“Do you need chalk?” Alessandro asked.
I pulled chalk out of my pocket.
“Good.”
He walked to the edge of the roof facing Cheryl’s armada, crouched, and drew a perfect circle with a practiced swipe of his hand. Another circle, a line of glyphs . . . So House Sagredo had a House spell of its own after all.
The constructs drew closer. One crawled along the bridge. The rest stomped their way through the mire. Tentacles slapped against the spidery metal legs of Climber XV. Buzz saws slid out of the construct’s legs, chewing the plant and metal to pieces.
There were too many. Even with Tatyana and Stephen, there were too many constructs for us to overcome, not to mention the trained killers they carried. We were stuck between the Abyss and Cheryl’s army.
“Trust me,” Alessandro said.
Even if I used all of my power and beguiled their minds, the most I could do was throw them at the Abyss. United, they would injure it, but not destroy it. It would return. The longer people I beguiled stayed under my power, the more they loved me. Those who survived this fight would tear me apart, consumed by the need to possess a piece of me. There would be no winners here.
The chalk felt clammy in my fingers. An odd kind of calm washed over me, clearing my fear. This was my job. I would do it and I would fight to the bitter end.
I dialed Tatyana’s number. The male secretary answered. “Yes?”
“Tell Tatyana that Cheryl is not the cavalry. The thing in the swamp is her doing. She’s coming to kill us.”
“We know,” he said and hung up.
Cheryl was a threat to us. But the Abyss would end our world if we let it. If I let it.
I put Linus’ sword down and crouched. I could draw a dozen circles with a null boundary, but none of them fit. Half of them would cut me off from the environment. I would be safe in the circle, but magically deaf and blind, able only to expel magic by relying on my eyes and ears. The other half would allow me to use my mind but wouldn’t give me the power I required to project my magic.
I would need power and range. Lots and lots of power. I needed my senses too. The Abyss would try to reach me once he realized I was here. I had to know what he was thinking.
The half-finished designs in my head coalesced. My incomplete House Key arcane circle merged with the Aldrin projection design, augmented by the Tremaine targeting band. Yes, that would do it. It would give me the null space and the power I required and it would unchain my mind.
The circle glowed in my mind. I just had to replicate it.
I drew faster than I ever thought I could.
A drone plunged from the sky and hovered near me.
“Do not shoot this down, you shit weasel!” Bug yelled.
Alessandro and I kept drawing, crawling around on our hands and knees.
“Is Nevada okay?” My voice came out dull. I was trying to hold on to the pattern in my head.
“She’s fine. There is a fucking construct army marching here.”
“I know,” I told him.
“What do you need?”
“Record her. Record everything that happens.” If we died, Cheryl would not get away with it.
“I have six drones on it.”
The constructs were almost on us. I had no idea how long Tatyana could hold out.
“Shit,” Bug cursed.
I chanced a glance over my shoulder. Stephen had hacked the wall of tentacles into chunks. He stood on the island of vegetation, his face impassive. Marat slumped next to him on one knee. Three hunters rose from the swamp, each with two hounds. They ringed the two men. There was nothing I could do for them right now.
I went back to drawing. Glyphs, more glyphs. If this didn’t work . . . It had to work.
Tatyana’s voice came out of the drone. I spared half a second to glance up. A small digital screen on the drone showed Tatyana in her circle and Cheryl atop the Digger just beyond the wall of flames. I was right. She’d ridden on the leading construct.
“Hi there.” Tatyana sounded upbeat.
“We’ve come to reinforce you,” Cheryl announced.
“Oh, is that what you’re here to do?”
“Let us in, please.”
“I had a really interesting conversation with Stephen last night,” Tatyana said. “Is there anything you want to share?”
“I have no idea what he told you. Marat is out there, dying. You’re under assault. Let me help you.”
“We wouldn’t be under assault if your fake ass hadn’t made an abomination and unleashed it into the Pit. What were you thinking, Cheryl? Jesus! Were you dropped on your head as a baby? Did your parents not hug you enough? Or are you just greedy and stupid?”
Cheryl recoiled as if slapped. “How dare you!”
