Chapter 67 67

Chapter 67 67
Eve’s POV

“Garrick!”

I don’t even know how I manage to scream through whatever magical duct tape is sealing my mouth, but adrenaline apparently unlocks new features.

Because somehow the sound rips out of me.

And he moves.

Not toward the monster in front of him.

Toward me.

I barely register the shift before he pivots in one smooth, lethal turn and launches himself at the tree.

The Endophine above me lunges at me too slowly.

Garrick’s blade arcs upward in a vicious, clean swoop, striking him down.

The creature shrieks as the sword slices straight through its midsection. 

The force of the blow sends it tumbling off the trunk and crashing hard onto the forest floor below.

It hits with a sickening thud.

For half a second, I just blink.

Did he…

He did.

He didn’t even look at me after. Just checked that it was falling and immediately repositioned, scanning for the next threat.

“Eyes open,” he calls up to me.

Excuse me, sir, I am upside down and emotionally overwhelmed, but sure.

Then the air shifts again.

I feel it before I see it.

Another shape moves along the tree trunk.

Another Endophine.

This one is faster.

It scrambles toward me, claws digging into bark, teeth bared, its milky eye locked on my throat like I’m dessert.

Oh, absolutely not!

I twist my body hard enough that the bindings creak and tear just enough to get one leg out, and I kick.

My boot connects with its face.

The impact jars up my spine, but it works. The Endophine loses its grip for a split second.

I walked into a branch to stable myself and get my blood flowing the right way to my head. 

With a steady hold on the tree, I kick again, harder this time.

It screeches and slips, claws scraping uselessly against the trunk before it tumbles backward.

It crashes into the clearing just as the first one finishes convulsing.

I don’t even have time to celebrate.

Because it only got worse!

Movement explodes around us.

One.

Two.

Three.

Oh gods!

They start emerging from the shadows, as if the forest itself were coughing them up.

Endophines! Everywhere!

Another climbs the tree.

Then another.

And another.

I twist violently, trying to keep track of all directions at once.

They drop from branches.

They slink between trunks.

They crawl over roots.

Seven.

I count seven!

Seven untamed, grotesque beasts!

And suddenly the clearing feels very small.

Garrick steps back toward the center, blades raised, positioning himself instinctively beneath me.

“Looks like Endophines got a thing for pale skin blacked haired chicks.” He smirked. I frowned.

How could he find humour in this deadly situation?!

One Endophine circle left.

Two to the right.

Another crouches low, claws digging into dirt.

The one I kicked is already pulling itself up again, twitching violently like it’s personally offended.

My heart pounds so hard I can hear it in my ears.

This is bad…

This is really bad!

Garrick can handle one.

Maybe two.

But seven?

Even with his calm, sarcastic barbarian confidence, seven is a lot.

They begin to close in slowly.

Herding.

Testing.

Waiting for an opening.

One Endophine hisses.

Another snaps its jaws.

They’re not rushing.

They’re enjoying this.

And the horrifying, crystal-clear thought settles into my brain.

Oh.

We’re dead.

“Hey!” Garrick whistle stirring their attention to himself.

In a split second, he lunges forward just as two Endophines spring at him from opposite sides. He doesn’t hesitate to throw them off. 

He pivots, reaches to his belt, and yanks free his cub and throws it at me.

For half a second, I think he’s lost his mind.

Then the blade flashes upward.

It slices clean through the binding at my hand that still held me to the tree.

And gravity wins.

The world flips violently as I slam into the ground shoulder-first, the air punching out of my lungs in a brutal rush. Pain explodes down my arm, but I don’t get time to process it because Garrick is already moving.

He snatches his sword mid-turn and crashes into the nearest Endophine with a roar that shakes the clearing.

“Fight!” he shouts at me.

I lie there for one stunned, pathetic second.

Fight?

Excuse me?

I just fell out of a tree like overripe fruit.

Rygar never lets me fight monsters! I wanted to yell out, but I realised how stupid that sounded.

Another Endophine lunges at him. Garrick blocks, metal screeching against claw. He drives his shoulder into its chest, slamming it backward.

“Ravena!” he barks.

My name snaps me out of it.

Right.

Right.

I scramble to my feet, legs shaking, vision still spinning. 

I can breathe.

I can move.

But what do I actually do?

There are seven of them.

Well…

Six.

One is limping.

Garrick cuts deep into another’s side. Black fluid spills again. It shrieks.

And then I see it.

Their wounds are closing!

Garrick sees it too.

He slashes again, harder this time, driving steel through its torso.

It staggers…and then straightens.

This sword doesn't kill them. I recall the night I killed my first Endophine. 

I had used a special sword Skara left behind. Maybe that's the only thing that could kill them and not mere steel.

One Endophine darts toward me.

I freeze.

Garrick intercepts it, tackling it sideways before it can reach me. They crash into the dirt in a violent tangle of limbs and claws.

“Eve!” he shouts, shoving it off him. “Steel won’t kill them!”

“Then what will?!” I yell back.

He blocks another strike, boots skidding in the dirt.

“Silver!”

Oh.

Oh no. Where do we get silver in this thick forest?

Wait…Silver.

My hand flies instinctively to my throat.

My necklace.

The small silver chain with the clawed silver tooth charm, resting against my skin.

It’s the only silver I have.

And Garrick…

Garrick is a wolf.

He can’t touch silver.

Which means…

“It has to be you!” he roars.

Fantastic. No pressure.

Just me and my five inch sliver claw necklace, against six regenerating forest demons.

One Endophine charges at me again.

This time I don’t freeze.

I rip the necklace off my neck and drive the silver straight into its exposed throat.

It screams.

A horrible, piercing sound.

Smoke rises where silver meets flesh.

It convulses violently beneath my grip, clawing at my arms, but I don’t let go.

“Die!” I scream, shoving the silver deeper.

The Endophine collapses, and the body dissolves into dark ash beneath my hands.

Oh.

Okay.

That works.

“Good!” Garrick calls, slamming his shoulder into another one and forcing it to its knees. “Again!”

We move together after that.

He drives them toward me, injuring, destabilizing, creating openings.

I finish them.

He slashes a leg tendon.

I plunge silver into its skull.

He knocks one flat with the hilt of his sword.

I leap forward and drive the claw into its chest.

It was chaotic. Violent. Messy. Beautiful 

At one point, an Endophine grabs me by the arm, and I nearly lose the necklace, but Garrick barrels into it with a growl that sounds far too close to a wolf’s snarl for comfort.

One by one, the clearing fills with drifting ash.

Until finally…Silence.

The last Endophine collapses at my feet, disintegrating into nothing.

I’m breathing hard.

Shaking.

Covered in dirt and something I refuse to identify.

Garrick stands a few feet away, chest rising steadily, blades lowered.

He scans the perimeter once more.

Then his shoulders loosen.

“They’re gone,” he says and nudges a pile lightly with his boot. It crumbles further.

He exhales slowly.

“Skara,” he mutters darkly. “Cursed witch.”

My head snaps toward him.

“Oh,” I say, adrenaline still buzzing through me. “So your little sweet friend sent these emo nightmares after us?”

His mouth twitches faintly, but there’s no humor in his eyes now.

“She loves to play games,” he says evenly.

I tighten my grip on the silver claw still clutched in my hand.

“She hopes you never make it to the Blood Sea.”