Nico shifted her stance. Without her coat, she could feel the spirits around her, already awake and on the verge of panic, start to lose control. The voice in her head was silent, but she could feel him waiting, watching in anticipation. “Give Eli to me, or else,” she said.
“Or else what?” Sparrow rolled his eyes. “This is taking too long. Tesset, let’s go.”
Tesset looked at him. “You sure? Alric said to get her to safety.”
“Hang Alric!” Sparrow said, pulling Eli’s rope taut. “Since when are we League? There isn’t enough cash in the world to make me put up with this.”
As he spoke, Nico flexed her demon claw. She couldn’t take Tesset, but Sparrow was another story. She tried one last time. “Let him go.”
Sparrow sneered and started to turn away. Nico raised her claw with a snarl, but just as she launched herself forward, an enormous whistling scream cut through the air as something shot overhead. It exploded through the buildings, including the one right next to them, and landed with an enormous crash in the arena behind them.
For one long second, everything seemed to stop. Tesset’s mouth opened, shouting a warning that he never quite got out. Beside him, Sparrow was staring up as the enormous wall of the building above them, broken by whatever it was that had crashed through the town, broke free of its supports and began to fall forward. Even Eli had stopped struggling. He was also watching the wall as it fell toward them, his bound hands coming up to cover his head. And in that long, slow moment, Nico decided what she would do.
She spun in midair, turning the demon arm away from Sparrow. The creature inside her snarled in frustration, but Nico ignored it, focusing all of her attention on her other fist, her striking fist, just as Josef had taught her. Sparrow was wide open as Nico’s human fist slammed into his jaw, knocking him back. He stumbled in surprise, and his hands let go of the rope around Eli’s neck just as Nico caught the thief’s shoulder. The moment she had him, Nico changed directions, kicking off the ground and throwing herself toward the collapsing wall. She glanced up and found what she was looking for, a glass window. She stepped into position and forced Eli down, covering him with her body as the wall crashed around them.
The glass broke over her shoulders, and Nico grunted in pain as the shards sliced her skin. The ground shook under her feet as the wall landed, and then, quickly as it had happened, it was over. Nico cracked her eyes open. She was standing perfectly in the center of the window, surrounded by broken glass. Eli was choking and panting beneath her, grabbing his throat, which was bright red where the rope had cut in. Right beside his knee, buried by the broken glass, she could see Tesset’s hand, still wrapped in the threads of her coat. The rest of him was lost beneath the collapsed wooden beams.
She reached down and helped Eli to his feet. “Are you all right?”
“No.” Eli coughed. “I’m bruised, beaten, and bloody… and alive, thanks to you.”
Nico smiled and bent over, reaching down for the thread of her coat. It woke when she brushed it, sliding up her arm like a snake. She winced when she touched Tesset’s skin. His hand was still warm, and she felt a twinge of guilt. For all that he’d been her captor, he’d been a good man. Too good to die like this. But she couldn’t think about that now. She kept her arm down, letting her coat reweave itself across her body until she was completely covered again.
“Let’s go get Josef,” she said, standing up.
“Right,” Eli said, rubbing his neck as he looked around at the wreckage. “I don’t suppose you know what that was just now.”
“No,” Nico said, picking her way quickly through the debris. “And I don’t care. All I want to do is get to Josef.”
“Fair enough,” Eli muttered, starting after her.
Their building wasn’t the only one that had collapsed. The dirt roads were now more like tunnels through great piles of broken timber, and they had to change direction several times when the way was blocked. The air was filled with horrible sounds, mostly the demon’s horrible screaming mixed with explosions and the sound of buildings collapsing, though at this point Nico was surprised there was anything still left to collapse. But despite the horrible noises, she pressed on, letting the sounds lead her toward the center of town, where Josef was.
They were almost there when Eli broke the silence.
“Nico,” he said, quickening his pace until he was walking beside her. “Why did you do that?”
His voice was soft, but Nico flinched anyway. “What?”
“Save me.”
She took a deep breath, pushing a fallen beam out of the way. “Because Josef would have saved you. And because we’re a team.” She stopped to look at him. “Comrades don’t leave each other in the lurch. Aren’t those your words?”
Eli nodded, but his face was closed and expressionless, just as it had been during those awful three days in the cabin. Nico looked away, blinking back tears.
Did you really expect anything to change?
Nico shook her head. But then, just as she reached out to knock a broken beam out of the way, Eli grabbed her human hand. She froze, but he didn’t let her go.
“Thank you,” he said, squeezing her hand in his.
Nico looked up in surprise.
He gave her a wide, genuine smile before letting her go. Nico didn’t move. She just stood there, staring as Eli walked past her and started pulling at a fallen window frame that blocked their way.
“Are you coming?” he said, looking over his shoulder.
Grinning wide, Nico ran to help Eli tear down the last bits of debris between them and the building where Josef had landed.
The outer edges of Izo’s bandit town were completely destroyed. Great piles of wood and broken glass lay over the once orderly streets, and those buildings that were standing were little more than skeletons teetering on supports that still occasionally twitched in terror. But down on what had been the road to the canyon’s southern exit, the rubble was stirring.
Glass slid crashing to the ground as Tesset pushed himself up with a groan, tossing the splintered wood beams aside with one hand. His other hand was still on the ground, fingers dug into the dirt where he’d braced himself to make a shelter of his own body for Sparrow, who was curled in a ball on the ground, coughing and clutching his bleeding nose.
“Do you see them?” he choked out.
“No,” Tesset said, surveying the wreckage.
Sparrow began to curse loudly, tearing off his ruined coat and using the silk lining to wipe the layer of dust from his face. “This is just bleeding brilliant. No thief, no demonseed, no legendary sword, and no missing Shaper wizard. Let’s just quit now, before Sara sticks us on file duty for the rest of our lives, how about?”
“No need for that quite yet,” Tesset said. “We know where they’re going.”
“The swordsman?” Sparrow said. He wiggled his tongue around before spitting the dirt out of his mouth. “There’s no way we can beat them there, and I’m not sure I want to. Just listen.”
He hardly needed to point it out. The demon’s scream was everywhere. It reverberated through the air, horrible and unnatural. Despite his years of training to master such a basic human weakness as fear, Tesset couldn’t help the cold shudder that ran down his spine. Still, his face was bored and impassive as he stared down at Sparrow. “Do you want to be the one who explains to Sara why we’re coming back empty-handed?”
Sparrow heaved an enormous sigh and held out his hands. Tesset yanked him up, and they began to clear their way toward the arena, now hidden behind the toppled buildings.
Benehime crouched by her sphere, a wild look in her white eyes as she watched her darling boy run through the panicked city.
Just one word, she murmured, clenching her fingers against the pulse of demon-born fear reverberating through the world. Just one plea. She smiled as she saw Eli trip. Things will only get worse, darling. How much farther can you go on your own? How much more can you suffer for your pride? She pressed her lips against her orb. All you have to do is say you need me. Submit, and all the world will be yours, darling star.
But as she watched him, something blurred her vision. She blinked several times, but it was no use. A great wind was circling at the top of her sphere, deliberately obscuring her view. Scowling, Benehime crooked her little finger. The wind vanished instantly, reappearing in the nothingness beside her.
