by Box Set
"I've never seen this in my own experience." She started carefully, like she was surrounding the discussion, trying to decide how best to attack it. "It's only been a rumor in our inner circles. Some say it is Fate, warning you so that when it happens, it doesn't hurt you so much."
I snorted. Right, because watching it over and over made it so much better.
A ghost of a smile graced her lips. "Others say it is Fate warning you—that you will be her downfall."
As I felt the blood drain from my face and my heart freeze in my chest, she rushed to continue, "But I believe, as do many others, that it is Fate giving you the information you need to stop it. Perhaps that's why things between you two have always been so very deep. You were meant to save her."
Or kill her. You know, whichever.
"Joanna." Elizabeth pointed into the darkness, where there was barely a rustle of movement through the long grasses. "It comes."
"Get that bat, boy." Blair motioned back to the car with his head before raising the rifle to his shoulder, sighting through the scope. Obediently, I hurried to the trunk, grinning when I saw what he called a baseball bat—an over sized club with spikes all the way around it. I pitied the ball that got hit with that thing. I hefted it in my hand to get the feel of it, watching as Joanna raised her swords. Elizabeth suddenly had a shimmering ax in her hands that seemed to draw power from the moonlight.
Those must be the soul blades they'd mentioned this morning.
The relief I felt at a weapon that could finally kill this thing was enough to knock me flat. And that relief made me pause. Maybe I wasn't strong enough to be in Navi's dangerous life. Maybe I wasn't brave enough.
Those eyes, her voice, flashed across my mind like she was there in front of me. My Angel. And I knew it didn't matter if I was a coward or weak. It didn't matter how scared I was—with Navi, I didn't have a choice. I had to be in her life. I had to have her in my arms.
That was it. Nothing else mattered.
The demon leaped out of the grass and onto the road with an inhuman scream that would haunt my every waking moment for the rest of my life. It was different now— it seemed to be a mix of a spider and a dog with a human-like face, and its red glowing eyes were focused with so much fury right on me.
Suddenly my spiked bat didn't seem so comforting.
It screamed again, crawling so fast it blurred, straight at us, like Joanna and Blair and their weapons didn't matter at all. And I thought maybe they didn't and I was going to die and I was glad that I had told Navi I loved her.
And then Blair fired the gun.
It hit the thing in the face and sent it hurtling backward into the grass. There was no way it could survive that. Even though I knew only the soul blades could kill the demons, it seemed impossible to come back from a hit in the face by a bullet.
But it did.
Shrieking, it rolled back on its feet, black blood gushing from the wound. But it only seemed angrier. Blair reloaded but Joanna was already in motion, flying through the air like an acrobat, swords glinting in the moonlight. They didn't glow, like Elizabeth's, but they moved so fast they sung in the darkness, chopping at the creature as it screeched and lunged with its claws. Elizabeth threw herself into the battle, and now I could see the real damage their blades could do.
But it wasn't enough.
It threw them off as Blair's gun exploded again, and the thing got hit again, but it was back on its feet and racing toward me faster than ever, bleeding from a thousand different wounds. It shrieked and lunged and I, suddenly grateful for twelve years of baseball practices, swung that bat for all I was worth. I felt it connect, felt the spikes run deep, felt the claw graze my chest, and then it flew backward.
Right into Joanna's battle ax.
Impaled and trapped, it fought to free itself. But it wasn't trying to attack Joanna or Elizabeth who walked right in front of it.
Me. Just me. It only wanted me.
Elizabeth raised her sword, long and delicate and so fitting for her ghostly frame, and swung it down across its neck. The scream coming from the broken, trapped demon was silenced as the head rolled away from the body.
A soul, one I hadn't even seen until now, shook itself free. It was a woman I'd seen around town. She sobbed and threw herself into Elizabeth's arms. Elizabeth patted her on the back and spoke low, soothing words and watched me over the woman's ghostly head. A brief smile lit her face and she nodded.
"It is done," she said.
