by Wendy Knight
"Yes." Death pointed, a low beam illuminating from his fingertip like a flash light. Well that was a handy little trick I hadn't even known Death possessed. There, lit up under the glow, was a torn piece of calf. It wasn't gory or icky—it was like a piece of paper when you tear a little bit off. Just a ragged edge against the smoothness of the rest of the soul. "If you'd killed the asuwang that took it, the piece would have been freed and he would have been allowed to go back into his body."
"But I killed one of them, and by now the second should be dead—and the other one was chasing Alec."
Death shook his head, dim red eyes lighting the rest of his face inside his hood. "If the piece isn't freed by their deaths, then there must have been another—another that took the piece straight back to their witch because they sensed that he was important to you. The only way to free your friend is to kill the witch." His eyes brightened. "Which is convenient, because she's on her way to land now."
"What?" I gasped, stumbling backward like he'd punched me. "I have to go. I have to get to my souls!" Blast it all, I knew something big was coming, what with the massive attacks and constant deluge of bad guys every night. I knew she was creating a shell to come to land. If she made it to daylight, we were all screwed. She'd devour the entire town and there wouldn't be a thing I could do about it.
I turned to run, but Garmr rose stoically out of the lava in front of me, just as Death had. There was no puppy playfulness in him or his sister this time. "Get on. They will take us to the surface." Suddenly in Death's hands appeared his scythe, glowing red hot and angry. "I will ride with you this time."
"Umm, yeah. I can't ride your dog. I'll die."
"Don't be ridiculous. Your Agent blood protects you." Death sounded utterly exasperated as he leapt astride Garmr's sister. "They're only lethal to humans."
I didn't need to be told twice. My souls were in trouble. The entire city—maybe the country if we didn't stop the sea witch—was in trouble. I clambered up Garmr's side and settled on his back, gripping the poisoned fur. "Bryson! Stay out of her reach!" I yelled as Garmr leaped forward, bounding through the lava tunnels so fast it blurred my vision, and all I could do was follow Death.
"Gwendolyn," he yelled over his shoulder.
Confused, I sat up and smacked my head on the jagged edge of petrified lava. "What?" I winced as the blood soaked down my temple, but I could already feel it healing. Thank you, moon.
"Her name," Death motioned easily to the giant, flaming dog he was riding. "Is Gwendolyn."
We burst from the cave. Bryson was already there, waiting anxiously just beyond the entrance. He backed away and pointed silently down the beach.
Toward Devil's Gate.
My army was there, fighting valiantly, holding the demons at bay. But more arose with each wave, crawling toward them. And the sea, where the gate dropped and I knew the doorway to be, bubbled and steamed and hissed.
I could barely speak around the horror in my throat. "She's rising."
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Alec
"So I hear you've been giving Navi quite a bit of trouble lately." Joanna raised a perfectly arched eyebrow at me as I paced in front of the truck. There was nothing for as far as I could see but rolling hills and yellow grasses. And us. And our cars. And a lot of dark. No ghosts, no demons, no Navi.
"I have." I nodded, not about to piss off her mom. "I'm sorry."
She studied me with those wise, wise brown eyes—more wise than they should have been for as young as she was. And then she nodded. "I know."
I turned to Blair, Navi's dad, the one picking his fingernails with an overly large pocket knife. He'd scared the crap out of me in high school, and that was before I'd broken her heart.
Twice.
"Can—can I ask you something?"
He looked up from his knife. "Yep." He had black hair and light brown eyes, and they were kind eyes, so even though I worried a little that he would hurl that knife at my face, the rational side of me knew he wouldn't.
"How—how do you survive? You're a constant target, right? Since you can see them… how do you not die?"
He tipped his head to the side, considering me with the same wisdom Joanna had. He pursed his lips and set his knife aside, pushing away from the car. "If you really want to make a life with her, Alec, you have to realize something." His eyes were infinitely sad as he laid a hand on my shoulder. I wondered how he saw right through me so easily, how he knew I wanted her for forever with just that one question. "You will always be a target. You will never be safe. You'll move farther inland, which helps, but as long as the sea witch is out there, you'll be a target. They'll hunt you, even more so because the sea witch will realize that you are a tool to hurt the thing she hates most. The Soul's Agent."
I swallowed hard. "But—but you're still alive."
Joanna smiled gently, sliding an arm around my waist and leaning her head against my shoulder. "He traveled a great deal. To stay away from the ocean and out of her reach while I fought her from here. When I retired, we became less of a threat. I don't hunt them anymore, but they still hunt me." She nodded slowly, breathing deeply before she continued, "But remember this when considering your choices." Her voice was so similar to Navi's it made my heart ache. "Navi is ten times more powerful than I ever was. Each generation becomes stronger, and one day we will rid the ocean of the sea witches and we'll be free."
"And one more thing to consider." Elizabeth, who had faded away a while ago so that I thought she'd left us, appeared in front of me. "Navi is the only agent in the history of them all to have ghosts give up their freedom to fight beside her."
Her words, so quiet and so calm, nearly knocked my feet out from under me. "The only one—ever?" She nodded. I knew Navi was sweet. I knew people loved her. I just hadn't, until that very moment, realized there were people out there that loved her as much as I did.
Joanna tensed and then left me, stalking over to the car and pulling swords and a rifle out of the trunk. Of a jaguar. My life had gotten so surreal over the past two days that it the insanity of it all barely fazed me. She handed the gun to Blair, and both of them studied the road leading west.
It was coming.
But it wasn't here yet. I could tell by the way her shoulders relaxed and she resumed pacing like a caged lion—sleek and deadly and beautiful. "Our weapons can't kill it. But we can weaken it and make it easier for Elizabeth."
Elizabeth waited a little in front of the rest of us, like she was eager for the fight. She wasn't much of a talker. I got the feeling she didn't like people much, except Navi. And for her, she seemed willing to protect us all.
"Can I ask you one more thing—one thing I should have asked years ago?" I approached cautiously.
Blair cut me off. "There's a baseball bat in the car."
"I'm really good with guns." I looked pointedly at the one in his hands. "And that wasn't my question."
"Sorry, kid. This one's mine. Hopefully we'll keep it away from you so the bat won't be necessary."
Joanna frowned at him before turning to me, but I could tell I only had half her attention. This was too important to wait until a better time, though. "Every night since I met her, in seventh grade—" I could see dread building in Joanna, by the way she curled in on herself like she knew what was coming. But I couldn't stop talking now. It was like a flood gate was opened and the horror came flooding out. "I have these nightmares where I watch Navi being killed and I can't stop it. I can't do anything about it. Every night, except when she's with me." I finished in a rush and prayed the pain in her eyes was because I'd endured a lifetime of watching the girl I loved die every night.
"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 ma
de 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 THIRTY
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.