by Linsey Hall
It collapsed in a puddle of oil.
“Gross.” I was covered in the stuff.
“Well done!” Ana cried.
“That’s the last of them!” Caro called.
I looked around, realizing we’d taken out every single one. They were puddles of oil dotted over the dark landscape, gleaming in the light of the constantly striking lightning.
Cade caught my eye. “Good job.”
I pulled off the goggles, grateful to see again. “Yeah. Not a bad team.”
He grinned, pulling off his goggles. The skin around his eyes was pretty much the only clean part of him. He lifted a shirt to wipe at the oil, revealing a swatch of hard stomach and smooth skin.
I turned away, ignoring the extremely poorly timed warmth in my belly—and inspected the oncoming barrier of thorny hedges. Lightning strikes illuminated them, revealing them to be all thorns and branches—not a single leaf. The thorns were each about a foot long. Wooden daggers.
“Twenty bucks those thorny things start whipping out at us!” Haris called.
“Not taking that bet,” Ali said.
“Me neither,” Caro said. “You always take the obvious ones.”
I eyed them, considering. There were at least four rows of deadly hedges between us and the giant monsters prowling the yard in front of the big brick building. There were gaps in the hedges that we could drive through, but they were all narrow.
The thorny limbs could strike out at us. There were so many that we probably couldn’t beat them all off. And what if they hit a tire?
I glanced back at Ana, who grinned at me.
“Thinking what I’m thinking?” she said.
“Yep. But don’t slow the car.”
“As if I would ever.” She shot me a mock offended look.
I stashed my sword and shield in the ether, and my body fell into the remembered routine of switching places while on the road. Ana and I were used to this kind of shit—we might be newbs at the Academy, but this kind of thing was our jam.
I unhooked my harness and moved toward the cockpit.
“Put your foot on the gas, Ali,” Ana said.
We used to pull this maneuver with Rowan, but after she’d disappeared, we’d usually get a client to help us make the switch.
Ali did as instructed, sticking his leg down into the well and pressing on the gas. Ana unhooked her seatbelt and climbed over the railing onto the front platform. She kept a hand on the wheel until I grabbed it as I climbed into the driver’s seat and took her place.
I pressed my foot to the gas. “I got it.”
Ali let go.
The car never slowed.
“Everyone get low!” Ana said. She looked back at me. “Punch it.”
I laid on the gas and the buggy leapt forward. Everyone crouched low except for Ana, who raised her hands. Her magic swelled on the air, and her shimmery pearlescent shield formed around us. It covered the buggy like a dome.
As we neared the first row of thorny hedges, I felt a sharp prickling against my skin. A warning. There’s more where this came from.
The first branch lashed out at Ana, cracking against her shield and shattering into shards of wood. The shield flared white from the impact, but held strong. Another thorny vine flew, this one larger. It smashed against Ana’s shield. She winced, crouching low, but kept her shield strong.
My stomach jumped as a massive branch slammed into my sister’s shield. Sweat rolled down her temples from the strain.
I pressed harder on the gas, giving the buggy every bit of speed it could manage. The massive tires ate up the ground, bumping over rocks and dirt.
“Almost there!” I yelled.
Ana’s shield was almost opaquely white from all the blows it’d received. She was sweating and red-faced, her muscles trembling.
By the time we made it to the other side, everyone looked tense. Ana dropped her shield immediately, sagging against the railing. Cade grabbed her, keeping her from falling into the gross oily puddle on the platform.
“I got it. I’m good.” Ana panted and stood.
I slowed the vehicle a bit, dropping down from the mad 100 mph we’d been doing to a more reasonable 60. This wasn’t exactly highway-grade land, and the only light we had came from the lightning strikes.
“Let’s trade,” Ana said.
I nodded.
Ana had just started to climb over the railing when Caro screamed. “Watch out!”
My gaze darted up, away from Ana and toward the ground ahead of us.
It’d risen up like a wave of dirt. A wall of dirt.
Oh shit.
Caro hurtled past me, having leapt off the back platform like a gazelle, and climbed onto the front platform next to Cade. Ana tumbled off into the front seat.
Caro threw out her hands, directing a sharp stream of water toward the earthen wave.
The magical water hose cut through the dirt from left to right, slicing it down the middle. The stuff collapsed, the wall of dirt crumbling down.
“Hang on!” I swerved right, barely managing to avoid the massive pile of earth that would wreak havoc on the front of the buggy. The left tires rode up on the edge of the dirt pile, nearly tipping us.
Cade and Caro clung to the railings at the front. My seatbelt cut hard into my skin, and Ali kept an exhausted Ana from tumbling out the side of the car. Haris whooped, clearly enjoying our near crash.
The buggy slammed upright back onto the ground. I let up on the gas just a bit.
“We’re almost to the giant monsters!” I looked at Ana, the question in my eyes.
“Yeah, I’ll drive.” She straightened, already looking a bit better. She’d used up a lot of magic back there—most of it, if I had to guess—but there was no room for quitting.
We made the trade as Caro returned to her spot in the back, and I climbed up next to Cade.
