap between Jude and Ezekiel, grabbing their shoulders as I turn whole. There’s no way we can kill them all with some spears.
“If you’re all going, then so am I, I guess. I knew you’d all be the death of me,” I say, a grim smile on my face.
I turn just as another brightly lit man flies through the cave entrance, his spear raised and poised in our general direction. I shove Ezekiel back, moving in front of the spear and closing my eyes. I’d rather go first than last, because I’m not capable of simply watching them die.
“No!” Jude shouts as he collides with my hand that I’m holding out to keep him away.
I feel a spray of dust against me, and my eyes flicker open as Jude’s eyes glow gold. His hand is out in front of him, and I realize that spray of dust is actually ashes as they funnel through the entryway, infecting anyone daring to pass.
My hand clutches his arm that is already touching me, and I hear a few sharp intakes of air as the others startle.
Ezekiel’s hand is suddenly gripping my side, and he throws his own hand out.
I feel something dark and daunting slip over me, almost matching the decay and menace I feel pouring through me from Jude.
I hear the sounds of fighting going on at large just outside of the cave, and Jude staggers away from me like he’s a little exhausted or on a high—not sure which.
Ezekiel staggers just as quickly, and we look out over the battlefield that is insane. Those racing colors of war rush over their skin as they kill each other, fighting to the death, as though a civil war has just erupted for no apparent reason.
“What’s going on?”
“Chaos,” Ezekiel says, swallowing thickly. “I’ve never created it on this scale before, and not without physical contact.”
That’s not chaos at all. This is two sides at war with the intent to kill each other.
“And Jude just killed beings who can’t be killed without a certain damning weapon, and he never touched them. The decay hit harder and more fiercely than ever,” Kai states as though to himself.
He touches me, beginning to lift his hand like he’s about to use me as a conduit as well, just as the rain ceases to fall.
“Don’t. We don’t know what it does to take from her just to amplify our powers,” Gage says, causing Kai to blink and release me as we remain forgotten to the fierce battle just outside.
“We can study all that later. With their attention fractured, we should be able to fight our way out now,” Jude says without looking at me as he grabs two spears from the ground.
The others spring into action, collecting more abandoned spears. We race out of the cave, rushing out right into the thick of the madness.
Ezekiel slams the spear into one man’s throat, as Kai breaks off a hunk of the wood from the spear, and just uses the onyx point as a blade. He slices through ten men without even slowing down.
I’m in phantom form again for obvious reasons. I have no idea how to work a spear, and I decide the learning curve is just too large to deal with right at this particularly fatal moment.
I’m racing behind Jude as he uses his two spears like dual bo staffs, spinning them before slamming them into the hordes of men fighting a battle they don’t even understand.
Most of them are still warring with each other, leaving only the stragglers we run into as an issue.
Just as a spear very nearly slams into Jude’s back, I launch myself in front of it, turning whole.
My hands slam together on each side of the angular blade, stopping it inches from my stomach.
“I’m totally a badass,” I say on a shaky breath, questioning the bladder issue in whole form at this very terrifying second.
Looking up, I see the tribesmen up close as one bumps into me, acting like he doesn’t see me at all. Ha! I’ll tell them my new pun when we’re not in peril—should that day ever come.
I quickly spin and jab the spear into his back in one fluid motion like I’m a battle overlord or some shit.
“I really am a badass!” I shout louder.
He drops like a pile of rubble, and I smirk while dusting my hands off. Then end up squealing like a lunatic girl when I’m knocked to the ground.
Another one of the eyeless men trips over me.
I know I just made the tacky blind tribesmen pun about them not being able to see me, but it’s like they don’t realize I’m here at all, yet have no problem targeting the guys.
“It’s wearing off, I think,” Jude gripes, slamming his hand into one’s chest.
It decays rapidly, proving they certainly can die by means other than the spear.
I grab a spear and stab the one that is wallowing around beside me, still tangled up on my legs.
“How do you beat an army who need cool signatures to single you out amongst the heat of hell?” I shout.
No answer comes until I’m about to unleash the biggest spark of that mysterious acid I’ve ever felt.
“You set the forest on fire to block out your cold signatures,” Kai says on a breath, then turns and adds. “Run!”
Just as the tribesmen all seem to snap out of their disorientation and turn to face the retreating backs of the guys, I smirk.
My fingers snap together, and a spark of that burning acid slams to the very base of the tree beside me.
That’s all it takes.
A whoosh of fire ignites, spreading like a wall of flame, and the blind tribesmen scream when they try to leap through it. I’ve already seen them heal before, so I know it doesn’t kill them. But it becomes obvious they can’t see beyond the quickly growing wall of heat the guys are racing in front of.
“Burn!” I shout, fist-pumping the air.
I’m not sure why my guys insist on groaning at my jokes so much. It’s sad they have no appreciation for obvious humor.
I snap back to phantom and zap myself to the guys, gauging the distance between them and my fire.
They’re a lot faster than I remember, and I actually have to strain a little to keep up, even in my weightless form.
The fire starts getting swallowed up by the forest, and the tribesmen are nowhere to be seen. We don’t slow down enough to be certain.
After a few hours of solid running, they start losing a little steam, and I decide to voice a question that’s been bothering me, now that the immediate threat of death is over—at the moment.
“Why do these trials have so many physical elements? Climbing is unnecessary when you can siphon,” I tell them.
“Physical and mental endurance is one of the overall studies in the trials,” Jude answers, panting for air as he bends over and rests for a second.
“They need to know how strong you are—body and mind—before they decide what to do with you,” Gage goes on, straightening from his doubled over position as he seems to catch his breath.
“And you can’t siphon all the time. You have to be discreet when you’re topside. You can’t disrupt the balance by giving too many humans a visual to their unsolved mysteries of the universe,” Kai goes on.
“Plus, it’s not as much fun to watch people siphon around a course, and these trials are also for entertainment value,” Ezekiel adds as we start walking briskly, no longer running as they conserve precious energy.
“Our senses are stronger down here the longer we stay,” Gage says. “Hers too.”
“My senses only work with you guys,” I point out. “The blind dudes almost got one over on me.”
“You sense when the Devil can see you. You’re also quick to learn and figure out the next step, even though you have no prior knowledge of the trials or the location,” Jude states like a mild accusation.
I open my mouth to start our usual banter, but Gage sucks in a breath.
“There! We’re at the end!” Ezekiel shouts, and everyone starts running again.
We burst out of the forest, illuminated by the bright red sky that actually has them shielding their eyes. It makes me grateful to be phantom, since my eyes aren’t so sensitive in this form. It seemed like such a dull sky before the blacked-out forest.
My heart sinks when I hear the ground vibrating.
Then I’m back to dealing with cardiac arrest when I see why.
That gulley we started in is now on either side of us. No longer is the forest nor the mountain we faced earlier, in view. All we can see for miles and miles is one huge canyon full of monsters who are all charging toward us like a stampede.