The Savage Grace: A Dark Divine Novel(103)

Another gunshot fired, and a Gelal’s head exploded as he came charging at me. His body kept moving for a full five steps until he burst into green ooze. I grabbed the closest Akh and used him as shield. He screeched as the acid hit his skin. I threw the demon at a black wolf; he ripped the Akh to pieces with no regard to the fact that they were on the same side.

I looked back at the farmhouse and saw Ryan, Zach, and Brent in the windows of the master bedroom. Ryan and Zach aimed the hunting rifles out of the broken panes.

“Again!” I shouted.

More gunshots rang out, sending Shadow Kings scattering. I caught sight of Lisa as she grappled with a tawny wolf. An arrow went sailing into the wolf’s hindquarters from the direction of the farmhouse.

I looked up to see one of the Etlu Urbats standing on the roof of the house with a crossbow. Two more archers joined him, just as we had planned. They took out several Akhs with their wooden arrows from their vantage point.

Several more gunshots rocked the field.

“Don’t go hog wild on those bullets,” I reminded them. I’d been able to get only two boxes of silver bullets from Mr. Day because he’d run out of them—having passed them out to all the hunters who’d come into town for the wolf hunt.

“Can you see Caleb?” I asked Brent. He’d disappeared somewhere in the chaos of the field.

“No,” Brent said.

I swore. I heard a scream from somewhere in the crowd beyond the challenging ring, and I watched with great concern as several of the SKs started going after the guardians on the sidelines, not caring that they weren’t supposed to be part of the fight. We’d planned on this contingency, and Jude and Gabriel jumped into action, leading the spearmen in a fight to protect the people outside the ring.

“I see him,” Brent said. “Caleb’s on the far north side of the ring, close to where it edges on the corn maze.”

I looked out, but I couldn’t see him from where I stood.

“Concentrate your fire on Caleb.”

Two more shots rang out.

“We can’t get at him. He’s got too many SKs around him.”

I nodded. Of course Caleb would be using his own men as a shield. “Just keep firing in his direction. Get him mad enough that he sends the SKs into the house after you. That’s what we want.”


I jumped and rolled head over heels to avoid the attack of an oncoming werewolf. I was locked in battle with it, when a barrage of gunfire and arrows pelted the north side of the field. Ahks screeched and Gelals snarled, and I heard Caleb shout his command. The demon hordes turned their attention on the farmhouse, their ghastly eyes locked on the boys who stood in the windows—my boys. Even the demons that had gone after the guardians outside the ring turned their attention to the house, clacking their claws and grinding their teeth.

One of the Akhs let out a great shriek, and fifty or so demons ran straight for the house.

Brent swore as he saw them coming.

“Hold your ground,” I said. “Not yet.”

I could hear Ryan cursing up a storm.

“Almost,” I said.

The demon army jumped onto the back porch of the farmhouse. They crashed through the door and the windows and flooded the house.

“Not yet,” I said.

“They’re coming up the stairs!” Brent shrieked. He, Ryan, and Brent stood in the frames of the windows, ready to jump.

When almost all of the demons had crashed into the house, I shouted, “Now!”

The boys sprang from the windows, clearing the porch below, just as I saw the first wave of demons enter the master bedroom. The boys hit the ground and started running faster than I’d ever seen them move—fueled by adrenaline and the eclipse. Zach had lost his gun in the jump, but Ryan clutched onto his with dear life.

The archers escaped the roof off the other side that led to the front yard of the farmhouse.

“Blow it!” I shouted as my boys neared the center of the ring.

Brent held out his hand and slammed his thumb down on the detonator he clenched in his fist. The boys braced for the impact of the explosion.

Nothing happened.

Brent looked down at the detonator. He mashed it again. Still nothing.

Demons started to claw their way through the second-story window, still intent on their prey.

“It’s been disconnected!” Brent shouted. “I have to set if off manually.”

“Brent! No!”

But Brent had already turned and rocketed back toward the house. He threw open a metal box that was attached to the outside railing of the porch. I knew from the design he’d showed me that there was a lead from that box to the explosives we’d planted under the house. “Don’t worry, I’ll have time!” His fingers moved quickly inside the box.

Ahks and Gelals dropped from the window onto the porch.

Ryan and Zach had made it to me on the field. “Hurry!” We all shouted at him.

“Got it!” He closed the metal box and turned to run from the impending explosion, pumping his fists up in the air like Rocky Balboa. But before he could finish the gesture, a Gelal grabbed him from behind, yanking him up over the porch railing by the neck.

“No!” I shouted.

I ran for Brent, but before I could get halfway there, the farmhouse exploded right in front of me.

It happened so fast, in the blink of an eye. Brent and the house and the demons were there when my eyes closed against the brightness of the blast. When my eyelids fluttered open, it was all gone.