* * *
B efore I’d cleared the side streets, I saw the maelstrom of fire that Zola had conjured from the bow of the Bone Sails. She’d help keep Sam safe, but I understood the chaos around us, and I knew that everyone on that ship was in danger.
I hadn’t made it fifteen feet onto the cobblestones before a green rocket appeared at my side. Bubbles slowed to a trot, continually glancing up at me as if asking me to hurry up. “We have to find Park,” I said to the dripping-wet cu sith.
Bubbles chuffed at me.
“You’ve bitten Park before,” I said. “Haven’t you?”
Bubbles chuffed at me again.
“Find Park,” I said. “We need him.” Bubbles rocked into me with her thigh before launching ahead into the sea of soldiers. I watched in concern as a dozen soldiers went down like bowling pins. I sprinted after Bubbles as she led the way into the tent city. “Sorry, sorry. Ooo, you should get that looked that.” I winced when I saw someone holding their bloody foot. I was pretty sure that was Bubbles’s doing, though I doubted the cu sith had done anything like that on purpose.
Bubbles stopped outside one of the smaller tents and released a thunderous bark. Half the soldiers in the area turned to look at us. It wasn’t awkward at all.
There wasn’t anything to knock on outside the tent, so I figured I’d just take my chances and barge in. “Park?” I said as I entered the small tent.
Park sat in a low chair, beside a cot where two soldiers were perched beside him.
“Damian?” he said, jumping out of his chair. “What are you doing here? I thought you’d be down by the river with the others.”
“Do you still have tanks in the area?” I asked, dancing around the question of whether or not he had command over them. I didn’t know who the soldiers inside the tent were, and one of them wasn’t in uniform. It was hard to tell what his rank might be.
“We do,” Park said. “What do you need?”
“For one, Alexandra returned with some of Nixie’s water witches. They’ll be in the river battling the queen’s forces. So, don’t shoot any of them unless the soldiers are damn sure of which side they’re attacking.”
“How the hell are we supposed to tell that?” one of the soldiers on the cot asked.
“They’ll be trying to kill you,” Park said. “We’ve had enough friendly fire incidents, I think.”
“The back of the harbinger’s head is its weak point. Graybeard’s better at fighting these things than anyone else, but he has his hands full with the water witches on the river. And I don’t know if you can take them down alone.”
“Casper’s squad still has some of the ammo you provided. I’ll put them on the rooftops. We’ll help where we can.”
“Good,” I said. “You have dark-touched vampires moving in on the north side of Main. Your only chance is to hit them in the eye, or maybe repel them for a time with the flamethrowers. Either way, keep the harbinger off the street. Get the tanks down by my shop. They’ll have a fairly clear target down to the river. Don’t send anyone who isn’t armed.”
“Why are you listening to him?” the unmarked soldier asked. “He’s one of them.”
Park turned a glare on the man. “That’s what you fail to understand. If they’re killing the things trying to kill you, they aren’t the enemies. And they are very good at killing things.” Park turned back to me. “Tanks will be there. Now get out of here before your dog scares the ever-loving crap out of every soldier in this place.”
I turned and found Bubbles glowing. She looked like a freshly cracked glow stick, and I could see where that might be a little concerning on a pony-sized dog.
“Come on, girl,” I said. “Let’s go eat some vampires.”
Bubbles chuffed happily.
We jogged out of the tent city, the soldiers now giving us a wide berth. I hoped Park could hold up his end of the bargain. The harbinger laying siege to my home was one thing, but I didn’t want to be the cause of that kind of devastation. I didn’t want to summon the armor of the gravemaker and unleash that chaos on my own streets.
We hadn’t made it all the way down to the shop when the first of the dark-touched reached us. One-on-one, the vampires were deadly. Two on one, I doubted I could hold my own for more than a minute or two. And that might have been optimistic.
Thankfully, the bristly green ball of death at my side had other ideas. Bubbles charged at the dark-touched, giving me time to raise a soulsword while she bowled through the slashing, hacking claws of the nearest vampire. I caught glimpses of the riverfront as we passed the side streets. A massive wave had swelled on the opposite shore and was threatening to crash down on top of the Bone Sails. Distant booms echoed out from Graybeard’s cannons, tearing through the air, accompanied by the smaller explosions of what I imagined were the guns Edgar had brought.