“How many people have you killed? Felix is dead because of you. We may all die because of you. Is this the sort of shit you think my family needs right now? I swear to God, Cheryl, as soon as I’m done with this, I’m going to burn your House to the fucking ground. Scorched earth, Cheryl. You will learn the meaning of those words.”
A vicious grimace twisted Cheryl’s face. “You were always a fat, stupid bitch. Your brother is a fucking arsonist, and all the money in the world won’t change that. You’re trash, your family is trash, and you will die in this fucking swamp. Bring me her head!”
“Holy shitballs,” Bug muttered.
I glanced at the screen. On Cheryl’s left, the towering thirty-foot Breaker resembling a rhino on six massive legs started toward the flame wall. The four people on its carapace readied themselves. One of them snapped into a mage pose, arms bent at the elbow, palms up, fingers cradling invisible spheres.
A translucent fiery shape coalesced around Tatyana. Her hands sprouted foot-long ghost claws. A monstrous luminous head formed over Tatyana’s face. Spikes grew from her back. It was as if a demon made of fire and glass enclosed her.
Hellspawn. A House Pierce high spell.
Tatyana grinned, her eyes pure fire, and the demon grinned with her.
The Breaker pushed through the flames.
Tatyana opened her mouth and vomited a torrent of white fire.
The front of the Breaker sagged, melting. The four people on top of it went up like human candles. Molten metal dripped. The Breaker swayed, tried to back up, and collapsed into the dark water.
“Welcome to hell,” Tatyana roared in a demonic voice.
I had the whole outer band left. I couldn’t watch anymore. The chalk was a small nub in my fingers. I dropped it and pulled a second stick out.
“Crush her,” Cheryl howled through the drone speaker. “All of you, now. Forward!”
The inner boundary. The intersecting lines. The air smelled of soot and burning plastic. I didn’t have time to watch.
“Bug, what’s happening?”
“A lot, Catalina. There’s a lot going on right now.”
“Be more specific?”
“Tatyana keeps spitting fire. Cheryl is sending her monster constructs in. Tatyana melts them, but they keep re-forming. Minus the poor bastards that were on them. Behind us a man is running around on water slicing monsters into pieces. It’s Armageddon. ”
The Hellspawn was immensely powerful, but Tatyana couldn’t keep it up forever.
Sweat drenched my forehead. Just a bit more time.
The island shook. I looked up. One of the constructs made it through, stomping through the buildings. People screamed.
“Where are you?” Alessandro asked, his voice like a bucket of icy water.
“Almost done. Just a little longer.”
“Shit!” Bug swore. “Four more constructs and three armored transports coming down the bridge. I think we’re fucked.”
I drew the last line, stepped into the circle, and sent a pulse of magic through it. A pale green glow ran through the chalk lines, sending little puffs of dust into the air.
Work. Please work.
The small circles inside my design turned, realigning. The glow dashed through the chalk, but there was so much ground for it to cover.
In front of me the island burned. Pillars of black smoke streamed into the sky. A half-melted mechanical monstrosity rampaged through the island, dripping molten metal. A stream of white fire smashed into it, as if a mythical dragon had emptied its belly. Molten metal ran, but the construct kept going, flailing its metal arms into the buildings. Debris flew. Concrete exploded. Bug was right. This was Armageddon.
“Tell me when,” Alessandro said. He stood in his circle, loose and ready. The pattern around his feet stretched to cover nearly half of the roof. I’d never seen anything like it.
I pushed my magic, trying to claim the circle faster.
The fire wall around the island sputtered and died. Either Tatyana ran out of magic or she was dead. The troops from the armored transport flooded onto the island on foot. Gunfire crackled. It had to be now.
The outer boundary of my circle shone.
Magic punched me, so much magic. I reeled, trying to absorb it. For an agonizing second it felt like trying to hold a jerking fire hose, then suddenly, the current and my power snapped together into one steady stream.
The Pit opened before my mind’s eye and I saw everything in a fraction of a second: the bright magenta star of Cheryl’s mind in front of me; the duller white glow of Tatyana, all but extinguished; the sharp pale radiance of Stephen behind us; the faint purple smudge that was Marat; the collection of weaker lights among Cheryl’s private army; Alessandro’s supernova, so powerful it took my breath away; and the glowing nebula of the Abyss, wrapping around us and stretching far back into the Pit.