The Ultimate Sacrifice, Talia Jager [novels to read .TXT] 📗
- Author: Talia Jager
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The next week was brutal. Mr. Eaton had informed everybody that he believed the demons were coming, and we needed to be ready. We stopped all regular classes and concentrated on the physical and gifted training. We got up earlier and went to bed later. I had fought these demons before. I knew how freaky they were, and I wasn’t taking any chances with my life or the lives of my friends.
Noe pounded on my door one morning. “Today, Mira!” she yelled, when I opened it.
“When?”
“Nightfall.”
“I’ll be ready.”
“I know you will.” She forced a smile.
I showered, knowing very well it could be my last time. We all sat at our table for breakfast. I laughed seeing Auralee’s shirt. It read: The End Is Near. Nobody spoke. We knew exactly what was coming, and it scared each of us. Noe had told Mr. Eaton that they would be here by dusk. I ate everything on my plate; I wanted to make sure I had enough energy for the battle.
Once Mr. Eaton made the announcement that tonight was the night, the atmosphere at school changed. I think most the kids here thought they were being played. Now it was real. They were nervous and scared.
Around three, I checked my dagger. I saw that a lot of the other kids were doing the same. The five of us met up an hour later. I crammed a chocolate bar in my mouth, savoring each bite and scanned the courtyard. Noe hadn’t said where they would show up, so all we could do was watch.
About half an hour later, Noe stood and started walking around the building. We followed her. On the way, we called Mr. Eaton, and he joined us. She pointed and said, “They will surround the school and break through the shield using magic of their own. There will be many of them and they will come from all directions. Some that we haven’t seen before.” She paused. “Warn the other schools. The demons will attack them at the same time.” She stopped talking and a confused expression crossed her face for a moment, but she shook her head and sat down on the grass. She muttered something to herself and then said, “Any time now.”
After making some phone calls on his cell, Mr. Eaton had the students line up around the school, and then we waited. I could feel the tension all around me. The hair on my neck and arms was standing straight up. I could feel something coming.
We didn’t have to wait long. First the cat-hounds, as Kassia had called them, showed up, sniffing the ground. Behind them, thousands of the little guys moved in, showing off their fanged teeth. It was truly one of the scariest sights I had ever seen. The stink coming from them was horrendous. Their red eyes, full of evil, sent tremors through me.
“My God!” Mr. Eaton staggered.
We held our position; they had to make the first move. I thought about all the kids at the school. There were probably five hundred of us and upon looking at the demons approaching there had to be at least five thousand of them. How would we ever survive this?
When the first one leapt in the air at one of us, someone yelled, “GO!” We charged at the demons. With my dagger out, I stabbed demon after demon. They kept coming at us, and I kept thrusting my dagger into them, watching them fall to the ground. Every couple minutes, I’d look up and check on my friends, making sure they were all good. I noticed bodies on the ground, but I turned away, not wanting to think about that right now. Besides, Eaton was supposed to have a healer here and extra medical staff. I continued on, killing one demon after another.
A few times, I had to use my martial arts skills to keep demons off me. I took a few deep breaths. My arms were tired and they wanted a break, but when I looked up I couldn’t see an end in sight. The demons were still everywhere.
Zane ran up to me. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.” I nodded. Taking a deep breath, I raised my dagger again, and we were able to clear out a small section of demons, only to have to move on to another. Bit by bit, we gained a little ground, the five of us together. I had no idea how the other side of the school fared.
The horrid cat-hounds seemed to be gone now, leaving a ton of the smaller ones behind. Although they died easily, it was hard to keep up because there were just so many of them. Very few things kill demons. Gifts like Kassia’s being one. Weapons made by faeries or sealed by angels were another. I could send one flying with a kick, but I couldn’t kill it unless I stabbed it.
I found myself fighting through tears. The leader of these horrible creatures had killed my best friend. I hated them, and I made sure they knew it.
After we killed some more, I stood straight up to look around and saw her standing there. My heart stopped. Am I dead? I blinked a few times, but she was still there. Standing in the middle of the side yard was Kassia. Her hair was whipping in the wind, but it was the look in her eyes that made me shudder. She was staring straight at us, but instead of a smile, she was giving us her death stare.
Chapter Eighteen
Kassia
The next two months were merciless. I welcomed it, but my body hated me for it. I worked from sunrise to sunset with only a couple of breaks. By the end of the second month, I could drop almost all the bugs in the area in less than five seconds. Vala and Ramsey added distractions while I was concentrating by talking, playing music, or even running in front of me.
