Yann came to his senses lying on the tunnel floor where he and Anríq started. The stone chilled him through his clothes and he shivered. Once he started, he couldn’t stop shaking.

  Anríq bent over him. The freed captives stood around staring at Yann in abject horror.

  Anríq kept touching him all over. “Don’t…..” Yann croaked. “Don’t…..”

  Anríq’s features pinched. “You’ll die if I don’t.”

  “Take them…..take them all……”

  “I’ll take you, too,” Anríq murmured.

  Yann tried to shake his head. “Leave me here. I can protect your retreat…..”

  He didn’t know how he would do this. He only knew that Anríq would have his hands full getting everyone through the Layers.

  Yann was the last thing Anríq needed to deal with right now.

  Just to confirm Yann’s deepest suspicions, a tremor vibrated through the rock right then. It came from the cavern, but the group was too far away from the cavern.

  Yann couldn’t lift his head to see what was causing it. He looked up at Anríq instead and read the truth in those clear blue eyes.

  “They’re coming,” Yann husked. “Give me my glaive and leave me here. Go, Anríq.”

  Anríq’s mouth said, No, but no sound came out.

  Yann wanted to smile at him, but Yann couldn’t summon the energy even to do that.

  He couldn’t imagine how he would fight the Darklings to protect the fleeing captives. He would just have to dig deep and find a way.

  His eyes rolled from one side of the tunnel to the other. “Where’s my glaive?” Did he actually say those words out loud or did he just think them?

  Amala walked away, came back with his glaive, and squatted down next to him to put it in his hand. “Thank you, Yann,” she whimpered. “We’ll never forget what you did for us.”

  Yann could only gaze up at her. She really was beautiful. She had her father’s dark hair and eyes, smooth skin, and fine, sculpted features. Her magnificent dress made her look like the princess that she was.

  Yann tore his gaze away from her and focused on Anríq. “Help me sit up, Anríq.”

  Anríq pinched his lips, scooped up Yann by the armpits, and dragged him to the tunnel wall. Anríq propped him there in a sitting position.

  The noise coming up the tunnel got louder. Were the Darklings tearing the whole cavern apart to track down the escaped captives?

  Did Yann or Anríq really believe Mihaili would just let these captives walk away? Of course he wouldn’t. He released his Darklings from their confinement to come after the fleeing captives.

  Anríq must have known something like this would happen. He was too smart to fall for a trick like that or delude himself into thinking Mihaili would just drop his vendetta for no reason.

  As Anríq said, it didn’t make any difference in the end. He and Yann had to come down here to save these people even knowing the danger.

  Yann clasped his glaive, but his fingers felt too weak even to hold onto it very tightly. Forget about lifting it.

  He couldn’t bear the desperate anguish radiating out of Anríq’s eyes. “Go, Anríq,” Yann repeated. “Get out of here before they get any closer.”

  “I’ll come back for you,” Anríq choked. “I’ll heal you and take you back. I swear it.”

  Yann thrust out one hand, grabbed Anríq’s wrist once, and then used the last of his strength to push Anríq away. “Go. Go now.”

  Anríq stood up. Yann shut his eyes so he wouldn’t see the others leaving him here to face the Darklings alone.

  He still didn’t open his eyes when the group’s footsteps faded up the tunnel and eventually disappeared.

  He would have to open his eyes if he wanted to slow the Darklings down, but for now, he just wanted to rest.

  This awful gnawing, grotesque feeling in his gut drained every ounce of courage he possessed. Creeping dread spread through his veins. He really was cursed—far more cursed than those people had been when they were trapped inside the wall.

  The Darklings would put him out of his misery. Then he wouldn’t have to feel this rot inside him anymore.

  The Darklings’ roars got louder and louder until they shook the wall behind his back. They were coming—and fast.

  After a few minutes, another sound snuck in to mingle with those roars. Deep crashing and exploding sounds echoed up the tunnel. Those sounds got as loud or louder than the Darklings’ voices.

  Yann shut his eyes again. Now he knew it was really true. The Darklings were caving in the tunnels to make them big enough for the Darklings to pass through. They would get here any second.

  He dragged himself away from the wall and sat in the very center of the tunnel. He scooted around to point his legs and his glaive down the tunnel toward where the Darklings would come from.

  The enchantment still held to make his glaive glow. It gave enough light for Yann to see the passage in front of him. He would be able to see Darklings coming—whenever they came.

  He didn’t hold out any hope that he would be able to slow them down—not by fighting them.

  With luck, they would pause just long enough to kill him and devour him. Maybe those in the very front would block those behind them. Then his death would delay all the others.

