Chapter Seven
Kenyon
“I won the science fair,” the oldest, Rebecca, said with a huge smile on her face as she ate a piece of candy Ingram had given her. She still had her two siblings beside her, never letting them go far, but she’d relaxed since we’d stretched out in a clearing just a ways from the house.
I’d found that the places that had more from our world seemed to draw monsters faster, meaning often the sparse forest was a better resting spot when trying to avoid them.
“What was the project on?” Yun asked.
Rebecca smiled wider, showing that while she might not care for us, Yun was a big exception.
Same, kid. “I looked at whether the process of creating orange juice changed the Vitamin C amount within the juice. We looked at cold pressed, homemade, concentrate, all sorts.” Her voice sped up as she spoke, showing her passion.
“That’s amazing. What did you find?”
“That the difference was too small to matter. I can show you my ribbon…” Rebecca’s gaze moved in the direction of the house, or at least the ruins that had once been her house.
I could see in real time the thoughts as they tumbled around in her head, as she realized that she would likely never get her ribbon back—or her life.
“You can show me later,” Yun said, her soft voice coaxing the girl not to focus on that. “Do you like science?”
Rebecca swallowed hard. Kids were better than they should ever have to be at pushing down bad feelings like that, at moving forward even when it would have been so easy to break. I’d seen full-grown adults go hysterical, but these three kids still held it together.
Which reminded me of the future I couldn’t have—a family.
“I want to be a scientist,” she said, voice softer than it had been, shadows in those young eyes of hers. “I went to a summer camp last year and we did all these experiments, and I thought, this is what I want to do.”
“You know, I could get you a tour at the Guild,” I said. “They’ve got a huge research department there.”
Her blue eyes brightened. “What do they study?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I’m not really a science guy. But I know it’s big, and some of the world’s best scientists work there. You do well in school and you can probably even do an internship there in a few years.”
And just like that, she didn’t seem to fear me anymore. All it took was the right bait and most people gave up their preconceived notions.
Ingram frowned, a subtle shifting of his expression that I easily recognized.
Trouble.
I didn’t have the senses that the others had, couldn’t hear danger as it approached. It meant I’d gotten used to trusting them.
Carter rose almost perfectly in sync with Ingram, like the two had practiced it. At the same time, Shear stepped closer from his spot, which had been farther away so his eerie eyes didn’t freak the kids out.
I scooted closer to the kids, Yun doing the same thing on the other side, wanting to flank the most vulnerable.
“Keep your heads down,” Carter said, voice low.
“How many?” I asked.
“A lot.”
The youngest let out a single, soft whimper but otherwise remained silent. Brave kids.
Yun had her arm around the youngest, but she put on a good front. I knew her well enough to glimpse the fear beneath her exterior, the desire to run herself, to escape the last thing she wanted to face. No matter how strong that desire was, though, she remained still, for them.
I withdrew my own gun, the one strapped to the pack we’d gotten from the esper. Yun did the same, though we both kept them to our sides, out of sight of the kids. They didn’t need to see the weapons, didn’t need to think about the possibility that we might use them.
Thankfully, we didn’t have to wait long before that tense silence broke as the first monster sailed in, using wings that allowed it some height, maneuvering through the trees. The first gave way to more, the beat of those wings so loud that I felt is as much as heard it.
Shear targeted groups of them, causing them to crash to the ground, to break their own necks, but it seemed as though there was no shortage of replacements.
Ingram took them one at a time, slipping into the shadows then out to deliver a killing blow, then back again to repeat the process.
Carter, though, he was always a show-off even if he didn’t intend to be.
He liked to call as many as he could toward him, then take them on in a group, moving like an ocean wave, unrelenting and impossible to stand against.
“It’s okay,” I said to Rebecca. “This is nothing for them.”
Which wasn’t entirely true. It was nothing for them to survive, but keeping civilians alive was always the trickier job.
One monster swept up and over Ingram, then dove toward us, clawed feet outstretched in a lethal reach.
I wasn’t a fighter, but I could handle a pistol.
I lifted it and unloaded a shot, hitting the thing between the eyes.
It hit the ground and skidded forward, not dead but not moving much, either.
It thrashed, feet searching for purchase, jaws opening and closing, but the wound had seemed to scramble its brain enough that it couldn’t focus on us too closely.
Still, it didn’t need to have a thought in its head to land an accidental hit, so I got the kids up and moved us back a few paces. They came with me, probably deciding that I was now far less scary than the thing I’d just shot down.
Yun helped press the kids between us, my attention split between watching for danger and also keeping an eye on the health of my squad.
Another monster broke through the fray, but this time, Carter interceded just before it got close enough for me to take a shot.
He grabbed it by the nape as though it were an unruly pup and tossed it away.