Ahead of us, four giant beasts prowled. From a distance, it’d been hard to determine what exactly they were.
Up close, it wasn’t any easier.
“They look like a cross between boars and alligators,” Ali said.
“HellBeast,” Cade said. “Straight from Hell. Kill one, and it’ll wake up back home, sleeping at the foot of Satan.”
“Good,” Haris said. “We’ll take care of two of them. Send them back to Daddy.”
Ana drove toward the monsters, the last obstacle between us and the big building that gleamed black under every lightning strike. The HellBeasts turned toward us, eyes blazing red and bright.
We were about twenty yards from them when Ali shouted, “We’re out!”
“See you later!” Haris jumped off the back of the truck. Ali followed. They sprinted away from the buggy.
“Hey, Uggo!” Ali shouted.
One of the beasts turned and raced after him, massive feet pounding at the earth.
Haris ran straight at the HellBeast closest to him. The creature’s eyes were riveted to the buggy, but Haris raised a hand to his mouth and whistled. The sound pierced the night, loud and sharp.
The creature’s head swung left, its eyes gleaming. Then it charged for Haris.
Haris charged it right back, leaping up just as the beast neared him and disappearing into its face.
Weird.
The creatures stopped, stood stock-still, then jerked toward one of its fellows, looking like a beast yanking against a lead.
Haris was clearly trying to get it to attack one of the other monsters, but it was resisting. Unwilling to fight its brethren?
Ali’s creature was doing the same. They appeared to give up at the same time. Both possessed monsters sprinted for the brambles, away from us.
“Woo! Nice!” Ana called.
I grinned. This was monster fighting of the best variety. We’d send them right back to Hell, where they probably preferred being anyway.
Cade pointed his sword toward the monster on the left. “I’ll take him.”
“Have fun.”
He grinned. “Se
e you later.”
He stashed his sword and shield in the ether, then leapt off the buggy, easily catching his footing on the ground, and sprinted toward one of the monsters. He shifted as he ran, blue light swirling around him to reveal the massive wolf. He might be four times bigger than a normal wolf, but the demon monster dwarfed him.
Cade leapt for the beast’s throat.
Caro appeared next to me on the front platform. “Let’s tag team this last one.”
“Deal.”
The beast was about thirty feet away, prowling toward us. Ana slowed the buggy. Caro raised her hands and shot a jet of water at it. It plowed into the beast’s shoulder, blasting straight through it.
The creature roared.
“I’m a bit tapped out.” Caro panted. “Won’t be able to do much of this.”
She shot it again, in the leg this time. It roared, thrashing its alligator-shaped head. I leapt off the buggy, stumbling briefly, then charged the creature.
The rank scent of its magic was indistinguishable from the horrible curse stink that flowed from the huge building. It was bad enough to make my eyes water.
Caro hit the creature one last time, straight in the chest. The beast slowed, going to a knee. I ran, leaping onto its leg and then scrambling onto its back. Its leathery hide scratched my hands like sandpaper.
Something pale blue in its mouth caught my eyes. A tiny baby sock?
This thing ate babies?
Oh, this thing had to go.
The creature shook like a dog, trying to throw me off, but I clung to its neck. It paused long enough to allow me to rise up and call my sword from the ether.
The hilt appeared in my hand. I punched the blade down into the creature’s skull. I grunted at the impact, driving the blade deep.
The beast shuddered and fell, immediately disappearing in a poof of dusty, dark magic. Returning to Hell.
I crashed against the ground, covered in the dusty remains of HellBeast.
“Gross.” I spat out black dust, which stuck to every inch of my skin that was covered in the black oil. “This place is seriously disgusting.”
Across the way, Cade polished off the last HellBeast, tearing out its throat in a spray of black blood. Ana and Caro had made a big loop to pick up Ali and Haris, who’d lost their beasts somehow. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what they’d done to them, to be honest.
The buggy sped toward me. I staggered to my feet.
Whatever was inside that creepy, black building had better be impressive, considering the protections that surrounded it.
The crew on the buggy clapped as they approached.
“Well done!” Ali shouted.
Caro grinned and reached down off the front platform, offering to give me a hand up as Ana slowed the buggy. I grabbed her hand and jumped, scrambling over the railing.
Cade loped back to us, his gray wolf muzzle streaked with black HellBeast blood. He leapt into the air, shifting in a flash of blue light before landing on the platform next to us.
“Not bad.” Caro nodded. “You trainees know your shit.”
I bowed. “Thank you, thank you.”
But the moment of levity was brief.
Ana was driving us closer to the creepy building, and it was hard not to notice the strength of the dark magic surrounding it. I’d almost become inured to the stink, but it managed to surprise me.
Worse, my muscles felt weaker. My brain a bit foggier.
“Do you guys feel that?” Ana asked.
“Aye,” Cade said. “The curse definitely originates from here.”
The exterior walls and the building were entirely black from it, the walls looking crumbled and decayed. There was one exterior wall that surrounded the property lawn. Through the wrought iron gate, I caught sight of a large building within.