The first strike I leveled at the dark-touched slashed through its eye. The creature roared and reared back, and I knew what was coming. I stepped into it with a shield, and the first two strikes glanced off either side. The terrifying power of the dark-touched sent fracture lines through the electric blue dome.
I let it fall as the vampire crashed into it a third time, only to raise a smaller one and bat its left arm away from its intended target, my neck. It brought me in close to the hissing, drooling face that hid behind that marred helmet. Time slowed as I aimed a soulsword at the dark-touched’s eye.
It was one of those moments where I knew the blow would either land true, or Bubbles would be helping me pick up my entrails. It was a stupid move, but it was the only way to get inside the dark-touched’s guard. The only way to put down one more of these demons before it reached the military, or the citizens who still lived there. I heard the hiss of flesh as the soulsword met its target. I felt the give as it pushed through the eye socket and rammed up through the dark-touched’s brain, only to slam into the opposite side of the armor outside the back of the vampire’s skull.
I remembered the sensation well from the battle in Greenville. With a quick twist of my arm, I was sure that the life force of the dark-touched had been extinguished. Its inertia, however, had not. The body crashed into me, flailing claws cutting into my vest—a vest that wasn’t suited to stopping sharp objects, only the brutal impact of a firearm. We fell into a heap, but before the full weight of the dark-touched pinned me to the ground, Bubbles head-butted the vampire away. It took me a moment to understand what I was looking at, as the cu sith had the head of the other dark-touched snared in her mouth.
“Spit that out,” I said. “That’s gross.”
Bubbles reared back and expelled the dark-touched’s head with a surprisingly violent force. It cracked on the cobblestones and bounced up onto the sidewalk.
* * *
I hesitated at the next block when I saw the dark-touched streaking across the rooftops. I wanted to climb up there, or use the Hand of Anubis to pull them down. But to stop now meant leaving the harbinger, and that could do far more damage than one or two rogue dark-touched.
Angus’s voice boomed above us. “He’s mine! Stay your course!”
Bubbles released a booming bark in reply. I held up my hand, exhaustion seeping into my bones so deep that I feared trying to keep up with the cu sith would result in me passing out. And certainly leave me without enough breath to respond to Angus.
The ranks of soldiers vanished almost entirely by the time we reached the shop again. The parking lot was almost even with the harbinger.
I cursed and watched as the massive form reached down and plucked a tank from the riverfront.
Three deep rasping breaths wheezed from my lungs, and then I followed Bubbles on to the side street beside the shop. I skidded to a halt as the massive tank in front of us grated its treads on the brick street, the metal squealing against the wheels. It pulverized the stone as it went, and part of me worried how much it would cost to repair the old road. Probably not a large concern at that point.
The hatch closest to me popped open, and I blinked when Rick’s face appeared before me. “Park said to shoot the thing in the back of the head, right?”
“I thought you were a Ranger,” I said.
“I am,” he said with a grin. “But I wasn’t always.”
I nodded. “Back of the head. Hit it with the main gun, or you’ll just piss it off. And it’s smart about guarding itself. So wait until it’s distracted.”
“What the hell is going to distract it?” Rick asked.
“A boy and his dog,” I said, offering a small smile before I sprinted away with Bubbles. Now I could see the battle clearly, as well as the crashing waves below. If I hadn’t known better, I would’ve thought I was hallucinating.
Waves rose from the old quarry, surging forward and carrying towering equipment toward Graybeard’s ship.
Still the harbinger closed on us, regardless of the undines attacking its shins and knees and climbing up to its eyes.
Still it came.
A massive conveyor belt lifted two dozen feet above Graybeard’s ship, and I saw the skeleton crew raise their muskets. The boom sent an unholy shot of gray through the wave, and I watched the waters collapse in on themselves, leaving the giant conveyor to crash into the side of Graybeard’s ship and bounce off with minimal damage.
