“You.”
“Me, me, me, and all me. And here you are, up here in a ship about to be blown to hell.”
“But why?”
“Easy.”
“No. Don’t you dare.” She pointed the gun at the creature. At him.
“Oh, but I will. You know my heart, and I know yours. We will always desire each other’s touch. Our ears yearn for the other’s voice. And yet we couldn’t have each other for so many reasons. Shakespeare said it best: ‘the course of true love never did run smooth.’ I love you, dear Sherlyn. Love you to death and back.”
Coyle fired, but her aim was thrown off when the floor cracked open. She screamed and slipped through the broken wood into purple lights and steam. She landed in the debris and scurried up. Her hands were empty. The gun wasn’t anywhere to be found. The book? Gone.
The sound of the ship being torn apart was pierced by Ronan’s cackling. The monster pulled the floors apart and peeked down at her.
“Wait, you’re not leaving, are you? Was it something I said?”
She scrambled up and ran. Howls of laughter echoed through the chaos. She followed the stairs, racing down to the escape ship. She turned down a hall, then headed through a large room. All the while hearing the ominous pounding of the creature’s feet. She stopped, trying to decide which direction to turn. Debris exploded, showering her with dust and chips of wood. The creature’s head burst through a wall, a mouth full of teeth grinning at her. She pushed herself away until her back pushed into a table.
“You know the funny thing, Sherlyn. You actually took my job position. Yes, I was a detective with the Templars. But, you know, they had a few things they didn’t like about me. Something, something mad as a hatter, they said. They kicked me out, but I wanted to get even. It took some planning, of course. Lots of planning. But it looks like it’s paying off, doesn’t it?”
Claws lunged out and scratched at her side, but she barely escaped their grip. She ran down the hall.
“Oh, stop running, Sherlyn,” Ronan said. “Come here and give Daddy a hug.”
She flew down more steps and into another hall. Unearthly moans filled the air. She glanced behind. The Turned, with their familiar loping, were in the distance. They were after her. She sprinted with renewed energy when a cool wind caught her attention. She turned and followed the stream of cold air. A platform was at the end of the hallway.
The escape ship!
Just a few more yards to safety. But her slight pause gave the Turned the advantage, and they were yards away from tearing her apart. She was above the skiff, on a maintenance bridge, and the small ship’s engines were humming. She turned back. The Turned were almost upon her. She didn’t have time to run down the stairs. With a cry, she ran, leapt over the railing and crashed onto the glass roof of the skiff. She barely had time to roll aside before the ghouls landed next to her.
***
Passengers and crew looked up as the creatures slammed onto the glass roof, one after another. One of them broke through, then another.
The captain shouted to launch.
Cables and clamps unhooked themselves from the skiff, and the craft shuddered. Chaos erupted as the creatures poured in. Shots were fired.
Fang pulled out her daggers and jammed them into the nearest Turned. More Turned landed amidst groups of passengers and attacked. She leapt into the fray.
***
Brittle wind tore through Coyle’s leathers as the skiff dropped nose-first into the sky. She leaned back and glanced up. The Dawn’s Edge loomed above. Streaks of purple lightning crawled over the skin of the ship. The Turned had come after her. She got up, pulled her knives out, and slammed them into the nearest head.
***
The propeller blared to life. Fang slammed her daggers into another Turned, but they kept pouring through the broken glass overhead. Each of them landed and went in a different direction. Some of the passengers bled from open wounds. Some of them were too wounded to recover. And still she moved and fought with every fiber of her being.
Fang looked up. Coyle was doing what she could. Fang smiled, and then she was tackled by a swarm of writhing claws and sharp teeth. She was strong, but handling multiple assailants at once was tricky. Especially when they were ghouls.
And especially when she was dying.
The room lurched. She strained her neck toward the bridge. The Turned were attacking the pilots. Fang glanced up. Coyle had lost her balance and fallen to one side. The Dawn’s Edge spun into view. The crew lost control. They were on a collision course with the larger ship.
She pushed away from the floor with all her strength. Claws dug into her skin. Blood spilled from her broken skin. But she stood, killed the remaining ghouls and raced to the bridge.
***
Coyle gasped. The escape ship was on a collision course with the Dawn’s Edge, heading for the cargo hold. Misshapen ghouls came into view from the open bay. The glass dome skidded just under the cargo hold. The Turned jumped onto the glass surface. Some lost their balance and fell into the spinning propeller’s, exploding into torn flesh. Nevertheless, the ghouls leapt and dropped onto the skiff’s dome, pushing Coyle further away from safety, closer to the edge. She shoved her knife into one and pushed off. Another set of hands grabbed her legs—another knife to the head. She pulled herself into
