Pilar stumbled, which shoved Violet’s mother into the railing along the boardwalk. “You didn’t kill Ferro. He’s in Miami.”
“He’s lying in the woods. He came to kill me. Seems the two of you don’t like me much. I’ll try not to take it to heart. Someone I care about very much recently gave me that advice, not to take things too personally.”
Pilar lifted her chin. “You couldn’t kill Ferro. He’s much more powerful than you will ever be.”
“I got lucky.” Violet wasn’t going to mention Kade’s part. Let her continue thinking he was insane. She approached Pilar slowly, her hands out at her sides. “He took you in, didn’t he? That’s how you came together with this plan of yours to save Drakos.”
Her eyes widened. “How…”
“Because Drakos came to Ferro as we fought. And funny, I thought he’d save Ferro as he lay dying and begging for help. Instead, he chastised him for not waiting. He was going to finish him, Breathe him. That’s the only way he can take the power you’ve been accumulating. So do you really want to throw everything away for a god who’s betrayed you?”
“You’re lying! Drakos is going to make me immortal.”
Violet thought about that girl Pilar had intended to kill. “You hate us all in the Fringe so much that you’d set us up to kill one another? Leave more children without parents when you know how painful that is?” She hoped Jessup had pushed aside his bloodlust and gotten the others to listen. “You were going to kill Kaitlyn. A child! That’s against the rules. My clan never killed any Garza children.”
“Only because there were none at the time. Saving a god is more important than any child’s life. Certainly more important than any of you Fringers. All they’ll be good for is the power I Breathe from those who survive the clan wars. They will be the most powerful and worthy of my time and effort.”
Violet hoped they heard that. She now stood directly in front of Pilar. She had to fight not to look when she saw Kade appear as the orb evaporated.
“Let her go.” Violet held out her hand. “And put the other cuff on me.”
Pilar pushed her mother away and reached the open cuff toward Violet’s wrist. As the metal touched her skin, Pilar gasped and looked down at the tip of Kade’s blade protruding from her chest. Blue shards of magick came off the bloody blade and pulsed through her body. She snapped the cuff closed and Catalyzed. With all her power, she’d heal fast in Dragon form. She flicked her tail at Kade, who didn’t move quite fast enough because his focus was on the cuff around Violet’s wrist. He was thrown to the edge of the walkway, the railing stopping him from falling over the edge. Pilar inhaled, ready to incinerate him.
Violet unlatched one of the gates and pushed Pilar through the opening and into the gator pit. She landed with a splash, and then Violet heard several other splashes as the gators moved toward her. Pilar blasted a torrent of flames at the creatures to keep them at bay. She turned and smashed into the walkway that led through the center of the building, sending Violet stumbling down the slanted boards and into the water.
Oh, crap. The sight of her usually signaled the arrival of food to the gators. If she didn’t have Gator Chow to offer them, they’d take her instead. She couldn’t Catalyze with the damned cuff on. Vigorous pushing at it couldn’t nudge it past her wrist bone. Four gators swished through the water toward her, their mouths partially open.
Kade Changed into the largest gator she’d ever seen and threw himself into the muddy melee of tails and teeth and fangs and fire. He charged toward her, stepping on other gators and pushing them beneath the water.
Pilar, blood still gushing from the wound in her chest, tried to climb up the broken walkway. Gators pulled at her tail. She was too big for any one gator to tussle with, but the beasts didn’t care. Several of them were fighting over her. She kept them at bay with her periodic bursts of flame, but one managed to take a chunk out of her tail. She howled in pain, screaming obscenities.
Violet tried to climb out of the water, barely clinging to one of the boards. Her feet kept slipping on the wet wood.
“Oh, no you don’t.” Pilar reached out and knocked her off, sending Violet face-first into the water. One gator clamped its mouth around her arm, its teeth puncturing her skin. It would do the death roll with her, spinning her around and pinning her to the bottom of the pen. Her scream was drowned out by the water in her mouth. Suddenly the gator released her, and then another one took her into its massive jaws. With teeth as soft as pillows.
Kade.
He set her on the intact portion of the walkway and then turned to Pilar, precariously balanced on the broken boards. She kicked at the encroaching gators, which were even more fueled by the blood in the water. Kade lunged at her from one of the narrow catwalks that ran perpendicular to the main walkway. Pilar sent a blast of Obsidian Dragon magick at him. A black oily cloud smothered the huge gator. Kade dropped the illusion, becoming man and slipping out of the cloud’s grasp. Pilar shot a plume of fiery spikes at him. He dropped to a crouch as they flew over his head and singed his hair. He staggered back upright, fatigue clear in his expression.
Pilar moved slower, too. But she seemed as determined as Kade to win. While the two fought, Violet climbed over the broken parts of the walkway behind Pilar. The shards of wood bit into her skin as she used them for handholds. Kade drew his dagger and sent an arc of lightning at Pilar’s throat. Pilar blocked it with her black cloud, now using it as a shield. Kade’s bolts shredded the shield, but he wielded his magick dagger as though it weighed fifty pounds.
Violet was only inches from Pilar when she lost her footing as one of the boards shifted with her movements. Before Violet could get a solid grip on the boards, she spotted an insidious black stream snaking its way over the thrashing water toward Kade’s feet. It started to wrap around his ankles. If it knocked him off-balance, he’d fall into the bay on the other side, where the largest alligators lived.
Violet reached out with her cuffed hand and grabbed Pilar’s wing, the only thing she could reach. Pilar’s magick evaporated because of the Lucifer’s Gold, and she became a naked human holding on to the top of the slanted walkway. The gash on her tail translated to a deep cut at her tailbone. Violet gripped her upper arm to keep her from falling.
“Drakos, save me!” Pilar screamed, looking up.
“Don’t be stupid,” Violet said. “I told you what happened to Ferro.”
The air shimmered, and Drakos’s image appeared a few feet from them. A pissed-off Drakos, given his sour expression. “You have both failed me. Though you carry the essence of gods, you are but weak humans.”
“Weak? I am strong! I hold the power of many.”
“You are weak of spirit and mind. You would do anything, believe anything, to get your fondest desire. But it was your fear of dying that gave me the most power over you … and made you gullible.”
Pilar’s expression contorted in a pain much harsher than the physical. “Are you saying you lied about giving me immortality?”
His chilling smile was her answer. “And now I shall take what you have been gathering for me.” His image moved closer.
