Lacuna - N.R. Walker Page 0,106

large red wound on his side.

Oh, please, please no.

Tancho put his katana through one Ascii throat before he reached his friends, sliding on his knees at their sides. Neither of them moved at his touch.

Then Crow noticed Elmwood and Samiel at the far end of the room behind Maghdlm, near the stage area. They were restrained, on their knees, badly beaten, bruised, bloodied, but both alive. Their swords were now crumbled rusted iron on the floor beside them.

Crow ran to Tancho. “Are they . . . ?”

“Alive,” he whispered. “Though barely. Crow . . .”

Crow looked to where Soko was lying, slumped on the floor—where they could see his chest rising and falling—and Crow nodded. “We kill them all.”

Tancho stood, fire and rage in his eyes. The golden glow made him look ethereal and really, really pissed off.

He leapt again into the fray, helping a red soldier slay one creature, and Crow was quick to follow. They were separated now, the distance between them clearly a surprise to Maghdlm, but she had another door open and more creatures came through.

It was a fight they couldn’t seem to win.

Crow had to put a stop to her, to the doorways, to the carnage.

He began to chant the incantation to close the door and one of the doorways sputtered and slowly began to shrink.

Maghdlm only spoke louder, urging the door to open again.

“Crow, look out!” Tancho yelled, and Crow turned just in time to see an Ascii swing its huge fist. He ducked back, the dagger-like claws missing his face by a hair’s breadth.

Crow heaved his sword upward, gutting the creature like a wild boar. It stood, stunned, for a long moment, and Crow kicked it over. But then another came at him and, after that, another. More of their soldiers were gored, killed, more Ascii were coming and Crow was so exhausted he could barely lift his sword.

And for the first time since this whole ordeal began, all those days ago, Crow had the sinking realisation that they would not survive this.

He would die here, with Tancho at his side.

When Crow had said he’d be beside Tancho until the end, he didn’t expect the end to find them so soon.

He wanted more time with him.

He wanted a life with him.

And these hideous creatures and that evil Maghdlm were going to take it all from him.

Crow raised his sword and roared as he killed one more creature, cutting its head off through the ear. The top of its head hit the tiles like a gruesome helmet. Crow picked it up, and with every ounce of strength he had left, he threw it at the glass dome above them.

The dome broke, sending shards of broken glass down onto the compass. The light in the room changed and Maghdlm turned to him, her face a mask of fury. And just when Crow thought he might have had a small victory against her, a creature grabbed Tancho and flung him toward Maghdlm like a rag doll. He hit the ground near her feet with a sickening thud. There was a good twenty metres between them now . . . more distance than there had been in over a week. Maghdlm grinned at Crow, and Crow screamed just as more sparks burst into life and another doorway opened.

She waved her hand with a sinister grin and Crow’s sword crumbled to rusted dust.

Crow knew it was over then.

If more creatures came scrambling through, with a fresh thirst for blood, it was over. He could see four blurry figures coming through.

Exhausted, defeated, bereft, Crow fell to his knees, and keeping his eyes on Tancho, he made a vow for all to hear.

“In our next life, my love.”

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and waited for the Ascii—and death—to come.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Everything had gone wrong. There were too many of them, they were too strong and too brutal.

The doorways kept opening, creatures kept coming through, and while Tancho and Crow, and all the soldiers were tired and losing strength, the Ascii were fresh and desperate for blood.

Tancho had risked a glance at Crow, and in that split second, just half a second distraction, Tancho was hit.

The air left his lungs with a whoosh, his head snapped back, and then he was careening through the air. He hit the ground far too hard; his ears rung and his vision swam, darkness ebbed in his mind like high tide.

But then he heard Crow’s scream.

The sound struck Tancho harder than the Ascii