Oh. My. Gods.
He smiles, all teeth and bones and rotting putridness, and makes a soft clicking sound against what’s left of his tongue. Jonah immediately shoves me behind him, one of his arms outstretching to attack the monsters in front of us, but nothing and I mean nothing prepares us for what happens next because in one moment Mac takes a step toward us, electricity crackling and leaping from light bulbs down to his fingertips and in the next he is stumbling backward and right off the broken railing until he is no longer on the eighth floor with us.
And it’s because that bitch Sophie pushed him as hard as she could over the edge.
I scream his name, but Jonah refuses to let me chase after our friend. Kofi dashes toward the edge, winds whipping all around us in what I can only hope is a rescue attempt, but then he’s flying through the air, too, thanks to the last incorporeal Elder materializing out of a nearby office and rushing him like a linebacker charging a quarterback during the last desperate moments of a state championship, before disappearing once more.
No. No. No. No. No. NO. This is not happening right now.
Sophie peers over the edge and says, “Oops.” And then, a delicate hand covering her mouth, she turns to me and Jonah, all of her face so charmingly sad for two forever long seconds before bursting into laughter.
WHAT. THE. HELL. IS GOING ON HERE?
I lunge toward her, but Jonah’s arms wrap around my waist, pulling me close to his chest. Even then, he shifts us so he’s facing the Elders and I’m protected between him and the wall. I crane my neck around so I can see her all the better. “I’m going to kill you, Sophie. Do you hear me? DO YOU HEAR ME?!”
“I’d like to see you try.”
Part of me wants to just wink her into oblivion, too, but ... gods, it’s so messed up, but I hesitate. Erasing her seems ... different than what I’ve done to the Elders. But hauling my hand back and slapping the living shit out of her? That I can do.
Jonah must know what I want to do because his hold on me tightens immediately. And then, impossibly even more when a pair of missing Elders appear in doorways behind us.
We’re completely surrounded.
Kellan’s ex-girlfriend skirts around us to where Enlilkian is standing, her slim fingers trailing across his jacketed arm. My stomach roils as she smirks. Oh gods, they’re ... they’re working together? Was—is this a trap?
“Tell me, Empath,” Enlilkian says softly as Jonah retreats another step back, dragging me with him toward an office inches away, “who do you think you’ll attack first?” He smiles again, like we are all old friends meeting up for a long anticipated reunion. “I’ve been studying you, you know. And I know you can’t take us all down if we’re not all in your line of vision.”
I throw up in my mouth a little when Sophie curves a hand around the crook of his elbow.
“I don’t need to take them all down when I can just get you,” Jonah says calmly.
Sophie leans her cheek against Enlilkian’s shoulder, like they’re close friends. I fear I’m going to vomit right here all over everyone.
The first Creator chuckles and opens one of his arms out wide. “By all means, Emotional. Give it your best. Just know that I can’t promise the little Creator won’t be harmed in the process.”
It’s almost like she’s snuggling with him, like she’s rubbing her godsdamn cheek up against his rotting, dirty coat.
“How do you know him?” I scream at her from behind Jonah. “Why are you doing this, after everything he’s done to our kind?”
She yawns and peers down at her nails, tsking over what must be a chip. “I swear, Jonah,” she says flatly, glancing up at him with cold fire in her eyes. “I just don’t get what you two see in this bitch.”
“I have to give you props, Sophie,” my husband says in return, completely ignoring what Enlilkian’s said to him. “How did you do it?”
A shiver runs down my arms. He’s so serious, all ice-cold fury running beneath the calm fa?ade he’s projecting.
“We all have our secrets,” Enlilkian answers for her. “Also, don’t bother with that room. One of my associates is waiting within.”
I can practically feel Jonah’s frustration as we come to a halt. I wonder, though ... if I were to stretch my arm out just so, could I touch the Elder closest to us? Take it out?
“Tricia Basswood, right?” Jonah is saying, and I dig in my memory until I find ... Thierry Basswood. The Elemental whose body was stolen during my honeymoon when the Enlilkian killed his pregnant wife to suck out her baby’s powers. Except—
Enlilkian clasps his hands together and holds them close to his chest. “Bravo, Empath.”