Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 141492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 472(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 472(@300wpm)
“There must be a way to save her, Safia. That’s what you’re supposed to do.” Zdan pleaded with her, but at the same time, he was resigned, turning away. He knew his aunt was lost to them. She wasn’t acting the way she normally would have in the least.
Raashidah shook the gate and continued to harangue Zdan in her shrieking voice. She didn’t look at the puppets as they drew closer. Instead, she tore at her skin, screaming at her nephew that he owed it to her to look after her.
Abruptly, her voice turned sly and cunning. “Lunja is seeing another man. I know who he is. Come closer, Zdan, and I’ll tell you who he is. She meets him at the market.”
Crows flew from the forest, so many the sky turned black, blanketing even the clouds. A noise much like thunder rumbled ominously, accompanied by the shaking of the ground as the hellhounds’ hooves pounded and their massive bodies slammed into trees in a blind attempt to get to their destination.
Thick stalks burst from the soil, rising like towers, writhing like snakes with gaping mouths and spiny stems leaking poisonous drops as they swung back and forth hungrily, looking for prey. They formed a six-foot-deep perimeter around the front of the farm property, enclosing those inside.
Raashidah’s high-pitched shriek turned to agony as the first puppet gripped her in clawed hands and dragged her to him, sinking teeth into her bony shoulder, tearing a strip of flesh from her. The second puppet reached her from her other side, jerking her head toward him, clumsily attempting to pull her from the first one.
“Petru was right,” Zdan whispered, lifting his gun. “This is the distraction he said Lilith would send to us.” His voice was as steady as his hands as he took aim and pulled the trigger. His aunt crumpled to the ground. He swallowed hard, but there was no expression on his face as he turned toward Safia.
“Keep well back from the fence, and whatever you do, don’t allow anyone to open the gates,” Safia cautioned. “You have to make Lilith believe we think the main attack is here.”
Zdan nodded. “How do we kill those things?”
Even as he asked the question, lightning sizzled through the dark clouds, lighting up the sky in an ominous display behind the heavy screen of crows. Three jagged bolts slammed through the screen of crows and drove down onto the three puppets’ heads. The bolts continued straight through them to the ground underneath.
There was no doubt that the lightning had Petru’s stamp all over it. There was no way for Lilith, or anyone else, to tell that he was a distance away and not right there, believing Lilith was sending her army straight at them.
Safia drew her crystal sword and raised it toward the clouds, the flame burning blue-hot as hundreds of dead crows, their blackened carcasses falling from the sky, landed on the greedy stems with their grisly mouths gaping wide.
The venomous vines slammed at the fence repeatedly and tried to burrow under it. They had snaked their way toward Raashidah’s body, their mouths snapping and lunging in a vicious attempt to grab her. Tongues licked at the blood pooling on the ground. When the bolts of lightning struck the puppets and incinerated them, flames leapt to Raashidah’s body as well and reduced it to ashes, burning many of the tongues of the demonic vines.
Safia kept her focus on the vicious snakelike creatures eager to gobble up the burned carcasses falling from the sky. The dead crows passed through the crystal light of her luminous sword. Instantly, tiny blue flames could be seen glowing beneath the charred feathers.
She pulled the vial of water from the sacred stream from her pocket and, with one hand, unsnapped the lid to toss the water into the air as she spun. The water spread through the air and began to rain down, the drops hissing as they fell fast onto the charred birds, just before the reaching vines gobbled the crows whole, blackened feathers and scorched carcasses.
She spoke softly, using the same perfectly pitched tone she’d been taught from the time she was a child. “Hear me, demons sent by Lilith, queen of the underworld. You cannot enter these gates or break through these safeguards.”
The vines opened their mouths, screaming and thrashing. They slammed their thick bodies against the fence and ground while their red malevolent eyes fixated on her. The rain continued to pour down on them. The hissing grew louder, and tiny holes began to appear in the stalks and shoots. Inside the holes, little blue flames flickered and glowed.
Close to the fence, she plunged the blade of her sword deep into the soil. The snakelike vines shrieked in fury and fear. The holes in the stems grew larger, as if the woody stems were tearing apart from the inside out.