After we triple check out monitors, I clear a small path out of the South-East section of the Assembly Room so survivors flee to safety, buffered by a few Elementals and Electrics. Another doorway out for the search parties. A staircase up to a section where we found clusters of people, hiding. Yet another exit for a team ready to go out and chase down any of Enlilkian’s minions, only to be erased quickly afterward.
Before he leaves in a second wave through the first door I created, Baldurrsson takes Jonah and me aside. “I know it goes without saying, Whitecomb,” he says, his gravelly voice low, “but you need to protect the Creator at every cost.”
“You’re right.” Jonah’s clearly pissed. “That should go without saying.”
Baldurrsson sighs. “Ideally, she ought to be evacuating with the rest of us.”
“I am not leaving people to die,” I snap. “Besides, what’s the point in keeping a Creator safe if there isn’t Magical-kind left behind to care? Isn’t that what we all just decided like an hour ago anyway?”
A gnarled hand touches my shoulder. His eyes are surprisingly kind. “I know.”
“They won’t be alone,” Mac says from behind us. A Cyclone named Kofi and Elemental named Ling stand with him; along with Jonah, they will be helping me hunt down the Elders. Out of everyone here, they’re the only ones who agreed to go with us on our virtual suicide mission. “And we’ll be doing our best to make sure they don’t get to her.”
Baldurrsson nods. “The Council is counting on you all.” And then he leaves along with the rest of his group, and I erase all the openings I just so recently opened.
The main doors to the assembly hall are, by all accounts, a death trap in waiting. Right now, an incorporeal Elder stands wait in the empty hall before us. There are a few bodies scattered around, but from what we can tell on our monitors, nobody directly in our path out is still alive.
So far, we’re currently having trouble tracking Enlilkian on any of the monitors, and it’s got Jonah nervous. The rest are fair game, though—even Bios, who has been following his father’s orders all too well.
It hurts my heart to see him like this. But I can’t think about that right now. I lay a hand on my husband’s arm. “They probably don’t expect us to go through here,” I remind him softly. “You know this is the best line of attack. We’ll be able to take them by surprise.”
It’s little consolation to him, despite this being his plan. But still, he gives a quick nod, and the team with us forms in a semi-circle behind me. He takes his place off to my side, both hands unknowingly clenching in and out of fists. And then, he gives me my nod.
I let the door in front of me blow. I allow it to be shockingly loud so Enlilkian knows I’m coming. There is no time to sneak out like thieves in the night. I need them gunning for me, and I need it right now. I need everybody else to have their chances at escape and rescue.
I’m once more live bait.
The Elder in the hall immediately forms its arms into long, thin swords. It’s no good, though; Jonah has it shrieking in agony on the floor within seconds. I rush at it, skidding on rubble until I’m able to drop and slam a hand onto its leg. Mac rips the electricity from the lights around us in efforts to subdue the flailing weapon arms, but just a split moment before I send it into oblivion, the tip of one of the swords makes contact with my shoulder.
Jonah’s there to catch me, though, before I hit the floor chin first.
There’s no time to ask if I’m okay, because hideous screaming fills Karnach. Enlilkian and his kind know what I’ve just done. Mac barks, “We need to move now.”
The sharp slivers of pain in my arm fade as Jonah takes my hand, and then we’re sprinting off toward the Great Hall. The Elemental with us, Ling, who has got to be nearly a hundred years old, is wearing one of the monitors around her neck. She yells, “Seven on their way from all around Karnach, all incorporeal!”
Seven.
Holy effing hell. Seven.
I’ve never faced so many at once with so little people here to back me up, and I won’t lie, I’m more than terrified.
“Piece of cake,” Mac says again.
“Oh yes,” Kofi, the Cyclone with us, mutters. He isn’t exactly the epitome of a spring chicken himself, although he’s still quite active on assignments. “Especially since we are at equal numbers. Oh, my mistake, there are five of us and seven of them. That is not even including the two who are not on their way yet, you know.”
“Ah, but those are my favorite kinds of odds.” Mac’s breath comes out in hard bursts. “See, nobody goes out swinging as hard as the outnumbered.”
Three hit the Great Hall before we even know what’s happening. Ling is a blur as she’s sent flying across the room; Kofi fares no better as he’s sent sprawling in the opposite direction. But Mac’s got blue fire spitting from the walls, and Jonah’s forcing them to bow before us in howling misery. Unfortunately for me, though, they’re refusing to go further than two feet from one another, meaning there’s a giant ball of angry Elder I’ve got to work with.
“Anytime, Chloe!” Mac yells.