One of the Akhs let out a great shriek, and fifty or so demons ran straight for the house.
Brent swore as he saw them coming.
“Hold your ground,” I said. “Not yet.”
I could hear Ryan cursing up a storm.
“Almost,” I said.
The demon army jumped onto the back porch of the farmhouse. They crashed through the door and the windows and flooded the house.
“Not yet,” I said.
“They’re coming up the stairs!” Brent shrieked. He, Ryan, and Brent stood in the frames of the windows, ready to jump.
When almost all of the demons had crashed into the house, I shouted, “Now!”
The boys sprang from the windows, clearing the porch below, just as I saw the first wave of demons enter the master bedroom. The boys hit the ground and started running faster than I’d ever seen them move—fueled by adrenaline and the eclipse. Zach had lost his gun in the jump, but Ryan clutched onto his with dear life.
The archers escaped the roof off the other side that led to the front yard of the farmhouse.
“Blow it!” I shouted as my boys neared the center of the ring.
Brent held out his hand and slammed his thumb down on the detonator he clenched in his fist. The boys braced for the impact of the explosion.
Nothing happened.
Brent looked down at the detonator. He mashed it again. Still nothing.
Demons started to claw their way through the second-story window, still intent on their prey.
“It’s been disconnected!” Brent shouted. “I have to set if off manually.”
“Brent! No!”
But Brent had already turned and rocketed back toward the house. He threw open a metal box that was attached to the outside railing of the porch. I knew from the design he’d showed me that there was a lead from that box to the explosives we’d planted under the house. “Don’t worry, I’ll have time!” His fingers moved quickly inside the box.
Ahks and Gelals dropped from the window onto the porch.
Ryan and Zach had made it to me on the field. “Hurry!” We all shouted at him.
“Got it!” He closed the metal box and turned to run from the impending explosion, pumping his fists up in the air like Rocky Balboa. But before he could finish the gesture, a Gelal grabbed him from behind, yanking him up over the porch railing by the neck.
“No!” I shouted.
I ran for Brent, but before I could get halfway there, the farmhouse exploded right in front of me.
It happened so fast, in the blink of an eye. Brent and the house and the demons were there when my eyes closed against the brightness of the blast. When my eyelids fluttered open, it was all gone.
Brent was gone.
Nothing left of him but the flames he’d created.
Chapter Thirty-seven
THE WARRIOR AND THE HEALER
THIRTY SECONDS LATER
I couldn’t hear anything but a terrible, nauseating ringing in my ears from the explosion. I couldn’t stand, either, the dizziness making my knees slam into the ground.
“No!” Ryan screamed as he ran past me, but I couldn’t actually hear his shout over the ringing. I just saw his mouth shape the word. Felt the pain he radiated as he scrambled toward the flaming remains of the house. I reached out and tried to stop him from getting too close, but I couldn’t. He slaughtered two Ahks who had escaped the blast with his rifle, and then he fell to all fours in front of the fire.