But footsteps echo from outside, multiple sets, getting closer.We're out of time.
Hades positions himself between me and the door, pipe ready, every line of his body screaming violence barely contained.
"Stay behind me," he orders.
"Like hell."
I grab a piece of broken concrete, weighing it in my hand.It's not much, but it's something.
"Angel—"
"We do this together."
The door bursts open, revealing four Shadow Hawks expecting to find us still restrained, still helpless.
Instead, they find us ready.
Hades moves like lightning, taking down the first Hawk before he can react.I swing my concrete chunk at the second, catching him in the temple with a sickening crack.
The third Hawk pulls a gun, and time seems to slow.I see his finger tightening on the trigger, see the barrel aimed at Hades' chest.
I don't think.I just move.
I throw myself in front of Hades, using my body as a shield, trusting that he'll finish this fight because I might not be able to.
The gun goes off, the sound deafening in the enclosed space.
But I don't feel any pain.Don't feel the impact I was bracing for.
Hades' arm is around my waist, pulling me down and sideways.The bullet goes wide, embedding itself in the concrete wall.
The haze lifts like smoke after an explosion, slow and stinging, impossible to breathe through.The world comes back in fragments; buzzing fluorescent lights overhead, the rancid smell of sweat and blood, the pressure of something sharp digging into my hip.
Then I hear it.
Crunch.Bone and cartilage splitting under force.
I lift my head, just barely, and see him.
Hades.
Blood coats his knuckles.His jaw is clenched tight, eyes empty and locked in.One of the Shadow Hawks lies twitching on the floor, convulsing like a downed wire.Another one already isn’t moving, his neck at an impossible angle, face pulped and smeared with the tread of boots.
Hades doesn’t slow.He moves like a machine.Precise, brutal.The last Hawk still standing fumbles for a weapon, raising a hand too slow.
Hades steps in.
He grabs the man’s wrist and twists.There's a sickening pop as tendons give and bones slip.The gun drops to the floor.Hades doesn’t even look at it.He drives his elbow straight into the man’s throat.The Hawk stumbles back, gagging and gasping, wide-eyed.
Hades closes the distance and grabs the back of his head.He slams it into the concrete wall.The crack of impact is sharp, wet, like a hammer into a watermelon.The man starts to collapse, but Hades hauls him upright by his hair and does it again.The sound is worse this time.Something inside splits.
The man goes limp.
Hades lets him fall.
And then he turns to me, breathing hard, chest rising and falling like a warhorse just off the battlefield.
“Can you walk?”