“I think you can ram it,” I said. The buggy, with its reinforced grille meant specifically to break through things, was perfect for the job.
“Everyone get off the front platform,” Ana said.
We climbed off, finding seats in the main cockpit. Ali and Haris took the back seat.
“Hang on!” Ana pressed on the gas, and the buggy jumped forward. She laughed as she sped toward the gate at breakneck speed.
The vehicle plowed through, breaking apart the iron gate in an explosion of metal. Dark magic surrounded our vehicle.
13
I gagged at the increased strength of the dark magic and looked around. The interior of the compound reminded me a bit of the castle, with a large lawn and the scent of the sea. Skeletal oak trees reached for the dark sky, their tips blackened by lightning. In the middle sat a large, square building. It looked old, but details were obscured by the black, sooty curse that covered every inch of it.
A broken fountain sat in the middle of it all, a relic of a time when this place was maintained.
There was no one around, and the abandoned air was strong.
“There’s no way this place is actually empty,” I said. “There has to be guards or—”
As if on cue, figures spilled out of the large doors in the middle of the building. They were each cloaked in black, with hoods covering their faces. Some had horns sticking out from the cloaks.
The demons roared and charged us, weapons glinting in the light. One hurled a fireball that Ana dodged around. It plowed into the ground near us.
“Out of the buggy!” Ana said.
She was right. No need to draw their fire here. We didn’t want to lose our ride out. We couldn’t walk back in the time we had before the portal closed. I figured we were down to about two hours now.
She stopped the vehicle, and we piled out, racing for the demons.
Next to me, my friends plunged into battle. Ali and Haris possessed any demon that got near them. The demons immediately began to fight each other, with Ali and Haris jumping out of their bodies before the death blow took its effect.
Caro drew a sword and lunged for the demon nearest her. Her water power was probably running low, but she could do some serious damage with that blade.
Ana hurled her daggers, while Cade drew his sword.
I eyed the fountain, feeling the water within. I called to it, picking it up like I had an invisible bucket, and slamming it into the demon who charged me.
It plowed into him, sending him flying onto his face with enough force that he left a foot-deep skid mark in the dirt.
He didn’t get up.
Damn, I could move some water.
I could feel even more of it, coming from behind this building. The ocean? A lake? It was a little bit too far away for me to use, but knowing it was there was cool.
I fought my way toward the great wooden doors, using my sword to take out any demon that stood in my way. They were fast, however. One slammed a fireball into my shin, leaving a shining red burn that sang with pain at every step.
But I was closer. Only twenty feet from the door now, and a path was cleared.
“Go!” Caro shouted. “We’ll take care of the rest.”
Ana, Cade, and I were the ones closest to the door. There were still a dozen demons left.
“You sure you can handle this?” I shouted.
Haris and Ali just laughed.
Well, that settled that.
“Thanks!” I raced for the door, dodging a fire mage’s blast.
I yanked open the wooden door, Cade and Ana at my side. We hurried into an empty entry foyer. A flickering, candle-filled chandelier hung from the ceiling, illuminating the gloomy interior.
The curse had blackened the entire space, including a large crucifix on the far wall.
“A monastery,” Cade said.
“Not a monastery anymore.” I looked around. “No way monks did this.”
“No. It’s been reused.” Ana brushed away some of the blackness from the ground with her foot. “Look at this.”
I peered down. A nine-sided star had been gouged into the floor. Burned into it.
That was new.
But when Ana’s worried gaze met mine, I wasn’t so sure.
I looked away. “Come on. We need to hurry.”
I started left, having no idea where to go now that we were here. Maybe we’d get lucky and meet a helper like Squido, though I doubted it.
As a group, we crept through the quiet hall of the building. Magic vibrated on the air, even stronger than it had been out on the lawn.
“Feel that?” I asked.
“Aye,” Cade murmured.
“Coming from a person, I think,” Ana said.
She was right. I couldn’t get an exact handle on the magical signature—the reek of the curse was too great for that—but it had a distinct living feel to it. Magical signatures from objects usually felt a bit more dead without the strong sensory output living magical signatures had.
The hall we crept through was abandoned, every inch covered in the dark curse. Flicking oil lamps lit our way. Would there be more guards here?
We passed doors to empty rooms, but none caught my eye until we saw one where a relatively clean desk sat.
“Guys,” I whispered and pointed to the desk. “Check that out.”
“It’s not hit by the curse,” Ana murmured.
I went toward the room, making sure it was empty before I snuck in.
“Guard the door,” I said to Cade.
He nodded and set up guard.
Maybe I should feel a little bad about bossing him around, but he was the best option for brute force defense.
And I was close to answers. I could feel it.
There was nothing I wanted more than answers. Why had one of those oily monsters called my name? Called me here?
My heart thundered as I crept through the room, waiting for someone to jump out at me even though I’d seen no one here.
The only two pieces of furniture were a single desk and chair. Though there was nothing on the desk, I rooted through the drawers. Blank paper, pens, nothing of importance.
My fingertips brushed the leather cover of a book. A tiny book. I pulled it out.