by Amy Sumida
“Those people in that cave are my mate's family,” Gage said sternly.
The room went quiet as Gage's eyes flashed gold.
“They've been manipulated or scared into submission,” Gage went on. “Which means that they're victims.”
“I don't care what you call them; if they try to kill me, I'm taking them down,” a loup snarled.
The other beneathers applauded.
Gage roared. The sound echoed through the room and sent shivers across my skin.
Everyone froze, even I stared at him in shock. Gage tossed his golden mane and stretched his shoulders as if he were about to challenge all of them.
“If your family were under the sway of an insane god, you'd be asking for leniency as well,” Gage chided them. “Now, I'm not saying that you should put their wellbeing ahead of yours, but, if at all possible, I expect all of you to disarm and incapacitate Poseidon's soldiers instead of kill them. Any who ruthlessly murder those who seek mercy will receive none from me. Do I make myself clear?!”
Gage slid his stare over the gathering and didn't soften it until it landed on me. I mouthed a thank you at him, and he winked at me before returning to his glaring.
“Good,” Gage finally said to the cowed crowd. “Now, those of us with the ability to travel directly to the site will do so while the rest of you will take ships to the location. And this time, I mean ships that travel on top of the water. We don't want to risk losing our transportation again.”
“The Host will transport as many as we can directly to the site,” Lucifer announced as he strode into the room with an angelic escort. He stopped just inside the doorway and slid his sparkling stare to me. “Hello, my vicious. I'm relieved to see you safe.”
“Hi, Luke. Thank you for coming.” In my head I added, I'm relieved to see that I'm not mentally drooling over you.
“Of course.” He bowed to me.
“Thank you,” Gage called across the room to Lucifer. “That will be very helpful.”
“Angels fly to travel, don't they?” Kasteo Terrencal asked in a cocky tone as he smirked at Lucifer. Kas was leaning against a wall beside his brother instead of sitting. “How ya gonna fly us underwater?”
“The wings will only be employed to get us through the Veil,” Lucifer explained, completely unruffled—pun intended. “Once submerged, we will put them away.”
“I hope you've got some special wet suits to accommodate that,” Kas shot back.
“We do,” Raphael stepped around Lucifer to say. “Don't you worry about us, cat. If we say we can do something, we can.”
“Lucifer.” I slipped my hand into his and pulled him to the side. “I need to talk to you.”
Lucifer's eyes widened and shifted down to stare at our joined hands as if a miracle had occurred. “You do?”
I let him go and cleared my throat. “We think that—”
A rumbling thunder drowned out the rest of my words. Before I could react to the sound, the entire zone began to tremble. The city's bedrock shook so violently that everyone standing was tossed to the floor. The distant sound of screams, crashes, and blaring horns echoed to us. Bodies covered me; hands holding me pressed beneath the shield of thick muscles and feathered wings.
The rumbling stopped, but the screams continued. I looked up into Slate's furious stare. It wasn't focused on me. I turned to follow it and met Lucifer's intense gaze, burning with a fierce protective light. His wings arched above us and his body laid half across mine. I believe he would have been fully on top of me if Slate hadn't been in the way.
Slate shouldered Lucifer aside as he stood and helped me to my feet all in one smooth movement. Lucifer grimaced as he climbed to his feet as well but didn't say anything, only searched the room warily. I followed his gaze. The ballroom seemed to have survived the earthquake intact, and I hoped that went for the rest of the palace too. The sounds emanating from the rest of the zone, however, didn't bode well for its continued survival. Or ours, for that matter.
My other men came running up to us.
“Are you all right, my fire?” Darc asked as he slid a hand along my shoulder.
“I'm fine. All of you?”
“Everyone seems to be unharmed,” Gage reported, his eyes flicking to the doorway.
I didn't wait for Gage to lead us out, I just ran for the exit. They chased after me. The further I went, the louder the sounds of chaos became until I stood on the palace steps, assaulted by roars, shouts, and the cracking clash of swords. The soundtrack of war.
A shiver went down my spine.
“Report!” Slate shouted into his cellphone.
“Fucking mermaids are coming out of the ground!” Jago's voice came through the speaker along with the rumble of an engine. “Get the fuck over to the hole!”
“What fucking hole?” Slate shouted back.
“The one we pulled Gargo out of! You got another gaping hole in the Zone you want to tell me about?” The line went dead before Slate could answer.
“His prison was fed by the ocean,” I murmured. “Gargo must have widened the way and brought Poseidon's army through the channel.”
“It looks as if we won't have to worry about transportation after all,” Lucifer murmured.
My body ran cold as I realized that what we'd believed would protect us was now working against us. Only Gargoyles, my men, and I could transport ourselves through the Zone's wards. The Beneather Representatives had to come in through the front gate like everyone else. That meant that we didn't have time to fetch our armies. All we had were their representatives, my men, Cerberus, the Gargoyles, and the residents of the Zone.
“A cave is a grave waiting to be filled,” I whispered in horror.
“Raphael, fetch the Host!” Lucifer shouted.
