He’s frozen solid, and the being who arrived with him—a being I recognize from the docks—shouts, “Four. Four!” When the Marduk doesn’t move except to blink, his harsh, bleak expression so focused on Lemlem that I don’t have any idea what he’s thinking, the being who I know now to be Three takes a menacing step forward.
Lemlem shrieks.
The Marduk throws his arm across Three’s chest to stop them from advancing, but I don’t give a shit about that. I’ve already leveled my weapon at Three’s chest and pulled the inner trigger. Lightning flares from the tip of my weapon and slams into Three fully, hitting the Marduk’s arm first. Both beings go cantering back.
Three hits the opposite wall and surges forward, pissed, but as they advance on me and the Marduk stands slightly off to the side near Taranis’s desk, angrily admiring the blackened stain on his arm where I tagged him, it’s clear they’ve both forgotten Vanessa.
Vanessa releases a battle cry as she flies into the room, her sword blazing. “Fuck you!” she wails like a banshee, and I tilt my head in shock—I don’t think I’ve ever heard this girl curse before. And then my jaw drops open completely when Vanessa swings her sword.
Three is reaching for me or Lemlem or us both, but a thin strip of flaming metal cuts through their forearm just below the wrist. There is only a little blood because the blade is on fire and sears the wound shut.
Lemlem screams as the disembodied hand falls onto her outstretched shins. She tries to pull her legs back in, but her feet are still all messed up.
Three turns to attack Vanessa and releases a carnal roar. Their inky-black hair stands on end. Their eyes are red and bright, expelling red light onto their cheeks. Dressed all in black, they move as a blur toward Vanessa, who squeals, but I’m ready. I fire another round into Three, hitting them in the side. I fire another round at the Marduk while I’m at it, but Lemlem grabs my arm, pulling it down so that I hit the Marduk in the thigh instead of the chest.
He turns his gaze to me, and it, too, bleeds red.
He charges forward, but Lemlem throws her arm across my chest. “Stop! All of you, stop! Please! Don’t hurt her—either of them. These women saved me. I might have lost my hands if they’d been any later.” She lifts them up and winces, sniffles. “Ow ...” She curses in a language I can’t interpret.
The Marduk looks at me, looks at her, looks at me again. He lunges toward me, and I lift my weapon, but she grabs it with both of her useless hands and shoves it toward the ground. “Don’t hurt him,” she says.
“Are you crazy?” I screech back, struggling with the aloof woman who clearly wouldn’t be able to recognize danger if it was plastered all over every page of the internet and also waltzing every day into her coffee shop. “This man is the ultimate supervillain!”
We’re sort of fighting for the weapon, though the fight is rather pathetic. Her hands may hurt her, but somehow, her long limbs are getting in my way. I can’t wriggle my weapon free.
And then Vanessa screams. Three has gotten back up and is running toward her.
“No!” Lemlem shrieks.
“Let go of me!” I shout, panic clogging my throat as Three disappears after Vanessa through the doorway.
The next few seconds happen so fast that I can’t track them. Something in the foyer causes Three to shout in pain. The Marduk has a hand raised in that direction, leading me to believe it’s his doing. The Marduk then lunges out of the room, into the foyer, and returns with Three.
He drags Three over to where I’m sitting. I try to block him from reaching Lemlem, but he shoves me out of the way with a powerful blast of wind. I hit the leg of the desk, and when I blink my eyes open, the Marduk has a hand on Lemlem’s outstretched leg but is looking at me.
“Tell Taranis that we’re even.”
“What does that mean?”
“It’s over, so long as he doesn’t come looking for me.”
“What? Wait. Where are you going? You can’t take Lemlem with you!” I shout, but the Marduk is whispering in Three’s ear, and a pained, enraged Three roars before suddenly the Marduk explodes into a burst of black smoke, and the three of them disappear like they were never even here.
I’m completely frozen where I’m lying twisted on the floor. I glance up when Vanessa crawls into the room on all fours, looking absurd and diabolical carrying a flaming sword while wearing a pretty sundress. “Are they gone?”
I nod. “I think so.” My heart is pounding. “You injured?”
“Nope. You?”
I take a moment to check myself and conclude, “Nope.”
“What did the Marduk say to you?”
“I think ... Lemlem might have convinced him to leave us alone.”
“Lemlem? The girl Taranis tortured?”
I make a sound—it’s sort of like laughter, but a hysterical version. “Yeah. I guess, uh ... his plan worked?”
