Island of Glass (The Guardians Trilogy #3)(89)

“We wouldn’t be the first to follow a star. And we have three.” Bran scanned the faces of his clan. “Do we trust in the fates, in the stars?”

“If I’m going to ride into that, it would be with the five of you, and with them.” Doyle looked at the paintings. “The fates are bastards, but I’m in.”

“I would be in, too.” Annika reached for Sawyer’s hand. “If it’s with all of you.”

“I say go for it,” Sawyer agreed.

“Yes.” Sasha turned from the window. “Yes. Riley?”

“Let’s make us a plan, and do it.”

? ? ?

In the deep twilight, while the storm screamed, Sasha and Annika walked outside toward the seawall. They might have been patrolling, and the black slickers turned them to little more than moving shadows.

Sasha took Annika’s hand, squeezed hard. Then, wrenching her bow off her back, shot a bolt high. It exploded with light, illuminating the swarm streaming silently across the blackened sky.

From both towers gunfire erupted. On the parapet Bran hurled lightning.

Agile and quick, Annika ran to place the vials of light where Bran instructed, leaping to avoid keen wings and vicious beaks. Doyle charged to clear her path, sword lashing.

And the ground began to quake.

From her position on the battlement, Riley reloaded, fired, fired. She hissed when black lightning struck a tree at the verge of the forest, exploded it. As shrapnel rained, the ground burst open to swallow it.

Damned if Nerezza would destroy this place. Damned if she would. Eyes fierce, she took out a swath of flying black death.

She caught the blur of movement to her left, swung around. What had been Malmon grinned at her even as she shot him.

Thick green liquid trickled down his chest.

“She made me stronger. She gave you to me.”

Her next shot missed as he seemed to vanish from one spot, appear in another. Before she could shoot again, he closed a hand around her throat, choked off her voice, her air.

“She is Nerezza. She is my queen. She is all. Give me the stars for my queen, and you may live.”

Riley managed to choke out, “Fuck you,” when he eased his grip.

Now he squeezed harder, lifting her off the ground so her heels drummed the air. “She gave me my pick. I chose you.” Those reptilian eyes barely blinked when she plunged her knife into his belly. “I can take you back, feed off you. I have hunger.”

His tongue snaked out, slid horribly over her cheek.

“The others die here, and the immortal—”

“Hey, asshole.”

Malmon’s head swiveled, front to back. As he blinked, as his clawed fingers loosened fractionally, Riley sucked in air.

Sawyer shot him between the eyes.

“That’s for Morocco.” Dead center of the forehead.

Choking, Riley lifted her gun again, saw there was no need.

“And for Riley.” As Malmon stumbled back, eyes clouding, claws clicking, Sawyer took aim once again. “And that, you son of a bitch, is for Annika.” The last shot simply blew away the face of what the man had become.

Sawyer gripped Riley’s shoulder as she wheezed air in and out. His face was stone, his gray eyes hard as flint. But his voice soothed. “Works for zombies, so you had to figure.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

Malmon didn’t go to ash, but seemed to dissolve, scale, blood, bone, to simply melt into a stain on stone.

Riley swallowed, winced. “I gotta say ick.”

“I’ll go ditto. Okay?”

On a long breath, Riley nodded. Then looked up. “Shit, shit, here come the big guns.”

Nerezza rode the sky on her three-headed beast. Her hair, streaked with gray, flew in the roaring wind. Armed with sword and shield, she sliced the air with black lightning that turned to a rain of fire. Bran hurled his own as Riley and Sawyer ran down to the others.

The ground sizzled, gardens burst into flame. Beneath them, the quaking ground cracked, opening with fissures where fire spewed.

“Come on, Bran, come on,” Riley urged as she dodged tongues of flame, fired her sidearm. “We’ve got to get her away from here. Sash!” She leaped, grabbing Sasha’s arm and propelling them both aside as the ground split.

Above their heads, like a shield, the coat of arms burst. Blue, white, red in flames to mimic the stars. Fiery rain struck against it, sputtered out.

“That’s our cue. We gotta go.”

Sasha shook her head at Sawyer, watching as Bran stood atop the parapet, drawing Nerezza’s wrath. “Bran.”

“He’ll make it. Trust him.” Riley gripped Sasha’s hand, nodded to Sawyer. “Go.”

Riley kept her hand gripped on Sasha’s during the shift. She knew love now, and knew the fear that came with it. When they dropped into the boat, Doyle moved fast to take the wheel. All around them the wind and rain lashed. The roar of the storm masked the roar of the motor as he aimed from shore to sea.

“He’ll make it,” Riley repeated. “He’s just keeping her off us until we can—”

Bran landed lightly on the boat, his arms filled with glass-shielded stars. Sasha threw her arms around him.

“Are you hurt? Bran.”

“Just a bit singed here and there. Take the stars, fáidh. If they’re to guide us, it would be in your hands.”