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“Fool,” he spat, and lunged.
His right hook whipped my head around. Caught off guard, I stumbled back. He reached for my throat.
“Mercy is weakness! I’ll tear out your heart and—”
A blinding flash of purple light cut through the night, followed by the unmistakable buzzing sound of a cattle prod—amplified a hundredfold.
Syros’s body jolted upright, and convulsed violently, his roar transforming into a pained screech. Standing behind him, illuminated in the glow of his own wings, stood Zee—prison jumpsuit torn to shreds, face streaked with blood. In his hands he wielded what looked like three cattle prods wired together, crackling with electricity far beyond their intended output. With some added incubus juice too, probably.
“Surprise jab, motherfucker!” Zee yelled, jamming the makeshift weapon against Syros’s spine again. “No one fucks with SOS Hotel management!”
Syros whirled toward this new threat, but his movements were jerky, uncoordinated from the electrical shock. Before he could strike, another figure stepped from the shadows—Victor, his eyes blazing silver.
“SLEEP,” he commanded, the word carrying the full force of his amplified power.
The sound hit Syros like a physical blow. He staggered, his body swaying as he fought the compulsion. But Victor wasn’t done. He stepped closer, his voice dropping to a deadly whisper.
“You will sleep now, and when you wake, you will know only captivity for the rest of your days.”
Syros fought it, his will battling against Victor’s command, but the combined assault was too much. Between Zee’s electrical attack, Victor’s supernaturally charged voice, and his exhaustion from our fight, even he had his limits.
With a final, defiant growl, Syros collapsed face first in the dirt, then lay still, unconscious but alive.
The sudden silence seemed surreal. I stood there, staring at my brother’s fallen body, then at my two most favorite people in the whole world.
“You came,” I managed to say, my voice rough and strange.
Zee limped toward me, the jury-rigged cattle prod still sparking in his hand. “Always.” His wings were tattered, but they still cast a soft purple glow over the desert.
Victor approached from the other side, his pristine prison jumpsuit somehow still mostly intact despite everything. “Together,” he said simply. “Always.”
Beaten and exhausted, I wobbled, and let them scoop me into their arms, feeling stronger than ever before. Because I wasn’t alone.
“Did we just save the world again?” Zee mumbled into my hair. “Because if we did, imma need another certificate and a new fuckin’ hat.”
CHAPTER 23
Four Days Later
Welcome Home! the tattered banners strung across the SOS Hotel porch entrance proclaimed. As Victor, Zee, and I climbed from the back of the SSD van, Madame Matase, Chef Étrange, Little Jimmy, and even Tom Collins stood on the deck clapping.
So much had happened since we’d left on vacation, that it felt strange setting foot on the front step again. Good strange. It really did feel as though we were coming home.
We entered the lobby, where more banners had been hastily fixed over doorways. The sagging balloons had a few scratches. The gremlins had gotten to them, but even half deflated they looked great.
Zee headed straight for the foldaway table with plates of snacks and nibbles. “Mac and cheese! Gah, I’ve died and gone to SOS Hotel heaven!”
This was all very . . . extravagant and wonderful, and I had a tight little knot in my throat that wouldn’t go away.
“I’m so glad we have you home again.” Madame Matase’s eyes looked a little glassy, like maybe she might cry. If she cried, so would I.
“Uh . . . yeah. So uhm . . . this is lovely, but how can we afford it?”
“Tom Collins assures me he had some money saved for when he . . . Now, how did he put this exactly? He called it a flight fund. For when this circus fails and we all drown in debt. Yes, that’s what he said.”
That sounded like something Tom would plan for, and say. “I guess he doesn’t think we’re a failure anymore.”
The front desk phone rang, so Madame Matase glided off to answer it. “No more running off, darling,” she scolded over her shoulder at me, then tittered. “It’s a good thing I like you, or I’d have to curse you, Adam Vex.”
