smiled. Then he swung out with the machete. Olivia ducked and kneed him in the stomach.
Everyone charged then. The men on the cliff ran down toward us, their weapons flailing. Judith ran at them, knocking two of them to the ground with her car door shield. Zo pulled the modified bow from her back, nocked in an arrow from her belt, and shot one of them directly in the chest. He fell to the ground and didn’t move. Olivia and Samson fought hand to hand, knife to machete, Olivia trying to put distance and objects between the two of them.
“Stay here, Kahúu!” Susanah said, shoving Mowse into the hole with the vehicles. She pulled her chain from her bag.
“NO!” Mowse cried. “Susanah!”
But Susanah was already out in the thick of it, whirling her sharpened chain, holding them back. Zo shouted something to Cassandra.
“I’m on my way!” Cassandra yelled.
Just then, two Laredo Boys spotted us and began making their way toward our metal mountain. Fire or hurricane? I thought, bringing the spells to mind. Fire or hurricane?
“CASS!” Zo shouted, ducking behind a rock.
“Help her!” I told Cassandra, gathering black roller dust into my hands. “I’ll take care of these two.”
“If you say so!” she said. Then Cassandra—three Cassandras—darted out to help Zo, leaving me alone behind the pile of parts. Shaking, I forced my magic into my hands and stepped from behind the mountain of parts. The men saw me and began to run in my direction.
I can do this. I can do this. With a dry mouth, I shouted, “Hurrikanmauer!” and blew the dust into the air. The dust thickened into a whirlwind, reaching up into the sky. The two Laredo Boys put their arms up in fear, but I slammed them with my dust hurricane, buffeting them with wind and slicing dust.
They staggered and fell back several paces. But my nerves were shot. My fear was affecting the spell. The hurricane began to grow thin in places, and I knew it wouldn’t last much longer.
I sent a stronger surge of magic and let the hurricane lift them off their feet. I gave them one final spin, then pushed all the strength left in the spell through my fingertips and hurled them as far away from me as I could. One of them hit his head against a stone with a stomach-dropping smack. The other rose, shaken, and started forward again, madder than hell, but going for Judith this time and not me.
“Judith!” I shouted. She turned just in time to block his punch with her car door. Then she rammed him with the door and turned to fight off two more.
I looked around for the other man I’d thrown, but he was lying still, his blood seeping into the dust. I killed him. The thought pounded in my head as I ducked back behind the metal fortress. I killed someone. I killed someone. Oh, God, I killed someone.
I knew I’d crossed some sort of a threshold then. But adrenaline shot through my veins and blood spattered the dust and I couldn’t afford a moral dilemma right now. I shook myself mentally and ran back into the fray.
Zo and Cassandra were fighting off three of them, Zo dripping blood from a head wound and Cassandra trying to fend them off with her copies. Susanah was fighting two men with her chain. One other snuck up on a cliff behind her, raised his ax over his head. I almost sent a jet of fire his way, but then he stopped, turned on his heel, and began attacking the others with odd, jerky motions. On a rock nearby, Mowse held her hands out like a puppetmaster’s, moving them away from Susanah before discarding them behind a nearby boulder like spent playthings.
They worked together, their magic instinctual, enviably natural, while I fumbled with my pouches. Nearby, Olivia was holding her own against Samson, returning blow for blow. But she was obviously tiring. She kept putting distance between them, ducking behind boulders and trees. I couldn’t cast a fire spell or a wind spell, not with all the girls all mixed in with the men. Olivia stumbled, barely ducking a blow from Samson’s machete. I clenched my fists, trying desperately to think of something, anything, I could do to help.
“Sal!” she shouted. “Give me your power!”
“How?” I panted. A dagger flew by my head. I stumbled, then threw up a wall of dust around me on three sides.