Mateo’s head snapped up, and he realized he was about to get skewered by the gate’s sharp daggerlike points. He stopped running, but one of his boots slipped on the floor, and he stumbled forward, right into the center of the archway. He also lost his grip on his crossbow, which hit the floor and skittered away.
Zoe reached out, grabbed Mateo’s shirt, and yanked him back as hard as she could. Blue sparks of magic exploded in the air all around them. The Valkyrie must have been stronger than she realized, because Mateo lurched back, and the two of them fell to the floor on this side of the archway. And not a second too soon.
Bang!
The spikes slammed into their slots in the marble floor inches away from Mateo’s boots.
Ian and I rushed over to our friends and helped them to their feet.
“Are you guys okay?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Mateo said. “I’m fine, thanks to Zoe.”
He flashed her a grateful smile, and she winked back at him.
“And don’t you forget it,” Zoe said.
Together, the four of us turned toward the archway. The gate was still down, blocking the opening, and we didn’t have any way to lift it from this side. Something that Covington and Drake both realized, since they were standing right on the other side of the iron bars, smirking at us.
“This isn’t over,” I growled. “You won’t get away with this.”
Covington gave me an evil grin. “I already have, Rory. You just don’t realize it yet.”
I opened my mouth to growl at him again, but Covington lifted his hand, and I realized that he was holding the gold chimera scepter. Drake must have given it to him sometime during the chase.
“Good-bye, Rory.” Covington saluted me with the scepter, then snapped it around in those sharp, familiar figure-eight motions.
Thick, choking clouds of smoke exploded out of the end of the scepter, driving us away from the iron bars. The clouds of smoke vanished in an instant, but something far, far worse stood in their places.
Seven chimeras, all slowly advancing on me and my friends.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Back! Back! Back!” I yelled.
Mateo and Zoe were standing in front of Ian and me. Mateo shoved Zoe behind him and backpedaled after her, but for once, he wasn’t quite quick enough, and the closest chimera swiped at him with one of its massive paws. The creature’s claws ripped deep into Mateo’s shoulder, making him scream and tumble to the floor. Blood spattered all over the white marble, and I couldn’t tell how seriously he was injured.
Zoe lashed out with her electrodagger, driving the chimera back. Ian dropped his ax and the jewelry box he’d been holding, darted forward, and used his Viking strength to grab Mateo and haul him to his feet. Ian put his arm under Mateo’s, getting blood all over his own clothes. Mateo grimaced, his mouth pinched tight with pain, but he shuffled back out of the way with Ian’s help.
“We have to get out of here!” Ian yelled.
He started dragging Mateo back toward the other archway, which was still open. Zoe and I covered their retreat, brandishing our weapons at the chimeras, but the creatures didn’t want to attack us. Not yet.
They wanted to play with us first.
The chimeras paced back and forth in front of the closed iron gate, arching their backs the way regular house cats would. They were working out the kinks, as though they’d been cooped up in that scepter and needed to stretch before they attacked us. I wondered if the creatures would eat us after they killed us, the way cats would dine on the mice they caught.
Because they were going to kill us.
Mateo couldn’t fight now, and Ian couldn’t set him down, or the chimeras would pounce on the injured guy first. Or worse, the chimeras would go ahead and pounce on both of them at the same time. Zoe was an okay fighter, but she was no match for the chimeras, not even with her electrodagger. She would go down next, and then I would be left all alone to face the creatures.
I might have taken out two chimeras in the Library of Antiquities and three more at Lance’s mansion, but I couldn’t fight seven of them at once. Sooner or later, one of the creatures would wound me, and then they would all move in for the kill at the same time.
I was a Spartan, so I knew the odds better than anyone else. We weren’t going to win this fight. The chimeras would make short work of us, and then they would head into the main part of the museum, leap over the second-floor balcony, and attack all the Mythos kids partying below—kids who had no idea how much danger they were in. Eventually, Takeda, Aunt Rachel, and the Protectorate guards would take down the chimeras but not before the creatures killed dozens of students.
It would be a massacre.
I couldn’t let that happen, but I didn’t know how to stop it either. My gaze darted around the rotunda, searching for something that would help us, but no weapons or armor were displayed in here, only paintings, carvings, jewelry, and small statues.
The chimeras finished their stretching and stalked toward Zoe and me. I risked a quick glance over my shoulder. Ian and Mateo were almost to the open archway, but they were moving slowly, and the chimeras could easily leap over Zoe and me and go after them at any moment.
Desperate, I looked around again, but I only saw the same things as before. Paintings, carvings, jewelry, statues, the iron gate hanging in the archway—
Wait a second. My head snapped back in that direction.
The gate.
Maybe I didn’t have to fight the chimeras. Maybe all I had to do was trap them in the rotunda. Even the chimeras couldn’t force their way through those heavy iron bars. The more I thought about it, the more sense it made. It would work. I knew it would work.
Until Mateo stumbled.
He must have been weak from the blood loss, because his legs sagged, and he would have crumpled to the floor if Ian hadn’t been holding on to him. Zoe looked back and forth between the two guys and the chimeras that were slowly creeping up on us. She didn’t know whether to stay here and fight with me or rush over and help Ian get Mateo out of the rotunda.
I knew what would happen next. I could see it all unspooling in my mind. If Zoe stayed here with me, we would both get mauled to death by the chimeras. If she helped Ian and Mateo, the three of them could get out of the rotunda to safety.
The only problem was that someone had to stay in here with the chimeras and slash through the rope in order to lower the gate and trap the creatures.
And that someone was going to be me.
“Go!” I yelled. “Help Ian and Mateo! I’ve got this!”
“But—” Zoe started.
“Go!” I yelled again, cutting her off. “I’ll be right behind you!”
I would be right behind her—I just wouldn’t be getting out of the rotunda alive.
Zoe nodded, whirled around, and rushed over to Ian with Mateo. She put her arm under Mateo’s other shoulder, and together she and Ian dragged the injured Roman toward the archway.
And not a moment too soon.
Two of the chimeras realized that their dinner was getting away, and they sprinted around me and went after my friends.