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Omari laughed, the sound wild and angry. Some of his aura of kingliness had faded during our fight, and now he just looked like a madman, his white hair streaming around his shoulders.
“Yes,” he drawled, his voice taunting. “It does end now. It should’ve ended long ago, but I was too lenient with you. I should’ve put an end to you when you first began speaking out against me, turning the other gods against me. Plotting against me.”
“It should’ve ended when you began to go mad, you old fool,” Ryker shot back. His gaze flicked to me and then toward the large double doors of the entrance as he stalked toward Omari.
My heart sped up.
Holy shit.
He’s giving me a chance to escape. Buying me a way out from under Omari’s thumb, taking on the god by himself.
I barely knew Ryker, and I didn’t know him at all as a father. Maybe it was stupid of me to trust him, but at the moment, I didn’t really have a choice. As he lunged toward Omari, I darted out of the way, and the two gods met in a fiery clash of magic and strength.
“Fucking hell!” Trace blurted, ducking a stray blast of green light as he and Lachlan held off the redheaded god. His gaze darted over to Omari and Ryker, his eyes wide and amazed.
Ryker had his arms wrapped around Omari in a gesture that I might’ve mistaken for a hug if I hadn’t been so familiar with boxing. As I watched, he shoved the other god back, using a combination of physical strength and magic. Omari slammed into the wall, an
d several more large chunks of stone fell from the ceiling.
I almost crowed in delight at the sight of Omari’s eyes bulging, his mouth dropping open in a low grunt as Ryker slammed him into the wall again. This time, the wall crumbled, a massive hole appearing in it, and Ryker hauled Omari back, hurling him to the floor.
The redheaded god threw spears of pale blue energy at the men and me, and I managed to slice one in half with the magical blade that still extended from my fist. Across the room, Merrick was holding off another god as the tall, lanky deity tried to yank him off his feet with ropes of magic.
Lachlan managed to get a solid blow in against the god with flaming red hair, sending her flying with a short burst of three magical blasts that hit her like cannon balls. She flew backward, leaving a massive indentation in another wall.
Beneath my feet, the entire building shook and groaned, and a spike of fear pierced my stomach as I glanced around at the damage.
How much more can it sustain before the entire place comes down?
The people we’d put in the holding cells were still trapped inside, and although maybe I shouldn’t particularly care if they died, the thought of them being crushed to death like bugs made my stomach roil. And what about the fighters outside? If the building came down, were they far enough away to be safe from it, or would they still bear the brunt of falling rocks?
Ryker pulled his fist back to strike Omari just as I hurled a net of magic at the redheaded god. It wrapped around her and stuck to the wall behind her, pinning her in place momentarily like a fly in a net.
As she struggled, I saw Omari reach up to block Ryker’s blow.
And as the two of them touched, something happened. Purple light exploded from the point of contact, spreading like lightning and wrapping itself around Ryker, coating him like a second skin. His eyes widened for a split second, and his mouth fell open. And then his whole body slowed to a stop, hanging frozen in mid-action as whatever Omari had unleashed on him solidified like an iron casing.
Oh fuck.
It was the only thought I had as Omari’s gaze snapped up, fixing on me instantly.
He’d taken down my backup.
He’d incapacitated my father, at least for the moment.
And now he was out for blood.
“The roof!” I screamed, grabbing Trace and Lach by the arms and racing toward the stairs.
We needed to get out of the entryway, or we’d all die. The foundations of the building couldn’t sustain much more fighting. And if we went outside, we’d only be bringing greater danger to the fighters who still battled the gods on the lawn. This was our best chance at keeping both ourselves and them alive.
Merrick broke away from the god he was fighting, sprinting to join us, and I threw a spear at Omari to keep him distracted. Then all four of us hurtled up the stairs, throwing everything we could think of behind us to buy ourselves time. The last thing I saw before I rounded the landing onto the second floor was Ryker’s frozen body, still covered in that strange, glowing film.
He had meant to save me, but if our flight up to the roof kept Omari from delivering a killing blow against the dark-haired god… well, I was glad he wouldn’t die. We were a long way off from doing father-daughter dinners or whatever, but Trace had been right. I wanted to give Ryker a chance to show me who he really was.
And he could only do that if he was alive.
Bolts of magic narrowly missed us as we tore around the landing and headed for the third floor. With every set of steps we climbed, I swore the attacks got closer and closer. Finally, Lach wrenched open the door that led to the roof access stairs, and we hurried up the narrow steps and burst out onto the gray-tiled roof.
