CHAPTER 89

"We need a plan," he replied. "A trap, maybe? What cards do you have?"

The door creaked again. The Nirumbi were chirping in delight, and Leeds was now speaking to them in a stilted language Mike didn't recognize.

"Velvet." Yuki looked at the Arachne. "Drag him out of here if you have to."

"I...I..." Velvet's hands went to her throat and squeezed the dog tags that she wore. She opened her mouth to say something, then paused, her eyes on the window.

Curious, Mike peered outside through the glass. The Nirumbi were still cheering, but the Wendigo had gone still, its gaze toward the heavens.

With a sound like a car crash, Abella smashed into the Wendigo from up above. When she rose, the firelight from the torches revealed that her face was covered in purple blood. She grinned at the Nirumbi, revealing all of her teeth, then looked up at Leeds. The Wendigo had gone still beneath her feet.

"Rock beats slithers," she yelled. "Definitely not my first snake." With a grunt, she grabbed the Wendigo by the antlers and ripped its head off.

Abella had been trapped beneath the ice with that giant snake for over an hour as it tried to crush her in its coils. They ended up on the murky bottom of the lake, the serpent incapable of crushing her, and Abella unable to swim away. Her lucky break had come when it had tried to swallow her whole.

When the serpent had opened its cavernous maw to devour her, she had spread her wings and tail wide. During the struggle to swallow her, she had grabbed its fangs and held on for dear life. The snake had attempted to dislodge her, but once her grip was solid, she started pushing the snake's fangs apart.

The serpent tried to spit her out, but she refused to let go. After a short eternity in darkness, light appeared overhead as the snake moved into the shallows and tried bashing her into some rocks.

Undeterred, Abella continued to press, and one of the fangs shifted suddenly as it snapped at the root. She wiggled it back and forth, trying to pull it free.

Once they broke through the surface ice, the serpent let out a hiss like escaping steam, then smashed her into the shore. Abella sank her talons into the rocky ground, finding purchase on a huge boulder. The serpent cried out and coiled around her, trying to push her away from its head.

With a ripping sound, the fang came away in her hand. She flipped it over and jammed the giant tooth into the roof of the serpent's mouth. It let out a hiss of pain and then released her in a bid to get away.

Though she had an opportunity to escape, Abella wasn't about to let it get away after trying to eat her. What if it came after the others? She dragged it further onto the shore, her talons ripping holes in its iridescent scales. It tried to put up a fight, but now that she was on solid ground, it was easy enough to bludgeon it to death with her fists. Once it was dead, she noticed a beautiful gemstone embedded in its forehead. Curious, she plucked it out, spraying blood all over herself.

Racing back, her whole body hurt. The cracks in her left wing were getting worse, and her legs felt stiff. She could hear the distant cries of the Nirumbi in the direction of the cabin and hoped she would make it in time.

The creature beating on the cabin was incapable of withstanding over a thousand pounds of angry stone coming at velocity. Its head came off with a satisfying rip that stunned the Nirumbi into silence.

However, the head she now held was hollow on the inside. It hadn't been obvious from the outside that it was simply the mummified head of a rather large deer. Stunned, she found herself staring down at the creature beneath her.

It growled and then tossed her away like a piece of trash.

She pulled her wings in and rolled, then smirked when several tiny arrows shattered on her hide. When the beast stood, she realized it was nothing more than a human that looked like it had been stretched out from the inside to fit on something over ten feet tall. It was emaciated and had milky white eyes that matched bloodless lips.

When it howled, she could see all of its blood-stained teeth. It came at her so fast that she almost didn't react. Her instincts kicked in and she slammed her fist into the creature's jaw so hard that there was an audible pop as the bone shattered. Dark blood spilled across her knuckles, but it kept moving.

"Wha—" Abella gasped as she was lifted into the air and tossed toward the barn. She smashed into the wall and fell down into the snow, her wings hanging limply around her. Up above, Leeds' burning-coal eyes regarded her with hatred.

"You never should have returned," he growled, then disappeared into the shadows. "Wendigo! Kill her!" Leeds reappeared in front of her and waved his hand.

Abella was yanked into the air by shadow hands and thrown toward the Wendigo. The Wendigo clamped powerful claws onto her legs and spun her in a circle before throwing her into a nearby tree.

"Putain!" she exclaimed upon impact. The trunk had snapped, and the pain in her wing was getting worse. How in the hell was this thing so strong?

The snow crunched under the Wendigo's feet as it charged her. She looked up in time to get kicked through the trees. Branches snapped beneath her weight and she crashed into a Nirumbi, killing it on impact.

"Ow." She picked herself up and dodged out of the way when the Wendigo threw the tree she had felled at her.

A pair of shots rang out, and the Wendigo turned its attention toward the sound in time to see Velvet to leap onto its chest and shove a gun against its forehead.

Each bang was like a hammer on steel, and the Wendigo went down in a heap. Velvet leapt free and rolled across the snow, landing in front of Abella.