“Ivy!” Jasmine cried when I suddenly lunged forward with no coordination and fell. Adrian reached me in the next instant, but though I could hear him speaking in a concerned tone, the words blurred into white noise.
Boom, boom, boom! went my hallowed sensor. Or maybe it was my heart. I couldn’t tell the difference anymore. All I knew was that I was being yanked farther into the tunnel by a force I couldn’t see, but though invisible, that force had a stronger hold over me than anything tangible ever could.
“Let me go,” I heard myself snarl at Adrian, but he didn’t. After several hard shakes, I could finally make out his words.
“Ivy, listen to me! Costa checked the door to the mine. It was warded to mute the staff’s effects. That’s why you couldn’t feel it before, and why it hit you so hard all at once.”
“I had no idea,” I vaguely heard Edgar add. “Those markings have been there for centuries, but no one knew what they meant.”
Some of the fog left my mind, so I processed what they were saying, yet it did nothing to stop my need to go forward. I had to reach the staff. Not doing so made every muscle ache as though I were being beaten from the inside.
“Let go.” It was all I was capable of saying. If I could’ve caused the slingshot to come out, I might have started whipping Adrian with it. That’s how deep the need ran to reach it.
Adrian’s grip tightened on me instead. “I don’t think she can help herself from touching it,” he told Costa. “I’ll have to get her past the muters again, then go in for the staff alone.”
I was so appalled by this, my right hand connected with his jaw in a punch that rocked him backward. Still, he didn’t let go, and when I went for another punch, he grabbed my fist, knocking my legs out from under me at the same time.
“Nice one, dear,” he said through gritted teeth, “but we’re getting you out of here before you go full Ronda Rousey on me.”
“I cannot show the staff’s location to anyone except the Davidian,” Edgar insisted. “I’ve made vows.”
Adrian gave him a glare I only half saw because I was still trying to wrest free. “I made vows, too, and one of them tethered my soul to this woman’s, so you’re going to show me.”
“But you—” Edgar began. Then he stopped.
A horrible, metallic screeching sound filled the air, followed by an explosion that rocked the ground beneath us and sent ominous clouds of dust raining from the roof.
“No!” Edgar shouted, running back toward the chambers.
Adrian picked me up and ran after him. I fought as if I were deranged until the moment we crossed the entryway to the mine shaft. Then my need to reach the staff evaporated as quickly as those phantom pains that had overtaken my body.
“I’m okay, put me down,” I urged, but Adrian ignored that, using his superior speed to race past Edgar and reach the first section of the chambers. A thick cloud of dust billowed out to meet us, and beyond that, more sounds of metal breaking followed by frightening tremors in the earth.
Pain shot up my arm and my tattoo suddenly glowed bright gold, lighting up the thick, chalky air around us. Adrian saw it and pivoted, reversing course so fast that it felt like my head might snap off from extreme whiplash. But in the next instant, two large snakes snapped their fangs at empty air instead of me, and as the dust cloud cleared, I saw the same snake-armed demon who’d tried to kill me weeks ago. Piotr was behind him, the old man looking all too smug, and when I saw dozens of eyes flashing through the dark, I knew that the snake-armed demon had brought friends. Lots of them.
“Adrian, Davidian,” Vritra said, satisfaction practically oozing from his tone. “We meet again.”
CHAPTER FORTY
“WHAT DID YOU DO?” Edgar yelled at Piotr.
The old man stared at him defiantly. “Ensured my future, something being a Guardian has never done. Now that I’ve proved my worth, I will be transformed, as I deserve.”
A minion wannabe. Now I’d seen everything. Adrian slowly let me down, and as soon as my feet touched the floor, I bent, picking up the loose rocks that the explosion had shaken free.
“There’s no way out, Davidian,” Vritra said in a pleasant tone. “Those explosions you felt were Piotr blowing a hidden charge to disable the elevator, and the second blast took out the staircase above the Dlugosz Chamber.”
