CHAPTER TWENTY #2
Kieran kicked in the direction of his face, and I cringed when the movement halted abruptly, letting me know his foot had connected with its target. He yanked the gun out of the Enforcer’s hand and flung it in the direction we had come.
Then Kieran was shouting at me. “Maila, come on!”
I leapt to my feet, vaguely noticing that blood was trickling down my arms and soaking the knees of my pants. I couldn’t feel the pain.
We were making our way through the outer edges of the battle now, to the heart of it.
We passed several Enforcers, and unlike the first one we encountered, Kieran was on them too quickly for them to react.
They were focused on the threat from the beach and weren’t expecting anyone to approach from behind.
I had no small sense of relief when I observed that each time, Kieran disabled the Enforcers without killing them, always tossing those mysterious guns to the side, far out of reach.
I wasn’t sure what the long-term plan was or if he even had a long-term plan for ensuring these Enforcers would no longer be a threat.
But I wasn’t ready to see him take a life, not just yet.
And something told me he wasn’t ready, either.
As we grew closer and closer to the hole in the wall, the yellows, browns, and greens of the grass gave way to ashy black. Charred, smoking patches where the fiery blasts from those guns had landed. Some of them still glowered with embers of that technicolor light.
“What are those?” I yelled over the din, as Kieran tossed what must have been the sixth gun behind over his shoulder.
“We call them Immobilizers,” he grunted. “They’re basically guns that are also effective against magical beings.”
We came upon two more Enforcers, and Kieran repeated the pattern of pouncing while they were unsuspecting. In a single movement, he threw one to the ground, ripped the Immobilizer out of his hand, and used it to bash the second one in the face.
Movement in my left peripheral had me turning my attention to a third Enforcer. Approaching from the side, Immobilizer drawn. Aimed right at Kieran.
I ran straight for him.
He saw me and raised his brows. He looked younger than the men we had encountered so far. Possibly even a teenager. His unsteadiness reminded me of the boy I tried to rescue at the beach.
Speaking of him—was he here, too? It was amazing how quickly I had gone from only having to look out for myself to having so many other people to worry about now.
The Enforcer seemed conflicted about whether to keep his gun trained on Kieran, or fire at me instead.
Before he could make up his mind, I held out my right hand and internally screamed at my brain to please just do what I was asking without any delays or screw-ups.
Two seconds later, I was hurling a torrent of water in his direction.
The pressure knocked him backwards and forced him to let go of his Immobilizer.
The strength of the blast knocked me back a step as well, but I recovered and was upon him before he could react.
I held out my left hand, giving my right some time to recover, and watched with satisfaction as ice invaded every crevice of the Immobilizer, cracking and snapping it into several pieces.
The Enforcer watched with eyes the size of saucers. I couldn’t tell if he wanted to run screaming or worship the ground I walked on.
“Get out of here and go home,” I ordered in what I hoped was my most authoritative voice. Then I rejoined Kieran, who was already backtracking in my direction.
“Look at you!” he drawled. His voice was full of mock admiration, but there was also a glimmer of actual pride in his eyes.
“I think you owe me.” I was too out of breath to sound as smug as I felt.
“I’m sure you’ll think of a way for me to make it up to you,” he said.
And I didn’t know if it was his suggestive tone or the return of that smug smile that was so characteristically him, but my cheeks burned. It felt good to be distracted for a moment. He could say things like that because there was a future after this. We would get through this.
Both of us sobered up fast as we finally reached the tangle of bodies that was the center of the conflict.
My ears were instantly overwhelmed by the screaming and shouting and cursing that surrounded me on all sides, mixed in with the sharp clang of weapons colliding with one another. And the ever-present roar of, I now realized, the discharge of the Immobilizers.
The bodies on the ground, a mixture of the injured and what I hoped were just the unconscious, were so frequent that we could no longer move at even a slow jog.
We were hopping over the arms and legs of the fallen.
At one point, I heard a shriek as my foot accidentally landed on something that was not grass. But I had to keep going.
We weaved through the clusters of people, through the smaller battles whose results would determine the outcome of the big one.
