23
The first rock that hits my leg feels like a hard punch. Justin would call it a Charley Horse. I’m not sure why. Never did look that up. But it hurts and slows me down. I’m just glad Em is throwing rocks instead of knives. Still, she
could
hold back a little.
One hundred five.
But I guess that would defy the point. I’m not training for the circus, I’m training for battle, in a makeshift ice arena hidden from view by what appear to be naturally formed walls of ice. You’d have to be standing on the edge to see us inside. A month ago, the fight we’re now simulating was real, and I lost. If not for Em seeing my shock of blond hair and deflecting Tobias’s arrow, I’d be dead.
One hundred ten.
Might be now, too, if Tobias hadn’t replaced the razor sharp metal barbs at the tips of his arrows with cloth-wrapped stones. When the first of those strikes my shoulder, I shout in pain, wondering if something is broken or dislocated. But I can still move the limb.
One hundred fifteen.
Tobias has forbidden me from using my powers for the first two minutes of the fight. Sometimes I’ll need to face enemies even when I’m tired and beaten, he said. Makes sense, I suppose, but I was tired and beaten when I got out of bed this morning.
As a hunter I should be able to dodge some of their attacks, but both have remarkable aim and seem to sense where I’m going to move next. I wonder if this is Tobias’s way of also teaching me what I am without my powers—not much. An average hunter. A useless—
One hundred twenty!
The arrow headed for my gut shoots wide as a gust of wind pulses in front of me.
A storm forms above us. It’s an easy thing to do and doesn’t tax my body or mind. All the elements were already there, ready to form on their own. I just gave them a nudge, and asked them to be harsh.
The temperature drops. I can’t feel it myself, but I see Tobias and Em react to it for a moment. The chill will sap their energy just as using my unnatural abilities steals mine. This is just the first phase of my counter attack.
But my opponents don’t let up. The stones and blunt arrows keep coming. And with each deflected shot, I feel my energy wane. So I try something new. Rather than focus on countering each individual attack, I pull the wind down, and around me. The effort is tiring, but not nearly as much as my previous efforts. A cyclone forms around my body, obscuring me from view and deflecting every single stone and arrow they throw at it. For the moment, I’m safe.
I hear Em shout a battle cry.
But that’s all. I just hear her. My defense has blinded me as well.
Her face bursts through the wall of spinning snow, her hands reaching out for me. But then she’s gone, yanked away and thrown by the wind. I hear her shout out in pain.
The cyclone bursts.
The wind stops.
And I turn around, looking for Em, terrified that I’ve hurt her. “Em, are you okay?”
A fist answers my question.
I stagger back, blood dripping from my nose.
I see a stone flying toward me, and I manage to deflect it with a gust of wind.
“You can’t be distracted by worries or concerns while in battle,” Tobias says.
I channel a long gust of wind behind me, knowing that Tobias is going to shoot me, but not knowing when or where. The arrow zips past my shoulder and buries itself in the snow. But the effort has worn me out. I’ve lost my advantage.
Or have I?
I’m surrounded by stone and arrows.
They’re larger and heavier than snowflakes, but the principle is the same. I’ve trained for this. I can do it.
I leap away, using the wind to put some distance between Em and me. She’s a brutal close-combat fighter, which is why she prefers the knives. And why I prefer to be far away.
I glance to Tobias. He’s reaching back for another arrow. Em’s taking aim with her stones.
Let them come, I think. I’ve been thinking defensively so far. It’s time to turn things around, literally. The effort might exhaust me, but I want to win this fight.
Em and Tobias time their next strikes so that rock and arrow will arrive simultaneously, forcing me to dodge one, but not the other.
I dodge neither.
Instead, I stand my ground, thrust my hands out toward the projectiles and with matching bursts of wind, force them back the way they came.
Tobias reacts quickly, rolling to the side as his own arrow passes over him.
Em is not as fast and takes the rock hard on her chest. It knocks the air from her lungs and knocks her over. This leaves Tobias for the moment. He’s back on his feet, nocking another arrow, but I don’t give him the chance to use it.
There are seven arrows lying on the ground. And thirteen stones. But all at once, they return to the air, hovering around me. And I direct them, one by one, toward Tobias. A grin spreads on my face as I watch him duck, dodge and weave to no avail. Not every shot finds its target but enough do.
