For an instant, I had the weightless sensation of free-falling, but all too quickly, the ground rushed up to meet me. Or in this case, a library table.
My boots slammed into the top of the table, and the jarring impact shot all the way up my legs, spread out into my hips, and wrapped around my back. I lost my balance, staggered forward, and fell off the table, landing hard on my left side on the floor. A low groan escaped my lips, but I pushed the pain away and scrambled back onto my feet, ready to stab this chimera the same way I had the one upstairs.
But I was too late.
Amanda lashed out with her staff, but the chimera was faster, and it avoided the blow and slammed her to the floor. The creature raised its paw, then swiped it down, raking its claws all the way across Amanda’s stomach. She screamed and beat at the creature with her staff, but the chimera grinned back at her. More of that noxious black smoke boiled out of the creature’s mouth and dripped onto the horrible wounds in her stomach, adding to her agony. The coppery stink of her blood mixed with the smoke’s sulfur fumes.
The chimera drew its claws back for another strike.
“Hey!” I screamed. “Pick on someone your own size!”
It was a stupid, cliché thing to say, since the chimera was even longer than I was tall, but my shout got the creature’s attention. It hopped over Amanda and stalked toward me.
I shook off my hard landing and subsequent fall and slowly started twirling the sword around in my hand, getting a feel for the weapon, since I hadn’t had a chance to do that earlier when I’d been battling the first chimera.
Strong, durable, lightweight, perfectly balanced, with a razor-sharp blade. The sword truly was a beautiful weapon, and I couldn’t have asked for anything better. Well, maybe something a little more cooperative. All the while, I could feel Babs’s lips moving under my palm, and I could still hear her babbling at me.
“Put me down! Put me down! Put me down!”
But I didn’t have a choice, so I ignored the sword’s cries and kept twirling her around and around, until the weapon felt like an extension of my own hand rather than something separate from it. More of my Spartan instincts were kicking in and letting me use what was handy in order to do what was necessary.
Kill the chimera before it killed me.
The creature’s crimson eyes narrowed to slits, and it realized that I wouldn’t be as easy to take down as Amanda had been. I looked past the chimera.
Somehow Amanda had managed to sit up against one of the tables, and she was clutching her hands to her stomach, trying to keep pressure on her grievous wounds. Despite how tightly she was clamping down, more and more blood oozed out from between her fingers.
Amanda stared at me, tears of pain, fear, and agony welling up in her blue eyes and streaking down her pretty face. Her wounds were too deep, too severe, and we both knew that she couldn’t stop the blood loss. She opened her mouth to say something, but then she coughed, and only a thin trickle of blood came out instead.
Rage roared through me. I didn’t know what Amanda had been doing in here, but she hadn’t deserved to be ripped to shreds. I looked back at the chimera. I needed to end this fight and help her—now.
The chimera shifted onto its back haunches, gathering itself for one fierce, final strike. I tightened my grip on my sword, muffling Babs’s cries again, and did the same. Then, with a scream and a roar, the chimera and I charged at each other.
The creature sprang at me, smoke flowing out of its mouth in a hot, acrid wave. Even as I whipped to the side, the smoke washed over me, and I hissed as the clouds engulfed my right hand, burning my skin and making it painful for me to hold the sword. As much as I wanted to drop the sword and cradle my injured hand up against my chest, I couldn’t do that. If I didn’t have the weapon, the chimera would quickly claw me to death.
Even as my burns erupted into blisters, I whipped around and lashed out with my sword. The blade sliced deep into the chimera’s side, causing it to hiss with pain. The creature’s blood spattered against my face and neck, as hot as candle wax scalding my skin and adding to my misery.
The chimera landed on its feet, then whipped back around to me. I waited, expecting this one to disappear in a poof! of smoke like the other one had, but apparently, I hadn’t injured it badly enough for that.
My blistered fingers curled even tighter around my sword. A fresh wave of pain spurted through my body, but it was nothing compared with the rage burning in my heart. The chimera wasn’t dead yet, but I could fix that.
Spartans always finished the fight.
The creature circled around me, blood dripping from the ugly gash I’d opened up in its side. Every scarlet drop hissed against the stone floor and started smoking, just like the chimera’s paw prints did.
The chimera snarled at me, and I growled right back at it. I should have been worried. I should have been frightened. Maybe I would have been, if I were a normal person or any other kind of warrior. But I was a Spartan, and fighting was in our blood, just as the fire was in the chimera’s blood.
This was what I was—for better or worse.
I was dimly aware of footsteps smacking against the floor and shouts filling the air. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ian, the Viking, race into the library, a large battle ax clutched in his hand. His eyes widened when he saw the chimera, and he headed in my direction. But Amanda let out another loud, bloody cough, and he stopped, obviously torn. I waved my hand, telling him to help her instead.
I had this under control.
The Viking jerked his head at me in what I assumed was a thank you, then went over to the other girl, still keeping an eye on me and the chimera the whole time.
“Help!” he said in a sharp voice. “I need some help in here! Amanda’s down! Repeat, Amanda’s down!”
I didn’t know who he was talking to, since we seemed to be the only three people in the library. It didn’t matter right now anyway, so I tuned him out and focused on the chimera.
The chimera snarled at me again, and I twirled my sword around in my hand, thinking about the quickest and easiest way I could kill the creature. It was leaning on its right side, given the gash I had put in its left flank, and it would overcompensate for its injury. The chimera would move that way, and I could turn the other way and raise my sword at the same time. The images filled my mind, and I could see exactly how the fight would go in three, two, one…
The chimera leaped at me exactly the way I’d thought it would. I wrapped both hands around my sword, pivoted to the side, and snapped up my weapon. This time, I drove the blade straight through its heart. The chimera screamed, then—
Poof!