“No!” I yelled.
The power hit Abbi hard enough, she slammed into the wall behind her.
It was a second, less than that, but the god’s grip on my hand loosened.
Beneath my cuff, the letter opener slipped, the sharp edge hot, pushing against the thin skin over my vein like a lick of flame, a promise. Gold. My vision flared with gold.
The same gold that had filled the place where I met Death.
The same gold that sparkled in Lula’s eyes.
The same gold as the letter opener that was much, much more than a letter opener.
It was magic. It was power. It was changed by Death. And it was mine.
I shifted my wrist and the edge of the blade nicked my skin.
It was just a scratch. No deeper than a paper cut.
Just enough to let the magic know me, as it had known Death.
Gold, silver, copper, and black filled my mind, my nostrils, my mouth. Rich, slick, hot magic poured into me.
My hand had stalled above the book. I could feel the power radiating from it, drawing me in.
It would be easy to grab the book. Use that power against the god.
But Eunice had told me to choose the reed over the book. She’d said it was important. Vital I do so. I had no damn idea how to get the reed away from Mad Mat.
Abbi struggled up to her feet. “I called him!” she shouted, one fist on her hip, the other thrust straight out, a tiny silver dime pinched in her fingers. “He’s coming for you.”
Mat turned his full attention to her. “You threaten me?” he hissed. “Run, rabbit.” The Mat mask twisted into a horror of teeth and tentacles and eyes. “Run.” He took a step her way.
I slipped the dagger into my palm and lunged.
In one swift movement, I plunged the weapon into his neck.
Mad Mat screamed, spinning to strike me, his other hand clawing at the dagger. I ducked the god’s hit, shoved in closer, wrestling the mouthpiece out of his hand. But he was strong. Much stronger than me.
My grip on the mouthpiece slipped.
The room rocked, earthquake rattling the heavens, the earth heaving in great sideways jerks and drops. The god reeled backward, and I wrested the reed away.
Walls crumbled, wood and brick and mortar pouring down. Magic crashed and screeched into a sea of sound below us, above us, everywhere, deafening. The house was coming down. Everything was coming down.
Lula was under the floor. I had to free her before we were buried alive. I stumbled backward, losing my feet.
Darkness swallowed the room, then cleared just enough I saw Abbi crouching next to Lorde. “He’s coming! He’s coming. Faster, Brogan. We have to dig faster!” She dug at the floorboards with Lorde, trying to pry them loose.
I pushed up to my knees, my head ringing. The blackness flashed with panther eyes—Hado’s eyes—as he stood between us and the screaming god, hiding us in darkness.
The god might not see us, but I could see him. Mad Mat flickered in and out of focus, the dagger wedged deep in his throat. His face twisted, warped, and melted, teeth chewing through the illusion, tentacles lashing.
The face warped again, female and furious, blood-red lips chanting words that hammered like an avalanche.
I stowed the reed in my pocket and crawled to Abbi and Lorde. Lorde had been digging non-stop, her thick, strong claws tearing through the wood, leaving deep gouges. She’d dug hard enough, one of the boards was broken.
I eased her back from the space and grabbed the board’s rough edges, prying upward.