“You need to be able to handle distractions, ignore them, and focus on what you’re there to do. You can’t hurt the people or the faeries, you can only hurt the demons,” Ramsey said. It had taken a long time to master that, but I had done it.
Ramsey tested my powers with different kinds of bugs and at different times of the day. One night, he had me find all the mosquitoes and fireflies. Then he told me to kill the mosquitoes but keep the fireflies alive. That took more work, but I was able to do it…almost.
One morning Ramsey announced that he had come across some demons. How does one even just happen upon demons? He called them scouts. They were sent to look around and report back. “I want to use them in your training,” he said, throwing me off guard. “I am going to release them all at the same time, and I want you to kill them as quickly as you can.”
“Okay,” I said, not thinking twice about it.
He had put the demons in cages. Now he drew his hands up, and the cage doors opened. The wind blew their nauseating scent toward me, causing me to gag. However, these demon scouts looked different than the ones I had encountered before. They looked like a cross between little shadow people and bears. They had a round head, body, arms, and legs, but they were only a couple feet tall. Instead of fingers, they had sharp claws growing out of their hands. Then there were their eyes of course, the eyes of a demon—narrow and red—which sent shivers through me.
Vala stood directly behind the demons. I was able to ignore her completely and aim only at the demons. It took five seconds for me to kill them and send them melting into the earth. Ramsey clapped. “Well done!” He reminded me of a proud father. Looking at Vala, he asked, “Did you feel anything?”
“No.” She smiled. “Not a thing.”
“Excellent!”
“I have captured more demons to practice with,” Ramsey announced as we walked outside a few days later.
Great. Just happened upon a few more, I suppose.
“This is important. I want you to perfect singling out the demons and leaving everything else out. There will be a lot of distractions at the battle.”
I nodded. “I understand. I just don’t like it.”
I could see the dwarf-like demons approaching now, slobbering all over the ground. I shuddered. I also noticed an unnatural number of wildlife nearby. Ramsey must have brought them in too.
Ramsey stood behind me. “In your mind, pick out the demons from the other animals.”
There were rabbits, squirrels, and birds. I was having a hard time picking out only the demons. “I can’t. There’s too many.”
“You have to.”
I tried again, but with so many different species, I kept screwing up. “It’s not working.”
“Use your mind,” he told me.
“To do what?” I didn’t understand what he was asking me to do.
“Open your mind and send out a stream of light to each demon.”
“What?”
“Just try it,” he said patiently.
I let out a big breath of air, blowing my bangs out of my eyes, and opened my mind. Stream of light, huh? I imagined streams of purple leaving my mind and flowing out to find every evil thing I could see. They swirled like ribbons in the wind until they touched the demons.
“Are you seeing it?” Ramsey asked.
“Yes,” I said, quietly amazed.
“Are they only touching demons?”
“Yes.” Unbelievable.
“Now kill them.”
The demons scurried closer, and the hatred in my body rose. I sent out a surge through the streams, and the demons immediately collapsed on the ground.
As soon as the demons melted, the purple swirls disappeared, and my anger dissolved.
“Good job.” Ramsey clapped.
“Thanks. I never imagined it that way, it was…kinda cool.”
“I don’t think you realize how much power your mind holds.”
“How did you know I could do that?”
“You told me when you were little.”
Oh, right. And it probably got blocked out along with who knows what else.
Two days later Vala called me downstairs. “Kern has decided that they will attack the gifted schools in a week.”
“The schools? They’re attacking the schools?”
“Yes. All of them at the same time. Kern isn’t too happy with your school. He wants revenge because of you. He’s going to be there watching, but he’s making a mistake. We will be there too, and you will have your shot at killing him.” Vala clapped excitedly.
I wasn’t sure this was something to be excited about. “How do I kill him?” I asked, remembering how hard it supposedly was to actually kill him.
“That is what we will teach you this week.”
A few days later, Vala handed me a new dagger. “This one is only for Kern,” she said. The dagger was longer than my other one and the engravings were different. “This one was made the same way as your other dagger, but it has more magic in it.”
“Do I just plunge it into him?” I asked.
“There are a few ‘rules,’ if you will. First, you will need to have Mira or another compeller with you. It might help if you have someone who can read minds as well. Kern will most likely be holding something—a wand, a stick, a remote of some sort. The compeller will need to make him drop that.
“After that, use your gift on him. This won’t kill him, but it might weaken him a little. Then you—and this is important,
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