Pure Requiem - Aja James Page 0,67
at me, his chest heaving with the effort of speaking. More dark blood spills out of his mouth.
I nod in comprehension.
Finally, his eyes close. His body goes slack.
“When you awake, you’ll be home again, Dalair,” I whisper, even though he can no longer hear me.
Gently, I smooth a lock of blood and sweat-matted hair from his cheek.
“I have a plan. I won’t let you down. Don’t you let me down, either. It’s going to be the hardest thing you’ve ever done, fighting to regain your soul. But you’ll be in good hands. You’ll have help. Just try not to die in the process, okay? Or kill anyone? Wouldn’t want to trigger the Apocalypse. My son, Benjamin, must live on.”
To myself I mutter, “It has to work. It has to.”
With that, I leave Dalair hidden in a bloody, massacred mess in the cave for the Pure Ones to find later.
But first, we’ve got a she-demon to take down, and I hold the secret to getting it done.
*** *** *** ***
When I run back to the edge of the cliff that overlooks the creek below, I see that the tides have turned in Dalair’s absence.
The Pure and Dark Ones have gained significant ground.
Steadily, they push Medusa’s last line of defense toward the lake. There are only a couple dozen enemy soldiers left.
I scramble down the nearest hill and sprint toward the action. I have to tell the Pure Ones what I know.
Just as I draw closer, we all freeze in position, doing everything we can to maintain our footing as the ground beneath us fractures and quakes. Lighting splits the night sky in that moment, followed by a world-rending boom of thunder, as the clouds burst with a torrential downpour.
The water of the lake drains in a whirlpool all of a sudden before bubbling back up like a tidal wave. Something as big as a nuclear-powered submarine rises steadily within the vortex. One long neck with a sharp-toothed serpent head extends from the gigantic body of the creature, rearing up and opening its massive jaws in a monstrous, earth-shaking roar.
Holy fuck.
I crane my head back to watch it rise. And my neck just keeps on craning. Because that thing is bigger than the biggest dinosaur.
It’s not done.
Just as the first head finishes roaring, fanning the jagged scales out around its head like spikes, a second long neck attached to a second ugly head unfurls from the surface of the lake, creating a tidal wave in the process that knocks down the warriors nearest to the water’s edge, uncaring that they are soldiers in her own army.
What the fuck!
Where did that second head come from? Unless that’s Medusa’s hydra form? How many heads does a hydra have anyway?
Right side…
Dalair’s parting words whisper in my head.
It is a hydra, isn’t it? I can’t recall any other serpent of lore that looks half as foul. Whereas my brief glimpse of Cloud’s celestial jade-green dragon filled me with awe and joy, this unholy colossus before me fills me with fear and despair.
The second head unleashes a high-pitched screech that all but makes my ears bleed. Without warning, it extends toward the advancing Pure and Dark warriors and spews a fountain of nasty looking fluid from its mouth.
The good guys wisely leap out of reach, avoiding getting splashed by the unknown substance. Wherever the liquid lands, it hisses and burns, and I watch petrified and horrified as it melts through stone like a hot knife through butter.
On the heels of that terrifying display, the first head opens its jaws again as a glowing lump moves through its long neck toward its mouth—before an explosion of black fire shoots out, decimating hundred-year-old trees and blowing through the rocky cliff, frying some of her own soldiers in the process.
We are totally, utterly fucked.
I do a quick visual scan of the Pure and Dark Ones, seeing that they are all still present and accounted for, if shaken, bleeding and broken in places.
Ishtar in her giant leopard form stands in front of Inanna and Gabriel, guarding them behind her, as she herself seeks cover behind a large boulder. Inanna and her Mate can barely stand. They cannot engage in fighting any more, that much is clear.
Maximus and Ariel in their giant animal forms have leapt out of the way of the hydra’s paths of destruction, but there is no further cover to duck behind should she strike again. They are on the nearest bank of the lake.
Rhys the eagle is in