Chapter 24 #2
He blocked my next blow, countering, spinning in a billow of silk, and his savage sword nearly cut through my defense. Sparks sprayed as our blades locked, fiery embers catching his robe, the bitter stench of burning fabric pluming around us.
Fucking enough.
I pivoted sharply, disengaging, and shoved forward, letting my strength explode into offense. My blades blurred—faster, faster, faster—as I fell into bloodlust, biting-cold and keen as a winter storm. I hammered him in a relentless barrage, feinted right, and the fucker fell for it.
Whirling low, I sliced cleanly through his shins. He toppled sideways, meaty hands scrambling to push himself upright, but I brought my wyrmblade down through his thick bullneck and decapitated him in a single blow. Black blood splattered my boots as his masked head bounced across the rocky floor.
Then his twitching corpse vanished.
I staggered, panting, gritty sweat streaking my hand as I swiped hair from my brow.
Where the fuck is Sirro?
Hellsgate, those things, the Children of the Harbinger, were armed with Gestelt bolts that could bring him down. Maybe he was dead.
And where the hells was Yezekael?
Chilling worry knotted my guts into a tangled ball.
I needed to find Yezekael and keep him alive. There was no way I was leaving this cavern without learning who’d betrayed my mother. Blinking and squinting through the biting smoke, I frantically scanned the chaos.
There!
Yezekael hobbled along the back wall toward a distant tunnel, his leathery broken wings dragging pitifully over the ground littered with bodies and rockfall and pockets of fire burning like funeral pyres. As he limped, he struggled futilely to free his wrists from the bar-linked cuffs.
I barreled across the cavern and slid to a jarring halt, blocking his escape. Yezekael reared back in shock and vexation as I tsked at him. “Going somewhere?”
“They’re going to kill us all,” he snarled, fear edging his tone. “You and your House have lost.”
Fuck off—I was about to bark back when hurried footsteps and Mela’s rasping voice cut in behind me. “He’s right, Gray. They’ve hemmed us in. We’re going to be slaughtered here!”
I jerked around, and my stomach dropped.
The warband was holding their own, but the Children of the Harbinger had encircled us.
Mela stared into the depths of the cavern.
“They keep coming,” she breathed, horrified.
My gaze followed hers, past the fray, to the pops of golden light breaking up the darkness.
When one masked warrior went down—too hacked apart to rise—then vanished, two more swifted in. A small army, growing by the second.
We were trapped. Overrun.
Mela scrabbled at the collar of her armor. “We need to hold them off until help arrives!”
I frowned, shouting over the clamorous battle. “Help?!”
Who the hells was left to help us.
A rushing noise razored through the smoky air.
Hellsgate!
We spun as a volley of cursed bolts hit their mark.
A thunderous BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
Forked lightning tore through the darkness, chased by a horrific popping as waves of scarabs exploded in glistening black swirls, destroyed in a single clever strike.
Coughing through the roiling smoke, I scanned the cavern as heat blasted over me, the godsawful stench of burning flesh twisting my insides. Crowthers locked in desperate combat fended off masked warriors. More and more V?duvas fell beneath the might of the gathering army.
Dread hollowed me out.
Gods… this cavern was going to be our tomb.
Sheathing my swords quickly, I shoved Yezekael to move faster, desperate to get him and Mela to a position with a shred of protection, while my mind raced through differing strategies for how the fuck we were getting out of this mess.
Mela hurried at my side, yanking the long gold necklace free from her jacket. A small pendant dangled from the loop. “When we fail to show up, our runners will come find us.”
My eyes widened. Shit, I’d forgotten about the runners stationed along the tunnels to the subway maintenance corridors. The team tending the wounded at Yezekael’s nest might still be in the catacombs too. But even with their numbers, it wouldn’t be enough. Not against this growing tide of warriors.
Mela jerked hard on the chain around her neck, snapping it. The broken length slithered to the ground like an asp.
I stilled. Yezekael did too, though war seethed around us.
All our attention was fixed on Mela’s swollen, bloodied fingers pinched around the pendant. It reminded me of a tiny egg. In the corner of my eye, I caught Yezekael’s expression shift to surprise, then greedy eagerness as he leaned closer.
What the fuck was it?
Mela’s words tumbled out as she jerked her arm back. “This will head straight to my family and alert them to our plight!” Her eyes shone with fierce confidence as she leveled a determined look at me. “I know they’ll contact yours too. Our families will come fast!”
Unease and despair tangled in the pit of my stomach. I didn’t want to tell Mela that by the time our families arrived, we’d be dead. Better to let her cling to a shred of hope.
She hurled the pendant against the craggy ground beside her dusty boots. It obliterated into a puff of dust that glittered like gold. The golden cloud drifted apart, beaten back by tiny wings pummeling the air. A small bird emerged, fluttering before us, its feathery body formed of fire.
I sucked in a startled breath at the splendor of the otherworldly creature.
It was Yezekael who spoke its name aloud, his voice thick with astonishment. “A phynx.”
Mela lifted a hand, and the tiny creature circled her fingertips, chirping as it hovered above her cupped palm. Its sweet song was as magnificent as its fiery plumage.
“Home,” Mela ordered softly.
The phynx gave a single chirp, twirled midair, its long feathery tail swirling in the gloom, and then it was gone. A streak of golden hope cutting through the darkness and turmoil. It soared across the cavern like a shooting arrow, leaving a gauzy trail of glittering light in its wake.