Leta's emotions choked her as she realized what he'd just given her. But she didn't have time to dwell on it before Dolor bellowed in rage and launched himself at Aidan. The two of them tangled and fell to the ground.
She barely had time to duck the punch Timor swung at her. Stepping back, she elbowed him hard in the ribs. The sky above them darkened dangerously, as if it were responding to their fight. Leta rained blows on Timor as he blocked and returned punch for punch. When he landed one solid blow to her chin, she tasted blood. Her face stung from the solid hit, but she couldn't let it faze her.
Growling at him, she pulled out a short staff and blocked his backhand. He came back with a sword that he manifested out of thin air. She rolled to the grass that began slithering like snakes as he lunged and lunged again. One swing came so close to her that she felt the blade graze her skin. She kicked up, catching him in the ribs again and knocking him back.
Timor staggered sideways.
Aidan took a second to check on Leta. It literally pained him that he couldn't help her, yet she seemed to be holding her own against the larger god.
Because of Aidan's distraction, Dolor landed a solid blow to his jaw. Before he could recover, the ground under his feet shifted. He cursed as the blades of grass wrapped around his feet like long, skeletal fingers, clutching him and holding him in place. Aidan tried to shake them off, but they were persistent.
Dolor laughed. "Thank you, Sister Lyssa."
Aidan narrowed his eyes before he flung his hands out. Using his imagination, he conjured a sticky solution to blast from his palms. It wrapped around Dolor like a rope. He jerked the god forward to head-butt him. "Yeah," he said with a sinister laugh. "Thanks, Lyssa, for reminding me I'm in a dream."
Dolor let out a bellow of rage. Aidan laughed again before he flipped away from the grass. He ran up the side of the nearest wall and manifested a long staff.
When Dolor tried to follow, Aidan used the staff to knock the god off his feet. Dolor shot a blast at him. Aidan held his arm up and used his mind to block it with an invisible shield.
"Damned if it doesn't work," Aidan laughed.
Oh, yeah, this was making him feel better. He was beginning to think they might stand a chance after all. If only he could find some way to kill the beast.
"Aidan!"
He turned at Leta's call to see eight more Dolors coming at him.
And all of them looked pissed off.
The first one caught him about his waist and knocked him to the ground, flat on his back. Before he could move another one brought a sledgehammer down on his head. He managed to block it with his arm, but he swore he felt the bone shatter.
Cursing, Aidan tried to clone himself, but he couldn't focus on his goal enough to accomplish it as they hit him over and over again and his entire being ached from the attacks. So much for not being able to feel pain in a dream, huh? His body throbbing, he tried to manifest a shield, a weapon, anything.
But he couldn't.
He heard more laughter.
Suddenly, Leta was there, trying to pull him away from the others. He felt her cover him with her body as Dolor's clones continued to beat him with the sledgehammers.
The ground below them was trying to swallow them. "We're losing," she breathed in his ear.
"No shit," was all he could manage.
The skies above them opened up with rain so strong it slashed against his body like needles lacerating him. Yeah, this wasn't looking good for the home team.
He rolled with Leta, trying to keep her from taking any more damage from Dolor. The blows continued down his back until he feared they'd broken it.
His only thought to protect her, he cradled her under him even as she fought to shield him. "Stay safe, Leta," he breathed in her ear. "Don't fight me."
"Dolor's going to kill you."
Strangely, that didn't matter to him. It wasn't like he had anything to live for anyway.
Tired from the fight and weary from the loneliness, he laid his head down against her shoulder and waited for death. But as he did so and caught a teasing scent of her feminine skin, he realized that there was something left in this world that mattered to him. Something that was worth fighting for.
Leta.
His blood fueled by his fight, he let out a feral growl and closed his eyes. He would not be defeated.
Last man standing.
With his mind, he splintered the sledgehammers and sent the gods flying. He shoved himself to his feet and spun around to face a single Dolor whose eyes were widened.
"Shove it up your ass." Aidan delivered a blow to his jaw that lifted the god up two feet from the ground. In slow motion, the god arced over before he landed on his back with a solid thump.
Timor ran at him. Aidan clotheslined him and followed him to the ground so that he could punch Timor in the chest. Dolor came at his back, but before he could reach him, Leta kicked the god back. Still the rain poured down on them while lightning flashed. The shrubs around them began to bleed.
Timor splashed in the mud that covered them before he sprang to his feet and flew at Aidan and caught him in the shoulder. Aidan heard the fabric of his shirt tearing. He tasted blood from his nose an instant before both gods blasted him.
"Side with us, Leta," Dolor growled. "We'll get your emotions back for you."
She answered by blasting him with a bolt that took some of the pain away from Aidan.
Aidan manifested another sword. Twisting around, he lifted it to strike down at Timor who caught the blade with his left hand. He moved to kick Aidan. Releasing the sword, Aidan flipped around and manifested another sword to cut deep into Timor's side.
The god went down with a bright flash of lightning. Dolor threw Leta into Aidan's arms an instant before the god drove his own sword through her.
Aidan bellowed in pain as he saw the blood pouring out of her body. "You bastard!"
Dolor laughed as he launched himself at Aidan.
But he never made it.
Just as he would have reached him, Dolor vanished. Aidan scowled as he looked around, expecting the god to attack from another area. "Dolor?"
There was no answer, except for the torrential rain that spattered the grass around them.
Forgetting about the god for a moment and focusing on the woman who was bleeding in his arms, Aidan lowered Leta to the ground. He felt sick at the sight of her blood mixing with the mud.
How could this be?
"Leta?" he asked, not bothering to cover the note of fear in his voice.
"Sh," she said, touching his lips. "I'm immortal. I won't die from this."
"Then why are you bleeding?"
She smiled wanly. "Because this is your fear. Let it go, Aidan."
That was easier said than done. "I don't know how."