Dana Ilic and the Caged Goddess (Lightwielder Chronicles #2) | ✔️

14 | BeatBoxing

I didn't have a clue how we'd arrived on a vast battlefield, but we were there. It stretched before us, a frozen expanse where the icy breath of winter clung to every surface. The air echoed with the bone-chilling howls. A blur of chestnut and white unfolded down under, the clash of the unknown foes.

As I surveyed the scene, I fiddled nervously with my necklace and found that the ice cube my uncle Belobog had given me had grown smaller.

The ominous realization made me gulp.

The cold ground was splattered with red and broken tree limbs.

I looked at my friends, my stomach sinking.

I swiped at the air with my staff to create fire, but my movements were too slow. The force bubble shield produced some light, but it was weak and wavering.

Indira was limping and she crouched on the ground, one hand on her mirror, slumping over Blake who was no longer unconscious, but in a state of high alert.

My gaze flew back to the hole where we came from. Perhaps there was still time to return to the now-healed Endless Woods and rethink our strategy there.

The secret passage revealed its hidden treasure as it swung open like a door, allowing a horse boy about my age to enter it before it slammed closed behind him. He appeared to have used the exact same secret passageway as us! In a whirlwind of hooves and eager energy, he collided with me, leaving me momentarily stunned as our paths unexpectedly intertwined.

From the waist up, the teen wore a bright orange hoodie, but from the waist down he boasted a chestnut equine body, flowing ginger tail and powerful muscly legs. He also had sunglasses on, which was absurd, considering how dark the passage he emerged from already was. His surprisingly human ears were covered by a pair of heavy DJ-style headphones. He held up two speakers, pointing them at the battlefield.

The white blur below howled and writhed as if someone had doused it with serpents. It trembled in response to the powerful sound waves, its forms pulsating with energy. Suddenly, it shattered into a cascading display of tiny explosions, as if the very essence of magic was being released into the air.

The horse-boy galloped this way and that victoriously, swishing his tail, blood oozing from his arm.

"STOP!" I called out. We bloody needed some answers.

"STOP? ARE YOU CRAZY? RUN!" the boy said. " ICE WOLVES!"

Ice wolves? That explained the white blur.

Indira looked sick to the stomach. She was now limping to one side even though she was leaning against a nearby halved tree trunk.

I had one of those moments when I saw something before it happened.

One second, Indira was upright again. The next second...

She flopped over.

Blake dove forward in his enlarged shadow eagle shape and I only just managed to grab Indira before she fell. Immediately, I secured her with the light bubble shield encasing her lithe form, but my lunge had been too sudden, and the staff smacked Blake ...

... sending him sprawling down the slope and into the herd of foes.

I grumbled on the inside. Even though my eyebrows were now white from being too close to the ice wolves of Morana, and I was chilled to the bone, even though my brain was being tugged in a hundred different directions..

I knew what I needed to do. Keep this bunch together. No matter the cost.

Indira forcing sunshine behavior on everyone.