How does it feel
? I think.
Tobias stumbles when a stone strikes the side of his leg, but he does not fall. The rules of the fight were simple. The first side to be knocked down wins. Em fell, but to end this fight, I need to also make Tobias fall. Unfortunately, he’s fast and tough. But I don’t stop. I reach out to the stones and arrows I’d already thrown and keep the barrage going. Sooner or later he’ll—
Crunch
,
crunch
,
crunch
.
Em is back up! I had assumed she would stay down, but I have to knock
both
of them down to win. As long as one of them is still in the fight, they’re both in the fight. I pull Whipsnap free from my belt for the first time in this fight, but Em is already inside my strike zone. She catches my weapon with both hands, leaps into the air and places her feet against my chest.
She’s using my own ninja move against me!
I think, as I’m pulled down and kicked up into the air.
A gust of wind slows my descent and allows me to land on my feet, but Em has stripped me of my weapon, and the fight is beginning to wear on me. I’ve come a long way with Tobias’s guidance, but the two of them are still more than a match for me. As was Xin. But why? I beat Ninnis in the past. Kainda, too. Countless creatures and cresties. And I
killed
the giant Ull. What’s different?
Ull
, I think.
My Ull
. I’ve lost that savage energy. But he is dangerous. He would kill Tobias and Em. He would—
A stone strikes my shoulder.
Distraction is your enemy.
A second stone finds my knees, stabbing pain up into my gut and knocking me onto my knees.
Forget everything.
Focus on the fight.
Not on yourself.
Not on who you’re fighting.
An arrow grazes my forehead, knocking me back.
My back arches toward the snow. My head hovers just inches from the ground. The only thing keeping me up is the fact that my legs, which are positioned beneath me, don’t bend that far.
In that moment, with defeat just inches away, I realize something. Tobias was wrong about one thing. I think about the photo in my pouch. I picture Mira’s face. My smile next to hers. I relive the moment. My parents talking in the front seat. The music playing on the radio. The smell of our car and aftertaste of Aimee’s chocolate chip cookies in my mouth. The memory gives me hope, and in hope, I find strength.
With a shout, I pull myself back up and thrust my hands out. The katabatic winds rush past me, pulsing at one hundred fifty miles per hour. It lasts just a moment, but that’s all it takes to knock Em and Tobias to the ice and sending them rolling to the other side of the make shift arena.
My head sags. I can barely move. But I’ve won. And I didn’t pass out, which is a bonus.
Clap
,
clap
,
clap
.
Applause
?
It’s not coming from Em or Tobias. They’re still on the ground, and looking for the source of the noise, too.
“Well, well, well,” says a voice that fills me with dread. “That certainly explains a lot.”
It takes a massive effort, but I manage to turn my head up. I see him at the lip of the pit, looking down at me with a rotted smile. Ninnis.
He found me.
Oh no
…
He found
us
.
24
Under normal circumstances this situation wouldn’t be that bad. Tobias and Em are both highly skilled hunters. Their skills combined with my abilities would be more than enough firepower to take care of Ninnis. But I’ve just used the last of my energy to defeat Tobias and Em, and through that effort have pummeled their bodies as well. They’ll no doubt recover faster than I will, but Tobias’s arrows are dulled and Em’s knives are rocks. Still, if we can recover, maybe there is hope.
“Nothing to say little Ull?” a new voice says, removing any shred of hope.
Kainda steps up next to Ninnis, gripping her hammer. She appears healthy and strong, no doubt healed of her wounds by Nephilim blood.
As expected, Tobias and Em regain their feet and shake off my last attack. Were it a real fight, they would still have won. I’m all but defenseless right now.
Without a word, Tobias nocks an arrow, takes aim and lets it fly.
Neither Kainda nor Ninnis flinch. The arrow strikes Ninnis’s shoulder. He twitches from the impact, but the arrow bounces to the ground. It will leave a bruise. Nothing more.
Ninnis looks at his shoulder with a smile. “You’re going too easy on the boy. He excels when the danger is real.” He looks at me. “Isn’t that right, Solomon?” He speaks my name with venom.
Em and Tobias stand their ground, waiting for the inevitable fight. At close range, Em could probably do some damage with the few remaining stones she has. And Tobias’s bow still has the blades at either end. But as Tobias takes a step toward me, he limps.
