Chapter 41
forty-one
Ghosts in the Shell
Bastian surges forward and the three leap up to meet him.
He whips the spear through the air faster than I can register.
Two sharp clangs ring out. The policewoman skitters through the dirt before us and the gymnast flies across the lot into a sedan.
The heavy crunch of metal on metal and the resulting car alarm pierces the din of the festival.
The nightgown woman must’ve dodged the initial attack, but it’s all happening so quickly, my attention so split, I can’t see her.
Bastian roars as he staggers forward, then spins.
His spear makes contact with something, and he lunges, driving the tip forward.
Nightgown dodges the jab, leaping ten feet up with staggering grace.
We lock eyes for a flash and she smirks at me.
Her gown flutters as she drops back to the ground and immediately falls to a crouch to avoid another swipe of Bastian’s spear.
A shadow moves in my periphery much too fast, and I fire my lightning on instinct. The orange bolt collides with the policewoman and throws her to the ground, a smoldering hole in her chest. Creamy blue liquid spurts from the wound, but Bastian spins out of the way before I see if she gets up.
My energy wanes in the aftermath of the lightning strike. It’s like concrete boots, dragging me into the depths. The crushing cold surrounds me, making me shiver. It felt like this after I had healed Bastian. Could it be that I used too much magic? Is the lightning attack too draining?
Bastian hisses at Nightgown as she stalks him, turning side to side at a distance. His spear can’t reach unless he lunges, and if he does, he’s exposed without his other arm for defense.
“Set me down!” I yell.
“No!” he snarls.
Bastian whips his tail around and slaps the gravel beside the robot, making her flinch.
That tiny movement gives him an edge, and he dashes forward, jabbing with his spear.
Nightgown twists and turns, side-stepping Bastian’s onslaught with ease.
He’s wasting too much energy holding me. He needs both hands and full mobility.
Gymnast flies in out of the darkness and stabs into Bastian’s reaching arm with a spidery leg protruding from her back. He rears and she reaches for me. Bastian is fast, bringing his arm to his mouth and chomping down, but Gymnast is faster, rocketing away with a shove of her feet.
Bastian grunts as Nightgown scores a hit on his leg. Glittering black blood sprays across the ground and shimmers in the dim moonlight as he drops to his knee. He snaps at her and lashes out with his tail against the approaching Gymnast. Both robots retreat a measure.
Gymnast prowls as Nightgown stands over Policewoman’s body, sucking up her blue goop and lengthening her arm blade at the same time. What the hell are these things made of?
The two robots touch hands and there’s a flash of blue between them. Nightgown adopts the back weapon design, letting two, wriggling appendages free with a snap.
Bastian takes a step back and I hear shouts from people behind us in the festival grounds. The ongoing car alarm roused interest and now…we’re putting everyone at risk.
“We need to get out of here!” I tell him.
Without a second thought, Bastian leaps into the air and pumps his massive wings. Within seconds, we’re a hundred feet above the fair, but not long after, the robots are following us. Blue light is spread between their back limbs that buzz like wasps.
“They can fly!”
“An aerial battle is not wise,” Bastian says.
A flash of blue light punctures his right wing and he growls, his claw tightening around me. He tucks in his wings and dives toward the field beside the festival—the hay maze…
We land with a heavy thud that knocks over a row. Bastian towers above the maze, but the robots drop down and disappear between the hedges.
I have to do something or we’re not going to make it. My lightning attacks are powerful, but I don’t think I have any left in me.
“Set me down,” I whisper.
“No,” he hisses back.
“Please, trust me,” I urge, knowing we’re almost out of time to make this work.
He drops to a knee and puts me between his legs. I force my magic out through every pore, camouflaging myself while creating a copy of me on his shoulder.
“Weapon,” I whisper.
Bastian wastes no time creating a golden dagger just my size. I kiss his hand as I take it and run to the hedge wall. I find a triangular stack and climb to the top, breathing shallowly through my nose.
I’ve read about powerful heroines in my books. Dragon riders, witches, chosen ones. I am all of those women right now.
And I will be the hero he needs me to be.
Gymnast vaults over the hedge and plants one of her spider spears in Bastian’s arm as the other reaches for the illusion of me.
She opens her arm blades to cut my head clean off, but Bastian headbutts her.
Their collision rings like a hammer on an anvil and Gymnast’s body drops to the hay beside me.
It’s dazed, and I’m scared, but I don’t waste the opportunity to leap on it, straddling her chest and pinning her arms. I stab the dagger down into her face, popping her right eye.
Blue squelches out from the socket as I remove the blade.
