Legacies (Mercedes Lackey) - By Mercedes Lackey Page 0,91

call up more for its Hunt.

But first—now, tonight—it was going to kill all of them.

Once more she and Loch began their nightmare flight across the snow. It was agony to Spirit to turn her back on her friends—on Burke!—but Loch wouldn’t let her go. Tears froze on Spirit’s cheeks as she staggered across the snow, every muscle aching with cold. The trees were just ahead, and with them the school boundaries, but there was no safety there. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I didn’t want to leave you, it wasn’t supposed to happen this way . . . She didn’t have enough breath to tell Loch it was useless, all of this was useless—she didn’t remember the spell, there was no point in luring the demon into the spell-trap, she didn’t remember the spell . . .

She was so convinced she’d abandoned her friends to death that Muirin’s whoop of triumph took her by surprise. “Keep going,” Loch said as she hesitated. “Trees. Hide. Wait.”

Spirit staggered on as fast as she could—alone now, because Loch was staying behind. She could see the trees shaking, tossing in the wind so violently they were shaking off all the snow on their branches. At the edge of the stand of pines, despite herself, Spirit turned back to look. Addie was slogging determinedly onward, staggering with exhaustion, but Muirin and Burke—and Loch—were just standing in the snow. Waiting for the Hunt—for the demon—to come within range. As Burke raised his shotgun again, the five remaining vehicles revved their engines and leaped forward. Burke fired methodically, reloaded, and fired again, and Spirit sobbed aloud in despair. She was going to have to watch them die, and she couldn’t bear it!

As she watched, she saw Muirin get off a couple of shots with her slingshot, saw another of the Jeeps let out one of those bone-chilling screams before it sank down through the snow, but then Muirin threw her only weapon aside. Spirit knew without needing to see it that the intense cold had made the elastic snap.

And there were still four of the vehicles left: an SUV, two Jeeps, and a pickup truck.

Muirin and Burke both turned and ran, but Loch—much closer to safety—didn’t move. Three of the vehicles followed—including the SUV with the demonic Hunt Lord in it—but the truck had circled back to pick up the hunters who’d been set afoot by the destruction of their eldritch vehicle. The other three sped toward them—

—and struck the scattering of horseshoe nails Muirin had strewn across the snow.

This time the mingled wails of agony were loud enough to make Spirit want to cover her ears. The three vehicles reared back and twisted and vanished beneath the snow.

Now the Hunt Lord was afoot, along with perhaps a dozen ghosts. He gestured imperiously, and the last remaining vehicle zoomed forward at full speed, intent on running Burke and Muirin down. It crossed the second scattering of iron nails just as Burke turned back and fired. This time he’d loaded his shotgun with some of Muirin’s iron balls as well as his own blessed-salt shells. The salt struck the eerie forms crowding the front seat and the iron balls buried themselves in the seat behind them. The truck shrieked in agony and fled back to the Hollow Hills. Spirit didn’t know how many of its passengers Burke had also dispatched with those two shots, but as the rest of the ghosts ran across the snow toward him, Burke calmly reloaded, fired, reloaded, and fired again.

Run, Burke! You have to run! Spirit thought desperately, pressing her hands over her mouth to muffle her sobs. With every second Burke spent destroying the ghostly members of the Wild Hunt, its demonic Hunt Lord came closer. And closer.

And Loch still stood unmoving.

“Spirit! Hide!” Addie gasped, reaching the edge of the trees.

“But—Loch—Burke—”

“Loch has to lure him in—Burke has to kill the rest of them,” Addie said, dragging Spirit back into the false safety of the trees. Their branches were still shaking, showering the ground below with snow.

A moment later Muirin joined them. “Where do we—What do we—How can we—” she babbled frantically. Addie simply grabbed her and hauled her—silently—to the far edge of the little woods.

Everyone had told Spirit to hide, but nobody had told her where. She didn’t even know where the spell-trap was. They’d been spending so much time staying away from each other that they hadn’t done all the planning they needed to. Next time we set out to kill