Sasha took Annika’s hand, squeezed hard. Then, wrenching her bow off her back, shot a bolt high. It exploded with light, illuminating the swarm streaming silently across the blackened sky.
From both towers gunfire erupted. On the parapet Bran hurled lightning.
Agile and quick, Annika ran to place the vials of light where Bran instructed, leaping to avoid keen wings and vicious beaks. Doyle charged to clear her path, sword lashing.
And the ground began to quake.
From her position on the battlement, Riley reloaded, fired, fired. She hissed when black lightning struck a tree at the verge of the forest, exploded it. As shrapnel rained, the ground burst open to swallow it.
Damned if Nerezza would destroy this place. Damned if she would. Eyes fierce, she took out a swath of flying black death.
She caught the blur of movement to her left, swung around. What had been Malmon grinned at her even as she shot him.
Thick green liquid trickled down his chest.
“She made me stronger. She gave you to me.”
Her next shot missed as he seemed to vanish from one spot, appear in another. Before she could shoot again, he closed a hand around her throat, choked off her voice, her air.
“She is Nerezza. She is my queen. She is all. Give me the stars for my queen, and you may live.”
Riley managed to choke out, “Fuck you,” when he eased his grip.
Now he squeezed harder, lifting her off the ground so her heels drummed the air. “She gave me my pick. I chose you.” Those reptilian eyes barely blinked when she plunged her knife into his belly. “I can take you back, feed off you. I have hunger.”
His tongue snaked out, slid horribly over her cheek.
“The others die here, and the immortal—”
“Hey, asshole.”
Malmon’s head swiveled, front to back. As he blinked, as his clawed fingers loosened fractionally, Riley sucked in air.
Sawyer shot him between the eyes.
“That’s for Morocco.” Dead center of the forehead.
Choking, Riley lifted her gun again, saw there was no need.
“And for Riley.” As Malmon stumbled back, eyes clouding, claws clicking, Sawyer took aim once again. “And that, you son of a bitch, is for Annika.” The last shot simply blew away the face of what the man had become.
Sawyer gripped Riley’s shoulder as she wheezed air in and out. His face was stone, his gray eyes hard as flint. But his voice soothed. “Works for zombies, so you had to figure.”
“Yeah, thanks.”
Malmon didn’t go to ash, but seemed to dissolve, scale, blood, bone, to simply melt into a stain on stone.
Riley swallowed, winced. “I gotta say ick.”
“I’ll go ditto. Okay?”
On a long breath, Riley nodded. Then looked up. “Shit, shit, here come the big guns.”
Nerezza rode the sky on her three-headed beast. Her hair, streaked with gray, flew in the roaring wind. Armed with sword and shield, she sliced the air with black lightning that turned to a rain of fire. Bran hurled his own as Riley and Sawyer ran down to the others.
The
ground sizzled, gardens burst into flame. Beneath them, the quaking ground cracked, opening with fissures where fire spewed.