There came a third blow and the entire cabin shook with the impact.
“The ward is not going to last long,” I said. “Hurry, grab what you can and meet me at the front door.”
I took another glance at Cris and Tess. Tess had her leather pants and her jacket was also on, but unzipped. She grabbed her saddlebags, threw them over one shoulder, picked up her crossbow and slung it over her other shoulder. Then seized Cris by one arm and dragged the older woman toward the bedroom door while Cris struggled to get her blouse on.
I snagged my own saddlebags and ran down the hall to the great room as another blow shook the cabin hard enough to make the pine floor dance beneath my feet. Simultaneously, the windows in the cabin shattered under the blow. For a second, I thought something had come in, but then I realized the glass had blown outwards as much as inward. The walls were still intact, but I felt the wards snap out of existence.
“Damn, hurry,” I cried as I grabbed my boots and slipped my bare feet into them.
“What the hell is doing that?” Cris asked.
“Talk later, get your boots on,” Tess ordered her as she followed her own words by pulling her boots on without bothering with the laces.
As another blow shook the building, I focused energy on the spell in my watch and its shield snapped into existence around the three of us.
Without the ward to guard the structure, this last blow cracked open the roof. Wooden shards rained down around us, but nothing penetrated my shield.
Standing, I stepped beside the women while they finished pulling on their boots. Bruno flew down the hallway and landed on Tess’s shoulder.
“Thanks for the warning, Bruno,” I said. The little beastie gazed at me and blew a column of smoke from his mouth.
As the girls stood, I motioned them toward the front door.
Yet another blow shook the cabin, nearly knocking us from our feet and causing the furniture to dance around while the air was filled with the moan of stressed wood, a crashing of everything not nailed down, and a boom loud enough to have been an explosion.
“Tess, do you know the portal spell well enough to cast it?” I asked.
“Sure, I used the remembrance spell to memorize it.”
For once, I was glad she’d disobeyed my instructions not to use the remembrance spell. “Okay, we’re going to rush outside, single file. Move downhill across the clearing away from the cabin. I’ll summon Beast and Maia as soon as we’re clear of the deck and you cast the portal spell.”
“We’re running?” Tess asked.
“Anything that can shatter that ward is too much for us to handle unprepared. We need to retreat and assess the threat before engaging it.”
I didn’t need to be meshed with Tess to know she understood and would follow my instructions.
A great crashing shattered the night again and what had been a split in the roof became a wide chasm of night sky. Although, there were no stars above us, they’d been obscured by the monstrous form that filled the opening.
“Run,” I yelled as I triggered my lightning tat.
The pattern tattooed into the flesh of my left fist glowed golden. The night thundered as gold fire rained down and englobed the enormous Cyclops. Without waiting to see if my bolt was having any effect on the Titan, I ran after Cris and Tess. They’d reached the door, but couldn’t open it with my shield around us. I moved the shield into a flat surface above us and Tess threw the door open. As soon as the three of us were on the deck, I restored the shield into a hemisphere above us and we ran down the steps toward the grassy clearing that led to the west.
My fingers closed on the whistle that always hung around my neck and I blew hard. We had just reached the ground when the local charge petered out and my tattoo went dark. I cast a hurried look over my shoulder and saw the damn cyclops standing. The lightning might have affected him, but it was only as temporary as a small stun gun to such a Titan.
I had to wonder why in all the worlds did the Cyclopes suddenly decide that they wanted to come after me. I didn’t have much experience with the Greek gods. Most of them minded their own business these days. Hell, even the Norse gods mostly stayed away from Earth, Verðandi had never explained exactly why this was, but I figured Odin had laid down the law on interference with humans.
Before I could even turn away from the Cyclops, it had spotted us and took a step onto the roof on the cabin, causing the rest of it to come crashing down.
“Damn it, Beast, you’d better be within earshot,” I mumbled as I turned back to chase after the women.
I started unwinding the leather sling that encircled my left wrist, just above my old watch. My favorite spell was one of two tats that the booby trap hadn’t robbed me of.
Tess began to slow down as she started the portal spell.
“Focus on Joe’s cabin,” I called as I fished in my pocket for a ball bearing.
Tess nodded without breaking her chant as her fingers made a glowing pattern in the air in front of her.
Cris came to a stop directly behind Tess, staying between us as I’d ordered. As soon as I reached their position, I turned, put the ball bearing in my sling, and set it to spinning at my side.
The Titan, well over fifty feet in height, was closing the distance on us far faster than we could run.
Raising my
