31

I pushed Steele back the way we’d come. “Back, back!” I said in a hushed voice.

I was too late.

“Well, well, well.” Bonesaw’s booming voice echoed down the hallway, crashing into us like an ocean swell. “Look what the cat dragged in—or let out of its cage, I should say.”

I froze in my tracks. “You ought to steer clear of metaphors, Bonesaw. They’re not your strong suit.”

Lightning flashed. Long shadows splashed against the wall, including a massive black stain stretching from Bonesaw’s shoulders. Darkness swallowed him back up, followed by a distant peal of thunder.

“You know, I’ve always liked you, Daggers,” said Bonesaw. “That stunt you pulled in the King’s Theater? Taking down eight of our guys and the boss’s prized pet? I’ll give it to you. It was impressive. Even when we were competing to get into the Wyverns, you had moxie. Flair. Creativity. That’s rare in a cop. Maybe that’s why I didn’t see you for what you were until after the fact.”

“Go,” I whispered at Steele. “Run.” Then louder, for Bonesaw’s benefit. “Be honest, Bonesaw. You miss more than you catch. That’s why guys like me have careers, relationships, and friends, and guys like you end up in prison.”

Bonesaw held his hands to the sides. “And yet here I am. A prisoner no more.”

“For how long?”

Shay whispered back. “I’m not running. I’m not leaving you.”

Bonesaw moved a little closer. Fifteen feet. “I don’t think the two of you’ve fully grasped what’s going on yet. You think I don’t understand metaphors? The Winds of Change? We aren’t a gang. We’re a coup, waiting to strike. And we’re striking tonight.”

“Shay,” I hissed. Then louder again. “Speaking of which, we probably owe you some thanks. The gang unit will be happy to have five fewer crime operations within the city limits. Once we finish taking you down, we’ll be up to six.”

Bonesaw laughed, a powerful, malicious, booming sound that echoed off the walls. “Hah! You misunderstand me, Detective. I didn’t say a takeover. I said a coup. The gangs were just the beginning.”

“I’m staying, Daggers,” whispered Steele behind me. “We’re partners. I’m with you, for better or worse.”

I couldn’t fight her off. Not here. Not with Bonesaw bearing down on me. Besides, I didn’t want to. I wanted to protect her, but I had to stop treating her like a liability. She might save my life. She had before, too many times to count.

I gave her a thumbs up behind my back. “The beginning of what, Bonesaw?”

“Everything,” he said. “It’ll be like the good old days. Remember when the Wyverns ran free, operating without restrictions? Maybe you’re too young, but back then, the police took their cut and looked the other way. That’s a decent system, but a costly one. We have a better one in mind. This time, your friends will be too afraid to say anything at all. They’ll cower before us. The Winds of Change will own this city. It’s a shame you won’t be around to see it.”

“We won’t?” I said. “See, I got a different impression. That your boss, Markeville, wanted to keep us alive.”

“He did. You hurt him, see. When you busted the Wyverns, he took it personal. Those dragons were the start of something special. An army that could bring the city to its knees. But the boss isn’t like most men. He didn’t pack it in at the first bump in the road. He hunkered down. Put his resources to work and found new soldiers for his army. The ones that would give him the edge he needed to effect meaningful change.”

“I guess he chose wrong, then,” I said. “Turns out his basilisks aren’t too hard to kill once you know where to hit them.”

“I wasn’t only talking about the basilisk.” Bonesaw crept toward the wall. Another flash of lightning lit the corridor. The chandelier above, the paintings at the wall, the suit of armor at Bonesaw’s right. “Luckily for me, the boss is also the pragmatic sort. He won’t be too bent out of shape upon hearing I had to kill you following your attempted escape.”

I needed to put together a plan of attack with Shay, but I couldn’t with Bonesaw bearing down on us and monologueing. I’d have to trust her, trust my own instincts, and hope for the best.

I gripped my brass knuckles in my right hand and shifted my weight to the balls of my feet. “You seem pretty confident about that, Bonesaw. You didn’t fare so well the last time we went toe to toe.”

“I’ve learned from my mistakes.” Bonesaw pulled a poleaxe from the suit of armor’s grip with a clang. “Besides, your half-troll friend isn’t here to back you up, is he? All you’ve got this time is your skinny little elf bitch.”

“I’m a half-elf,” said Shay. “At least get it right, dumbass.”

Bonesaw roared and lunged, swinging the poleaxe at chest level. I ducked and rolled, feeling a whoosh of air over me as Steele danced out of sight. Bonesaw tucked his poleaxe in and spun, whipping his foot at my head. I pulled it away just in time. His boot cracked the tile underneath with the force of his kick. I swore, scrambled to my knees, and dove. The blade of Bonesaw’s axe sliced the void, cracking another tile with its impact.

