The enigma had burrowed so far beneath her that it had been out of her blood sight. Eva hadn’t known that her domain existed that deep. Even once it came into her sight, it had moved so fast she hadn’t had the time to properly react.
Eva fell from her leap, dragged and hindered by the thing that was gnawing her foot off. She hit the ground. Sand scraped against her face.
Sending the purple blood to coat the enigma, Eva rolled over to her back and clapped her hands together.
Rather than the utter obliteration she had been expecting, the blood just fizzled. The top layer of skin on the enigma actually came off. That was about it.
Either the enigma was incredibly durable–unlikely based on how Shalise killed the two–or their blood was so weak that even Eva’s mixed blood was leagues ahead in terms of strength.
Dismissing blood magic for the moment, Eva ignited her entire leg. She started building up her flames, much as she had against Willie-Arachne’s giant beetle. Explosions from within a creature tended to work out in the most excellent of manners. If the enigma did have an armored exterior, its insides wouldn’t.
While her flames built, she kicked out with her other foot. Her sharp toes caught the enigma right in the eye.
Eva let out a scream as she felt the enigma’s teeth crunch down on her leg. The flames building at the end of her foot snuffed out with her foot no longer attached to her leg.
She kicked and kicked and kicked and kicked. Its face turned to ground beef under her rage-filled fervor.
Out of nowhere, Shalise landed on the enigma. Her muscled form ground it into the sand.
The thing dead–even had Eva’s kicks not finished it off, its heart had clearly been crushed by Shalise–Eva clenched her jaw. Her fist slammed down into the sand again and again in a mad effort to distract herself from the pain of her severed foot.
It wasn’t quite as bad as having her fingers, toes, and eyes cut out. Here the pain was all focused on one point. Had she been allowed free range of motion back under Sawyer’s knife, she probably would have done a lot more than punch the ground a few times.
Eva pulled herself back under control with long meditative breaths.
“Y-you’re bleeding!”
“I know,” Eva snapped through grit teeth.
She shut her eyes and took another deep breath. It wasn’t Shalise’s fault. She should have realized that the thing was under the sand.
“I’m fine,” Eva said.
“Your whole foot is off!”
Eva grit her teeth, remaining silent until she had taken another breath. She really didn’t want to snap at Shalise, but the excitable girl was making it so hard not to.
“It’s just a flesh wound,” Eva said. “I’ve had worse.”
Leaning forward and concentrating on anything but the feeling in her leg, Eva wrenched open the jaw of the enigma. She stuck her arm in and pulled out her foot.
It didn’t look too bad. Not a clean break by any stretch of the word, but the majority of the foot was whole. Being a demon limb, and herself at least somewhat a demon, Eva couldn’t see any reason why she couldn’t reattach it the same way she had originally when she got it from Arachne.
Lining up the foot with her leg, Eva started channeling magic. She wasn’t entirely sure if there was a specific way to go about reattaching it, but she tried replicating the feeling she had when Arachne had done it. Not the easiest task given she had been under several doses worth of numbing potions, but magic did not feel quite the same as mundane stimuli.
Eva smiled even as she bit down on a sharp pain. The two parts reconnected. It was working. She continued channeling her magic, watching as the meat weaved itself back together.
The carapace worked much slower. After a point, nothing happened. Eva continued to channel magic, but the carapace ceased to mend. There were still cracks, chips, and even a whole chunk missing.
Better than missing the whole foot, Eva mused. It helped that the pain had died down to much more manageable levels.
“That’s really disgusting,” Shalise said with a shudder. Still, she was good-natured enough to hold out a helping hand.
Eva, with the help of Shalise, got back on her feet.
And almost immediately fell back down. Putting weight on her damaged foot caused it to wobble and give way. Surprisingly, there wasn’t much pain.
Shalise caught Eva and turned herself into something of a crutch. “Are you alright?”
“Fine enough,” Eva said. Realizing what happened, she explained for Shalise’s sake. “My legs don’t have bones in them. It’s all exoskeleton. With it damaged as it is, it can’t support my weight properly.”
“You’ll heal though, right?”
“Probably,” Eva said with a shrug. Her blood magic didn’t work on the chitin as well as it did on her skin, so that method was out. But Arachne could heal from entire limbs being taken off. Surely she could manage mending an inch or so of chitin.
Taking her dagger in hand, Eva drained off a small amount of her own blood and filled in the cracks in her carapace, hardening the blood as it filled in. It wouldn’t be half as strong as the natural carapace, and Eva wasn’t about to try putting weight on it, but it would keep the meat inside.
Her arm and side were still damaged from Sister Cross’ lightning whip as well. All holes stuffed full of blood to keep them from being open to the air. She either needed to heal fast or find a good ritual that would work, though a ritual might have to wait until the Elysium magic dissipated on its own.
That reminded Eva of half the reason she had even come down to visit Shalise.
After using her friend as a crutch all the way back to the women’s ward couch, Eva opened her mouth to speak.
Shalise beat her to the punch.
“You’re going to leave again, aren’t you.”
“Yes,” Eva said without hesitation. Before Shalise could protest, she continued. “But someone came by today wondering where you were. Someone who might want to live here.”
“Who would want to live here?” Shalise’s eyes went wide as soon as the words came out of her mouth. Off to the side, she hissed, “shut up. I didn’t mean it like that.”
Eva just smiled. Sister Cross wasn’t going to be given much choice in the matter. “I have to leave to go get her, but Sister Cross should be more than capable of handling these little creatures. Though you might want to avoid walks on the beach.”
Shalise’s bright eyes lost some of their luster. “Sister Cross?” Slumping slightly, she asked, “does she have to come?”
Blinking–that wasn’t quite the response that Eva had expected–Eva tilted her head to one side. “Unless you want to be alone if more of those things show up.”
After biting her lip, Shalise shook her head. “No. I don’t.”
“Alright,” Eva said. “Good. I’m going to stay here for a day or so, I think. Mostly to heal.” And to give time for Sister Cross to heal. Hopefully Arachne would be able to handle any complications back in the real world without overreacting. Potion distribution for instance. “While I’m here, we’ll fix this place up and reinforce some things. Can’t have you being unsafe while I’m out fetching Sister Cross.”
“That sounds great,” Shalise said with a long sigh of relief. “But are there going to be more of them?”
“No idea. Hopefully not.”
Eva frowned. If they showed up in her domain, would they show up in Ylva’s domain? Hers was attached to the real world–something Eva desperately wanted to learn how to do–and could let a bunch loose if she wasn’t careful. And then there was Zoe living in a sliver of Ylva’s domain.
Biting her lip, Eva decided. She needed to get a message back as soon as possible. If Zoe fell asleep and these things showed up, she might be missing more than an easily reattachable leg.
Chapter 011
“Eva.”