The Unseen Road

Chapter Twenty-One

"We have to run!" Celeste cried.

"Right," Kylie nodded hurriedly.

Both of the sisters prepared to take off; but, just as they poised to take their first strides towards the cover of the underbrush, Nicolas caught each of their arms.

"No, stop," he told them. "— it's already too late."

"What do you mean?" Celeste asked from over her shoulder. "You just told us to run!"

Still unwilling to release their arms, Nicolas took a deep breath. "Look into the bushes and you'll see what I mean."

"Huh?" Only after Celeste turned her head to look did Nicolas gently release the hold he had on her arm; then, Kylie did the same, although the Prince still maintained a light grasp on hers.

At first, there was nothing visible in the darkness. Then, little by little, small, beady eyes began to gleam through the night, watching them, closing in on them. It didn't take long for either Kylie or Celeste to notice.

Kylie gasped, recoiling backwards. She instinctively pulled her sword from her scabbard, her breathing hitched.

The Prince drew his sword as well. "We're surrounded on all ends. Running isn't an option anymore."

"But there are too many to fight them all off!" Celeste bit out through clenched teeth. "Not the three of us!"

"How many are there?" Kylie asked fearfully, backing up against Prince Nicolas as she tried to count the sets of eyes in the dark.
"It looks like forty!"

"Where did they come from...? Okay." Kylie sighed, trying to reason as she kept her eyes locked on the advancing horde. "How many Vampires did you defeat this morning?"

"What kind of question is that?" Celeste sputtered. "Um, eight! I got eight!"

"...I got two." The blonde looked down, the odds not weighing well in her mind. "That means, between the three of us..."

"Don't give yourself so little credit," Nicolas said. "You were injured mid-battle. And you still are, so leave most of it to us."

The reminder of her wound, as if on command, made her shoulder throb; she winced, but still wanted to protest. "No. I'm going to—"

The goblins didn't give her enough time to finish; for, all at once, they leapt out of the bushes and towards them, like fire-ants swarming an intruder. They were all hissing feverish, inarticulate exclamations as they charged.

"Mmm... Fresh meat!"

The first jumped into the air, latching onto Celeste's blade. The brunette tried desperately to shake it off- but the rest didn't have any interest in waiting and took full advantage of their opportunity to initiate the fight and overpower her.

"Shit!" she cursed, thrashing her sword to free her blade as she kicked another two away, though five more easily replaced them. "It won't get off!"

Kylie, hearing her sister, turned sharply around. "Celeste!" she cried. The goblins, however, gave her no time to come to her sister's rescue, for she was blocked instantly by a sea of small, pale bodies that, without hesitation, drove to attack her as well.

She swung at the first that leapt at her, ignoring the pain of their tiny claws tearing into her legs. "Nicolas! Please help her!"

Nicolas shook his head, adroitly slicing through five without killing them, which was as much as he could muster should he continue to be able to have enough time to take on as many as possible. "She'll be okay. Look."