Gaios threw the sword aside and it sank into a pool of magma. He was breathing hard and his brow furrowed. Gaios looked at the remaining five, his eyes wild. “Tell me where the coward Ash is now!”
They were failing, their plans gone to ruin. Even though Gaios apparently could no longer extend his wrath across London, he still had a fearful power here in the ruins of his temple. Simon needed to get close to Gaios in order to do any good. The group spread out to surround the elemental. Nick and the surprisingly focused Jane went off for the far side of the platform where Gaios stood. Malcolm moved in the opposite direction. Kate pulled her last two cartridges. She loaded her single-shot pistol and clamped the last metallic cartridge between her teeth.
The white-haired elemental dropped to one knee and slapped his hands onto the ground. A black stone visor lowered over the front of his helmet, completely obscuring his face.
Nick unleashed a furious attack on Gaios. Immediately the black armor was coated with a sheen of ice. And then a lightning storm erupted from Nick’s fingertips along with a scream of pain. The slender streaks of electricity felt their way around the black figure. Gaios staggered. Nick fell and the electricity crackled to a halt, his hands burnt.
Jane stood nearby with one hand raised. A stroke of lightning arced from the heavens and struck Gaios with a splitting crack. She shouted and called another jagged spear to smash Gaios flat to the ground. Blinding bolts crashed onto him until her hands were lit with fire.
Suddenly, the earth sundered beneath both her and Nick, a cauldron of magma at the bottom. Nick fell barely catching the edge with clawlike hands. Jane managed to grab him but didn’t have the strength to haul him up. They clung there, hanging over hell’s mouth.
Kate ran forward and fired her last vial of black treacle at the fallen elemental. It shattered onto his chest and sticky ooze poured down the sides of his cuirass onto the ground beneath. Malcolm charged Gaios, dropping next to him and placing the muzzle of Penny’s small pistol against the obsidian helmet. He pulled the trigger. Not knowing how to regulate the weapon, it bucked violently. Malcolm’s arm shook and he grasped his wrist to hold it steady. The obsidian began to crack.
Kate slammed her pistol against the black helmet. It shattered and revealed Gaios’s tortured face beneath. His mouth stretched wide in pain as the sound waves pounded into his head. She leveled her pistol and fired, but the shell was deflected by the disruption from Penny’s gun.
Kate spat the last cartridge into her hand. “Shut it off, Malcolm!”
The Scotsman released the trigger and slumped onto his elbows. Blood flowed from his ears along his jawline.
Simon appeared beside Kate and reached out for Gaios’s unprotected head with his left hand. His palm held the inscribed rune. The power of it tingled along his arm. He felt an odd tightness in his chest. He stretched his hand to place it on the bearded face, but suddenly he couldn’t move.
Looking down, he saw strange black rods sticking into his ribs. Sharp pain cut through him and he had trouble drawing breath. He heard Kate scream and saw numerous pencil-thin shafts of obsidian encaging her head. They were dug in like claws, leaking bright red blood. It was difficult to understand what he was seeing. Even grimacing with agony, Kate twisted her pistol and took the shot. The shell cracked the black armor of Gaios’s stomach.
Simon and Kate were shoved away from Gaios. Malcolm was lifted into the air by black spikes stuck into his arms and hands. All three of them were impaled on thin spines of obsidian that emerged from the ground around Gaios like shining onyx tendrils.
Gaios rose to his feet, lifted by the earth itself. He stood in the center of the three who were crucified on his obsidian lances. His body was hunched. His black armor was shattered and dangled in pieces from his battered frame.
Simon gritted his teeth, trying to remain consciousness. He clutched at the bloody stone shaft buried in his chest and summoned the aether. He attempted to break it, but could feel the stone replenishing itself under his hands, growing continually stronger so that it would always be too powerful to shatter.
Gaios struggled to straighten his back. “Stop fighting, Archer. You’ve lost. London is mine. You were strong, but now you’ll die.” He gestured and another stone spike drove into Simon’s body.
Simon screamed.
“Tell me who Ash is pretending to be now, and at least I’ll stop the pain.” Blood from his nose trickled through Gaios’s white beard. “She could have helped you but she ran and left you all to die.”
Simon fought to breathe. His legs were numb. He could hear his heartbeat roaring in his ears. Tears rolled down his cheeks. He reached out feebly, and whispered, “Kate.”
“Tell me who Ash is!”
“Oh God, Kate. I must hold her … before … please … please …”
“You’re pathetic, Archer. You’re no Pendragon. He never begged, even when I killed him. I was wrong to fear you.”