Edgar’s stricken expression confirmed that we had no way out of here. “How could you?” he breathed to Piotr.
“Easily,” Piotr bit back. “All it took was a few sticks of the dynamite, plus a mirror to summon Vritra. I have been serving him for the past three months.” He turned smug eyes on Adrian. “Did you really believe that throwing him into an ocean could wound him indefinitely?” He chuckled before zeroing in on Edgar again. “You and the rest of our order might consider it an honor to spend your life underground and in poverty, but I don’t.”
I was actually wondering why Vritra and his minions hadn’t charged us yet. They had us trapped. What was he waiting for?
“We can proceed one of two ways,” Vritra said, answering my unspoken question. “I slaughter all of you, which is my personal preference. Or, whoever leads me to the staff gets to live, and whoever doesn’t dies.”
So that’s why! Piotr might have told Vritra before that the staff was in the mine, but the mine was over a hundred miles long and over a thousand feet deep, which was too vague to be useful if you couldn’t sense it. And before today, Piotr hadn’t known who among the dozens of Guardians had been entrusted with its exact location. Now, Vritra needed me or Edgar to point him to the staff, or even with it narrowed down to one mine shaft, he’d spend countless days or weeks trying to find it.
“Don’t do it, Edgar,” I murmured.
He glanced at me, his gray gaze hard. “I was chosen because I would rather die than betray my cause, so let this demon scum do their worst.”
The slingshot was now fully uncurled from my arm, and I notched one of the salt rocks into it. “You heard the man,” I said, starting to spin the rope. “Take your offer and shove it.”
Adrian pulled out two guns from holsters beneath his shirt. So he’d gotten a lot of things while I was sleeping earlier. “I kicked your ass before, Vritra. Love to do it again.”
The snake-armed demon smiled as he glanced at Piotr. “Seems they need more persuading. Blow the last charge.”
What charge? I thought. Piotr’s uneasy expression only increased my sense of foreboding. If Vritra didn’t have over a dozen minions in front of him, I’d start slinging rocks, but with his minion shields, the projectiles wouldn’t reach him.
“But, master, I may not survive, either—” Piotr began.
“Do it!” Vritra roared, his coiling serpents striking out at Piotr, their fangs missing him by mere inches.
Piotr lunged away from the deadly snakes, leaving the shelter of the minion crowd. That was all Adrian needed. A shot rang out and Piotr fell, clutching his bleeding chest. Adrian fired again, this time hitting the minion who threw himself in front of Piotr. From the tangle of legs surrounding him, I saw the spindly old man glaring at us, and even as blood bubbled from his lips, he pulled something out of his jacket and pressed it.
The explosion didn’t sound as massive or as close as the previous ones, and though the ground shook, the walls stayed up and nothing caved in. For a few relieved moments, I thought that something had gone wrong with the blast. Then I heard a strange rushing sound that grew louder.
Edgar grabbed my arm. “Run! He’s flooded the mine!”
Adrian began firing into the crowd at will as he backed up. Edgar was pulling at me for all he was worth, but this might be our only chance to kill Vritra. I aimed for his head and snapped the rope, sending a rock right at the demon. He ducked, and it hit the minion behind him. Furious, I notched another rock, but that rushing sound grew,
and then water blasted into the chamber with enough force to knock the minions and Vritra over.
Adrian grabbed my hand and we ran back through the first chamber. When we reached the second, I heard water smash into the glass displays of the first room, breaking everything it its path. We ran faster, until we reached Jasmine and Costa, who’d gotten a big head start. I grabbed her and Adrian got Costa. Together, we propelled them forward faster than they could go on their own, but it wasn’t enough. Water splashed around our ankles when we reached the fifth chamber, and by the time we got to the seventh one, it was up to our waists.
Worse, it wasn’t only filled with glass, rocks and other dangerous debris. It had also carried along the minions and Vritra with it. Three snakes popped their heads out of the water next to me, and I lunged away just in time. Adrian released Costa and grabbed the snakes, tearing their heads off with a brutal yank. I screamed when three more appeared in the water behind him. He whirled, grabbing them and tearing, but too late. One of them latched on to his arm and those deadly fangs sank in.