Raphael leapt into the air and started flying across the Zone. He couldn't travel through the Veil from where we were, but he could do so once outside the Zone's gates. Other reps started heading for the gates as well, but I stopped them.
“We don't have time!” I shouted. “We need you with us!”
“Some of us will stay and fight,” Freya assured me as she gave her sword a pat. “But we need to send for reinforcements.”
“Do it,” Gage growled. “Those who are staying, follow me.”
With that, my mate shifted into his Griffin form. A shimmering haze swept over him and in seconds, a griffin stood in his place. His golden-brown, leonine body tensed to pounce, its tail swishing anxiously. Enormous wings stretched from his back and his equally-large eagle head opened its beak to emit a piercing shriek. Gage's head angled sharply, shifting to turn one, ebony eye in my direction. I ran forward and jumped onto his back.
As soon as Gage had started to transform, the other shifters followed his lead; all except for the Cats, who stayed in their human forms to fight. Our group may not have been massive but it was impressive. Wolves, giant snakes, predator birds, bears, falcons, foxes, and monkeys stood among the more fantastical creatures, too numerous to name. The few who had remained in human form withdrew Beneather weapons from their belts, off their backs, and even out of thin air.
Gage leapt into the air and those who could fly followed him. With growls, snarls, flapping wings, and pounding feet we made our way across the Zone, our aerial support scouting the path ahead for the ground troops. From Gage's back, I got a full view of the Zone. I could see clear across the city, over the orderly sections of residential and business areas, past the arena and to the other end. The end where Gargo had been imprisoned.
The Gargoyles hadn't thought to fill the hole. Or perhaps they had but it hadn't mattered. Gargo could have cleared it in seconds. Regardless, it was open now; full of water and sea gods. Gargo wasn't among the Greeks I saw swarming out of the pool, he was at the front of his army, leading it through the Zone's streets, clearing a path with might and magic. And there were more than Tritons with him.
Gargo had brought every undersea beneather who could stand on feet or fins or even te
ntacles; everyone who was loyal to him or scared into being loyal to him, even those who couldn't breathe air.
I peered closer at the sea troops and noticed the suits they wore. Similar to wet suits, they encased the body and were topped by a helmet connected to an apparatus worn on the back. Instead of being filled with air, the helmet was filled with water. Then I caught a glint of acid green and everything clicked. The suits were made of the fabric I'd seen Megaera working on. This was what Gargo wanted the inventor gods for. Not to fight for him but to create suits that would allow the undersea people who would fight for him to walk on land.
In front of the invading army stood Slate's Gargoyles, all shifted into their Gargoyle forms. Some met the Sea Army head-on and some swooped in from above, but all of them attacked with the ferocity of people defending what was theirs. Gage was about to fly in to help them when I noticed the horde approaching from our left. They were non-Greek Beneathers, but there was something about them that rose my hackles. Something familiar. Then I noticed the Kitsune at the front of the group. Her stare focused on the Gargoyles with feral intensity as she began to smile.
“Kimiko,” I whispered. Then I shouted, “Veer left! The arena prisoners are loose and about to attack the Gargoyles' flank.”
Gage swung left and the airborne Beneathers—including Slate and Lucifer—turned with us. Those on the ground continued to follow Torin, Banning, Darc, and Declan into the fray, but I wasn't worried. Even with them out of sight, I'd know how they fared through our link. Slate made a snarling, guttural, shout, and several gargoyles split off from the flying ranks to join us.
Behind the crazy kitsune were all of the other maniacal inmates of Slate's arena; beneathers who had committed such heinous crimes that Slate felt it was his duty to apprehend them and protect the Beneath. They were murdering monsters, rapists, and pedophiles. People so evil that the Beneath didn't just turn a blind eye to what Slate did with them, it watched eagerly.
And Gargo's erupting entrance had set them free.
It was a testament to their insanity and viciousness that instead of running for the gates, the prisoners immediately went after their jailers. They saw an opportunity for revenge and were taking it. They didn't look twice at Gargo's army. The invasion had made the perfect distraction, giving them the chance to take the Gargoyles unaware, and that's all they cared about. Except I had spotted them.
You'd think that once they realized they'd been seen and the element of surprise had failed them, the prisoners would have turned tail and run. They were outnumbered and outgunned. But no, they didn't care in the least. In fact, the look of glee on their faces turned up a few notches. They practically rubbed their hands together in anticipation. Gage started to descend, aiming his claws at a wendigo, and I was about to tell him to go after Kimiko instead when a shout echoed over to us from the ground troops.
“Kimiko!” Baron Samedi broke ranks and ran toward the kitsune as he flung out his hand.
Kimiko spun out of the way of Samedi's magic then purred, “Play it again, Sam.”
She smiled slowly, revealing sharp canines, and her nine, fluffy, fox tails draped around her body in a fetching manner. Samedi twirled a knife in each of his hands, fast enough to make the blades blur. He launched them at Kimiko, one after the other, their razor edges glinting with magic. She somersaulted forward, catching the blades and spinning them back at the Baron. He flung up a forearm and deflected one, but the other sliced him open. Blood drops arcing from his arm, Samedi launched himself at Kimiko. She curled her hands into claws, revealing the burns she'd received from grabbing his enchanted knives, and sprung forward to meet him.