Four of us against one demon and we'd barely survived. But Navi was ten times more powerful than her mother, and her blades would kill these things.
I prayed that my tough little Angel was strong enough to fight them all.
Chapter 52
Navi
Sudden, paralyzing fear flooded through me and I found myself frozen to the spot. "Death, help me," I whispered.
"She's not going to wait for your bravery, Navi. And your souls need you now. Pull it together!" His scythe gleamed in the moonlight. Like my blades, given power by the moon. Like my blades.
My blades.
Kali and Golly.
I was free, my hands reaching almost without my brain telling them to, grabbing my swords. Their familiar weight gave me strength. "Let's go, Garmr!" I yelled. He barked, the sound sending waves across the beach, knocking my souls off their feet and sending the demons reeling backward into the water.
"Nice!" I raised my swords. "Let's do it again! Souls!" I screamed. "Give him some room!"
My souls fled backward, creating a tunnel straight to the demons. Garmr and Gwendolyn bounded forward, barking and snarling as flames leaped from their mouths and melted the sand, turning it into swirling molten glass.
The demons screeched, trying to go around. My army swarmed them, meeting them at the water's edge. I hurled myself from Garmr's back and landed in a crouch on the other side of the quickly cooling glass.
"Navi!" Bryson appeared next to me. "I know you're busy. I just—just be careful, okay? Konstanz can’t lose us both." And then he was gone, just like that. Hopefully somewhere far away from this hellish place, where he was safe.
The sea witch rose out of the water in front of me. I'd heard rumors, but hadn't been prepared for her beauty. Long blond hair swirled around her, silver waves sliding through it. Wide, sea-green eyes stared at me with such a furious hatred my blood ran cold. She raised her hand with a shriek, and the water rose with her. "Garmr, run!" I screamed as she threw the waves over us all.
Because flaming dogs and water do not mix.
It dragged me out toward sea, toward her doorway. I coughed and choked as I fought my way back to the sand, kicking hard through the water. She was making her way up the beach by the time I got back on my feet. Thankfully, Garmr and Gwendolyn stood beyond her water's reach, barking and snarling, making each step she took as difficult as possible.
Death rose from Gwendolyn's back, scythe shooting flames of its own.
"This is not your fight to be involved in, Death." Her voice was like silk, pulling me toward her, lulling me into a comfortable trance. "You are not allowed to interfere."
"You attacked my dogs. I think that gives me the right." Death sounded almost conversational. I waded out of the water and hit the beach, leveling my swords. I could see the souls, hundreds of thousands, caught on her back, creating a protection against the rising sun. If we didn't force her back into the water, they'd all be lost.
Bryson would be lost.
I looked around wildly, but there was so much movement, so much flurrying and screaming and slicing. And then I caught sight of him, fighting with borrowed weapons, across the beach from me, near the northern wall of Devil's Gate's interior. I was so afraid for him that I nearly found myself paralyzed again, and without Elizabeth or Death to tell me to snap out of it.
Which means I had to tell myself. "Knock it off, Navi," I snarled. Bryson would be okay. He would fight and if he was taken, I would save him, just like I would any of my other souls
. Leaping out of the water onto damp sand, I ran stealthily at the sea witch. She had the body of an octopus, with eight legs like in the Little Mermaid fairytale, and those legs protected her torso.
"Go back to your domain, Death." She sang sweetly, but it had no effect on him.
"No." He lowered his scythe, meeting my eyes and as the fire shot across the beach at her, I raced forward, slipping and sliding across the glass. The dogs barked, the ground shook, the sand melted and burned my feet and legs. And I ran. I threw myself at her just as Death's fire hit her, whirling Kali and Golly over my head and driving them down. She screamed and screamed as her legs flailed around her, beating at Death's flames, trying to lunge free of my swords.