“No!” I shouted.
Adrian grimaced as he pulled the snake head off his arm and threw it aside. I tried to run to him, but the water was now up to my chest, and I tripped over objects it hid from my view. Then Vritra emerged from the frothing waves. Decapitated snake heads swirled around him as he grabbed Adrian, his features a mask of rage. Adrian fought, but his movements were terrifyingly uncoordinated and his eyes looked unfocused.
The poison, I realized in horror. Adrian was half-demon, so most things couldn’t kill him, but other demons could and, maybe, so could demon poison.
Arms grabbed me around the waist and pulled. Hard. I kicked to get free, but with everything shifting from the rising water, I lost my balance. Those arms pulled me under, and for a few frantic seconds, I fought to break the surface. My assailant kept dragging me back down, and amid my panic over lack of oxygen, I realized my error.
Instead of fighting to break the surface, I grabbed my assailant. Water blunted the effect of my punches and made my slingshot useless. My only advantage was that it also blunted the punches and kicks from the minion I was grappling with. I had to do something else. Fast.
With my lungs burning for oxygen, I felt around until I reached his face. It was easy to find, since he bit me viciously as soon as I grazed it. Instead of trying to pull free, I used my trapped hand as a map, and then shoved my thumb into his eye as hard as I could.
Frenzied kicking and fighting ensued. I absorbed every painful blow and held on, shoving my thumb deeper and twisting. Those movements abruptly stopped and I twisted free, taking in huge gulps of air as soon as I cleared the surface.
“Ivy!” my sister screamed. I sloshed around, seeing her and Costa much farther ahead. The force of the water had swept them and several minions into the mine, but Adrian and Vritra were still in this chamber, and I was horrified by what I saw.
Vritra’s hands were wrapped around Adrian’s neck. Adrian was trying to pry the demon’s hands free, but his eyelids were fluttering and he looked to be fading.
“You tore my throat out once,” the demon hissed. “It’s time I repaid you for that.”
I lunged toward them, desperation allowing me to cut through the water with more power than I should have had. Then, because I had nothing else to use and Adrian’s eyes were closing with a terrifying finality, I looped the sling around Vritra’s head, planted my feet in his back and pulled with all of my might.
I fell backward into the water so suddenly that I was sure I’d failed. Then something bobbed against my chest, and I stared down at Vritra’s decapitated head. His mouth was still moving in curses as his skin blackened and caved inward, then his head disappeared and ashes filled the water around me.
I swam over to Adrian. Ashes blackened his throat from Vritra’s hands, but that was quickly washed away in the swirling water. It had risen until I could no longer feel the ground, and the ceiling was only a few feet away.
“Adrian!” I said, shaking him. His eyes fluttered and he smiled, but his veins were starting to turn black as the poison worked its way through his body.
I pulled him with me as I swam, keeping his head above the water. The only place left to go was the mine shaft where the staff was located. From the little I remembered of it, it went back a long way, so it might buy us time before the water reached the ceiling and drowned us all. Plus, once I crossed through the doorway, I wouldn’t be thinking about anything except finding the staff.
Maybe that was a good thing, I grimly decided as I swam toward the mine shaft. The only way any of us would survive was if these waters suddenly, miraculously receded, and there was only one item in the world that could cause them to do that. It might kill me to use it, but if I didn’t, we were all dead anyway, and if I was going down, I’d rather go down fighting.
I tightened my grip on Adrian and pushed us toward the doorway to the mine. Right before we crossed it, the entire cavern filled with light.
Zach appeared in the center of the water. Light radiated from the sword in his hand, growing in brightness, until the blade shone like a lightning bolt. He used it with ruthless accuracy, hacking into every minion that the rushing river swept his way. Ashes blackened the water and screams echoed in the mine as the minions tried to fight the current to swim away. They couldn’t. Faster than my eye could follow, Zach hacked them to pieces, somehow not hindered at all by the chest-deep water.
