Blackbird Broken (The Witch King's Crown #2) - Keri Arthur Page 0,109
Nex that my knuckles shone. Then, in complete and utter silence, four men flowed as one out of the tunnel, running directly for Mo … and the bastards had guns.
I didn’t waste breath on swearing. I simply called to the lightning and ashed them all. Pain hit, and my vision momentarily blurred. I blinked away the blood and half turned toward the tunnel. Caught movement and leaned back, but not fast or far enough. Something smashed into my jaw and sent me flailing backward. Blood filled my mouth, and pain shot through my jaw as my head reeled. I blinked, trying to see as I fought to remain upright. Saw a blurred figure standing several feet away and the glimmer of metal. Gun. I dropped and lashed out with a booted foot, sweeping at his legs. As he leapt over it, I unleashed a bolt of light and burned the fuck out of him. Another figure emerged from the tunnel. I launched forward, hitting him low, sending him sprawling backward. This one, I didn’t ash. I simply raised Nex and stabbed her deep into the bastard’s heart. He didn’t die immediately, but he wasn’t in any state to go anywhere in a hurry, either. Right now, that’s all that mattered.
I collapsed back against the wall and sucked in air. Everything hurt. My head, my jaw, my back. But it wasn’t over yet. Mo remained in the ley line, and the unknown person still approached.
I rolled onto hands and knees, remained there for several seconds until the cavern stopped spinning, and then climbed slowly to my feet. I was barely upright when a roar went up and demons surged out of the other tunnel.
So much for the strings of light giving me advance warning. So much for the feeling that it wasn’t demons.
I flicked lightning their way, both through the air and across the water, in an attempt to fry even more of them—all the while ensuring Mo, who stood in the middle of the stream, remained untouched by the water-conducted electricity.
But for every one I ashed, two more took their place. They clambered up the walls and ran down the ledge, a black stain of evil that only had one goal—Mo.
There was no way known they were ever going to reach her.
Power surged through me, exploding from skin and both daggers. It ballooned outward, becoming multiple forks of intertwining light that swept left and right. It surrounded the table and encased Mo in a pulsing, white shield that stretched from floor to ceiling, cutting directly through the ley line river but seemingly unaffected by it.
The demons flung themselves at it from every angle. The shield pulsed and spat, crisping demon after demon. Their ash filled the air, but they didn’t seem to care. But with every hit, the pain in my brain worsened, until all I could feel was fire and all I could see was blood.
I staggered into the house tunnel and dropped to my knees. If the demons decided to attack, I’d at least have a speck of protection here. A speck was better than nothing.
The blood blurring my vision poured over my lashes. If the demons didn’t stop soon, it would be the end of me.
My only real hope lay in Mo finishing her task and joining the fight. But that was unlikely to happen anytime soon, given the point of the rod remained locked in the ley line’s flow. And even if she did manage to detach the rod, the sweat sheening her face and body suggested she might not have enough strength to swat a fly, let alone dozens of demons.
I took a deep, shuddery breath and sent a silent prayer for help to whatever gods might be listening.
One of them must have been, because the attack abruptly stopped, though it took me a minute or two to realize it. I swiped at my eyes with the sleeve of my coat to clear my vision and peered into the soot-filled cavern.
What I saw made absolutely no sense.
The demons remained in the cavern, but they were now standing still and silent against the wall opposite. Maybe they’d decided enough of them had died in the cylinder’s fire, but why retreat rather than attack me?
What were they waiting for?
But even as that thought crossed my mind, I knew.
My gaze went to the other tunnel, my heart pounding somewhere in my throat and my breath little more than an uneven stutter.