“We have run out of time,” Snaggletooth said. “Your absence has been discovered. Even now, the usurper will be sending guards to find you. You must go!”
Yellow Eye took to the air above me, flapping its wings hard enough to cause a strong downdraft that almost knocked me over. It grabbed me under the arms with its prehensile hind claws and lifted me off the ground. Below, Snaggletooth turned and started walking back into the tunnel.
“Wait,” I said. “You never told me your name.”
The gargoyle turned to face me. “It is Jibril-khan, fourteenth hatchling of Khan-maku. Go now, and may the Guardians show you favor this night.” Then Snaggletooth—Jibril-khan—disappeared into the darkness of the tunnel.
Gripping me tightly, Yellow Eye flew us out of the cave mouth. The gargoyle’s claws dug through the fabric of my trench coat and shirt and into my shoulders. It hurt like hell, but at least it kept me from falling into the Hudson River as we flew toward the distant shore of Manhattan. I breathed a sigh of relief as the cavern—and the Black Knight—fell farther behind.
I looked up at Yellow Eye. “I remember you from the warehouse. We fought there, didn’t we? I’m sorry if I hurt you.”
Yellow Eye looked down at me with its one good eye and grunted dismissively, as if to tell me I was flattering myself.
Just then, another gargoyle came hurtling out of the cave mouth behind us. Yellow Eye saw it the same time I did and immediately took evasive maneuvers, diving and banking while I held on for dear life, but we couldn’t shake our pursuer. The second gargoyle flew high, then dove in front of us, causing Yellow Eye to pull up in order to avoid a collision.
The other gargoyle screeched, loud and angry, and I saw that it was Long Face, the same gargoyle that had helped Yellow Eye carry me from the cemetery. Now that Yellow Eye’s betrayal had been revealed, Long Face was enraged. The two gargoyles shrieked, bit, and clawed at each other like bitter enemies. Yellow Eye twisted in midair to slash at Long Face, jostling me dangerously in its rear claws. I held on as tightly as I could.
Long Face let out a high-pitched screech of pain and fell back. Yellow Eye flapped harder, propelling us toward the far shore. We didn’t get far before Long Face came at us again, though this time the gargoyle flew directly at me. I got my legs up and kicked, striking Long Face in the snout and knocking it back a few feet in midair. The kick jostled me in Yellow Eye’s grip again. I glanced nervously down at the dark water far below.
Long Face came back at us. Yellow Eye banked to one side, trying to get around Long Face, but it was no use. Long Face attacked Yellow Eye again, and the next thing I knew we were spinning out of control. Blood rained on me from above, but from which gargoyle I couldn’t tell. Given the ferocity of their attacks, probably both of them. They snarled and shrieked and clawed at each other, and all the while we fell, twisting and spinning, toward the frothing black waves below. I held on tight and scissored my legs in a futile attempt to try to stabilize us, but I had no leverage. We were out of control.
I looked up in time to see Long Face tear out Yellow Eye’s throat with its teeth. More blood rained all around me. Yellow Eye’s body went limp in midair. Its claws relaxed their grip on my shoulders, and suddenly I was in free fall. Long Face snarled, folded its wings against its body, and dove to catch me.
The gargoyle’s claw reached for my arm, its fingers starting to close around my wrist, and then all three of us slammed into the Hudson River.
Thirty-three
The force of hitting the water was as painful as landing on a hardwood floor. The freezing cold waves of the Hudson closed over me instantly. Swallowed me whole. Underwater, it was too dark to see. I was too stunned and disoriented to know up from down. I thrashed and twisted in the cold, black void until my lungs burned for air. I was panicking, I realized, and if I didn’t stop I would drown. I went as still as I could and let myself rise like a buoy to the surface. It seemed to take forever, my lungs like overinflated balloons threatening to burst. When I finally broke the surface, I sucked in so much air that the astrophysicists at Columbia University probably thought a new black hole had formed off the coast of Manhattan.
