Steady, Crow said.Try again.
I tugged one more time, twisted harder, and the axe was mine.
Walk to Bathin. Hold the axe in your left hand.
I’m right handed, I said.You are too.
I’m ambidextrous and trying to save you. Left hand.
I switched the axe to my left hand. I was now carrying both demon weapons, the axe in my hand, the sword on my hip, and I had a strong need to do damage.
I stopped next to Bathin, feeling the gaze of Goap and Patrick following me.
The ground rumbled again. Stronger this time, harder. If Crow was right, Goap was losing hold on the time freeze. And when that happened, all hell would break loose.
The king moved one of his mouths, the god Mithra blinked.
Then the rumbling stopped, and they froze again.
“Losing your grip?” Crow told me to taunt Goap.
“Hesitating, Raven?” Goap jeered. “Or are you just waiting for your chance to betray me too? As if I’d allow that.”
The quick draw of a breath—Patrick’s—was the only warning I got.
Goap snapped his fingers.
The ground shook harder and harder, as if a thousand fists were pounding upward from below.
“I’m not losing control,” Goap yelled over the buried thunder, “I am gaining it. Rise, my loyal dead!”
The world came undone.
The ground shook, a violent herky-jerky rumble that knocked me off my feet.
I landed with the axe still in my hand. The freeze was broken and everyone, everything, was chaos.
I rolled, twisted, tried to gain my feet. Flashes of battle came into view as the ground undulated.
Xtelle stabbed Mithra through the throat. Avnas pulverized the god’s head with both mace and chains.
The demon king shoved Bathin away, like swatting a fly. Vychoro thrust his fists into the air and grew into a massive lizard creature with multiple mouths, all of which were roaring.
Bathin rolled to his feet, and attacked his lizard father, who lunged, mouths full of razor teeth, ready to rend, to tear.
Dead demons followed Goap’s orders, and grew up out of the ground. They were putrid staggering lumps of flesh and bone with way too many sharp weapons.
There were hundreds of them. Thousands.
We were outnumbered.
Somehow, I caught Ryder’s gaze through the hoard of dead demons between us. Ryder nodded. He knew we were not going to win.
I love you,he mouthed.
I love you,I mouthed.
And then the dead roared and attacked.
