“Hawk, Aisling, come on!” Bale shouted and waved at the man I hadn’t known and his Chosen.
They hesitated before Hawk nudged Aisling toward the table. “Go,” he said.
I fended off an approaching nuckal while Magnus dodged a tree limb and created ten more versions of himself and his Chosen. The nuckals and calamuts were briefly confused by the illusions, but that wouldn’t last.
“Magnus, Amalia, you’re next!” Shax yelled.
The demon of illusions didn’t look at me as he grasped his Chosen’s arm and ran with her toward the table. His illusions didn’t vanish when he left the building, but the nuckals were no longer confused by them.
“Corson, come on!” Bale yelled when Magnus and Amalia went through the hole.
Corson glanced back at her. “We have to get the humans. Go without us, and we’ll meet you outside the forest.”
Bale opened her mouth to protest, but Corson was already racing across the room with Wren at his side. Bale’s hand fell away, and she looked to me before turning to Shax.
“Go,” she said.
Shax vanished through the hole, and Bale looked at me again. She hesitated before going through.
“Go!” I shouted at her.
Her jaw locked before she turned and followed her friends. I watched Corson and Wren dodge in and out of enemies as they sought to rescue the cowards under the table.
I didn’t understand why anyone would risk their life for someone else, let alone why they would do it for the moronic, meddling, destructive species who once ruled this plane. The palitons’ loyalty to those who didn’t deserve it was why we would win the war.
Oh well, at least if Corson and his Chosen died, it would be easier for me to get to the varcolac.
I jumped on the table and sliced my way through the calamuts trying to stop me from getting to the hole.
* * *
Bale
“Where are Corson and Wren?”Hawk demanded.
“They went to try to save Dana and Darcy,” I said.
“We have to help them!” Jolie cried.
“I know,” I said as Wrath landed on the ground beside me. “I’m going back in, but the rest of you have to go.”
“You’re not going in there alone,” Hawk said.
“They’re humans; let them die,” Wrath said.
When Hawk went for his axe, I stayed his hand as the ground trembled and booms shook the air. The calamuts continued to destroy the school, but they were leaving us alone. As badly as I’d like to kill Wrath myself, I didn’t know how long our reprieve with the calamuts would last, and we couldn’t push them.
“Violence will draw the calamut’s attention,” I said to Hawk. “We can’t fight here.”
Hawk glowered at Wrath, but his hand eased on the handle of his axe. “I was once human too, and I can assure you, their lives are worth a lot more than yours.”
Wrath didn’t seem offended by Hawk’s statement as he studied him curiously. “You were once human?”
“So was I,” Aisling said. “Or at least mostly human.”
“Well, ex-human or not, a couple of cowards hiding under a table aren’t worth dying for,” Wrath said.
“Neither is a vendetta held against a varcolac who doesn’t know you,” I said pointedly.