  The sound of rock caving in overwhelmed the Darklings’ voices. The bedrock under Yann’s seat quaked and jolted with individual strikes now, but he still didn’t see any Darklings.

  He blinked hard trying to see something. How long would it take Anríq to carry the captives back to safety?

  Then he saw it. The tunnel at the farthest distance of the light ring crumbled. It imploded on itself and an avalanche of rock rained into the tunnel.

  The cave-in blocked the tunnel. Nothing would be able to get through that, but the advantage only lasted a second before a giant mouth chomped the fallen rock out of the way.

  The two sets of fangs smashed together and closed in a huge Darkling face where the tunnel had been.

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  The next instant, two more Darklings moved in from the side slashing and gobbling their way through solid granite on a dead course for Yann.

  He raised his glaive. He should have met these creatures on his feet, but he couldn’t stand. He would just have to do as much damage as possible from here.

  The Darklings didn’t see him right away. They chomped another fifteen feet up the tunnel before the Darkling in the center spotted the light from his glaive.

  The three Darklings leading the way paused there to study him. They took a minute before they reacted to his presence.

  He roared back at them and jabbed his glaive to antagonize them. “COME ON!!” he bellowed. “COME ON!!”

  They lunged for him, but they had to chew through more rock to get to him.

  His awareness dropped into the deepest, darkest, most silent part of himself as he watched them come closer. Time crawled to a standstill.

  Every bite of their teeth tore the cavern walls apart with ease. They would make short work of him, too, once they got here.

  None of that mattered anymore. He wouldn’t be able to rely on speed or agility. He would just have to stop them with pure tenacious brutality. He could do that.

  He clamped his hands much tighter on his glaive. Some kind of crazy explosion went off inside him. It didn’t get rid of the curse nor did it bring his strength back. It just gave him the boost of determination he needed to face this moment as his last.

  The Darklings roared in fury that someone had the nerve to stand in their way. They plunged into the rock, smashed their heads against it, and wound up slowing themselves down.

  Nothing could slow them down completely. They eventually worked their way close enough. The center Darkling chomped into the floor just beyond Yann’s legs.

  He yanked his feet back before the Darkling could pull him into its mouth.

  Adrenaline took over. He dove onto his knees and stabbed his glaive into the creature’s forehead. The Darklings couldn’t use their tentacles in this confined space. They were all mouth.

  Yann hurled his weight against the glaive shaft the way he did before, twisted the weapon in place, and cracked the Darkling’s skull. That seemed to be the best way to kill them.

  The creature froze there with its mouth open. Its size blocked the other two Darklings from getting near Yann.

  They had to chew their way through the tunnel’s side walls to crawl around their dead friend. Yann scrambled backward to put more distance between himself and them.

  Those two came at him from either side this time. He wouldn’t be able to fight them both.

  They plunged through the walls at the same time. They would have squashed him between their two heads.

  He tried one last desperate time to scuttle backward out of range. His legs gave out and he sprawled on his backside across the floor.

  What might have been a disaster turned out to work in his favor. He fell below both Darklings and they crashed into each other instead.

  He got trapped beneath them with both Darklings right on top of him.

  He stabbed out with his glaive. He didn’t care what he hit as long as he hit something.

  He stabbed into one of their necks and severed a blood vessel. Thick, black, sticky blood gushed all over him, got in his eyes, nose, and mouth, and stopped him from seeing anything for a minute.

  The Darkling he hit roared out in deafening rage and then collapsed right on top of him. It pinned him under its colossal weight. He couldn’t move even to raise his glaive.

  More Darkling voices thundered from inches away. They couldn’t get to him with this monster on top of him and another dead Darkling blocking the tunnel. Now what was he supposed to do?

  He didn’t have to wait long to find out. The Darklings went to work tearing down the tunnel and then more tremors vibrated through the big body on top of Yann. The Darklings must be tearing their dead comrade apart to get to him.

  He scraped his face against the shoulder of his uniform to clear the crap out of his eyes. He still couldn’t see much with this hulk on top of him.

  He could see the two walls on either side…and he definitely saw the cracks skidding down the walls. They spread outward as the Darklings destroyed the structure around him.

  His glaive got trapped under the Darkling’s body. If the Darklings had a brain between them, they would leave him trapped there and bite his head off to stop him from using his weapon against them.

  The Darklings didn’t have a brain between them. They didn’t think. They attacked in berserk fury unless something directed them to do things in a particular way.

  The vibrations coming through the Darkling’s dead body escalated faster than the vibrations coming through the walls. Yann really wished he could see what the hell was going on out there.