One leg collapsed and withered into dry, dead seaweed. "Seven more," I panted. Souls that had been caught on the leg were freed and raced away, but some—some of them stayed, picking up fallen weapons. I watched them in shock, wondering how they found the courage. Which was stupid—you never watch souls in shock while you're within range of sea witch legs. Six more swung around and I didn't move fast enough—I threw myself back but slid on the half-cooled glass, and stumbled as three legs at once slammed into my body. Ribs cracked and snapped as I flew through the air, landing hard half in the water, half out. Demons swarmed me, their claws stabbing and pulling at my soul.
But my army would not let me go. They fell on the demons as I struggled to rise to my feet, bloody and broken but not beaten. I swung my swords up, chanting the ancient lyrics, and more ghosts rose from the ground around us as my swords hummed with me. I slashed my way free, feeling every hit, every soul freed. Whirling between claws and teeth, I scissored Kali and Golly through the demon's head. It gurgled and collapsed and I sprang on top of it, using it as a launching pad to throw myself onto the back of another demon. My blades rammed into its neck and I pulled them apart, slicing through the neck. The head rolled free.
I felt claws tearing at my skin, tugging on my soul, and I could feel the moon's power fading. I wasn't healing as fast or moving as fast. None of us were. The sun was rising and Death still fought the sea witch, Garmr and Gwendolyn keeping her away from the walls of Devil's Gate with their fierce, flame-ridden barks. She couldn't get around them, but unless we drove her back into the ocean, it wouldn't matter soon.
Ignoring the pain, ignoring the screams of my souls, I threw myself over the frenzied bodies and landed on the other side. The demons followed me, of course they followed me, but I ran faster than they did, around the glass to her side. I hurtled Kali through the air, watching in satisfaction as it shot past the legs and impaled itself into her side. "Kali, stay," I murmured when it shimmered and started to return to me. I needed it to stay there and cause more damage.
She screamed, her legs flailing, but I danced out of the way, using Golly to slice through the demons nearest me. They fell under the onslaught. We were gaining the upper hand. Death's scythe leveled whole lines of demons at once, when he wasn't fighting the sea witch.
She jerked her hands up with a skull-shattering shriek, throwing more water at me. I gasped for air, fighting to stay on the sand as the waves tugged me out, toward the ocean, toward her lair. "You will not beat me," I growled under my breath as I fought my way back to her side.
"Hey you stupid monster!" My blood froze as a kitchen knife whizzed past my face, embedding itself into the witch's neck. "Leave her alone!"
Konstanz. Konstanz was here.
"Noooo," I moaned as she climbed over the rock into the interior.
"I told you," she yelled, as if it were possible to hear me over all the screaming, "I wouldn't abandon you again!" Somehow, despite how careful I was, we'd opened her eyes. And now she thought she could save me. My heart shattered in my chest—more painful than when Alec had broken it, more painful than anything, ever.
The demons saw her, their focus suddenly taken from me and my army, and they raced toward her, climbing the wall like possessed spiders. "Konstanz, run!" I screamed, leaving the sea witch to go after her pets. My army joined me, the ghosts leaping up the sides of rock to hover in the air—a nifty little trick that I couldn't do.
And Konstanz, my brave, sweet friend Konstanz, who had been by my side through so much, stood on the rock like a goddess and hurtled sharp kitchen utensils like a professional knife thrower.
Bryson appeared next to her, swinging his borrowed blades like he'd been born to it, bashing demon faces when they got too close. "We'll protect her, Navi!" Don yelled as he raced past me. "Kill the witch!"
Right, the witch. It took more will than I knew I possessed, but I spun and ran back across the beach. The sea witch was distracted by Death, throwing water and screaming and trying to lure him close enough that she could catch him, and she didn't see me coming.
Blood gushed from the wound in her neck, and from the wound in her side. I slid across the glass, using it to my advantage this time, skidding under her legs as I grabbed Kali and wrenched it free, causing as much damage as possible.
I felt the legs hit me, the suckers attach, the overwhelming pull of my soul. I could feel it breaking free from my body and I saw Konstanz fighting and Alec telling me he loved me and my mother training me and riding Garmr and all these memories.
