The sky flashed with lightning.
And all hell broke loose.
Chapter Eighteen
We rushed outfrom under the jungle protection. I thought Jean had tripped, but she straightened from her bent position, shoving what looked like a little green twig into her pocket.
She pulled her gun. “Kick head!” she yelled, a bright, wild smile transforming her face with such joy, I felt an unexpected sliver of a smile of my own.
If my sister who knew when doom was going to hit, who knew when we were going to take damage we simply couldn’t survive, was smiling, then I took it as a sign.
A sign it was time to kick some head.
I strode out into the grotto and pulled the sword, which hummed and dripped green flames.
Demons appeared from the ground, from the air, from everywhere. Small, tall, humanoid, insect, animal, bizarre shapes that stretched logic until it snapped.
I slashed with the sword and it seemed to jump in my hand, guiding me for the best angles, the best killing strikes through mass and bone.
Myra swung the axe like a lumberjane, hacking off heads and limbs as if they were nothing but smoke.
Hogan stood in front of Jean, who now had a gun much larger than the one she’d pulled from her hip. She balanced the gun on Hogan’s shoulder and fired, timing the shots with the tumble of words he was reciting.
Every bullet struck true and dissolved the demons into bloody steam.
Wishes and fire power: a very deadly mix.
The vampire was so fast, he was invisible. I only saw Rossi outlined in the blood spray of demons falling like dominos around him.
Xtelle had already made it to the open temple, and past the columns to the god who stood there. She squared off against Mithra, her now flaming and extra-long horn parrying the god’s sword. Avnas had a ball and chain attached to his horns and was mowing down the waves of demons flooding into the grotto.
Bathin plowed a path through the monsters, his scimitar dark, cold, and hungry as empty space. He paused in front of the columns, just out of the king’s reach.
“You have crossed the last line,” Bathin yelled. He lunged, attacking the monster that was his father.
I was running, had already been running, to Ryder, always to him, this my only reason, my only need.
The Ordinary demons were keeping the god and king busy, just as we’d planned. It was up to us other Ordinaries to carry out the rescue mission.
I dropped down beside Ryder, sheathing the sword in a hurry so I could put both hands on him, on the chains, trying to find a way to free him.
“Laney,” he said, his voice cracked like he’d been screaming for days.
Cold, my fury, the salt and the sea a storm beneath my skin.
“It’s a trap,” he croaked.
“Of course it’s a trap,” I said. “We’re getting you out of here before it’s sprung.”
He shook his head and smiled. There was so much damn sorrow in that smile, my heart skipped a beat.
“I love you,” he whispered. “Run.”
The world stopped.
This was familiar. This had happened to me once before when Goap had come to Ordinary and attacked Bathin and Bathin had used his mother’s ring to stop time.
Everyone around me was frozen, but just like the last time this magic had been used, I was free.
