telling me not to act. She’s telling me she has my back.
My heart surges in my chest at the same moment that chaos erupts.
The red demons strike, but Vudu is ready to block, a sword made of stone raised as shouts and fighting erupt in the cellar.
Shateel seems more concerned with the noise level than anything else as she stays on the sidelines, watching with rapt interest as Vudu tries to keep the demons who outnumber him from striking a killing blow.
Tiny pebbles streak forward from the tunnel we just crawled through, a red haze around each small rock. I try to track them as they zoom in and around Vudu’s fight, some of them acting like bullets as Vudu uses his power to shove the pebbles through a Brogue demon’s body. The crimson demon bellows at the pain caused by the tiny rocks piercing his body, and then one last pebble through his skull silences him.
The group converges on Vudu, and I lose sight of him. My heart falls when I see that the pebbles are no longer floating around marking their next victim, but have dropped bloody to the ground. Maybe it takes too much concentration to use his power with such finesse, and the horde he’s now fending off is making focusing nearly impossible.
Behind me, Delta and Medley move closer to me, at the same time that two of our babysitter demons in full black armor move forward to intervene.
“Don’t think so, y’all,” Medley calls, and in a blink, her scythe appears and she swings, turning one of them to nothing but ash.
A vicious smile spreads across my face. Guess we’re doing this.
“No!” Shateel’s voice cries out, snake eyes wide as she realizes we’re not under compulsion.
At any moment, I expect to hear Morax’s voice ring out with power demanding that we stop and bow down, but when it doesn’t, victory floods me. He’s not here. The arrogant bastard isn’t freaking here! Finally, a little bit of luck.
I waste no time capitalizing on our opportunity. Delta is lifting her hand too, and I see my sisters’ actions for the green light that they are. Hiking the long skirt of my dress up in one hand, my feet pivot as I run for Vudu to back him up, my scythe immediately appearing in my open palm. Power and knowledge floods me upon contact, the wood feeling like a limb I didn’t even know I was missing.
One of the armed demons tries to step in my way, but with two flicks of my scythe, he’s a dust cloud, and I don’t even break my stride running through it to get to Vudu.
Snarls and clanging metal fill the room. Vudu has one of the Brogue demons in a chokehold in front of him, and he’s using the demon’s body to fend off the half-dozen attackers surrounding him. He knows how to move, using his weapon and the armored plating on his skin to take the brunt of the attacks, but the Brogues are working hard to flank him, and he’s horribly outnumbered. Every time they try to corral him, he struggles to keep his back blocked, but that means that he’s now up against one of the shelves.
Toreon is trying to fight against his demons too, but they have him completely occupied. I sidestep another babysitter as I rush toward Vudu, just as one of the Brogues shoves him back, causing Vudu to smash into the shelf behind him. I cringe as the shelf topples, crates and bottles flying and crashing to the floor, the sounds of shattering glass joining the sound of fighting in a deafening roar.
Please don’t let any of Morax’s Abdicated be around to hear this.
As soon as I get close enough, I wrap my arched blade around the neck of the nearest demon and yank it back, holding my breath as he dissolves into a cloud. I can hear Medley and Delta dealing with the rest of the babysitters behind me, and I flip my scythe and swing for another red demon as it leaves the fray around Vudu and comes for me.
Shateel snarl-screams for the demon to stop his attack on me, but he either doesn’t want to listen or can’t hear her, because he twists the sword in his hands and snaps his bared teeth at me, like the threat of his bite is enough to make me run screaming away from him.
Without missing a step, I bring my scythe above my head, twisting