I hadn’t dropped far in that final free fall, maybe forty feet, but still, I was lucky I hadn’t broken my neck on impact. Yellow Eye’s dead body floated a few feet away. Damn. The gargoyle had been trying to help me, and had gotten killed for its trouble.
I treaded water, keeping an eye out for Long Face, but there was no sign of the gargoyle. They were tough creatures, though. I knew that if I survived, Long Face probably had, too. I didn’t like not knowing where the gargoyle was, but I had other priorities at the moment, like getting the hell out of the freezing cold water.
I swam toward Manhattan, fighting against the strong current that kept trying to pull me downriver. I was sore all over, a man-shaped contusion, but I didn’t let myself slow or stop. I kept reaching for the city lights twinkling in the distance like a beacon, until finally I felt the bottom of the river under my feet. Then I stood and stumbled like a madman through the surf. Cold, wet, exhausted, and in pain, I collapsed onto the slick, unyielding rocks that formed a narrow ribbon along the shoreline.
I didn’t pass out. I never do, it’s one of drawbacks of my condition. I lay there a long time, though, and was conscious for all of it. I was also painfully aware of something poking me in the thigh, something that felt different from the hard stones underneath me. I reached into my pocket—a simple, commonplace action that suddenly took Herculean effort—and pulled out the object that was poking me. It was the cell phone Isaac had given me. I almost laughed, but all I could manage was a throaty cough. I flipped the phone open. Water poured out of it. The display screen stayed dark. The phone was dead. That’s what it got for hanging around the likes of me. That’s what everyone got, in the end.
The cell phone dropped out of my hand, and my hand dropped to my side. I didn’t have the strength to move anymore. I knew this feeling, and I knew what would come next. I’d wondered on occasion what would happen if I died and there was no one around whose life force the thing inside me could steal. Would I just lay there, inert, until some unlucky soul wandered by? What if no one did? How long could I stay dead before it was irreversible? I had a feeling I was about to find out.
I waited to die, but I was wrong. Death didn’t come for me. Rejected again. Maybe it was done trying at this point.
Once my strength had recovered enough that I was able to get up and leave the shore, I stumbled inland. I made my way through trees and up a slight incline. I heard the distant sounds of traffic on the Henry Hudson Parkway, but the first road I arrived at was something else. Narrow and deserted, it was little more than a paved path. An access road, probably designed for emergency or sanitation vehicles. A single lamppost beside the road struggled to fend off the dark all on its own. I sympathized.
I stepped onto the road. Aside from being cold and wet, my bones ached and my legs shook, barely able to support my weight. The idea of walking very far was a joke, though I wasn’t sure what the punchline was. Still, I forced myself to put one foot in front of the other and hoped I would wind up somewhere.
Something dropped from above, crashing through the treetops and landing on the road in front of me. It was Long Face. The gargoyle was bruised and battered, but still alive. We had that in common, at least.
Too weak to run, I just stood there, wobbling, and said, “Oh. It’s you.”
I braced myself for the gargoyle’s inevitable attack, hoping that if Long Face killed me he would at least stick around long enough to contribute to my resurrection. Provided it worked with gargoyles. I didn’t know if it would. The thing inside me had only ever stolen the life forces of human beings before. It’s funny, the things you wonder when you’re about to die.
I thought I heard the revving of an engine in the distance, growing louder and nearer. Long Face chittered angrily. The gargoyle crouched like a jungle cat ready to spring.
A big black Escalade came roaring out of the darkness, barreling down the road right for us. Startled, I threw myself out of the vehicle’s way on a surge of adrenaline. A moment later, it slammed into the gargoyle like a battering ram. The Escalade’s front grille crushed inward and a single headlight shattered. The vehicle skidded to a halt while Long Face was sent somersaulting through the air. The gargoyle collided with the metal lamppost with a painful-sounding clang. Long Face tumbled to the ground, but the gargoyle was a resilient bastard. Almost