“Ivy, hurry,” Zach ordered me. “They’re right behind you.”
Who? I turned, and then gasped. At least a dozen more demons were crashing through the water in the chamber just beyond this one. From the shouts that echoed behind them, more were on the way. Piotr had blown the elevator to bits, ensuring we couldn’t escape, but a four-hundred-foot drop was probably a fun free-fall for demons that had been waiting centuries or more to claim this staff for themselves. Or kill me, depending on their preference.
“Go!” Zach urged me. “I will hold them off.” Then his teeth flashed in a smile that was nearly dazzling. “It seems I don’t have more important things to do than act as your doorman.”
I would have been stunned by the joke, let alone the smile, but there wasn’t time. I pushed Adrian past Zach through the mine entryway, watching the Archon snatch him up with one hand while slicing a minion in two with that great, shining sword. He didn’t seem hindered at all by holding Adrian above the water while fighting, so, taking a deep breath, I plunged through the mine entryway myself.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
AS SOON AS I passed the warding symbols that had muted my link to the staff, my fear vanished. So did my aches from the multiple items I’d bashed into in the water, let alone the beating I’d taken from the minion who’d tried to drown me. All I could focus on was the staff, and it pulled me forward as if I’d been caught in a tractor beam.
I swam past Jasmine and Costa, not listening to what they said as I went farther into the mine. Something slashed into my leg, an old piece of equipment, perhaps, but not even the pain registered. All I could feel was the staff, and its power sizzled along my nerves from being in its proximity. Closer, it seemed to whisper, urging me forward. Almost there.
A hundred yards ahead, I stopped, facing the wall on my left. It was the same granite-gray color of the rest of the mine, its uneven surface no different than the rest of the rocks around it. Yet when I touched the stone, the power behind it seared my hand, and I would’ve snatched it away at once if I could feel the pain. For the strangest reason, I couldn’t. I was too consumed with freeing the staff from its rocky confines.
I dug around the surface of the rock, knowing that the slab acted as a natural door and my prize was right behind it. My hands and fingers tore and bled from the jagged edges of stone, but that didn’t stop me, either. Neither did the water rising up to my chest as I continued to feel for a good ha
ndhold in order to pull the rock away. When I finally reached a spot where my fingers could curl around the stone at both ends, I pulled. The stone gave, but not enough. I increased my efforts, feeling my muscles strain as I heaved and pulled with all of my strength.
The rock slid toward me, and water rushed into the alcove it revealed. I barely noticed the carved stone figure of the old bearded man behind it. My eyes were fixed on the wooden staff in his raised hands. The statue held it in front of itself as if in supplication, and the staff was so long, it extended from the floor to well past the reach of those stone hands.
And the power that vibrated from it made the very air around me crackle with energy.
The slingshot in my arm throbbed, as if recognizing the power that ran through the staff. Without a single concern as to the repercussions, I grabbed it, removing it from the stone hands that were half-curled around it. Using the staff would save everyone. I knew that to my core, unlike the time I found the slingshot and had to keep trying until I mustered up enough faith to wield it.
But as soon as my hands closed around the staff, my mind felt like it emptied of everything that made me Ivy Jenkins. I wasn’t concerned about the water that now swirled to my chin, the screams and howls that echoed down the tunnel from the supernatural death match, my sister, Costa or even Adrian. I didn’t have purpose here. Something else did, and it was so overwhelming, so focused, that nothing else could sway it.
It made me hold the staff vertically, then raise my arms over my head. As soon as I did, power smashed into me with the force of a meteor landing. I would have crumbled beneath it, but that force held my legs as straight as the arms I kept extended over my head. That power grew, building, until it took over everything, even my breath. I was held completely immobile, with no more free will than a power line has over the electricity coursing through it, and as that power reached a crescendo that felt as if it would rip me asunder, I had a moment of complete, out-of-body clarity.