But I wasn't done yet. She'd killed my grandmother and she could kill me too, but I was taking her down with me. Because if she lived, Konstanz, Alec, my dad—they were all in danger forever.
I couldn't let that happen.
I swung the blades sideways, hitting the legs that held my soul and twisted them apart, like separating a head of lettuce. She shrieked as a leg was wrenched away from her body. It writhed on the beach before withering away and the souls escaped. I closed my eyes and tugged my own soul back, feeling it settle as the first rays of the sun hit the top of the wall.
"Death! We're out of time!" I yelled. He nodded. Garmr roared forward, snapping and lunging, fangs bared. He caught a leg in his teeth and shook until it fell off. Gwendolyn followed and Death, now standing alone, hit the witch again and again with flames from his scythe.
I slid into the space left from the removed legs and attacked her body. I felt other legs hit me, break me, attach and fall off, tug at my soul, and give up, but I kept swinging and plunging, dancing out of the way when I could and taking the hits when I couldn't.
She started to move back. Back toward her water, trying to escape the dogs or trying to lure them into the waves—I wasn't sure which.
I stayed with her. She swung at me, trying to get me out of her weak spot. With every hit, I freed a soul. With every stab and every swing I freed more. She didn't have enough souls left to protect her from the sun, but she didn’t seem to care. Her focus now was me—she wanted me dead. I was covered in her blood and in my blood, and I wasn't healing like I would have in the moonlight. I couldn't check on Konstanz or Bryson. I had to move as fast as she did, even knowing that once we reached the water, I had no way out.
I'd go down with her.
It didn't matter though. I was grateful I had told Alec I loved him. I was grateful I got to see my mom and dad one last time.
We hit the water. I felt her gathering it, ready to wash me into the doorway with her. She was giving up her chance at freedom to take my soul, and there was nothing I could do about it.
The waves washed over me. The doorway shimmered in the inky blackness below us, swirling like a whirlpool. She laughed as we were drawn toward it, lulling me into a trance even as it sent terror shooting down my spine.
Teeth chomped around my ankle, very hot teeth that burned my skin and shattered the bone. I screamed, water filling my lungs as I was dragged back, back toward the beach and the sun and life and away from her doorway.
She shrieked in fury, reaching for me, but she was too far away. Her claws swiped across my throat but not enough to reach my soul, and then she was gone and I was on the beach. The sun shone weakly through the clouds.
"Konstanz, don't look at him! You'll die!" I heard Bryson yell.
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Death. Mortal. Right.
I crab-walked backward onto the sand, as far away from the water as I had the energy to get. Then I collapsed, feeling my blood ebb and flow away. "Death, please don't take her yet," I murmured, closing my eyes. "She was just trying to help."
"I think it's you we should be worried about." Death, in his insanity, sounded amused.
"No! You can't have her! I need her!" Konstanz was sobbing, apparently not caring at all that she was mortal and to look into the face of Death was not allowed.
"Konstanz, you can't—" I murmured.
"NO!" she bellowed. "I'm a vet. I can stitch her up. She'll be fine! Just—I won't look at you. Please let me help her!" Tears pooled in my eyes as she fought to keep me here. Like Death was not the ally he was.
"Bryson," I whispered because Elizabeth was not here and Konstanz couldn't hear me over all her shrieks. "Tell Alec I love him."
"Tell him yourself, Navi. You aren't leaving until you save my soul," Bryson said gently.
I smiled.
"Navi, you are one of my most powerful agents. You fought the sea witch and drove her back into the ocean. It is your choice—will you come with me now or will you stay to fight another battle?"
Konstanz fell to her knees next to me, whimpering. "If you say you'll go with him I will be so mad at you!"
"Navi!" Alec's voice, from a distance, but it seemed to heal my heart and my torn soul. Had I told Death I'd come with him? Was Alec's voice my afterlife? "Navi, please!"
"Alec! Joanna! She's hurt!" Konstanz could barely speak through her crying. Apparently, I was still alive. Unless Konstanz was my afterlife, too.