I yanked myself out of the creature’s grasp and scrambled back. My heel tripped on the uneven ground and I fell back onto my butt. More shadowy figures shuffled out of the mist, all rotten corpses with ruined clothes and terrible wounds.

  The creature slouched toward me, its hands stretching out to wrap around my throat. I gasped and the extra air intake allowed me enough strength to scramble backward.

  I had only gone a yard when my back hit something hard. A wisp of ruined cloth tickled my nose. I slowly tipped my head back and found myself staring into the empty eye sockets of another soldier. This one had gray fur on his cheeks and wolf ears poked out from his rotten cap. He held a broken short sword in his putrid hand and bits of dirt crumbled off the blade and landed on my head.

  The thing reached down and its cold, clammy hands pawed at my face. I screamed and wrapped my arms around my head to block its horrible touch. Its hands moved down to my neck while the cold shadow of my first attacker fell on me. Their soft groans echoed in my ears as they leaned down to cover me in the stench of the grave.

  A muffled groan caught my attention and something heavy thudded onto the ground to my left. I peeked out from between my arms and beheld the fallen wolf soldier lying beside me, his mouth agape and a rotten tongue lolling out of his mouth.

  I looked around for my other attacker. He had been pushed away ten feet from where I sat. A figure stood between the undead and me. A figure with long red hair.

  I knew that hair.

  My heart skipped a beat. Dadan. Dadan was here.

  Oh crap! Dadan was here and I was here! He would recognize me! So even if I got out of this trouble I’d fall into another one!

  I fumbled in my pockets and yanked out the vial filled with green peas. They bounced around inside as I fumbled with the lid. The cork popped open and my shaky hand spilled most my supply on the ground. I scrambled to snatch them up but the peas turned to water and were absorbed into the earth. My only reward was a wet palm.

  I lifted the vial to my face and beheld just half a dozen peas. I’d have to improvise later, but right now there wasn’t time. I poured one into my palm and swallowed it. A faint tingling ran through my body and my silver strands changed to brown.

  There was also a distinct soft warmth on my forehead that reminded me I had a tell-tale mark. My heart skipped a beat as I looked around for something to hide the crescent moon. I caught sight of a bit of ruined cloth from one of the creatures and snatched it from the ground where I tied it about my forehead.

  One problem down. Now I just needed to survive the zombie apocalypse that surrounded me.

  Dadan stretched his arms out on either side of him and fireballs burst out of his palms. One of the undead creatures lunged at him, its mouth open and ready for a bite of tasty flesh. Dadan flung a fireball into its face. The extreme heat melted what little flesh it had and consumed the rest of its body. The thing collapsed to the ground in a few seconds and turned to ash in less time than that.

  A faint black mist rose from the ash pile and joined the fog, mixing like a strong cocktail of evil. The already-stretched hairs on the back of my neck twitched at the sight of that joining. An unnatural smoke joining with an unnatural fog.

  The others were undeterred by their comrade’s second death. They shambled toward Dadan who swung his arms in every direction, catching enough of them on fire to light the area. My heart skipped a beat when I beheld hundreds of the fiends.

  And they were all shambling toward us.

  Dadan’s eyes glowed like coals and heatwaves flowed off his person. He raised his arms and a huge ball formed between his clasped hands. The heat was so intense that I had to raise an arm to shield my face. The creatures came within reach of him and one of them touched his robes.

  And then he unleashed hell. Fireballs big and small shot out of the large one and slammed into his foes. The creatures screamed and wailed as their bodies burst into flames. A few tried to shrink back into the fog but their illuminated corpses told me they didn’t get far before they were reduced to ash.

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  I yelped when someone behind me grabbed my shoulders. Instinct kicked in and I spun around and punched them in the face. My mouth dropped open when my victim stumbled back from the unexpected blow and cupped their wounded cheek in their hand.

  “You have quite the fist, miss,” Prince Yushir complimented me. I was relieved to see a lack of recognition in his bemused eyes.

