The Savage Grace
Page 86
Only Talbot still stood. The bloody remains of his kill at his feet.
Daniel dropped his sword in the straw and clutched at his shoulder. He must have injured it again in the fight. He looked at me, his eyes softer now, and I ran toward him.
What now? I thought. With all the challengers gone, and Shadow Kings a no-show, did that mean it was over?
I was only feet from Daniel when Brent shouted in my ear: “Grace! Stop! The barn!”
I spun around and looked at the barn.
Nothing.
“Look up!”
My gaze flitted up to the roof, and I saw them, perched there like gargoyles. Rows and rows of Shadow Kings.
Caleb stood on the very apex of the barn’s roof, a tin rooster-shaped weathervane spinning at his feet. “Sorry to miss the preshow entertainment,” he called, “but I’ve made it just in time for the main event.”
A horrible chorus of screeches, snarls, and howls echoed into the night as the waves of Shadow Kings charged down the roof of the barn and vaulted onto the battlefield.
Chapter Thirty-six
THE REAL BATTLE BEGINS
WITHIN SECONDS
There were so many of them. So many Shadow Kings. More than I’d ever imagined. They just kept on coming, hurdling over the roof of the barn, filling the challenging ring. Caleb must have spent every moment of the last week creating and recruiting new Akhs and Gelals. I wondered how many of these Akhs had been regular teens at the trance party from earlier this week. I imagined empty homeless shelters and halfway houses. I tried to remember that they were already dead when I took my first swing at an Akh, slicing through its neck with my broadsword.
I could barely see Daniel, who was only a few yards away, just flashes of his gold hair or his sword as he took out demon and after demon that just kept on coming. Lisa, Talbot, and Slade, who had been on the other end of the 150-yard-wide battlefield, were totally lost from my vision. But the spray of Gelal acid and bursts of dust that went up in the air in that part of the arena told me that at least two of them were still fighting.
I took out three more Ahks and a Gelal with my sword, wondering why I had ever settled for a stake in the past.
However, not all the SKs were pure demon, and I had to pull back on one of my swings before I nearly took off the head of an Urbat teen. He growled and almost instantaneously transformed into a great hulking tan wolf right in front of me. He was almost as big as the red wolf Daniel had fought.
More growls rumbled out from Caleb’s forces, and fourteen more boys burst into giant wolves—the speed of their transformation aided by the lunar eclipse.
I couldn’t believe how huge the wolves were, and I knew Daniel would be even bigger if he transformed into the great white wolf. But I also knew he wasn’t going let the white wolf free under the eclipse.
Caleb stood in the middle of it all, laughing like the madman he was.
“Now?” Brent shouted into my ear.
I’d almost forgotten about him in my struggle to keep up with the SKs and wondered how long he’d been shouting at me.
“Now!” I responded as the enormous tan wolf came volleying at my head.
I swung at it with my sword, but at the same moment a great crack resonated through the air. A bullet whizzed past my ear, and the tan wolf yelped. He fell to the ground, his shoulder bloody where the silver bullet had hit.
“Tell Ryan to watch it,” I shouted at Brent. “He almost hit me.”
“These bullets don’t fly right,” I heard Ryan shout in the background in my earpiece.
“Cheat to the left,” I said, remembering what the hunters I’d stolen the guns from had said. “You have to aim to the left of what you want to hit!”
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.
Daniel dropped his sword in the straw and clutched at his shoulder. He must have injured it again in the fight. He looked at me, his eyes softer now, and I ran toward him.
What now? I thought. With all the challengers gone, and Shadow Kings a no-show, did that mean it was over?
I was only feet from Daniel when Brent shouted in my ear: “Grace! Stop! The barn!”
I spun around and looked at the barn.
Nothing.
“Look up!”
My gaze flitted up to the roof, and I saw them, perched there like gargoyles. Rows and rows of Shadow Kings.
Caleb stood on the very apex of the barn’s roof, a tin rooster-shaped weathervane spinning at his feet. “Sorry to miss the preshow entertainment,” he called, “but I’ve made it just in time for the main event.”
A horrible chorus of screeches, snarls, and howls echoed into the night as the waves of Shadow Kings charged down the roof of the barn and vaulted onto the battlefield.
Chapter Thirty-six
THE REAL BATTLE BEGINS
WITHIN SECONDS
There were so many of them. So many Shadow Kings. More than I’d ever imagined. They just kept on coming, hurdling over the roof of the barn, filling the challenging ring. Caleb must have spent every moment of the last week creating and recruiting new Akhs and Gelals. I wondered how many of these Akhs had been regular teens at the trance party from earlier this week. I imagined empty homeless shelters and halfway houses. I tried to remember that they were already dead when I took my first swing at an Akh, slicing through its neck with my broadsword.
I could barely see Daniel, who was only a few yards away, just flashes of his gold hair or his sword as he took out demon and after demon that just kept on coming. Lisa, Talbot, and Slade, who had been on the other end of the 150-yard-wide battlefield, were totally lost from my vision. But the spray of Gelal acid and bursts of dust that went up in the air in that part of the arena told me that at least two of them were still fighting.
I took out three more Ahks and a Gelal with my sword, wondering why I had ever settled for a stake in the past.
However, not all the SKs were pure demon, and I had to pull back on one of my swings before I nearly took off the head of an Urbat teen. He growled and almost instantaneously transformed into a great hulking tan wolf right in front of me. He was almost as big as the red wolf Daniel had fought.
More growls rumbled out from Caleb’s forces, and fourteen more boys burst into giant wolves—the speed of their transformation aided by the lunar eclipse.
I couldn’t believe how huge the wolves were, and I knew Daniel would be even bigger if he transformed into the great white wolf. But I also knew he wasn’t going let the white wolf free under the eclipse.
Caleb stood in the middle of it all, laughing like the madman he was.
“Now?” Brent shouted into my ear.
I’d almost forgotten about him in my struggle to keep up with the SKs and wondered how long he’d been shouting at me.
“Now!” I responded as the enormous tan wolf came volleying at my head.
I swung at it with my sword, but at the same moment a great crack resonated through the air. A bullet whizzed past my ear, and the tan wolf yelped. He fell to the ground, his shoulder bloody where the silver bullet had hit.
“Tell Ryan to watch it,” I shouted at Brent. “He almost hit me.”
“These bullets don’t fly right,” I heard Ryan shout in the background in my earpiece.
“Cheat to the left,” I said, remembering what the hunters I’d stolen the guns from had said. “You have to aim to the left of what you want to hit!”
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.
