The creature fell apart. Gavin kicked it, sending the fragments scattering off to the side.
“What was that?” Gaspar snapped.
“That’s what I’ve dealt with a few times before. Kegan had been responsible for those, but…”
He knew who was responsible for these.
Mekal. Kegan’s older brother would have been the one tied to the power here.
Gavin returned to the door and pulled it open. He dropped low and shouldered his way through, and he kicked at the nearest creature. The one that lunged toward him was enormous and nothing like the others. He managed to catch it on the underside of its belly as it jumped, but the creature was quick, and its claws raked across his arm.
Gavin cried out, pain surging in him. It forced him to call upon the core reserves of energy within him.
He hadn’t even tried that yet. Perhaps that was a mistake. The core reserves gave him an additional advantage, and there was some sort of magic within what he could do. He could feel that power coursing through him, and he knew that he needed to use everything in his ability to be able to fight what was coming.
The massive wolf, if that was what it was, turned back toward him. He held onto the core energy within him and jumped again. His power, combined with the enchantment, carried him up and over. He flipped and landed on the creature’s back.
Gavin stabbed the creature with the sword. The force of it jerked up his injured arm, and he cried out again, but he held on as tightly as he could. He wrapped his arms and legs around it and shoved the sword through it again. The creature shuddered. He continued to push power out through the sword until it exploded.
That was new. And definitely magic.
Gavin dropped to the ground and rolled off to the side. He glanced back at Gaspar, who stood near the door.
“Watch—”
Gavin didn’t have the opportunity to finish.
Another creature dropped toward them from above. He glanced up to see where it had come from, but he didn’t find any sign of what was out there. He could only react.
By holding onto his core reserves, Gavin drove upward and again landed on top of the creature. He borrowed from that power, and he jammed the sword into the creature’s side, blasting through it. He held on, jerking the sword around until the creature exploded.
Gavin turned toward Gaspar. “I don’t know how many more of these I’m going to be able to take down.”
“Then we need to find the one who’s controlling them,” Gaspar said.
Something lumbered toward them, the sound of its footsteps loud on the marble though he couldn’t see it. The thudding sense that came from it was enormous and powerful, and Gavin shuddered at the sound. He swung the sword around, using the light coming off the blade—a considerable light, he realized—but didn’t see anything.
That troubled him.
Holding onto the core reserves was depleting his strength quickly. There would come a time when he would run out of strength. For now, he had enough.
Gavin glanced over at Gaspar. “Stay behind me.”
“I have every intention of staying behind you,” Gaspar said. “If anyone’s going to take the first attack, I figured it might as well be the one who’s trained for it.”
Gavin moved forward. They didn’t move at full speed, reserving the power of the enchantment for now, but even as they stalked ahead, he could feel the trembling beneath him.
Darkness. Something about it was strange. It felt off, and it took Gavin a moment to realize what it was. What he saw was the entirety of the hall in front of them filled by the darkness.
He grabbed Gaspar, ignoring his protestations, and jumped. The high ceiling allowed him to jump higher than usual. He powered the jump with everything in him, all of the core energy that he had, and it carried them up. The lumbering shadows appeared in front of them.
Gavin landed on top of some sort of statue, but it was enormous. He tried to drive down on the statue with his sword, but the statue resisted him with its incredible power. As he tried to stab the blade again and again, there wasn’t enough within him to overpower what was here.
He grabbed Gaspar again, and then they jumped.
“Hurry,” Gavin said.
“You’re not going to deal with that?”
“Be my guest.”
They raced forward. Gavin swept the sword side to side, watching as the blade surged briefly with light and feeling for resistance. There. It was down a side hall. He pointed the blade in that direction, and the glow increased slightly. He ran toward that.
There was a shadow in the darkness. Rather than one of the strange creatures, he saw a person. As he darted forward, the light coming off the blade began to illuminate the figure. It was Mekal.
He looked up and threw something at Gavin. It started to enlarge as soon as it was in the air, and Gavin swung with his blade, sweeping the power through it. The figurine shattered.
He reached Mekal, and he brought the sword to his throat. “Call it off,” he said.
“I can’t,” Mekal said.
“You can. Call it off. If you don’t, this sword is going through your throat. I’d rather not do that if I don’t have to, but if it comes down to you or me, the decision is easy.”
“I felt what you did to Kegan.”
“Your brother is alive outside.”
“He’ll live?”
“I wasn’t going to kill him. Have you not been paying any attention when you’ve been around me?”
“You said you were an assassin.”
“And I am.”
Gavin turned and looked down the hallway, feeling the rumbling. If Mekal continued to hold onto his enchantment, this creature was going to storm toward them, and Gavin didn’t think that he would be strong enough to resist it.
“There’s only one person here I intend to kill tonight,” Gavin said.
“Who?”
“Don’t make it you.”
The shadow filled the