  This was turning into a nightmare of a heavenly resident reunion. A ghoul slouched out of the fog behind Yushir and reached out for him. The prince spun around and threw a torrential flood of water into the creature’s gaping mouth. The thing gargled as water broke through its rotten body and it was torn apart from the inside, being swept away by the flood.

  I scrambled to my feet to avoid getting both dirty and drowned. Yushir scurried up to my side and stared in disgust and disbelief at his fallen foe. “What has brought about this horrendous violation of the laws of nature?”

  I swept my eyes over the area. “I don’t know but there’s someone else in here besides us.”

  Yushir offered me a smile and his eyes flickered to the devastation wrought by Dadan. “Indeed. The Lord Eastwei himself will no doubt vanquish these sorry souls.”

  “Not him,” I countered as I took a step toward the fog. “Dian, the prince of the bear clans is in here somewhere.”

  Yushir’s eyes widened. “By all the realms! We must find him!”

  Easier said than done as Dadan rained hell on earth upon his many foes. I now got to witness how he subdued the armies all those years ago, and now had to do it for a second time to those the battle had taken.

  But something wasn’t right. I couldn’t take my eyes away from the sight as I clutched onto Yushir’s arm. “Is his magic fading?”

  Yushir pursed his lips as he, too, studied the huge fireball above my savior. “I am not sure.”

  His diplomatic tone worried me more than a straight answer, but I was distracted by other goings-on in the area. A loud roar echoed out of the fog and something flew out at us. Yushir and I both ducked and I looked up just in time to see a corpse soldier fly over our heads. The creature disappeared into the fog on our other side and a hulking creature marched out where it had flown from.

  My heart nearly stopped until I recognized the familiar brown bear that had carried me up the mountains behind Pangberan’s lodge.

  “Dian!” I shouted as I raced over to him. I wrapped my arms around his neck and my limbs sank into something gooey and warm. My breath caught in my throat as I drew one hand back and studied the palm. Bright red blood covered my fingers, so much so that they stuck together.

  I whipped my head to his large, yellow eyes. “What happened?”

  He huffed and jerked his head over his shoulder. I squinted into the fog and beheld a ground littered with corpses. The rotten creatures had been torn apart, but not before tearing a little off Dian.

  I set my hands on his shoulders and met his gaze. “We need to get you out of here right now.”

  A movement to my right caught my attention. Dian moved to pull me back but a firehose of water slammed into the shambling corpse. The creature’s body was ripped apart and all the parts were flung back into the fog.

  Yushir strolled up to us and lowered his outstretched palm. “I do not believe they will allow us to walk out of here.”

  My eyes flitted over the foggy area and my heart pounded in my chest. Dian stepped up to my side and I gladly grasped some of his fur for comfort. “But why are they doing this? What do they want?”

  A stifled grunt caught my attention and I turned my focus back to Dadan. His large fire orb has dwindled during my reunion with Dian and fewer fireballs were launched to combat the never-ending flow of the undead. The sheer number revealed to me how horrible the battle had been, and how horrible a danger we were in.

  “We will have to make a path to retreat,” Yushir suggested as he studied our position in relation to the way behind us. “I believe the forest is only two dozen or so yards at our backs. I will make a path but I must first help my friend.”

  “We’ll all help him,” I insisted as I rolled up my bloodied sleeves.

  Dian humphed and bobbed his head. My bear friend was the one to lead the charge as he gave a great roar and plunged into the thick of battle. He crashed into and mangled zombies, leaving a pile of limbs and heads where the teeth still gnashed at us.

  Yushir flung up his arms and a great tidal wave rose up in front of him. The water swept away the mess and raced forward, parting only to avoid striking Dian and Dadan.

  I moved to follow them in magical arms, but the moment my silver threads appeared in my hands I knew I had a problem. Grandmother’s magic didn’t hide my innate magic. I extinguished them and a chill ran down my spine.

  The fog sprang on us thick and cold. I could hardly see the outlines of my companions. I also saw the shadowy figures of hundreds of corpses as they shambled out of the mist.

  A large group of them attacked Dadan and the light above his head was extinguished, plunging him into white obscurity.