The goblin roared and spun, spewing green flames from his hands. The nest of cables shuddered and jerked, the high-pitched squeal grew even louder, and Lumil stepped away with wide eyes. “You’re gonna—”
A silver streak darted over to the nest of cables, and Byrd grunted as Maleshi snatched him up and deposited him on the other side of the room.
“Whoa, shit.” Cheyenne cast a shield around the nest of flaming cables a split-second before they erupted in flaming, sparking rings of black metal. The sound of so much shrapnel pinging against the inner wall of her domed shield was deafening. She gritted her teeth against the sound rattling her skull and focused on holding up the shield until it was over.
When she dropped it, the only sounds left were the hollow clinks of metal pieces settling, the sparks and hisses of the last few war machines to die, and the heavy breathing of every magical in the room.
Chapter Seventy-Seven
Byrd pushed away from the wall and straightened his denim jacket with a snort. “Way to be fast on that one.”
Maleshi raised an eyebrow at him. “To whom are you referring?”
“I mean both of you, I guess.”
Clenching her eyes shut against the ringing in her ears, Cheyenne straightened and took a deep breath. “That’s all of them, right?”
“It fucking better be.” Lumil turned slowly and eyed the destroyed front room of Felgar’s Horn with a scowl, red runes still spinning around her fists.
“Looks like they’ve beefed up their security,” Persh’al grumbled. “Without even having to be here.”
“Just security, huh?” Cheyenne took stock of the scattered war-machine parts. “There’s no way this is everything they smuggled Earthside in those crates.”
“Of course not.” L’zar smoothed his hair back with both hands and stepped over a fractured pile of useless metal orbs. “This is their vault, not their headquarters.”
“So, you weren’t expecting to fight any Bull’s Head loyalists.”
“I wasn’t expecting anything in particular, Cheyenne.” He shot his daughter a brief glance. “Though I will say I’m a little disappointed not to see any bodies.”
She snorted and shook her head. “Yeah, me too. Now we have to track down the rest of the Bull’s Head to rip out whatever they’ve been using to control these machines from somewhere else.”
“Not yet.” L’zar stepped past her, his attention focused on Venga. The former prisoner was stomping across the room toward the hallway leading to the back.
Ember bent over one of the crushed rollers with a frown. “Okay, I know there’s no TV on the other side. I mean, science fiction isn’t fiction over there, but somebody please tell me I’m not the only one who thinks these things were pulled right out of Star Wars.”
Cheyenne stifled a laugh. “That’s what bothers you the most right now?”
“It’s more than a little weird. Whoa.” Ember straightened when Venga’s shadow fell over her, and she looked slowly up at the scaly magical glaring down at her with all-black eyes. “Uh, hello.”
“Move.”
She raised an eyebrow and floated slowly back across the floor before folding her arms. “A please goes a long way, you know.”
Lumil snorted. “You moved without it, didn’t you?”
Venga ignored them both and bent over a large, rusting metal crate bolted to the wall beside the hallway. He grabbed the heavy iron lock at the front of the crate and ripped it off in one jerk before tossing it aside. Persh’al ducked the flying lock and scowled.
The crate buckled when Venga slammed a huge fist into it, then it opened easily, and he rummaged inside with two hands while his other two propped him against the wall.
Cheyenne glanced at Maleshi and gestured at the trunk. “His endowments, I’m guessing.”
“Your guess is as good as mine, kid. Right now, we’re here for backup.”
“Obviously.”
A low chuckle escaped the gigantic magical, and he straightened. The glinting object in his hand caught the harsh light as he turned it back and forth. His black eyes widened, and cracked, dry lips peeled back to reveal his stained teeth in a crazed grin. “There you are.”
“More tech?” Ember asked.
“Not quite,” L’zar said, also grinning, his golden eyes fixed intently, not on the round object that looked like a twenty-sided ball of glass, but on Venga’s grotesque smile. “Are you satisfied?”
Venga chuckled again, his black eyes flicking to the drow thief. “Almost.” He opened his mouth, tossed the orb of black glass into it, and crunched down with powerful jaws.
Lumil and Byrd grimaced and leaned away. The goblin man passed a hand over his mouth. “That can’t be good for dental hygiene.”
“Man, the dude was locked in a tank. You think those fuckers tossed him a toothbrush?”
“He’s eating glass!”
“Yeah, but not to clean his mouth.” Too far away from the goblin across the room to punch him, Lumil waved him off instead and rolled her eyes. “Just don’t talk.”
The noisy crunching of glass and Venga’s grunts of satisfaction almost made Cheyenne look away. But she noticed the small, shattered fragments of glass spilling from the ex-prisoner’s mouth and disintegrating in the air before they reached the ground. Not just glass, then.
With a violent swallow, Venga closed his eyes. When he opened them again, the glistening black was replaced by a flash of blazing green light, and he opened all four clawed hands. Green and black smoke wafted from his palms, and he let out another dark chuckle. “Much better.”
He flicked the scaly fingers of one hand, and his massive form shrank until he stood only three inches taller than L’zar instead of three times the drow thief’s height.
L’zar dipped his head. “Magic restored, my friend. Now for—”
“The Darkglass.” Venga looked sharply at the drow. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten how to fulfill my end of a bargain, Weaver. I deal with much darker forces than yours.”
Kicking his heel up, L’zar spread his arms and bowed once more. “I’m well aware.”
Venga’s tail thumped the floor, scattering broken war-machine bits, then he stalked over to the far side of the room and