He offered a quick wink toward the kids, as though to reassure them, before returning to the fight.
No matter how many they took down, though, there seemed no end to the monsters that rushed forward. Why? Usually they were drawn toward the portal, but these seemed to have a focus on us.
Maybe it was the noise? Maybe the distance from the portal meant they were drawn by the energy inside of us as espers instead?
Maybe they were just dicks who really wanted to eat children?
The answer didn’t matter, and I wasn’t exactly a scientist, so I focused instead only on keeping the kids from harm, on trying to save them.
A rumble shook the ground in individual blasts, like the quick waves of an earthquake. It wasn’t the sensation of a hundred monsters, but one really big one.
Trees cracked, the shaking worsening, until a moment later something that could have crept right out of a horror film appeared, knocking two trees down to make way.
It was black, with moving purple streaks that ran over its shoulders, its back, with bright purple eyes.
It looked more like a tiger than the others, on four legs with claws that didn’t seem to retract, leaving gouges in the soil beneath it.
It was easily as tall as a house, with a long, whip-like tail covered in spikes.
We rarely saw things this big, and sure hadn’t spotted one the last time we were here.
Dungeons could produce new monsters with time, as though it could change plans and offer up better enemies when needed.
Still, this thing seemed even more outside of the realm of reasonable, like it wanted to make a point to us.
I clutched the gun, thinking that a bullet was going to do much to that thing. Not that I wouldn’t try it if I had to—even the impossible was better than nothing.
“Well, fuck.” Ingram’s voice floated to me even though I couldn’t see him. It suggested he’d slid into the shadows somewhere right around where I stood, and he appeared again just beside and above the monster, falling to its back, gripping a patch of fur over its shoulder blade.
The entire battle grew louder as the three espers tried to counter this huge monster while also keeping back the waves of smaller beasts.
A gunshot to my left had me turning to see that Yun had taken down a smaller beast, and the girl was handling it well.
Her vitals showed she was stressed, of course, but she was holding on just fine.
At least until the huge monster swiped, taking Shear and throwing him. A quick check told me he had a broken rib, but he’d last long enough for me to heal him once this was over. Still, it took him out of the fight.
With him down, we had no area-of-effect help so the smaller beasts he’d kept at bay swarmed closer like enraged hornets.
More than I could count rushed us, and I lifted my gun, Yun doing the same. I pulled the trigger, unsure how many times, until it clicked instead of firing.
Empty.
I dropped the gun and shoved the kids down, then covered them as best I could with my own body, ready for agony to explode through my back when the first monster took a chunk.
It wasn’t like I could truly protect any of them, but it was better than nothing. Sometimes a few minutes was all a person could offer, but it might just prove enough. Any edge could make the difference between survival and failure.
Rebecca shoved, struggling until she broke free of my grasp. Covering three kids wasn’t easy, and she slipped out, getting to her feet, staring around.
“Get down,” I snapped, just as a monster leapt at her from behind.
Rebecca twisted, and I steeled myself for the inevitable. The thing would take her to the ground under its massive weight, then tear her to pieces. I couldn’t stop it, couldn’t do anything but watch, but try to keep her siblings from seeing it.
She raised her hand, and flames left her fingers, consuming the beast until only ash fell to the ground. She stared in horror at her own hand, as if she didn’t understand what had just happened.
Rebecca stumbled backward, but the monsters charged her, all at once, as though they’d just found their new and favorite target.
She appeared to operate more by instinct than thought, another blast of flames leaving her as though sparked to life in the space around her. She cowered, and heat seared my skin.
Instead of protecting her siblings from monsters, I now protected them from her.
I shifted, keeping my body between the flames and the younger children, but the flames moved as though alive, leaping from one monster to another, not burning so much as disintegrating the creatures, melting them and turning that to dust. What had been an insurmountable number of enemies quickly transformed to the sickening scent of burned hair and flesh, not touching the trees but leaving white ash in the air.
Soon only the big one remained, and Carter and Ingram had the smarts to back off, as though they could guess what was coming next. Ingram was beside Yun in a heartbeat, a hand on her arm as though ready to pull her away if needed.
Rebecca looked around, confusion written all over her too-young face, before collapsing to the ground just as a rush of heat so intense it had me gritting my teeth exploded around her. I did my best to block her siblings from it, but I had no idea if it worked, couldn’t check until this was over.
The beast screamed, though that cut into a gurgle, then silence. I forced my head up to find Rebecca on the ground, still, and no monster left alive, no sound of wings or claws or roars.
We’d just witnessed the awakening of an esper, saw the danger they posed, and watched the entire future that little girl spoke about disappear. She hadn’t just torched the monsters, she’d torched all her dreams at the same time.
Sleeping was probably the best thing she could do right now…