I didn't have time to watch the rest of their fight, I was too busy fending off the wendigo that had leapt into the air and onto Gage's back. I punched him in the throat; an automatic reaction. The wendigo wheezed for breath, spittle flying from his desiccated lips. Gage bucked wildly. The wendigo started to slide away but even as he gasped for air, he snatched my arm tightly. Gnarled, withered, gray fingers clutched me like a corpse rising from its grave. I tumbled to the ground with him, landing on the wendigo's sunken stomach. My knee crushed his groin as I got up. The wendigo howled, finally able to take a full breath.
Before I could enjoy the small victory, I was grabbed from behind and pressed against a hard chest. Something else grew hard, lower on my assailant's body, and his hands slid up to grab my breasts. A tongue licked me from collarbone to chin. The wendigo started to laugh as he staggered to his feet.
“Hello, beautiful,” a familiar voice whispered in my ear. “I hoped you'd be here.”
It was a thunderbird I'd “met” in the arena prisoner yard. Cerberus had held him at bay back then but my bestie was currently roaring his way through an undersea army in his three-headed dog form. Which was fine; I can handle my own shit. In fact, I was looking forward to bashing this guy's balls as I had the wendigo's. But as I moved to elbow the asshole in the face, he was yanked away from me.
I turned to see the thunderbird sprawled on the ground with a massive gargoyle on top of him. Slate was hitting the thunderbird so rapidly that I could barely register each punch. Blood sprayed across Slate's face and wings, but he didn't notice. His molten eyes were narrowed on the man beneath him. Or rather, the mess that had once been a man.
“Slate!” I shouted.
He kept punching.
A wheezing laugh came from behind me a second before dry, bony fingers wrapped around my throat. I'd forgotten about that damn wendigo.
I bent, grabbed the wendigo's forearms, and tossed him over me. He landed beside the thunderbird. Slate didn't miss a beat; he lifted a fist and instead of hitting the thunderbird, he punched the wendigo, caving in most of his face. The wendigo twitched and went still. Slate went back to pulverizing the thunderbird remains.
“Slate!” I grabbed his arm and shook him.
Then I was flung away, the breath knocked from my lungs by a massive snake tail. A scaled body coiled around me, squeezing so tightly that I couldn't regain my breath. I didn't have time for balance. I skipped the song and called to my fire, accepting the risk. It came eagerly, shooting out of my palms. The snake—a shifted Naga—shrieked as its body was severed in two places, the wounds cauterized as they were made. The cut coils beat the ground like live wires, but the Naga was already dead and the thrashing soon ceased. Gage landed amid the pieces, and I climbed onto his back just as Slate went running past me. A rabid loup went crashing to the ground beneath the Zone Lord.
The Gargoyles seemed to have the escaped-prisoners situation under control so Gage and I shot back into the air. We headed to the main street where the battle was fiercely underway. Gargo's Army was washing our people out of their path, drenching the Zone in seawater. They could have been drowning beneathers, but they appeared to be holding back, and I suspected that was Triton's doing.
My uncle fought near Gargo, subtly saving our troops while looking as if he were on Gargo's side. A wave of water shoved Kasteo out of the way seconds before a stone hit the spot he'd been in. The cat-shifter tumbled down an alley to land dazed but unharmed at its end. Meanwhile, Gargo was bringing down the subterranean city with flippant sweeps of his hands and using the debris as ammunition. Buildings broke apart to become missiles, launched at his whim, and crumbled over residents who fled the death-traps, screaming. Pieces of pavement lifted and launched, knocking flying Beneathers out of the air, and the ceiling started to rain dust and pebbles.
Gargo was going to bury us all. Doubtless, he thought it fitting. He had been entombed here and now, he intended to bury his children in the same place. I glanced around the massive cave, noting the way it seemed to shiver, holding out against the pressure of a god. How long could it withstand Gargo's magic?
Gage shrieked and dove. His vicious talons latched onto a triton and lifted him out of the fight. Gage angled right sharply, knocking the man's head against a building. The soldier went limp and Gage tossed him onto the ground, unconscious but
alive. Below us, our troops executed similar maneuvers; disabling their opponents instead of killing.
Gargo looked up, caught my eye, and grinned fiercely. I could already see the changes in Poseidon's body; his shoulders were broadening and his face had grown leaner. Above his eyes, his brow bone protruded strangely at the temples, and I suspected that horns would sprout there eventually. But I wasn't going to let that happen; one way or another, the transformation would end today.
Sea dragons—both Lóng and Ryū—roared and crawled over the sides of buildings like enormous lizards while a couple of their airborne cousins, the Drachen, circled above. They converged on Gargo, some leaping and some diving, their speed blurring them into rainbow ribbons. It was almost laughable to see the enormous beasts attacking Gargo en masse. He looked tiny compared to them; insignificant. But with a wave of his hands, sections of buildings tore away and bashed into the dragons. Keening sounds sent chills over my skin as both air and sea dragons were tossed aside like broken toys. Eight of our strongest soldiers knocked out with one strike.