“Kill her,” he muttered through lips already dribbling blood.
Nosizwe, as the Impundulu, didn’t have time to counter before Carter was on her. He’d claimed he didn’t have any training with a sword, and I know he wasn’t lying, but I guess it didn’t take much training to figure out how to raise and swing one. In fact, he looked pretty skilled as he swept the glowing blade of the Repairer’s sword in a neat arc that lit up the night air, leaving a trail of fire as it neatly sliced through the neck of the giant bird. I sucked in a cry. The mighty Impundulu tottered a step or two as its head went flying in a different direction. Then the body fell with a crash, shifting back into human form as it dropped. Nosizwe’s headless corpse lay sprawled in the grass next to the gutted, bleeding form of her archrival, Sean Costas.
Chapter Thirty-Six
But the battle wasn’t over yet.
All of this had happened within an instant, a flash of time. Mrs. Costas was still singing. Carter must have sprung into action before her song could take effect. Now, with the bodies of both Nosizwe and Sean Costas lying at his feet, the Talos, turned, sword still in hand, towards his former boss’s wife. My throat constricted as the bronze man stared at her. Was he going to attack her? Kill her? Why didn’t he move?
I heard his name in the song, and realized this was more than I’d originally thought. She wasn’t merely using her magic, her song to charm Sean’s people into not fighting, weakening their side and strengthening hers. This time, she was deliberately singing to the Talos. Again, her vocals were in Gaelic, so I couldn’t decipher her orders, but I did pick out his name. I saw him freeze, then take a step. And another step. And another step. Towards his own side. I saw him raise the sword.
Two shifters were locked in combat. One I’d noticed around the Costas mansion, so I knew she was somebody Carter would know. That didn’t stop him. He drew back the sword. Horrified, I screamed his name, but he either didn’t hear me or was too far under Ciara’s power. He rammed the blade into the woman’s back. I saw it explode out her torso in a spray of scarlet. She transformed into a human with a gurgling scream, sinking to her knees as the Talos wrenched the sword free.
I fully expected he’d move on to the next one of Sean’s people, but he didn’t. The shifter battling the woman he’d just killed must’ve expected it too. He actually dared to transform back into his human self, long enough to stand there smiling and say, “Nice work, Ballis. Welcome to the dark side.”
He didn’t smile long. The Talos didn’t even use the sword this time, but reached out almost casually with a powerful bronze hand, grabbing him by the neck.
“Ba—Ballis,” the man choked, scrabbling at the bronze hand squeezing his neck with both of his own. It did no good. He tried to shapeshift, but the Talos gripped harder. He must’ve snapped his neck with that incredible squeeze, because the man went limp, halfway between human and shifter form, his head dangling.
Carter let the body drop, and moved onto his next victim. Finally, I understood what was happening, what Mrs. Costas was doing. Either she was singling people out that she saw as a threat, or she intended to have Carter butcher practically everyone out there. She had brilliantly ensured that both Sean and Nosizwe were gone, clearing the way for her to assume their roles, and she was now using Carter, underneath her spell, to solidify her power. How far this would go, I didn’t know, but I had to stop it. I knew, in his right mind, Carter would never forgive himself for killing his own people. He was going to be shaken when he came out of this and saw what he’d done.
I couldn’t let it continue, nor could I let Ciara win.
It felt like hours since the world around me exploded into battle, but in reality mere seconds had slipped by. I turned to the two shifters who’d come through the breach with Carter.
“Do something,” I begged. “Stop her. Stop him. You have the power, don’t you?”
Seriel appeared very solemn, even sad as she shook her head. “This is not our war. This is not our time. We have endured our own battles. We will not engage in yours.”
“Theirs,” I corrected. “I’m not a shapeshifter. I’m not a part of this, either. But somebody has to do something.”
Vehuel, the man I’d met on the other side, shrugged. “If you can, do so.”
I glared at him. “You’re a coward. You saved Carter’s life and brought him that sword, spun all that fancy-sounding crap about him being the Repairer. Now he’s being used like a tool by a vicious, vindictive woman to do things he’d hate, and you refuse to step in? I thought you were different. I thought you were an angel, but you’re not. You’re exactly like them. You’re every bit as bad as Sean and Ciara and Nosizwe and all the rest.”
He didn’t respond, and I was out of time.
I spun around and ran towards the source of the mass confusion. Someone hollered my name and I shot a glance over my shoulder. Fighting her way through the squirming, grunting, warring bodies was Detective Ewing. I didn’t know where her partner was. Maybe he’d gotten out, for which I couldn’t blame him.
“C’mon,” I shouted, beckoning to her.
I dodged some sort of tall, lumbering humanoid with red skin and suckers
