AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The Control Tower was only a few blocks away. The arrival of daylight had brought more cars and pedestrians to the streets, slowing their efforts. Still, Malakai blew through red lights and stop signs, barely avoiding causing accidents. Horns blared everywhere they went, the screech of tires and the smell of burnt rubber slicing through the air.
They were shooting under another intersection glowing red when Malakai abruptly swerved, the bike veering so sharply to the side it nearly tipped over.
Loren clung on tightly to his neck, her stomach pitching left with the bike. “Are you okay?” she shouted.
Malakai’s shake of his head was not in answer, she knew, but as if to rid himself of something. “I don’t know what happened.” He pushed the bike faster, his pulse suddenly thrumming against her wrists.
Loren felt the next one—a deep, rolling shudder, as if an earthquake struck the city, the eerie call of the Well replica blowing through the streets like a horn. A sound only magic-born people could hear—an audible attack that was paralyzing.
The motorcycle careened to the left again as that wave of otherworldly magic incapacitated Malakai—
Loren’s stomach flew out her ass, Malakai’s name leaving her mouth on a piercing scream as they crashed into a telephone pole and went flying.
Shay could not even begin to imagine living through this nightmare more than once. But the people running on either side of her through the dark tunnels had, to her horror, already lived it.
The Well replica was going to explode. She had no idea how likely it was that they would survive the blast, considering how close they were to where it slumbered, but she didn’t have the courage to ask. Everyone in the group ran as fast as they could, their eyes lit with alarm, with a desperate hope for survival. She wouldn’t crush them with a question no one would want to hear or answer.
So she ran, fighting to keep up, the winding tunnels seeming to go on forever. Each corner only led to more stretches of tunnel that gave way to yet more corners. It felt like running through a fever dream.
She had the feeling they were halfway there when Travis skidded to a stop at the front of the group, bringing the others to a jarring standstill, bodies slamming together.
The way out was blocked. By four towering, roaring Hounds.
Had Loren not been wearing the bodysuit, the motorcycle collision would have surely killed her.
The bike was pulverized. Glass and metal glittered on the sidewalk and road as she pushed herself to her feet, Malakai doing the same several feet away. Her body ached, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as it would have been without the suit. Cars had come to a stop, idling nearby, a few drivers and pedestrians either calling the emergency number or heading this way to see if they could help.
“You okay?” Malakai called. He came her way, shaking off the pain with only a slight limp in his step. “You hurt?”
“I’m fine.” The suits were a gods-damned miracle. She peered down the street, at the Control Tower shining like liquid silver at the end of it. “We need to hurry.” She offered Malakai her hand, and he took it, swinging her up onto his back.
“Try not to choke me like you did on the bike,” he joked, securing her in place with wrists hooked under her thighs.
Loren merely held on and said, “Show me how fast you can run.”
Minutes had passed, and even with the sword of black adamant, they’d only managed to kill one of four Hounds.
Shay was thrown into the tunnel wall with brute force, the oxygen leaving her lungs in a whoosh. She crumpled to the ground, gasping for breath, her diaphragm burning as the others fought all around her, as winded and in pain as she was.
They couldn’t keep doing this. If they couldn’t get past these Hounds, they were all done for.
“Shay!” Ivy called, her voice breaking with exhaustion as she drove a blade into the back of a Hound’s skull. Bone crunched, and the demon roared, angrier now than before. “Can we use illusion?”
She almost answered in truth. Almost slipped up and told them that Hounds were one of the few breeds of demon that could not be fooled with illusion, a fact she had learned the hard way as a teenager, when she and her foolish friends had wandered out to the tar pits to smoke Boneweed.
Shay pushed to her feet. “I can buy us three minutes.” I can buy you three minutes, she corrected mentally.
“Hurry!” Travis shouted, driving the black blade Ivy had tossed him through a second Hound’s head. Even with that blade on their side, these things were hard to kill. They were fast, strong. Menacing.
Shay drew the dagger that was strapped to her thigh and cut her neck.
It was just a small cut. But Hounds went into a frenzy over any amount of blood, no matter how small. And because she’d dealt the injury to her body herself, the magic of the suit did not stop it from happening.
All at once, the Hounds whirled her way.
“Now,” Shay declared. The wound in her neck stung, trickles of blood warming her skin. “Run—now.”
The others did. Bolting straight for the tar pits.