Along the way, Kieran continued to use the element of surprise to disarm the Enforcers, giving the men and women on his side—our side now—the advantage.
He seemed to be the only one taking that approach, though.
Our people, while not armed with Immobilizers, were using the weapons they had looted from the cave devils to strike what could only have been killing blows.
Swords sliced at any exposed fabric between the plates of the Enforcers’ armor, spears pierced unshielded eyes, maces cracked against uncovered skulls. Daggers slit bare throats.
Witnessing the carnage made me question, just for the briefest of moments, if I had made the right decision. I was on their side. But that didn’t mean I thought the Enforcers deserved to die. That Zander deserved to die.
At the thought, I turned a circle, hoping to catch sight of him, yet also not hoping to catch sight of him.
He could be here and still alive. He could also be here but unconscious and out of view.
Or…worse, and out of view. He could also be somewhere else, on a special assignment like Bergam and the two Enforcers guarding Kieran had been.
I hoped beyond all hope that it was the last one.
Unsurprisingly, visibility was too poor for me to catch sight of Zander. But I almost cried with relief as Kieran and I cleared a jagged chunk of concrete and were suddenly face-to-face with Nya.
“It’s about time!” Nya yelled.
If not for the Enforcer that was charging right at her, readying his Immobilizer, I would have charged her myself and thrown my arms around her.
Her braids were pulled back in their usual ponytail.
But rather than her usual tank top and shorts, she was wearing that gleaming gray-brown marsh wolf pelt, the material highlighting each of her curves and muscles, giving her the appearance of a statue.
A shining paradigm of the human form. Gripped tightly in her right hand was a sword with a magnificent golden hilt, the blade already stained with blood.
I hadn’t thought it was possible for her to look any more fearsome, yet here she was.
Absolutely terrifying.
Nya ran straight at the Enforcer, so close that I thought they would collide, then dove at the last second.
She whipped the sword around at such an angle that rather than connecting with the protective plates across his shins, it caught the man in the calves, dropping him instantaneously.
As soon as his Immobilizer hit the ground beside him, she was sheathing her sword in the gold scabbard at her side and grabbing the gun.
Kieran and I both looked on, open-mouthed, as she used the Immobilizer to fire three successive shots into the chaos.
One soared out of view, but two connected with their targets, who immediately doubled over.
They screamed and gripped their chests as light and smoke and that flame-like something blazed away beneath their frantic hands.
Nya aimed and attempted to fire again, but the Immobilizer just sputtered. Nothing came out but a thin tail of smoke and a few sparks.
“Seems like five’s the max with these.” She tossed the gun aside.
“How are we doing?” Kieran shouted back.
“The cave devils’ explosives, whatever they were, worked better than we had hoped. As you can see by the fact that we’re here and not still on the beach.” Nya dragged an arm across her forehead, wiping sweat from her brow. “But right now, this thing could go either way.”
With that, she headed toward another Enforcer, sword drawn. Kieran was right behind her, and I was close behind him.
The Enforcer fired his Immobilizer, but Nya dodged without slowing.
By the time she was on him, he was dropping the gun and holding his hands in the air in surrender.
Just as before, Nya grabbed the gun herself and was able to fire one more shot before it was spent.
I wondered who the first three shots had been used on, and if the targets were alive or dead.
Beside me, Kieran took down a burly Enforcer who was gripping his gun with meaty hands.
He tackled the man to the ground and delivered a knockout punch to the face.
People on both sides started taking notice of what was happening in our small circle of the field.
The Strangers acknowledged us with quick nods when they could, relief visible in their tired eyes at the sight of a few reinforcements.
Meanwhile, a cluster of Enforcers shoved their way through, making a beeline for Nya and Kieran. I counted six of them.
As they broke through the crowd, gathered in a tight, impenetrable formation, I saw that there was no way that Nya and Kieran were going to be able to fend them all off without taking damage.
“Stand back!” I yelled at the two of them.
They paused mid-step, and I only had a split second to witness the confusion on their faces as I shoved in front of them, arms outstretched.