I’ve injured him.
Maybe Em, too.
What was I thinking
?
I could have killed them
!
I look up at Kainda, hoping to see a glimmer of change. I saved her and then spared her life. Even expressed feelings for her! She meets my eyes with a cold blooded stare. A killer to the core.
Tobias was right. I shouldn’t have let her live. What good is mercy if it leads to evil?
Maybe if I delay things, the father and daughter team will stand a chance. They have trained to fight as a pair. If they can regroup… “How did you find me?”
“Tracking you took some time, I’ll admit,” Ninnis said. “You covered your tracks well. But finding you here, in your little arena. Well, that was easy.” He smiles in a way that says his next words will cause us pain.
I see Kainda’s muscles flex. She knows what he’s about to say and that it will spur a response. I realize what he’s going to say a moment before he speaks and I nearly throw up.
“It didn’t take much,” Ninnis says. “With a little…coaxing, the boy was happy to tell me where you were. But don’t worry, I left him with Pyke and Preeg.” The glint in his eyes says that this is, in fact, something to be very worried about.
“Monster!” Tobias shouts, charging forward despite his wounds.
Em follows his lead, heading for Kainda. She’s half her size, but faster and can attack from a distance. Still, in her current condition and without her knives, I do not expect her to survive the encounter.
And there is nothing I can do!
I try to stand, but my legs are numb.
I reach out to the continent, willing the wind to help, but the effort brings blackness to my vision. At the brink of unconsciousness, I give up.
I am helpless.
All I can do is watch.
Tobias lets his last two arrows fly. Ninnis dodges one, but the other strikes his leg. Had they been actual arrows, Ninnis would have been incapacitated. Instead, he’s just angry. With a roar, Ninnis leaps into the arena.
Kainda follows, raising her hammer above her head and leaping for Em.
The raw ferocity on display by Ninnis and Kainda increases my sense of hopelessness. They are in top form, hunters about to make a kill. Em and Tobias aren’t just wounded, they’re emotionally compromised. Like me. Distracted by the potential fate of poor little Luca.
Em lets a barrage of rocks fly at Kainda, but the Amazonian-like woman simply raises her large stone mallet in front of her face, blocking any strikes that might knock her unconscious, and takes the body blows without flinching. Em dives under her, as Kainda lands, striking the snow where Em stood a moment before. I actually feel the ground shake beneath me from the impact.
Em rolls to her feet, and stands, now weaponless. “Why are you doing this? We were friends once!”
“Hunters do not have friends,” Kainda says, before beginning a series of attacks that puts Em on the defensive.
Tobias and Ninnis meet at the center of the arena, but Tobias gets the upper hand right away. His razor edged bow gives him a reach that Ninnis cannot penetrate. But it quickly becomes apparent that Ninnis is simply playing with the man, dodging each strike easily while his opponent wears himself out. My father called the fighting style the rope-a-dope, a boxing technique used by Muhammad Ali when he would assume a defensive position against the rope and let his opponent pummel him until exhausted and making mistakes. That’s when Ali would strike and bring a quick closure to the match.
That’s what I see happening here, but there is no way to warn Tobias.
With a deep breath, I put my hands beneath me and push. My arms shake, but I manage to reach a kneeling position. The effort has set my head spinning, but it’s progress. I take another breath and prepare to stand.
And that’s when it happens.
Kainda’s long leg penetrates Em’s defenses and catches her in the stomach. Em crumples in pain with a shout.
The sound of his daughter’s pained voice pulls Tobias’s attention away from Ninnis for just a moment. But it’s all the old man needs.
Ninnis steps inside Tobias’s swing and catches his arm. Two quick elbows later, Tobias stumbles back, his face covered in blood from his nose and forehead.
“Father!” Em yells, leaping back to her feet. She tries to run to his aid, but Kainda catches her jacket and throws her against the hard, icy wall of the arena. The wind is knocked out of her again.
I want to shout at Em and Tobias, and tell them to stop thinking about the other. This is what you warned me about! Stop it! Stop caring! Start fighting! But my efforts to stand keep me silent. With a grunt, I find my feet.
But my efforts are far too little and much too late.
