Siege of Shadows (Effigies #2)(122)

The spear shook in Belle’s hand. But out of the corner of my eye, I could see the digital wall clock ticking down from inside the opposite room. I could see the red numbers flashing just above the heads of the three stone statues. Ten seconds . . . nine seconds . . .

“Guys . . .” I grabbed Belle’s arm, but she shrugged me off without even looking back. Her breaths labored, her hands trembling, she raised the spear, pointing its blade at him.

“Did you kill Natalya?”

Four seconds . . . three seconds . . .

“Maybe.” Vasily smiled. “What a pity that you’re the only one who still seems to care.”

Belle raised her arm, ready to let her spear fly, when a buzzing noise sounded behind us. Two small square hatches in the wall burst open on either side of Patricia’s portrait.

Chae Rin rose swiftly to her feet, her eyes wide. “What . . . the hell . . . is that?”

That was a machine gun. Two, one in each hatch, their barrels pointed into the room.

And they started firing.

Belle and I ducked to the floor, covering our heads while Chae Rin and Lake found cover behind separate suits of armor. Rhys had used the moment of confusion to free himself from Jessie’s grip. I could barely hear her gunshot above the rattling of the machine gun, but I saw the gun sliding out of her grip onto the floor as they both ran and dove out of the way. The bullets riddled the floor, turning right to left almost as if to make sure no life escaped its reach. The Haas family had truly spared no expense in the security of their secrets.

It stopped, maybe just for a moment, maybe forever. I didn’t know. Belle didn’t care. Once the coast was clear, she ran down the hall, crossing diagonally to the opposite end of the room to where Vasily was hiding. He came out to meet her, dodging the swipe of her spear, punching her in the stomach. Chae Rin ran to help but was intercepted by Jessie, who tried to catch the nimble Effigy with her fists. That wasn’t so easy with Rhys striking her from behind. Yet while Jessie fought her battle, I could see the clock reset. Ten seconds . . . nine seconds . . .

“Guys! Take cover!” I found a suit to hide behind. “Take cover!”

The rattling began again and everyone dove out of the way. It would go on like this forever if we let it. We were all going to die unless we figured out a way to stop it. But just in front of me, Jessie, taking advantage of Chae Rin’s distraction, leapt onto her, her head staying well below the rain of bullets even as they clinked against the metal suit they hid behind.

After a swift punch, Jessie started choking her.

“Stop!” I cried. Rhys tugged at Jessie’s leg, but he couldn’t do much while he tried to avoid the machine guns’ attack. Chae Rin was dying.

On my other side, Lake flung off her knapsack, searching for the cigar box while the bullets wailed overhead. She flung open the lid and grabbed some of the shards of stone strewn about the paraphernalia. Was she making a wish? But there was no black sliver in the stone she picked. It wasn’t powered up for a wish—

Then I saw the crystal phantoms stirring.

“Lake . . .” Slowly, the phantoms stretched their necks out with a shiver, the crystal crackling and melting off of their flesh. “What did you just do?”

“I just told it . . . willed it to . . .” Lake’s trembling hand dropped the shards. “It was the only thing I could think of.” The whimper in her voice begged me to understand.

Just like Saul who’d used the stone to force his phantoms to harden their bodies around the train in France. Lake must have remembered Pete discussing the stone’s power. It could control a phantom’s biology. It could make a phantom petrify.

And it could do the reverse, too.

If Lake’s plan was to distract Jessie, it worked. The girl had stopped choking Chae Rin just long enough for the Effigy to push her off her body with as much strength as she could muster. The crystal hides of dragon-like phantoms began to shift and shatter.

“Change them back!” I yelled, but Lake’s shaking, sweaty hand couldn’t grasp the shards of stone before the phantoms roared, their unpetrified wings crashing into the machine guns, breaking them to pieces. A hunk of metal flew at our heads. Lake and I left the shards behind to dive out of the way before the debris could crush us. The guns were out of commission, but we’d only replaced one weapon with another. The phantoms hadn’t fully shed their crystal skin when they spotted us and began rushing forward.

“Run!” Lake screeched. Leaving her bag behind, she took off, pulling me along with her. Chae Rin was on her feet too, and Rhys. Jessie, Belle, Vasily—friend and enemy alike made for the gates as the phantoms charged after us, destroying everything in their path. I could hear their cries echoing behind us, too close for comfort as we ran through the corridor that led back out of the hall. It was mayhem behind us. Bricks crashing, walls crumbling as the half-petrified phantoms stampeded after us. I was the last one up the stairs, and I could feel half of it bursting into pieces below me as the monsters smashed it. I managed to just barely squeeze past the open bookshelf and back into the Little Room, but the phantoms held no such courtesy. They crashed through the bookshelf itself, sending spines and covers and wood flying into the air. I stumbled over a globe rolling across the floor, but before I could recover my footing, a phantom’s wing slammed into my side, sending me flying back. I felt my left ribs crack against the door from the impact.