The Inner Circle: Holy Spirit by Cael McIntosh Read Free Book Online Page B

scrub.
    ‘ Very.’ Ilgrin
clutched her hand. ‘Let’s just keep moving,’ he urged, ushering
Seteal forward.
    Soon enough, heavy footfall padded
through the surrounding trees on either side. ‘Are they surrounding
us?’ El-i-miir’s eyes widened in horror.
    ‘ It wouldn’t surprise
me,’ Seteal replied nervously. ‘They’re pack animals.’
    ‘ I don’t know how
many there are,’ Ilgrin whispered to the others. ‘I’m not sure I
can take all of them. I’ll have to try something else, but it won’t
be easy. Wait here.’ He launched himself into the sky.
    ‘ Coward,’ Seteal
hissed furiously.
    A long, low growl sounded behind one of
the bushes. The wolves had noticed the decrease in number and
recognised their prey had become more vulnerable. One by one, the
grizzled creatures began emerging from the woods snarling and
snapping. The largest animal leapt at El-i-miir, its jaws wide
open. She squeezed her eyes shut and the wind was knocked out of
her as the ground disappeared.
    ‘ Ilgrin!’ El-i-miir
gasped as the silt’s wings beat the air and his face contorted as
he struggled to gain distance from the ground. Both women dangled
precariously, the silt having wrapped his iron-like grip around
their forearms. El-i-miir’s eyes met Seteal’s and she imagined that
they were sharing very similar thoughts. Ilgrin was carrying both
of them. Such strength was a grim reminder of the company they were
keeping.
    The muscles in El-i-miir’s arm screamed
as Ilgrin jolted, occasionally dipping and losing control as the
wolves pursued from below. ‘I can’t keep this up.’ He clenched his
teeth and the veins bulged in his neck. His face was blue with
strain and his flight was becoming increasingly erratic.
    ‘ Don’t you dare let
go!’ Seteal shouted, her face a picture of panic. She twisted her
hand so that she, too, was able to get a grip on Ilgrin’s forearm.
A moment later, the ground spiralled up at them. Twenty strides
from the ground, the silt regained enough control to prevent their
impending deaths, but not so much as to regain any
altitude.
    Burning pain shot through the leg
that hit the ground first, but El-i-miir had little time to focus
on the sensation as a moment later she was rolling head over heels
along the earth. She opened her mouth to scream, which was a
mistake as instead it was filled with mud. When she came to a stop,
El-i-miir opened her eyes to find a wolf standing over her,
snarling and drooling. She screamed as the animal bared its fangs,
but a moment later she was screaming for another reason
entirely.
    Ilgrin leapt over the creature and
lifted it into the air with his bare hands. The wolf snarled and
squirmed, but in competition with a demon, its strength was
negligible. Ilgrin snapped its neck and dropped the corpse.
    A second wolf leapt for Ilgrin’s throat
as he raced toward it. Another of the animals snapped at Seteal’s
heels as she attempted to climb a tree. El-i-miir possessed the
animal and turned it against its kin. She spotted another and did
the same. How many could she simultaneously affiliate? El-i-miir
didn’t know. She’d never been able to test the limits of her
abilities.
    Five snarling animals circled Ilgrin as
even more poured toward Seteal. El-i-miir looked back and forth at
her companions, unsure of who she should protect with the wolves
under her control. As one, the wolves renewed their attack.
    Ilgrin snatched at the first one
and used it as a club to beat off the others before breaking its
back over his knee. Two others leapt at him. One he strangled, the
other he grasped with elongated toes to throw fifteen strides into
the air. The animal landed with a heavy thud and failed to move
thereafter.
    Clearly Ilgrin could take care of
himself. El-i-miir bared her fangs and snarled. She felt her four
sets of paws tearing across the earth as the wolves attacked those
perusing Seteal. El-i-miir leapt, closing her jaws tight around the
neck of her kin. At the