Then there were some like Carter, who moved through the fight as though they were the only ones there. He lacked weapons, but his actions made it clear he didn’t need any. He didn’t usually carry any that I’d seen unless he expected trouble.He held his own with ease, using his strength and speed to snap bones and tear the monsters apart.
Another of those horrific screeches echoed around me just as the sun dimmed. I had a second to glance up and see one of the flying monsters swooping toward me, claws out. I didn’t have time to even brace for the impact.
Well, at least I wouldn’t have to worry about dying in The Pitt, and it was good that Carter and the others were too distracted to watch it. I didn’t want them to have that in their heads. They’d blame themselves, sure, but they’d get over it, they’d move on.
A moment before the thing struck, however, the world shifted. Darkness engulfed me and strong arms pulled me against a hard chest.
When I blinked, the world had returned and I was standing a few feet away from the beast, which had struck the ground and thrashed its tail as though it were furious over its stolen meal. And standing there?
Ingram. He didn’t make a joke—a sure sign of just how dangerous the situation was—but instead released me and threw himself at the monster. His preferred short blades were clutched in his palms. One sank immediately into the side of the creature, Ingram shifting and moving to avoid the searching claws. He dipped in and out of the shadows, though he didn’t avoid every hit.
“Go!” he shouted, keeping the thing’s attention even as it turned as though still searching.
Maybe it just preferred easier prey?
Even if it did, it didn’t get the chance to try again before Ingram dragged a blade across the thing’s throat, spilling that thick, purple blood all over the dirt. Ingram turned his head toward me, his eyes so different from the ones I’d seen so many times over the past months.
Right, I’d never dealt with them mid-fight, only after it had ended, only once they’d walked away.
“You need to get going,” he said, waving his hands to get me moving. “I’d take you myself but I can’t. Besides, they’re more likely to follow me if I transport you there.”
I nodded, seeming to gain at least a few working brain cells, enough to spur me to action.
I only got another two feet before something sailed past me, so close that it knocked me to the side. The blur was Ingram, countering another monster before it reached me.
What the hell?
Others rushed around where I stood, but the monsters didn’t attack them.
I turned, trying to get to my feet, a sneaking, terrible guess echoing in my head. The monsters were far closer now, and this time it became clear.
They fought the espers only because the espers stood between them and their goal. They only responded as much as they had to, but their main purpose appeared to be getting past them and to…
Me.
It made no sense, as monsters didn’t give a damn who they attacked. If anything, they were often drawn to espers, like they could sense a connection and didn’t much care for it, though they truly acted like an esper on a rampage, willing to kill anything they saw.
This was different—they clearly wanted to get to me.
The memory of the corrupted hit me, as though I couldfeelhis breath on my neck, like I could sense him nearby.
He couldn’t be, right?
The openings hadn’t been large enough for a person to leave, and one of the espers would have noticed. I reassured myselfas I stepped backward, as Ingram fought—and won—against the monster.
The moment he took out that one, though, another appeared, all of them closing in.
The fight existed just around me, now, with bodies—both esper and monster—striking the walls of the buildings, the ground. Red and purple painted the dirt, but there were just too many.
No matter where I tried to go, I couldn’t get out.
Each attempt was blocked off first by a monster, then an esper who swooped in. Often it was Carter or Ingram, but occasionally it was one I didn’t recognize.
“Stay down,”Shear whispered into my head.“They’ll take care of this, just stay back.”
I turned toward where I sensed him, finding him up on a building, face red and unusually flushed. It seemed he exerted a lot of energy, but I saw no evidence of it.
“They resist my control. I don’t understand why.”
