Resurrection (Book Three of the Soul Forge series)

"I'm telling you, he's turned and he's killed Edward!" Clover hissed. "We're stuck down here with an undead half-demon who can do Spirit only knows what now he's under Malakai's control again!"

"Will you shut it?" Julian snapped, whirling on his brother. "Sypher was walking and talking a moment ago. It's highly unlikely he'll turn in a split second."

"And if he did turn, he'd have Edward kill him before he could hurt anyone," Brady pointed out.

Elda shut out their bickering, gnawing at her lip while she tried to think of a plan. She'd turned away for a second, and when she turned back Sypher and Edward had vanished. They went back the way they came, but there were no obvious traps or pitfalls to cause their disappearance.

But he still had a thin ring of red in his coloured iris. He was talking, moving. He was alive. She was certain it was the labyrinth playing tricks on them. So what would Sypher do in the same situation?

"Everyone be quiet," she instructed. "Arguing will just draw demons to us. We continue to the monolith and we destroy it as planned."

Gira cocked his head. "I agree. Edward and Sypher will be trying to reach the monolith too. Our best chance of finding them is continuing on our course."

"How will they find it without Elda?" Brady asked.

"Sypher is almost a thousand years old. He's lived through far worse than this labyrinth," Elda replied.

"He isn't living through this labyrinth," Clover muttered.

"He is," she asserted. "You may not have faith in him, but I do. He'll make it to the monolith and he will walk out of here alive." She took Brady's hand. "Everyone must remain in contact with one another until we reach our goal. There's no telling when this place will try to separate us again."

The Vampires and Gira nodded and took hold of one another, Julian taking Brady's free hand before they started forwards together. The alleys were still filled with the endless clicking and hissing of unseen monsters, but the next few turns were as empty as the rest.

The monolith pulled Elda forwards like a tether wrapped around her heart, dictating her steps before her mind could make a conscious decision. Every turn was identical, save for the ones with wards or hidden pits that opened out into yawning blackness at the lightest touch.

Gira accidentally stepped on a ward and the group was flung into the opposite wall when it lit up, sending out a violent shockwave of green energy. Elda scrambled to find Brady's hand again, relieved when she saw the others were still with her and nobody had been killed by the blast.

"Shit," Brady grumbled. "I've busted my knee." She tried to put weight on it when Elda helped her up, but it buckled beneath her. The elf ducked under her arm to support her weight. “My healing should take care of it in a an hour or two.”

"Anyone else hurt?" Elda asked. A chorus of 'no' answered her. "Let's keep moving."

Gira and the Vampires went ahead, Julian still holding onto Brady's hand, Elda giving them directions from behind. The men dispatched any demons that got too close, all of them as small and insect-like as the bodies they'd left behind. Another hour passed with no further casualties or disappearances.

Until they came to the next corner and stumbled upon a creature almost as tall as the walls on either side of them.

"Holy shit," Julian murmured, watching it tip its head back and scent the air. Before they could retreat more than three steps, its head whipped round and its lips peeled back to reveal dagger-sharp fangs. The howl that ripped from its throat was a cry for blood.

Gira shifted in a second, gaining enough height to match the creature as his beast made its bid for freedom. Elda moved back to keep Brady out of the fight, drawing her bow in the next second.

The pair moved quickly when they fought, but Elda's reaction time had improved She let energy build in the arrow that coalesced, storing it up until the string practically vibrated with magic, and then she let it fly.

The wolf demon howled, pitched backwards and slamming into the wall. Gira moved to tear out its throat with his teeth, but its hands shot out and talons sank deep into the old Keeper's shoulder and tore. Gira snarled in pain and moved backwards, harried by the monster. It dogged his every step, spurred on by the smell of blood.

Julian stepped out of the shadows and slashed its calves with his axe, appearing above its head a second later. The monster narrowly avoided decapitation, jerking backwards and swinging wildly. Clover appeared at chest height and opened a deep wound in its torso, but the thing carried on like it was a scratch.

When Julian dropped out of the shadows, it knew where to strike. He was swatted out of the air like an insect, and Elda only had a second to brace herself before his shoulder collided with her head. She landed on Brady and the three of them went down in a tangle of limbs.

Gira was pitched off his feet next, the demon wolf grabbing his injured arm and using it to swing his massive frame into Clover. The Vampire hit the floor and Gira hit the wall with a piercing whine.

