Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
My stomach dropped as the monster hauled us higher, then threw us. The bus tipped to its side, taking us away from the windscreen and forcing us against the doors. My scream was cut short by the impact of metal on cement.
The world rang and every bone in my body screamed in pain.
Somewhere close by glass shattered. Hands found me, tugging and drawing a shriek from me.
“I got you,” Bastian said. “Rue, I got you.”
I blinked against the hot, wet stuff blinding me.
Blood.
The world came back online in all its sharp glory. Screeches and screams and the beat of wings.
Bastian hugged me to his chest. We were braced against metal, against the side of the bus.
Hidden.
“The others?” My voice was a rasp.
Bastian tipped my head back. “Look at me.”
I focused on his bloody face. “You’re hurt.”
“I’m fine. But I have to go help the others. You need to stay put, do you hear me?”
“My dad.”
“I’ll find him. You stay.”
He took a deep breath and then leapt out of cover, celestial sword swinging.
The sounds of battle and death rose into the night sky. I was under cover, hidden by the broken, toppled-over bus with the brush on the other side of me to keep me out of sight.
I crawled forward and peered around the vehicle. Three huge, batlike monsters attacked the civies, swooping and pecking with their long, serrated beaks. Bastian and Jamie fought, creating an arch of safety with their blades to ward off the monsters.
But there were too many humans to protect.
Shit, shit, shit. I had to do something. I had to help. I caught sight of a couple huddled by the pile of dead bodies.
“Hey! Here!” I ducked out, waving at them. “Get over here!”
They caught sight of me, and hope flared across their faces.
The man said something to his companion and grabbed her hand.
They made a break toward me.
They didn’t make it.
Claws grabbed hold of them, cracking skulls, killing them instantly and carrying away the limp bodies.
I ducked back under cover, pressing against the metal body of the bus. My heart battered my ribcage so hard I barely registered the tremors shaking my body. My fault. I’d done that. Oh, God.
“Rue! Rue, where are you?”
Dad?
Fuck. Pull it together, dammit! I sucked in a fortifying breath and scrambled back out, searching the road for my father. Bastian and Jamie continued to fight the monsters, keeping several humans safe in a circle of light and blades, but my dad wasn’t one of them.
Where was he?
I spotted him huddled by the pile of dead bodies a moment later. I opened my mouth to call out to him, then snapped it shut.
Calling out to him could get him spotted by the flying monsters.
I needed to go to him.
I’d always been fast, strong too. I could do this. Get to him and carry him to safety if need be.
I crouched, waiting until the monsters swooped up, then broke into a sprint across the road.
My dad’s gaze zeroed in on me, but he didn’t cry out. Smart man.
I skidded to the ground beside him, keeping low and using the bodies as cover. “Hey.” I ran my gaze over him, noting the odd angle of his leg.
“It’s broken,” he said. “Listen to me. You’ve got to run. Take the able-bodied and go. Stay under cover.”
He was asking me to leave him. “I can carry you.”
“No.” He shook his head. “Baby, I need your gun.”
I stared at him in horror because there was no doubt what he was asking me to allow him to do. “No.”
His expression hardened. “Give me the damn gun, scout. That’s an order.”
Dammit. That wasn’t an order I could comply with. “That’s not gonna work. You can’t use chain of command on me. I’m your daughter.”
“I’m the fucking general and I get to say how I die. Look at me, Rue. Look around us. You know there’s no other way.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
“Please, sweet girl. Be strong for me one last time.”
My vision blurred as I reached for the gun at my waistband, and my stomach dropped. It was gone.
It must have fallen out in the crash.
“Rue?” Dad searched my face. “What is it?”
“I don’t have it.”
My father inhaled and exhaled in a measured way. “It’s okay, Rue, I—” His gaze slipped over my head, widening in shock. He threw out his hands to shove me. But I grabbed his arms and tugged him onto me, rolling with him, his scream of agony ripping into me.
The sickening crunch and squelch of bodies being pierced assaulted my ears. I hugged my sobbing dad to me, peering over his shoulder in time to see the monster rise into the sky.
“Rue, you have to go.” Dad tried to shove me away. “Go now. It’ll do a circuit and come back, but you have a minute to get to cover.”
“I can’t leave you.”
“You have to, dammit. You have to.”
I shuffled back, taking him with me, ignoring his screams. If I could sling him over my shoulder, then I could—
Something cold and hard dug into my back. I reached for the offensive item, wrapping my hand around what felt like the hilt to a sword. Energy shot up my arm, cold and almost familiar.
“Rue!” My father shoved me hard as the monster swooped in for a second attack.
As the beast’s shadow fell over us, I yanked the blade free of the bodies, bringing it up in an arc. The world blazed with light that sliced through the monster’s beak.
Power slugged me in the chest before radiating outward and hauling me to my feet.
Part of me recognized that this was not normal.
That the sword I was holding should not be glowing, but another part of me, the part connected to the sword, made me swing again, aiming for the monster’s neck and cleaving it easily from its body.
“Rue!”
I blinked against the light radiating off the sword in my hand to see Bastian running toward me.
“Watch out!” another voice yelled.
I spun in time to see a second monster hurtling toward me, bat wings outstretched, serrated beak angled down, ready to spear me. My body acted on instinct, swinging the sword upward to cleave its beak in two before spinning and swiping to take off its head.
Stunned silence followed the attack.
I stood amidst the carnage and stared at the sword in my hand. It dimmed then began to glow again, pulsing as if in warning.
A moment later the sky was filled with flying beasts.
“Run!” my dad said. “Run!”
But before we could act, a different winged creature appeared behind the bat-like monsters. Large, powerful humanoids with leathery wings tipped with horns. These new monsters fell upon the bats, tearing into them with talons and claw.
Chunks of flesh rained from the sky.
Bastian scooped my dad off the ground, while Jamie shouted orders for everyone to run for the bus.
It was the only cover we had.
I followed, sprinting behind Bastian, the hilt of the sword glued to my palm. People skidded around the bus, vanishing out of sight. Bastian made it to cover with Dad. I was almost there when the air in front of me expanded, shoving me backward, and a figure landed in my path.