Tobias swings at Ninnis despite being blinded by a curtain of red oozing from his forehead. Ninnis snatches the bladed bow, and pulls Tobias in, kicking him hard in the chest. Tobias loses his grip on his weapon and falls back.
There is no banter. No last words. Ninnis is a hunter and he strikes like one.
Without hesitation.
Without mercy.
And with perfect aim.
He leaps into the air, raising the bow above his head, and with a battle cry that turns my stomach sour, plunges the bow into Tobias’s chest. Tobias’s body twitches under the impact. Ninnis twists the blade, and the body lies still.
Tobias is dead.
Revulsion helps me find my voice. “No!” I scream.
But there isn’t time to mourn Tobias’s death. Kainda stalks toward Em where she lies, motionless on the ground. She raises the hammer—a weapon strong enough to crack cresty skulls and shake the very ground. Issuing her own war cry, she brings the weapon down. A loud crunch brings a sob from my mouth.
Kainda picks up Em’s limp body and tosses her hard. Her body skids across the area floor and stops fifty feet away. Motionless.
My surrogate family is dead.
And kidnapped.
And I can’t even avenge their deaths.
But I have to try.
I bend down, head swirling, and pick up Whipsnap.
As Ninnis walks toward me, I hold the weapon between us. But my shaking hands make the defensive posture just look pitiful.
Kainda remains still, watching with crossed arms and downturned lips.
“I saved you,” I say to her. Her frown deepens, but I’m not sure if it’s from guilt or shame at needing to be saved.
I face Ninnis. He’s just ten feet away. “I saved both of you.”
He stops just out of Whipsnap’s reach. “Your life is a series of mistakes, Solomon.”
When he says my name again, I realize I have an opening to put a wedge between these two. “You’ve told her then? That you failed to break me? And that your failure resulted in Ull’s death?”
I see surprise register on Kainda’s face. I turn to her. “
I
killed Ull. Your father covered it up.”
Ninnis bares his teeth and a growl enters his voice. “Kainda and I have
both
failed when it comes to you,” Ninnis says. “It is a shame we bear together. And it is a shame we will correct together.”
“You cannot break me again,” I say. I’m not sure if it’s true, but I need him to believe it.
To my surprise, he nods, but then says, “I do not need to break you again. I simply need you to give yourself—willingly—to the spirit of Nephil.”
“Never,” I say.
“Then the boy will be killed.”
My stomach tightens. Luca is alive.
“I will give you seven days to reach the gates of Tartarus. You will come, as Ull.”
“I’m not Ull,” I say.
“Then you must be convincing,” he says. “You will give yourself to Nephil. He will break you himself. And the boy will be spared.” He grins wide, showing his rotting teeth. “You see? I am not without mercy!”
Filled with rage, I lunge, stabbing Whipsnap toward his chest. But my former trainer is fast. He dodges to the side, and in the time it takes me to blink, there is a sword in his hand. Before I have time to contemplate where it came from, he strikes Whipsnap with the flat side of the blade. The tip of the sword wraps around Whipsnap. With a tug, he pulls my weapon from my hands and flings it away.
He holds the sword out toward me. Its blade is once again straight and razor sharp. “Meet Strike,” he says. “A gift from Enki. And if you do not reach the gates of Tartarus within seven days, Strike will be the source of little Luca’s prolonged and agonizing death.”
Ninnis becomes a blur. I see a flash as Strike coils itself down to the hilt, which then strikes my head. I fall to the ice, staring up at the blue sky above. Ninnis stands over me and says. “Seven days.”
Then he’s gone. I can hear his feet on the snow, walking away. Kainda’s too. Neither of them speaks. They’re just leaving me here, with my dead friends, and a demand I have no choice but to grant. I don’t believe Ninnis will spare Luca, but I can’t leave the boy. I can’t let him be killed. My head lolls to the side and I see Kainda at the top of the arena wall.
She glances back at me, meets my eyes, and shakes her head.
Then she’s gone, along with Ninnis, and Luca.
I picture the boy in the darkness of the underworld, surrounded by killers and monsters and remember what I was like as a six year old. The experience might very well break him.
I shout and try to rise. If I could only regain my strength I might be able to stop them before they disappear into the depths. But my body doesn’t respond. I can’t move. I can’t fight.
I can’t win
, I think, so I do the only thing I can do.