Chaos Choreography (InCryptid, #5)(112)

“Other side of the stage,” said Malena.

The snake was rising back into position, head moving back and forth with increasing speed as it took in the situation. It was recovering from whatever disorientation accompanied its passage through the wall between worlds; soon, it would be back to whatever served as normal for a massive f*cking snake, and then we were going to have to deal with it.

I was fast. The striking snake was faster. Once I started moving, I was going to have to keep on going. “Pax, I need you,” I called.

The Ukupani’s footsteps sounded like flippers slapping against the wood. I turned to the massive shark/human hybrid as soon as he was close enough, and said, “I need you to throw me at the snake.”

Pax no longer had eyebrows, or the sort of face that transmitted human emotions well, but he didn’t need them for his dismay to show. I found myself grateful that he couldn’t talk, either. If I had to explain myself to him, he might try to stop me, and I didn’t see another way through this—not without risking a hell of a lot of people who hadn’t had any idea this was going on. It had only been a few minutes since the snake broke through the stage, and two people were dead. Sure, Jessica may have deserved it, but not Lindy. I had to move. I had to act. And as soon as I did, I trusted my family to have my back.

“Seriously,” I said. “Throw me.”

Pax shook his head in pantomime disbelief. Then he knelt, forming a basket with his hands. I shoved the gun into the back of my dress, anchoring it as best I could, before running at him, my heels like gunshots on the polished stage floor.

My foot hit his hand and I was in the air, launched by all the force an eight-foot, four-hundred-pound Ukupani could generate.

Please realize what I’m doing, I thought. Please follow this lead.

I couldn’t blame them if they didn’t. I wouldn’t blame them if they didn’t, because I would be dead, and dead women aren’t usually big on slinging blame around—well, except for a few of my relatives.

The sound of me hitting the side of a giant snake from another dimension was surprisingly mundane, the same dry slap I used to hear when my father dropped a leg of lamb on the counter. I’d expected something more exciting. There wasn’t time to dwell on it: I had to scramble to get a handhold on its rough-edged scales, cutting up my fingers in the process. Another thing to worry about later. Right now, I had a giant snake to worry about.

Gunfire from the other side of the snake told me Alice had seen me move, and was reacting accordingly. Dominic was more of a knife man—a fact that was reinforced a few seconds later when the snake suddenly hissed and whipped its head around, so fast that I was sent flying.

This is it, I thought, as my body inscribed an arc through the air. This is how I die.

Malena dropped from the ceiling above me, wrapping her arms around my waist as she fell. The sudden added weight dragged me down, and we both landed, with a thump and a grunt, on the judges’ table. It collapsed underneath us, dropping us at the feet of a stunned Adrian.

“What the f*ck is wrong with you?” I demanded, pulling away from Malena and staggering upright. “Run!” I kicked off my heels and followed my own advice—although sadly, I was going in the wrong direction. If Adrian was smart, he’d be heading for the door as fast as his legs could carry him. I was heading for the giant f*cking snake.

At least I wasn’t doing it alone. My fall had put me on the side of the stage with Dominic and Alice. They’d pulled back to the wings, out of the snake’s direct line of sight, and they beckoned Malena and me forward as we ran.

Dominic broke cover when we got close, grabbing my wrist and dragging me the rest of the way to temporary safety. “Are you hurt?” he demanded.

“Later,” I said, pulling my hand away and drawing my gun for a second time. “We need to stop this thing.”

“How?” asked Brenna. She was farther back in the shadows, where I hadn’t noticed her at first. She looked terrified, and there was blood on the front of her previously spotless dress. It was the first time I’d seen her look anything less than perfectly groomed.

Oddly, seeing her shaken made me think of something. “Does Osana have a cellphone?”

Brenna blinked. “Yes.”

“Good. Call her. Tell her Clint’s our magic-user, and he needs to be stopped. There are so many dragons in this place, there shouldn’t be any problem restraining him.”

“Anders was the one who finished the ritual,” said Malena.

“Anyone could have finished it once it was that far along,” I said, unable to suppress the stab of betrayal accompanying the words. “Anders spends too much time dancing to have done the necessary research. Clint recruited him. Both of them.” Had he been trying to recruit me? I sort of thought he might have been.

“I’ll call her, but she’s not going to risk my sisters for this,” said Brenna.

“Tell her if she does, I will move heaven and earth to get you that baby.” It felt like I was bargaining with things that weren’t mine to give, and I’d feel bad about that later, when this was over and we were still alive. Right here, right now, I needed everything I could get.

Brenna’s eyes widened. “Got it,” she said, and retreated, presumably to make her call.

I turned to the others. “We have to stop it.”