With every ounce of strength I could muster, I pulled down on my sword with all my weight. A snap rang throughout the cave and I nearly cried in relief. It was just barely audible above the hissing dead siren about to explode.
“Let’s go!” I shouted.
I knelt in front of Cass and he leapt onto my back. No way would my vertically-challenged bestie be able to walk or fly his way out of here; there was too much water. I was going to have to piggyback him like we did in boot camp at the academy.
Brock waded through the water, which was nearly up to his neck on all fours, and took a right, back down the way we’d come. Holy shit, this entire place was filling up with water, and fast. How?
‘You killed a siren!’Cass mind-messaged me. His voice was clearer than it had been before, though still not what it used to be.
‘I did.’I was still stunned I’d done that.‘Brock shot another one of them too, but with our luck, she’s still kicking.’
“How’s T?”he asked.
“She’s fine.” I had no idea if she was still with the Blacks, stuck on their land, but I didn’t think so. Not with the magical help I’d been feeling since we’d gotten here, and I didn’t want my bestie to worry.
Brock followed on my heels as I weaved in and out of the winding halls of rock, but it still wasn’t fast enough. There was too much water, and it was flooding us from all directions.
Then Brock made a hard right and I saw the water was flowing out of a hole in the side of the mountain. The same one we’d come through earlier on our way to get Cass.
The moment I stepped back out beneath the dark underworld sky, a startled scream lodged in my throat.
“My sister!” Calista shrieked somewhere up above us on the cliff face, water pouring down its steep side like a raging waterfall.
Oops. She was majorly pissed.
Brock shifted quickly into his human form, throwing on shorts from my pack, and turned to face me. “Evie, the demons will be making their way down to this valley any second. From there they’ll head straight up to the gate.”
There were two cliffs and a valley of lava rock between them. We needed to get across the valley and up the next cliff to where the gate sat before the demons did.
I nodded to Brock. “I got this. You take Cass.”
He frowned.
“Take him! We don’t have time!” I snapped.
Brock pulled Cass off of me and slung him on his hip like you would a toddler. At another time, the image would have made me crack a smile.
Taking in a deep breath, I pushed my awareness out, and with it my projection power. Over twenty Evies popped out beside me and in front of me.
I looked at Cass and Brock, their eyes wide. “Run!” I barked.
With that we took off like our asses were on fire. A line of twenty Evies followed us, racing across the lava rock-filled valley, hoping to reach the cliff that the gate was perched on before Calista could drown our asses.
“KITSUNE!” Calista roared, and it started to rain. The dark, dense sky above us shed fat droplets of water.
A quick, tiny peek over my shoulder and I nearly pissed myself. Hundreds of demons were descending from the top of the rock, spilling out onto the open valley—right on our tail.
Calista thrust her arm out and lightning struck from the sky and zapped one of my projections, making it disappear in an instant.
Fuck. That was efficient. Nineteen more to go.
I’d never run so fast in all my life. Brock was right next to me, half naked, with a seal skin draped across his back, carrying Cass.
When we got to the base of the rock cliff that held the gate at the top, Calista zapped another one of my projections. I could hear the footsteps of the demons they were so close, pounding a terrifying rhythm.
Without thinking, I scaled the wall like a fucking pro rock climber. I’d done some rock climbing at the academy but never without a harness and ropes. I grabbed handholds and footholds in a blind panic as Brock pushed my ass when I got stuck in parts. I had to make sure I didn’t scrape by big-ass belly. I was way too pregnant to be doing this shit. Cass urged me on, and we made it. We fucking made it to the top! Thank God the climb wasn’t fully vertical or there was no way I could have managed it.
Wasting no time, I leapt through the crack where I could see the trees of our property in Oregon.