  Without warning, some almighty force ripped the Darkling off him and left him lying there completely exposed.

  He had half a second to see an endless void of Coil Layers spreading into nothing beyond his feet. The Darklings had completely obliterated the tunnel system and whatever structure housed it.

  Dozens of them floated in the Layers out there. This one small stretch of floor ended there. This was the only part of the tunnels left standing—and the tunnels behind him leading to the surface.

  At the same moment, four more Darklings smashed through the walls on either side of him. They tossed their heads from side to side and shook all the broken rock out of the way.

  Now nothing stood between them and him lying helpless and weak on the floor.

  He ripped up his glaive just as they all lunged for him, but as usual, they couldn’t all attack him at once. They were too big and he was too small. They would up crashing into each other and slowing each other down again.

  He played that to his advantage. He didn’t even try to stand up or even sit up.

  He dove sideways and rolled under another Darkling that came through the side wall. He tried to pull the same trick by slashing its throat, but he missed.

  Being underneath the Darklings definitely protected him in ways he never thought possible. All the other Darklings dove in to attack him and attacked their friend instead.

  He might have been able to protect himself and even delay them indefinitely if he just stayed down there.

  The temptation to kill them proved overpowering. He took a few more seconds to check his aim, slashed again, and drained that Darkling, too.

  He didn’t stick around long enough for it to fall on top of him. He launched himself across the floor, rolled under another Darkling, and swiped his glaive through its ribcage this time.

  Their size cramped them in the tunnel. They couldn’t move as fast as he could. He kept darting and rolling from one Darkling to another trying to stay underneath them where they couldn’t get him.

  He worked his way farther up the tunnel to get away from the edge. The tunnels gave him his only other advantage. He couldn’t lose that.

  He planned to roll over and pick out his next target when a tentacle snaked out of nowhere. It lashed around his ankle and brought him crashing down on his stomach on the hard stone.

  He tried to kick the tentacle off, but before he could move, it yanked him backward and dragged him skidding across the floor.

  He flipped over and brought up his glaive thinking to sever the tentacle and free himself. He almost forgot to fight back when he saw the Darklings pulling him toward the void.

  They gathered out there with their mouths open. One jerk and he would sail off into one of those mouths.

  He rotated his glaive and contracted his stomach to sit up. He had to cut that tentacle at all costs, but at the same instant, another tentacle shot out of nowhere and caught his wrist—the wrist of the hand holding his glaive.

  The tentacle tugged his hand aside. He couldn’t aim well enough to make his strike….and now he couldn’t use his glaive to free his hand, either. He couldn’t use his glaive for anything.

  Another tentacle slithered around his neck and tightened. The Darklings snarled at him from all sides. They had him. He was finished.

  He stared up at them, completely helpless. The world stopped for the second time and he didn’t move or make a sound to break the spell.

  As long as he lay here with all their attention on him, Anríq and the freed captives could keep getting farther away. That was the whole point of Yann’s life right now—to give someone else a chance.

  He relaxed into the inevitable. Anríq was right about him. Yann was a Servant—as much a Servant as Anríq himself.

  He couldn’t even remember when it started. He admired his father and the men of the Watch. Yann wanted to join them so he could be as good and selfless as they were by protecting those who couldn’t protect themselves.

  He felt the same way about Eliska even though she was so much more powerful than he was.

  Her magic didn’t protect her from……something else. She needed someone or something to take care of her. He sensed that about her from the beginning. She was scared—probably more scared than anyone in the Watch.

  Yann helped Anríq heal those people—as much as Yann could help Anríq. Yann would have done more….and now this.

  That one thought gave him the inner peace he needed to face his own death. He was a Servant. He would die as a Servant. He didn’t have to take an oath of celibacy to the Black Watch. He already was one.

  He sank back on the stone floor waiting for the Darklings to attack and finish him off. At least it would end quickly. He wouldn’t suffer.

  He only hoped Mihaili’s curse died with him. No one else had to suffer like this.

  The Darklings roared in unison and they all plunged in together. More tentacles hissed and whipcracked from every side to tear him apart.

  The Darklings dove on top of him, and at that moment, a catastrophic boom went off somewhere above Yann’s head.

  He had a split second to see Anríq leap over his face, land in a crouch straddling Yann’s knees, and then Anríq’s club hit the Darklings.

  The club made contact with a Darkling’s head and the whole Layer detonated in a deafening explosion that wiped out everything else.

  End of Chapter 45.

  ? 2024 by Theo Mann

  I post new chapters of The Corrupted Coil series on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday PST.

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