I stab down again, and again, until the thing below me stops twitching.
Bastian screams in pain behind me and suddenly, there’s fire in the air. My head whips over my shoulder to see him letting lose a bout of flame thirty feet long. It catches the tail end of Nightgown, lighting her clothes. The shift burns off her, revealing very human-looking anatomy.
What the fuck is it…?
Bastian curls forward, cradling a gushing wound on his shoulder where my illusion once sat. Nightgown’s glinting gaze locks on me, and she dashes across the maze. I hold up the dagger and summon whatever magic is left into my hand.
Bastian’s claw smashes down on the hay in front of me, forcing Nightgown to leap over the gap. His golden spear whiffs just below her feet as Bastian collapses forward, his eyes closed.
I call for lightning, but it doesn’t come. My chest feels so empty, and so heavy at the same time. My magic is expended…
One of her ropey tentacles snaps the dagger from my hand, ripping the flesh across my knuckles. I pull my arm in reflexively and cradle it to my hollow chest.
My heart thunders loudly as my eyes dart between the unconscious Bastian and the approaching nightmare.
“No loose ends,” she whispers. “As Master commands.”
I can’t believe I’m going to die to a freaking Terminator.
I wish I was like the heroines from my books.
I wish I’d trained my magic more.
The robot lunges, a wide leer splitting her doll-like face.
I suck in my last breath.
I wish I’d told him I loved him, at least once.
Claws close around the robot, stabbing into her gut and throat.
They squeeze and she twitches, her arm blades flailing and cutting at the talons impaling her.
Bastian’s thumb comes up to her head and pushes hard, his nail spearing through her mechanical skull.
Blue goo spills from her slack jaw, and sparks fly from her eyes.
Bastian’s hand slackens and she falls to the ground with a clatter. I run across the ruined hay maze and fall onto him. His eyes roll in their sockets and his head lolls about.
“Bast, hey, you’re going to be okay,” I say frantically as I touch his wound.
His body shrinks below me until he’s my size again.
“Hey, answer me,” I urge as I pull my bag over my shoulder.
“You love me,” he mumbles, black blood painting his lips. “I…heard you.”
The wound on his shoulder was done at an angle. It’s pierced his upper lungs. Fuck.
I sniff back tears as I pull out his soulbound book. “Let me read.”
“I heard your heart…call to me,” he slurs.
“Call me Ishmael,” I start, pointing my finger at the words as blood runs down my knuckles onto the page. I swipe it away and keep going.
“Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse.” My voice trembles as his cold hand caresses my cheek. “And nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.”
There’s a loud, electric snap somewhere near the maze and I gasp. I know that sound…
It’s a portal.
“Run,” Bastian mumbles.
“No,” I whimper, tears spilling down my chin.
“Please, lovely. S—save yourself.”
“I won’t leave you,” I say through clenched teeth, biting back a sob. “I’d rather die.”
“No,” he moans. “Live. Please.”
“I can’t, not without you,” I say, curling over him. I plant a gentle kiss on his blood-stained lips. “I love you.”
His chest hitches in a silent cry as he grasps the back of my neck and kisses me again.
The tromp of heavy feet shake the earth as they draw near. I stuff Bastian’s book back in my bag and I grab the dagger the robot had smacked from my hand. Moonlight shivers on the blade as my muscles tremble.
“Clear,” a male says, and the feet tromp forward again.
My heart sings with hope.
Could it be? Police?
But the portal…
I grip the blade tighter, trying to still my hand. I’m breathing too fast, and darkness is creeping in at the edges of my vision.
A head peeks around the corner of the maze and then disappears.
“Here!”
The robots didn’t talk to each other. This is something else.
A man in dark robes—like wizard robes—comes around the corner. There’s a green plus sign on his chest with two arrows above it.
“Lower your weapon, ma’am,” he says as he approaches with hands raised. “I’m here to help.”
“Who are you?”
Another wizard comes around the corner, this one a woman in black with a red circle on her chest.
“We’re here for your registration, witch,” she says, not adopting the placating gesture like the male.
She strides forward confidently, passing the other man and stopping before us. I swipe at her but miss, only throwing myself over Bastian. I push off him, holding the blade with a weak hand and an elbow wedged in the dirt.
She looks down at us and harumphs with amusement.
“I’d heard their mates were dedicated, but to the death?” the man says with bewilderment.
“If only we could be so lucky,” she says as she clicks her tongue.
“Don’t…touch,” I growl, holding the blade higher.
She toes it away with a nudge of her boot, then looks at Bastian.
“Hello, Creature Nine E Five Seven C,” she says casually. “Time for your formal registration, too.”