When The Grave Calls (The Veil Diaries #9) - B.L. Brunnemer Page 0,73
sharp bob of my head. This was not the time to be the nice person.
He nodded back. “Then I should be able to lead some of them away.”
Uma sighed. “Buy us what time you can.”
We turned to make our way out of the long hallway.
“Lexie, what are you doing?” Isaac followed me through the kitchen, Hades a step behind him.
“We’re doing what we can.” I shoved the back door open and ran out to the backyard. “They’re coming from the north.” Then I’d go north. I dropped to my knees at the end of the patio and pressed my hand against the grass. Hades took off like a streak and disappeared into the trees. A door slammed open.
“What is she doing out here?” Zeke’s bootsteps came towards us.
“Working. Now shut it,” I ordered right before I found that quiet spot inside me.
“She and Hades are trying to buy time for the cars to get out of here,” Isaac explained.
“What the hell is he going to do?” Zeke moved to us. “What is she going to do? She can’t raise anything. There isn’t a cemetery for miles.”
“Shut up. Let her work,” Isaac snapped.
I cracked my barriers. My energy poured from me in a wave to soak into the ground. I pulled from the air while my energy spread out away from the house, moving down the slight incline of thriving, healthy grass. Stretching, stretching, just a little more. There. Not too far from the tree line.
My skin became the earth, their footprints causing goosebumps to erupt all over my body. Thirty-two. Thirty-two demon possessed witches moved like shadows across the ground.
And around them, deep in the earth, were the bones of dead animals. Good. I took a deep breath and poured energy into those bones. Into those bodies. The energy knit them back together as much as it could.
“Rise,” I ordered under my breath.
Claws dug at the soil, climbing to the surface. The brush of air on their faces. A fox slipped from the earth. I poured enough of my consciousness into it that I was able see through its eyes.
Off to the north the witches were walking through a meadow, the grass shriveling as they passed, the very earth rejecting their presence. A deep growl emanated through the air. The witches, led by Jadis, stopped in their tracks just before the figure burst through the grass. A half-rotted, maggot-ridden cougar blocked their path towards the house. The witches stepped back, gathering in a bunch with their backs to each other as the stench of rot filled the air. Zombies were strong, and they weren’t as affected by magic as the living were. You could set them on fire, but they’d still tear you apart while they burned.
Another figure emerged from the grass. Hades straightened to his full height with a dagger in each hand.
“Attack the possessed,” I ordered. The grass moved as the raised animals went after the witches.
The cougar leapt at Jadis, but she managed to duck out of the way at the last second. The zombie hit the man beside her, its teeth ripping at the witch’s throat. Cries and shouts echoed through the meadow as my zombies attacked.
Hades became a blur as he struck.
I smirked as I kept the channel open, pouring more and more energy into the dead, giving them more drive, more strength as they fought to follow my order. While they were busy tearing apart my zombies, Hades picked them off here and there. As soon as their bodies hit the ground I was there, pouring my will into them.
I swept my energy east and west, the dead glowing like beacons in my mind. In groups, I raised them and sent them to the meadow. I raised forty-four before I ran out of corpses. Blasts of power shook the woods, the sound reaching the house. It went on and on. Some of my zombies dropped, completely spent, while others rose again. Wave after wave, I held, but Hades had begun to tire.
Eventually, a group of witches broke off and went after a slower Hades as he led them deeper into the woods, away from the house.
Sweat rolled down my face as the feeling of being stretched too thin consumed me. My grip on the dead shook. Hold. Hold. If I didn’t hold on, then the wounded wouldn’t get out of the way of the fight. Hold. Hold.
“Nine minutes,” Zeke said.
“They’re gone,” Uma’s voice called. “We need to go!”