I heard a heavy thwack. Bonesaw grunted, jabbing the butt of his axe in Steele’s direction. The darkness turned her into an indistinct blur, but I heard her makeshift truncheon whistle through the air.

Bonesaw turned and lunged at me, jabbing with the pointed end of his polearm. I hopped back, slamming into the suit at the wall. A few pieces clattered to the floor around me. I ducked again as the blade flew through the air, crunching the suit’s breastplate. I landed on a discarded shield, grabbed it, and rolled onto my back, catching Bonesaw’s next swing square in its center. It rattled, shook, and split, the axehead protruding two inches through the metal.

Bonesaw roared and pulled back on the axe, ripping the shield from my grip like he might a sucker from a toddler. He swung the axe over his head, but Shay jumped on his back before he could bring it down, grabbing onto the axe pole for dear life.

I took the opportunity. I flipped onto my feet and launched myself into Bonesaw’s midsection, brass knuckles first. A crunch of ribs met my fist.

Bonesaw didn’t like that. He growled and slammed an arm into my side, sending me flying into the nearest wall. I groaned as the air left my lungs. My knuckles slipped from my grip, tinkling as they hit the floor.

Bonesaw reached over his back, latched onto Steele, and flipped her over him. She hit the ground with a crack.

“NO!” I stood and ran, pulling the knife from my jacket as I did so. Bonesaw aimed a boot at her head.

I hit him just in time. With his weight on one leg, my tackle sent us toppling to the ground. I used my momentum to drive the confiscated blade into the meat of his left arm.

This time, he roared in pain. He also lashed out, clubbing me in the head with his elbow. I tumbled across the floor. The blade ripped free from his arm. With my hands bloodied, I lost my grip. The knife clattered away, lost in the darkness.

His dark shadow descended on me. Huge hands wrapped around my neck, lifting me off the floor as if I were a rag doll. He whipped me though the air, slamming me into one of the nearby shelves. Books flew, and I had a brief sensation of deja vu, but at least when I’d collided with the bookshelf in my own apartment, I’d been in a position of greater power. Now I couldn’t breath. Bonesaw’s fingers were iron. My windpipe was being crushed into a diamond.

I sped a right hook at Bonesaw’s face, but it bounced off harmlessly. I tried a jab with my left, only to have my fist scream in pain as the resulting jolt reverberated down my bite-ravaged hand.

Bonesaw grinned, his sneer a sickly yellow in the near darkness. “How does it feel, Daggers? How does it feel to lose?”

I saw movement. A dark blur. Then a brief flash caught in a stray moonbeam.

Shay screamed as she jumped on Bonesaw’s back for a second time. I heard a wet slice. Blood splattered and hit me in the face. Bonesaw howled as my discarded blade sunk deep into his shoulder, right between his neck and clavicle.

His grip weakened to bronze, and I took advantage. I kicked out, landing a full-strength shin blow to his testicles. At the same time, Shay wrenched on the knife.

Bonesaw’s hands vanished from my neck. I dropped to the floor, landing hard on my ass while he gurgled and tottered backwards, dropping to his knees. Books rained down around me, and I heard a slow creak.

“Crap!” I dove to the side as the bookshelf toppled and fell, striking Bonesaw square on the head as it crashed to the ground. Boards broke, something or someone groaned, and a cloud of dust sloughed off the top of the shelf.

I coughed and stood, massaging my neck. “Shay?”

The bookshelf creaked and shook. It rose off the ground, tipped, and toppled to the side. Bonesaw crawled out from under it, a dark sheen covering his face and neck. He reached up, gripped the knife that protruded from his shoulder, and yanked.

He cried out as it pulled free. “Grahh! Why I’m gonna—”

A rush of air swept past me, Shay at the helm. A weapon whistled through the air, catching Bonesaw in the middle of his cheek. Bone crunched, a wet, sickening sound, and he crashed to the floor like a four hundred pound sack of oranges.

Shay dropped the weapon and grabbed me by the arm. “What are you waiting for, Daggers? We need to get out of here!”

I spotted a flickering light in the distance. Now that I focused on it, I could hear shouts, too.

“What the hell was that?” I asked.

“The weapon? A mace.”

“You found a mace?”

“On the suit of armor.” Shay glanced up the hallway. “Daggers? Come on!”

“Right.” Another lightning induced burst ripped through the corridor, searing an image of Bonesaw’s mangled face into my memory, all red and black and bright white from the flash. I grabbed the mace and turned to the window. Glass shattered as I slammed the business end of the weapon through the pane. Another couple swings freed the remainder of the shards from the sill.

“After—”

Shay dove through the gap into the rainstorm outside.

“—you.”

I jumped out after her and started running, angry shouts and flickering lamplight trailing us as we faded into the night.