Those words made his body go still, even as his heart began to thunder. His female carrying his babe. "She could be," he lied.
Tera visibly relaxed, motioning the four bowmen behind her to stand down. "Then the warrior will be for good."
He couldn't help but ask, "You really believe that?"
"You've done some...questionable things, and you can be menacing and violent. But you're not evil. So what's your plan for Groot?"
"I can't divulge it. Not when it could put my female in jeopardy."
"Very well," the fey said. "Do you need our aid?"
"Yeah, get the word out to the good guys that Holly's not fair game."
"I will, gladly."
"And you can tell me how you knew to come here."
"We had an informant at Imatra's bar," she said.
"Could others have gotten the information you had?"
"Probably. Our contact wasn't fey. His loyalty was to currency."
Cade ran his hand over his forehead, frowning to find it dripping with sweat. "I've got to get Holly out of here." He would return alone at midnight tomorrow. Switching to English, he said, "Come on, halfling. We're leaving!"
Guardedly, she made her way toward them.
To both Holly and Cade, Tera said, "Then we part ways here, hopefully with peace still between us."
Cade shrugged. "What's a few arrow wounds among friends, yeah?"
With a wince, she said, "About those arrows, Cade. They were dipped in poison - "
"Poison!" Cade bellowed. "Ah, come on, Tera!"
Holly gave a cry behind him. "What poison? You're poisoned?"
Cade turned to her. "No, I'll be fine. It'll just hurt like - "
From out of nowhere, fire hurtled down at him with the force of a rocket. Flames engulfed him as the impact sent him flying.
Just as Holly screamed, "Cadeon!" one of the archers yelled, "Fire demons on the cliffs!"
The blast that hit Cadeon looked like a cannonball shot from a flamethrower. His burning body slammed into a ridge, crushing solid rock before falling to the ground still ablaze.
At once, she sprinted for him, yanking off her coat.
"Bows up - shoot to kill!" Tera ordered, her delicate voice now booming as her own bow joined the salvo.
As Holly ran, she chanced a glance at the cliff above the bridge. Through the wispy mist, she saw four demons. Liquid fire danced in their palms.
When she reached Cadeon, Holly spread her coat over him, shoving the material against the flames. Once she'd put them out and drew her coat back, she stared in shock at the damage to his upper body.
His hands were...gone, melted to stumps from where he'd tried to ward off the flames. On the right side of his head, his face and hair were burned completely away. That eye was missing, and she thought she could see bone.
Tera yelled to her, "Get out of here!" A stream of arrows flew at the demons, the fey launching them with supernatural speed. "We'll stall them!"
Holly nodded, even as she had no idea how she'd get Cadeon to the car. She stooped down to drape his damaged arm over her shoulders as she'd seen people do on TV, then heaved upward.
What the...? She'd easily lifted him to his feet.
Cadeon grated something that sounded like "Can't touch me."
"What?"
"Poison - "
"We'll talk about this later!" She'd heard what Tera had said and was aware that they faced a subset of problems - but she really couldn't think about that right now!
At the car, she slung him into the passenger seat, then stuffed his long legs in, trying not to freak out about all the damage he'd sustained.
As she yanked open her own door, she spied the fey's truck just around the bend, parked sideways, blocking the road between rock faces.
Holly swung her head in the other direction. A flimsy roadblock, a questionable bridge, and a demon-filled ridge awaited.
Reasoning trail? This car can fly. Bust through the roadblock, gain more speed on the bridge, then jet right under the demons....
If the bridge held. Hadn't Cadeon said this car was heavy as a tank?
Don't hesitate...follow instinct. Inside the car, she pushed the start button. Need momentum to hit the roadblock. Oh, God, oh, God... She shifted into reverse, then floored the gas.
"I'm going to get you out of here, Cadeon. We're going to lose them."
Another blast landed just behind them. The demons were on the run from the feys' arrows, but still firing from their vantage. She slammed on the brakes, skidding to a stop inches from the new column of flames.
Cadeon flew forward, cracking his forehead on the metal dash - but this actually seemed to rouse him. "Fuck! What're you doing?" he yelled.
"Trying to get us out of here!" Holly shifted into first gear, then stomped the gas again. The tires peeled as the car surged ahead. Never looking away from the road, she said, "Hold on!"
"Watch the roadblock - "
The front bumper crashed into it, torpedoing the wood. Pieces of lumber bashed the windshield like baseball bats. A split second later, the car ramped down onto the deck of the bridge, the entire structure wobbling dangerously beneath and around them.
Another demon blast struck the bridge's roof. Streams of fire sieved through the gaps, or oozed from the roof, dropping in her path...She steadied the wheel, righting the car. Almost out, almost to the gauntlet below the demons. I can do this!
The car stalled.
As she gaped in disbelief, they crawled to a stop in the middle of the bridge, a mere hundred feet from where she'd initially started.
"No, no, no!" She hastily shifted to neutral, pushing the start button again. Nothing.
"Battery's out..." Cadeon rasped. "No juice."
"Why?" she cried.
"Don't know. Run, Holly! Get to the forest...follow the river back."
"I'm not leaving you."
Chapter 18
He squinted at her with his remaining eye. "Why not?"
"Because...because I'm just not! So tell me how to get this thing started - "
Another explosion above them. Fire had eaten through most of the wooden roof, leaving the skeleton of rusted trusses. A glance at the churning river below, and she knew their next move. Her stomach roiled along with the water. "Cadeon, our only chance is the river..."
She trailed off as writing began to appear in the fogged glass on her side window. One of the ghosts was communicating with her! Holly swallowed, whispering, "Cadeon, are you seeing this."
"Still have...one eye."
"Numbers? It looks like latitude and longitude." They had to be the directions to the next checkpoint! She quickly memorized them, then asked Cadeon, "You ready to swim?"