Chapter 83 The Crossing pt2
“Get to the other side! Don’t stop!” I urge, my heart pounding. I kick my feet off the wall, mimicking his movements to reach him as fast as I can. But now I can see where the brown roots have begun to shift and slither, intertwining like a nest of serpents.
“They're poisonous! I can feel it!” Sylvain shrieks, her voice filled with panic.
All at once, we’re all dangling from the roots, doing everything we can to grab only the ones that don’t move. Malachi’s movements become slower, his strength ebbing away. He tries to speak, but only gurgling escapes his lips. He’s almost to the balcony when he turns to face me, his face swollen and turning a frightening shade of blue.
“Help…me…” he mouths, his eyes wide with desperation.
And then, just as his grip falters, he loses his hold entirely and plummets into the void below.
Winds rip around me as instinct takes over. I use it to propel myself into Malachi, hitting him square in the gut with my shoulder. For a moment, a cloud forms beneath us, cushioning our fall, but it quickly begins to dissipate. I summon another desperate gust, my arms holding tightly to my sworn enemy, and gasp as our bodies collide with the wall on the other side of the tunnel.
Snakes rain down on us, biting and hissing, tangling around our arms and legs. My vision goes spotty as I claw at a livid green serpent tightening around my neck, its scales rough and suffocating. The air is thick with the smell of venom and fear. I watch in terror as Zaries lands, hacking and slashing with ferocity, his blade a blur of deadly precision.
Sylvain is next, green poison shooting from her fingers and searing the snakes like acid, her face a mask of concentration and determination. Oberon lands last, his eyes wide with terror as he rushes to me. He tries to cut the snake away, but it only grows tighter, its fangs sinking deeper into my flesh. My breath comes in ragged gasps, and my vision dims as I fight to stay conscious.
Rot it!
“Rot it, Anara! Do it now!” Oberon repeats the words of my mentor unknowingly, his voice breaking through my haze of panic.
I nod, closing my eyes tightly and summoning my gifts. They seem to spring from the scale on my neck, a surge of energy turning the snake to ash like a wave of decay. Relief floods through me as I take a deep breath, the air filling my lungs once more. Without hesitation, I touch every snake I can, watching them desiccate on command, their bodies crumbling to dust.
Zaries is slicing them to bits, his movements a blur of deadly precision, while Sylvain melts them with her poison, each drop sizzling through their scales. Oberon rushes to Malachi and starts sucking the poison out of his many bite marks, his face set in grim determination.
The snakes seem to keep coming endlessly, a relentless tide of fangs and venom, but slowly their numbers dwindle. The final ones slither away desperately, retreating from our combined assault.
I fall to my knees, gasping for air. The venom is reaching my heart, I just know it. The poison feels like acrid fire in my veins, burning with an intensity that makes every heartbeat a struggle. My vision blurs, and I fight to stay conscious, knowing that every second counts.
“I’ve got this!” Sylvain shouts. She drops to her knees, hands splayed on the stone floor. When she looks up again, her eyes are bright green and glowing. She whispers something under her breath, then smiles. “Blight, you glorious man,” she murmurs.
The poison begins leaking out of the bites on my skin and rolling over to her in rivulets. Malachi coughs wetly and falls on the ground. He crawls on his belly toward Sylvain, huge hands digging into her legs and arms as he climbs up her in desperation. She smiles slightly, soothingly.
“You’ll be okay,” she tells him.
Despite our exhaustion, we stumble, exhausted, into the dark corridor beyond. Without thinking, I summon light. I no longer bother keeping an orb on me. I just channel the glow freely. There are gasps from behind, but no one questions me. It’s commonplace for Anara to do weird shit now.
You’re a prodigy, a powerful creature destined for greatness, you—-
I’m very, very tired. If you must speak into my mind, then tell me what lies ahead.
I feel more than hear my mentor laugh, but then his presence fades as he seems to leave me to search for what awaits us.
“Fucking piece of shit snake,” Malachi bitches behind us.
I feel a burst of heat and whip around to face him.
He’s got a snake burning in his palms, the flesh splitting and roasting as if in an oven.
“Eat me, will you? Turnabout is fair play!” Malachi growls like an animal as he rips into the flesh of the dead snake with his teeth. He chews messily, grinning, and swallows. “Want some?” he asks.
None of us want any, but all of us turn and sit in the passage while Malachi roasts poisonous snakes for us. I dispel my light as we eat, taking sustenance where we can get it. I also do my level best to ignore Malachi’s quiet and unsettling laughter as he gorges on meat.
Sated, if not satisfied, we continue down the dark corridor feeling a little stronger.
“Do you hear that?” Sylvain asks after several long minutes of complete silence.
We all freeze, trying to hear what she has.
“Is that…water?” Oberon asks, hope clear in his voice.
We double down, hurrying as fast as we dare in the darkness barely illuminated by my palms. The closer we get, the louder the water is until it's almost deafening. We’re all panting, sweat prickling our brows again, when we burst through a curtain of vines onto the most beautiful plush green grass I’d ever seen.