I look on, horrified. I don’t know who to help first. Or if I can save anyone at all.
The Metal Mage limps toward Kato and me, leaving the Cyclops on its own. An arsenal of weapons hovers all around her, sharp ends pointing our way. Her lower half is soaked in her own blood.
I have to free Kato before she reaches us. “Bite the other snake’s neck,” I command.
My snake turns and clamps vice-like jaws down on its counterpart’s neck. The second snake drops Kato and starts writhing, fighting to break free.
Kato lands awkwardly in the sand. For a moment, he doesn’t move, and fear freezes me inside and out. Then he rocks onto his side, pushes up with his good arm, and limps away. His right arm is not only blistered and mangled, it’s completely crushed.
As the Metal Mage bears down on us, I take a deep breath and icily order, “Bite down.” Ruthlessness fills me, and I nurture it. It makes me hard. It makes me win. “Crush the bone.”
There’s a loud crunch. The second snake’s neck collapses, and its head hits the sand. The Magoi roars in pain. Then he coldly cuts the dead weight from his chest, slicing the serpent off like it wasn’t just a part of his own body. The moment it’s severed from him, the snake disintegrates into dust.
I focus on the Metal Mage next. All’s fair in war and war. “Eat her,” I order.
My snake lunges, dragging its Magoi creator behind it. The Magoi starts hacking at the scales, muscle, and sinew attaching the serpent to his chest. I pull a dagger from my belt and throw it at him, not aiming for the kill because I don’t want to end my snake just yet. The dagger stops a foot from his chest, flips in the air, and then races back toward me.
I duck, plastering myself to the top of my snake’s head and sucking in a sharp breath when my own knife grazes my left shoulder blade, leaving a stinging line of heat. The knife lands at the Metal Mage’s feet.
Rage wells up in me. She’s got quite a collection. Time to take it back.
Thump! Thump! Whoosh!
I look toward the battering sound and see the Cyclops swing its giant club at Jocasta. She darts out of the way, but it keeps coming, forcing her toward the wall. The Cyclops feints, she jumps the wrong way, and it nearly crushes her against the barrier. She stumbles. Behind the enormous creature, Griffin and Flynn bellow like madmen, trying to attract its attention. Carver is closest to her, and he races toward Jocasta.
I cry out just as Carver throws Jocasta aside. The Cyclops’s club arcs down with monstrous force, catching Carver in the chest. He flies back and then crashes into the stone wall. He crumples to the sand, unmoving, and my heart comes to a complete standstill. There’s no way he could take a hit like that without severe damage. Or worse.
Screaming, Jocasta flaps her arms and runs, drawing the Cyclops away from Carver while Griffin and Flynn swerve between its legs, hacking at tendons with weapons they drew the moment the Metal Mage turned her back.
Knowing he’s of no use to me in his current state, Kato lopes over to Carver with a limping stride. With his mace in his left hand, he stands guard over his friend, his eyes never leaving the hulking creature shaking the arena with its every step.
My snake and I are practically on top of the Metal Mage now, close enough to see the sweat on her brow and the fear in her eyes. With a swipe of her hand, she sends the weapons she gathered flying at us with enough force to penetrate hard scales. The serpent hisses. Its whole body jerks, but I don’t let it stop. My will is its will, and until it’s dead, the snake will obey me, no matter what.
The Metal Mage calls her weapons back, but we slither forward with a burst of speed. My snake throws its head back, nearly dumping me on the ground, and then strikes. The next thing I know, the Magoi woman’s legs are sticking out of its mouth, the whole upper half of her body stuffed down its gullet. The snake’s throat muscles pulse beneath my thighs, working her down. She disappears little by little, her struggles and muffled screams vibrating underneath me until she gives one final kick and then goes still.
My stomach contracts on a wave of nausea. “Good snake. I’ll never forget you.”That’s for damn sure.
I’m about to set the poisonous serpent on the Cyclops when the tubular body underneath me turns to dust. The snake’s life spark snuffs from my mind in a breath-stealing, brain-jarring, ripping second that leaves me reeling from the savage disconnection.
I fall six feet to the ground and land next to a dead woman. Sharp, blinding sparks burst behind my eyes. Pain thumps between my ears, expanding to encompass my entire head and then my body. Groaning, I try to crawl back from the venom-drenched Metal Mage, but I’m disoriented and can barely move. A shadow creeps over me, and then the Magoi kicks my side with cracking force, sending me spinning into the female’s disintegrating skin. I gasp, pain pounding along my ribs. The exposed skin down the side of my arm burns against the Metal Mage’s body.
Black boots enter my blurred vision. Seeing a dull glint, I grope for one of the blades the Metal Mage hurled at the snake, but the Magoi kicks the dagger out of reach.
I squint up at him, grimacing in pain. The two raw spots on his wide, bare chest are already healing over. One look at his expression tells me he hopes he can kill me slowly.
“When I first saw you, I thought you’d put up a decent fight. But not breaking the connection before I killed my snake…” He shakes his head. “That’s an amateur’s mistake. If you’re that stupid, I don’t know how you even latched on.”
My head won’t stop spinning. Air only partially fills my lungs. My ribs ache with every shallow breath as I grate out, “Raw power. More than you’ll ever have.”
“Not much good if you don’t know how to use it.”
Tell me about it.“Is there a point to your yammering? I’ve had more interesting conversations with a goat.”
He smirks down at me, his lips in a cruel twist. “Here’s a hint before I end you.” He drives his boot into my ribs again, and I groan. “There’s no glory on the other side. No Styx. No Underworld. No Elysium. There’snothing.”
Something hard digs into my hip as an image of the Shadowlands fills my mind. I close my hand around the hilt of the Kobaloi knife Jocasta threw into the Metal Mage, my palm burning with snake venom as I rip the blade from the dead woman and then drive it into the Magoi’s calf.
“Maybe not for you.” I twist the blade, feeling a satisfying scrape of bone.