The pirate shouted as the waves rose again, and the cannons boomed over the side of the ship. What had been a towering tsunami collapsed in on itself completely, and I understood what had happened. The chaff of the stone daggers that was intended for the handheld weapons that Edgar had gifted us had been loaded into the cannons. It cut undines down like so much paper.
Still the harbinger stalked onto the shore. I could feel its footsteps as it crashed into the rocks and made its way toward Main Street. The road beside the river buckled and snapped beneath the weight of the thing. The Bone Sails lit up again, nearer the opposite shore, and its cannons erupted.
The harbinger’s hand rose to shield the back of its neck, as if it had expected the attack. As if it had known exactly what to listen for. Two of the cannon shots rebounded off its hand. One caught a glancing blow on the back of the harbinger’s skull, but the other sailed long, smashing into a storefront 100 yards in front of us.
Undines spilled from the river, hacking and slashing at the few still clinging to the harbinger that hadn’t been swatted away by those massive hands. Some of them struck killing blows, and some managed to wound the others without killing them. I suspected they were using the poison blades instead of the stone daggers.
“Kill it,” I said, pointing up at the massive harbinger.
Whether Bubbles understood or not, she charged at the lumbering giant. She had a single-minded purpose and kept her eyes locked on the monstrosity before us. I drew the pepperbox and sent some of Mike’s incendiary rounds screaming into any water witch who paid too much attention to the cu sith.
The one who made the mistake of getting in Bubbles’s path ended up with her throat torn out, frantically clawing at the gaping wound. Bubbles streaked up the harbinger’s leg, using claws and teeth to dig into the dark flesh. The harbinger slowed and looked down at the glowing green attack dog.
I tried to judge the angle of the tanks, but I still didn’t think they had a shot. I raised the pepperbox and fired my last two incendiary rounds at the harbinger’s face. Its attention swung from the cu sith back to me. It started to take another step before Bubbles leaped and hooked her fangs into the harbinger’s eye. I cringed and flinched away at the sight of the cu sith clawing and scraping and digging into the harbinger’s head.
The harbinger swung wildly, trying to dislodge Bubbles, but her head was entirely inside the thing’s eye, sending a spray of vitreous fluid down its cheek. Still the harbinger swung and spun until the soft flesh on the back of its head came into view.
“Bubbles!” I shouted. When the first round of the tank fired, I screamed Bubbles’s name even louder. The shell smashed into the back of the harbinger’s head and sent a geyser of gore out the front of its face.
The second round blew clean through the harbinger’s head as the whumph of the nearby tank deafened me to everything else. I couldn’t hear myself scream the cu sith’s name as the harbinger collapsed. There was no sign of her as the body tumbled forward and crashed down onto the edge of the river bank.
I charged the enormous corpse, instinct and rage and fear swirling in one mad thought. That surge of adrenaline was enough to chase the exhaustion from my bones, enough for me to reach out and grab the harbinger’s aura. There was no flash of knowing, no horrible vision of whatever this thing had been. But inside I found no soul, no trace of what animated so much in our world.
What I found instead was power, raw, unfiltered. I used it to pull the head of the harbinger from the waters. The horrible gristly crack of that act froze the water witches in their tracks. The few who had been stalking toward me backpedaled.
They stared instead at the harbinger as its body rolled and roiled and what had been inside became the outside. Its massive skeleton fell away from the flesh as I lifted it. A soft green glow emanated from the left eye socket. I dragged the skull on sheer will alone, bringing it closer until I could reach the cu sith inside. She was panting, curled up in a ball, but I couldn’t tell if she was injured through the splash of gore that permeated her coat. I let the skull come to rest on the parking lot beside me, and I waited for Bubbles to climb out of the blown orbital socket. She sniffed at me, and then shook herself off violently, the wet smack of meaty chunks slapping against me as all the tentativeness in her motions left. Gore coated me from head to foot, and I’d never been so happy to be so disgusting.
One of the tanks pulled up beside us, and I glanced over to see Rick. His face looked hesitant, but his voice was confident. “Where to next, boss?”
“Keep your guns trained on the riverfront. You might not be able to kill them, but blowing them apart will slow them down. And if you see those vampire things with helmets on, just shut yourself up in the tank and wait.”