Elda scrambled to reach her bow, slapping the blue gem to release the dagger into her palm. Julian was a dead weight on top of her, but her arm had enough space to flick the dagger toward the wolf, lodging in its shoulder blade up to the hilt before it could finish Gira off.

Clover leapt, ignoring the blood trickling down the side of his face, and stuck his short sword in its other shoulder. He yanked his body weight down as hard as he could, tearing the wound open before finally letting go and retreating.

Gira slashed when the demon's head wheeled back around to rip his throat out, his claws slicing along its face deeply enough to tear through its lips. It respond by sinking its talons into his thigh and squeezing.

Elda untangled herself and ran, jumping towards its back and using handful of coarse fur to seat herself on its shoulders. She ripped the dagger free as she climbed, bringing it down into the side of the demon's throat with a savage snarl. When she tore it out, foul blood followed in a torrent, but the demon stayed on its feet.

Claws clamped around her shoulder, yanking from its back and slamming her into the ground hard enough to make her vision swim. She saw yellow fangs stained with blood, black eyes filled with malice, but she couldn't move to stop it tearing out her throat.

Julian roared and swung, his axe finding the meat of the demon's neck. It jerked when he pulled the weapon free and swung again, the second finally doing enough damage to make it pause. The third swing knocked it onto its back.

Elda heard the axe come down again, and again, and again, and she heard Julian's roar become a sob, and then he was pulling her up from the ground and holding her tightly enough to make her bones creak, sobbing into the crook of her neck.

"Thank you for saving me," she whispered, returning the embrace the moment she was able to take a full breath.

"No one else," he wept. "No one else will be taken from me."

Clover moved closer, bending to check on Brady while Gira groaned and got slowly to his feet. Elda stroked the hair on the back of Julian's head until his sobs quieted, waiting until he was ready to move.

"No one else will be taken from you," she promised when he finally pulled back. "We can do this."

"We can," he nodded. "And when it's over you and I are drinking until we can't remember this shitty day."

"Deal," she grinned, getting to her feet and offering him a hand.

"Is everyone alive?" he asked when he was stood. The other three nodded, Brady finally alert enough to answer after a bump to the head. "Then we keep moving."

Progress was slow, but they continued following the invisible rope towing Elda along, keeping their weapons raised. Despite his wounds, Gira remained fully shifted and alert to any other large creatures stalking them. They kept each other in sight at all times, rounding corners as a unit and testing traps and runes together.

"I feel like we've been walking for days," Brady groaned, taking a pause to lean against the wall and flex her wounded knee. "I've forgotten what the sunlight feels like."

"We're almost there," Elda promised, rubbing the space between her collar bones as though it might get rid of the incessant buzzing settled there. "We just have to keep moving."

"And when we get to the monolith, how do the five of us take it down without dragonfire and with three of us bleeding?" Julian asked.

"We keep hitting it, the same way we did in Bratus," Gira shrugged, taking care not to tweak his injured shoulder.

"And if we keep swinging and this one doesn't break?" Clover pressed.

"We think of something else," Elda replied. "Until then, we stick with what we know and hope for the best."

"No point planning for something that might not happen," Brady agreed.

"And if Sypher has turned and we run into him on the way?" Clover continued. Elda could tell he was panicked, but it was hard not to flinch at his tone. "He could be looking for us right now. Edward could be dead and we're all pretending that's not a real possibility."

"For fuck sake, Clover," Julian muttered. "Will you shut up? We're all scared, okay? We all know what could have happened. We all feel the pressure of ten thousand tonnes of rock above our heads. We know. We don't have a plan for it, and we're trying to keep it together just like you."

"...Sorry," Clover mumbled, looking down at his boots. "I'm just scared."

Elda watched his throat bob as he swallowed, and she understood. Denial was the only thing that kept the fear from crippling her. Clover didn't have an oath to fall back on like she did. There was no fleeting hope that a Spirit might intervene at the last moment to help them.

Julian had been touched by Irileth, shown the certainty of the After and its existence. Julian knew who was waiting for him if they failed, and Elda understood that it kept him going through everything.

Clover didn't have that. He lost his home, his family, to a monster controlling Sypher like a puppet. He lost Lillian because of Vel. Yani died trying to help Vel break Malakai's hold. And he had no reassurance that the After was real, that he'd be going there, or that anyone would be waiting if that was were he ended up. All he had were bad memories and the vague notion that there was something after death.

Elda took his hand and squeezed it. "We'll make it, Clover. I promise."