“Myra, stop!” Jean lunged for me, caught my arm, and had enough momentum to knock me sideways and slow my pace. She collided into my side, spinning to get her shoulder in front of mine.
“What are you—” I said, but I saw her eyes. Wide. Panicked.
“Doom twinge! Doom twinge! This is bad. Big bad. We need to back the fuck up. Now.”
She didn’t wait for my response. She tightened her grip and muscled me back several steps before my brain kicked into gear and I dug in my heels. Literally.
“Talk,” I instructed.
“We need to get back, more back, way back.” She was pushing again, and even my dug in heels weren’t stopping her.
“Out of the blast zone?”
“Dead zone.” She was breathing too hard. She was in shape, we all were. Being a police officer in this town meant we kept in shape. It wasn’t the run that had knocked her lungs out of whack, it was fear.
I stopped fighting her, and we ran.
Than was strolling our way, having decided not to run toward the danger on the edge of the waves.
I stopped in front of him, and Jean didn’t push me to move. “How are we going to shut that down from here?”
Than glanced at the vortex. “I don’t believe that is possible.
The gold and green in the vortex had become a man shape, ten feet tall, condensing, thickening, sharpening into a body as if that gold and darkness were being pressed into an empty body mold.
“What is it?” I asked.
“A demon?” Jean said.
“A demon knight,” Than clarified. “Bathin’s uncle.”
My chest was tight, but it wasn’t fear. It was need. Everything in me was screaming that I needed toleave hereand bethere, now, now,now.
Rightthereat the gate, righttherebeside Bathin, righttherefacing that demon knight.
“Stay here,” I told Jean.
“No.”
“Yes. I have to be there with him. I think I know how to shut it down.”
“Think?” She was angry. She was scared. “You expect me to let you run up there with a think-you-have-a-solution?”
“Will I die?” I asked.
That was unfair, asking that of Jean. She shook her head. “That’s a shitty question.”
Yeah, it was. So I decided to ask someone else.
“Will I die?” I asked Than.
He raised his eyebrows as if surprised by being consulted.
“Everyone dies, Myra Reed.”
I rolled my eyes so hard, I thought I pulled a muscle. “Out there. In front of that. Stopping that.” I pointed.
Than shrugged. “That is yet to be seen.”