“You got it.” I heard Rick shout to his men, ordering them to keep line of sight on the riverfront and the north end of Main Street. I hoped they’d pulled back far enough to guard the hospital, when I remembered that the hospital likely had a guardian all its own. Aeros would be there. I had no doubt.
“Come on, Bubbles. Let’s go eat some water witches.”
Bubbles chuffed, shook out her rear leg and dropped a few more bits of gore on the ground. Her giant pink tongue worried at a large chunk of meat lodged between her fangs.
We made it down to the broken street, unopposed by the water witches, who appeared to have fled back into the waters.
A new line had formed upriver, and I could see Alexandra’s black hair as she commanded the soldiers on the riverfront. Nixie’s forces were driving the queen’s water witches back into the Bone Sails. Fire and gunpowder stormed along the rails of the warship. Peanut’s booming barks joined the gunfire as any undine that dared to board was cut down by the cu sith’s fangs, or the flickering swords of Foster and Aideen. Graybeard commanded a nightmare army. Nothing could stand in their way.
The battle pitched and shifted, swaying upriver and back as Graybeard chased down an undine who’d tried to escape. Alexandra cornered her upstream. The sight had me transfixed, which was likely why I didn’t see the pools shift at my feet, didn’t see the translucent arms rising behind me, and didn’t see the armored shape of the undine who pressed her blade into my throat.
“Call off your dog,” the undine hissed in my ear.
“I’d rather have her just eat your face,” I said.
The dagger bit into my neck, and it was done with such careful precision that I knew the witch would have no issues cutting my throat.
Bubbles finally noticed the water witch and barked like a thunderclap. Another water witch formed beside the cu sith, but this one I knew. Euphemia wrapped her arms around Bubbles and whispered to the cu sith, “No.”
“I’m sure she can kill one undine,” I said.
“It’s not one,” Euphemia said. “There are many.”
“Summon your leader,” the undine with the knife said. “Or her mortal dies.”
Euphemia closed her eyes, and something in her breastplate pulsed blue.
“Don’t,” I said. “I’m not—”
“Silence, child,” hissed the undine who had me.
Without seeing her position, I doubted I could summon a Fist of Anubis with enough accuracy to do any good. And by the time I called a suit of gravemakers, I’d be long dead.
Shit.
The fighting in the river drew down. Graybeard’s ship wheeled around, and I wasn’t sure if I felt better or worse with the cannons leveled at me. And blunderbusses weren’t exactly known for their accuracy.
Nixie stood at the bow of the Bone Sails. “You kill him now, and you only seal your fate. I will take your throne regardless .”
I stiffened at her words. I hadn’t been caught by some random water witch—the queen herself had captured me.
“Millennia,” the queen spat, “and you would throw it away for flesh.”
“Lewena,” Nixie said, “your rule is not just. You never should have taken the throne.”
“You handed it to me.” The sneer in the water witch’s voice was plain. A moment passed before I heard a pop come from behind us. Before I felt something sharp cut into my cheek. Before I felt the dagger drag across my shoulder to bounce harmlessly off my vest.
I spun to find Lewena standing behind me, a webwork of stone etching through her like lightning. I backpedaled, getting closer to the shore when another shot rang out. The witch who moved to grab the failing queen went down in a heap, half of her head disintegrated. A third shot. A third undine fell. Nixie held up her hand, and I suspected she was calling for an end to the shooting. I didn’t know if the snipers would heed her call or not.
But I caught movement on the second floor of the welcome center. Casper raised her fist in unity, and perhaps respect. And no more shots came. Nixie leaped off the Bone Sails’ bow, walking slowly forward until she was face-to-face with the failing queen.
I closed on them both, fumbling with a pouch on my hip. Most of the things inside Death’s Door were for the greater good. Or to help, or defend, but some… some were meant to do terrible, terrible things.
Before any more was said, Nixie’s stone dagger struck the heart of the queen.
A moment later, I thrust a fairy bottle into Lewena’s mouth. As her life spasmed away, the witches around us reeled in horror when the vortex inside that bottle roared to life. It sucked away Lewena’s aura, and eventually her immortal soul. I ripped the bottle out of her mouth before slamming the stopper home.
Nixie stared down at the ruin of her queen.