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I drop my voice. “We don’t have enough weapons with us.”
Determination hardens his features. “We fight until we can’t fight any more. Even if all we do is slow it down and weaken it, that will give others a better chance of finishing what we started.”
He strides away to speak to Elizabeth and O’Hara. They nod and ready their rocket launchers, while the rest of the group resumes firing on the monster.
Dread fills me. Sharpe may sound confident, but we both know there’s no one else capable of stopping this thing. Hell, the best hunters of the demon plane couldn’t stop it. That’s why they locked it up in the Between.
We could disable it here, slow it down, and try to race ahead of it to grab fresh weapons, but that will take precious time. Time where the Bone Man could make its way into Clearhelm and start killing people, stealing more souls.
My hand trembles on the top of Orianna’s head as my gaze settles on the smoldering arm that lies in the middle of the broken road. Every time a soul rises, freed of its prison, it forms a little beacon of hope.
But what hope is there if we can’t stop the Bone Man here and now?
I glance down at Orianna, who tips her head back to stare up at me, her star-filled eyes luminous with trust.
I rub the tip of one pointy ear. “We’re about to do something really stupid, girl.”
She turns her head to lick my fingers.
With a deep breath, I pull a torrent of ley line magic through Orianna and push my magic outward, reaching for the souls still trapped within the Bone Man’s body.
the spirit man
- Pen -
“We’re breaking through!”Johannsson shouts with excitement as a magical grenade finally forms a crack in the Bone Man’s right leg.
“I’m going in!” Amalia darts forward, flinging small knives into the crack with deadly precision.
The Bone Man swings one long limb at her, and I move forward, slamming my batons into the tip. Wood and bone chips pelt me, and a sharp sting cuts across my cheek, but the Bone Man yanks its arm back.
The daggers in its leg explode, and another grenade launches over our heads into the crack, blowing it wider.
The Bone Man sways forward, and Elizabeth, farther down the road from us, shouts with excitement. “I see your face, sucker!”
The rocket launcher propped on her shoulder spits smoke as a rocket flies high into the air, then arches down into the gnarled face hidden within the trunk of a tree.
It explodes, and the trees around it shriek with a twist of limbs and bark.
“You got him, baby!” Trent shouts. “That’s my wife!”
“I think that weakened it!” O’Hara points as the Bone Man sways, and a few skulls fall off its body to the ground. “It’s losing its hold on its form!”
More bones fall off, a few at first, and then faster.
“Keep shooting! It’s not over until it’s dead!” Sharpe barks. “Hobble it!”
His officers resume fire on the leg, making faster progress as bones tumble free, leaving the roots and trees within the body exposed.
When only two thick roots keep it attached to the monster’s body, Marc sends a laser-focused beam of fire into the wide crack. The flames hungrily eat through the wood.
The limb crashes to the ground, along with the Bone Man, who grabs for its separated appendage.
Marc directs the fire at the reaching limbs, forcing them back while Troy and Amalia race forward with the chains, driving stakes into the thick twist of wood and bone.
As soon as they’re clear, the SUV pulls forward with a squeal of tires, Jerry behind the wheel, yanking the huge chunk of wood out of reach.
Mayn and Webb, with their swords, and other officers welding axes, move forward to hack it to pieces. Even before they take their first swing, bones tumble off, bouncing and cracking as they hit the broken cement.
