Stars of Fortune (The Guardians Trilogy, #1)(36)

A weight dropped on her chest, and her head swam.

“Don’t.” She reached out as Riley approached a formation that resembled a raised table. “Don’t touch it. Dark deeds done.”

“Riley,” Bran said sharply. “Touch nothing.”

In silent assent, Riley lifted her free hand, playing the light over the table stone. “There’s writing carved here. Ancient Greek.”

“Bones. Human bones piled over here.” Sawyer turned from them.

“Can you hear them screaming?” Sasha fisted her hands over her ears. “The children. She craved the children. The youth. The innocence.”

“I’m getting her out of here.”

“Wait, just wait,” Riley snapped at Bran. “I can read this. ‘In blood taken. In blood given. So she may live, so she may rise. In the name of Nerezza.’”

As she spoke the name, came a stirring, the dry rustling overhead.

“Just bats. Don’t panic.”

Riley’s warning came seconds before the screams, and the dark flood of wings.

Instinctively Sasha covered her head and face, curled up to make herself smaller. She felt the spidery wings brush her hair, shuddered.

Just bats, she told herself. Just bats.

She gasped at the quick pain as something sliced her arm. Grabbing it, she felt the warm, wet flow of her own blood.

“They bite!”

“They’re not just bats.” Riley pulled a gun from the holster snugged at the small of her back. “Run.” She shot one flying toward her face, and the sound crashed through the chamber.

Echoed by another as Sawyer fired another gun.

Blood fell on the ground, splattered on the altar.

And the ground shook.

Bats circled, looking down with hungry, somehow human eyes.

She formed out of the dark. The black robe swirled around her, and her hair, dense as midnight, curled in sleek coils around her face.

The face formed in the stone, and she smiled with terrible beauty.

“I have waited.” While the bats swooped and squealed, she lifted her hands. In one she held the glass ball. “I have watched.”

Her voice rang over the chaos, over the ring of bullets, of shouts and screams. Armed with only her flashlight, Sasha swung out to defend herself, saw Sawyer pivot to take aim at a bat diving toward Annika.

In a liquid blur of movement, Annika flipped back, pushed off with her hands and sent the bat smashing into the cave wall with a powerful thrust of her legs.

“Your blood.” She stepped off a pedestal, bent gracefully to run her finger through the blood that had dripped from Sasha’s arm to the cave floor. “It is warm,” she said as she licked it delicately from her finger as she might a dab of rich chocolate or cream.

“Your power is strong and . . . tasty. Through your blood I will drink that power. Through that power the path to the stars.”

Trapped, fighting to avoid fangs, claws, wings, Sasha stumbled back only to find herself pressed against the wall.

Across the chamber, Riley shouted, fired. But the bullets passed through the figure walking toward Sasha.

Something gripped her mind, something cold and fierce. She fought to pry it loose, felt it give, just a little.

“Very strong.”

Now that same force, the cold and fierce, gripped her throat, cutting off her air. All she felt was her own fear, and pushing against it dark hate, bottomless greed.

“Come with me, and live.”

Lies. The mother of lies. Nerezza.

Something—someone—leaped out of the shadows. A sword flashing silver in the dim red light. It cleaved through the swarming bats, severing them. As if through water, Sasha heard someone shouting.

“Get out! Go.”

“Give me what I want.” Nerezza loomed closer. “Or I will crush you, and all you love.”

“Not today.” Bran shoved Sasha behind him. While she gasped in breath, choked it out again, he threw up both his hands. Lightning bolted from them, blinding white.

Nerezza threw up an arm to shield her eyes, and from her came a roar more beast than human.

“Get her out!” Bran shouted. “Get her out of here. This won’t hold long.”

The bats swirled up, reformed, and like a great winged arrow came at him. The swordsman thrust, hacked, sent severed bodies tumbling to the ground while bullets pierced more.

“Get her out.” Bran’s voice, ice cold, snapped out. “Get them all out.”

The swordsman grabbed Riley, all but tossed her into the tunnel. He caught Annika as she finished a series of flips that sent bats tumbling. “Go!”

“Get Sasha,” Sawyer ordered, and ranged himself beside Bran. “I’m not leaving you, man.”

“Then get ready to move.” Out of the corner of his eye he saw the swordsman lift Sasha under one arm, glance back with a kind of fierce regret, then boost her with him into the tunnel.

“Go when I say,” Bran said. “There won’t be time to hesitate. I’m right behind you. My word on it.”

“If you’re not, I’m coming back.”

Bran felt Nerezza pushing back against his power, knew he didn’t have enough. Not here, not yet.

“Now. Go now!” he shouted at Sawyer, then heaved both bolts to the ground. The explosion rocked the chamber, filled it with wild light, thick smoke.