They engaged their powers just before the freeze hit. We felt nothing but the shivery sensation of ghosting. As the Chariot protected us, Sol’s eyes provided heat for our weapons. Would the focused beams be enough to combat the freeze aloft, where Gabriel flew?
My breaths sounded loud in my ears. I peered down at Evie’s face, read the fear in her eyes. If Kentarch or Sol faltered, could she regenerate from this?
“We have to retreat,” she murmured. “Sol and Kentarch will be weakened by this, and Zara’s still too strong. Richter’s too strong.” Her gaze held mine. “Not tonight, Aric.”
If we teleported to the castle, Zara and Richter would firebomb it. We needed a true retreat. Though my blood boiled to continue this battle, our enemies had outgunned us. I told Kentarch, “Teleport us to the hangar.”
“No, Tarch!” Joules cried. “We canna leave Gabe.”
Sol’s light began to dim. Kentarch clenched his jaw, his muscles knotted with strain. Each second depleted their reserves.
Joules scanned the skies for Gabriel. “Where the feck is he?” The Tower turned to me. “Can you see him?”
“I don’t.” Yet then I heard a roar of sheer agony somewhere in the clouds.
Joules paled. “Did you hear a yell? Is that my boyo?” He swallowed thickly, brows drawn. “In pain?”
“I can’t see him.”
Kentarch’s outline wavered even more. Would he have enough power left to teleport us away?
Lark bit out, “We’ve got to leave. The Chariot can’t keep going like this.”
Circe steadied Sol as he staggered, yet he still shone. Between breaths, he asked, “How can we tell if the freeze is still fatal?”
With a cry, Lark released Maneater; the wolf froze solid with a whimper. “Fatal!”
Sol’s eyes went wide. “Just a little more, Kentarch! We can do this.”
Then a black shimmer in the air seized my attention.
Gabriel.
His body was like a tableau, magnificent wings outstretched, net in hand. Expression of anguish frozen on his lifeless face.
I watched in horror as Gabriel Arendgast, the great Archangel, plummeted to the earth.
Joules blinked in disbelief. “Not Gabe. No, no.”
A flash memory arose of the night I’d fled Zara’s copter with four Arcana in my truck. . . .
Joules urged his best friend to safety. “Leave me, Gabe.”
The angel answered, “If I had a dollar for every time you have said those words . . . And I give you my customary reply: Never.”
Now Joules watched Gabriel fall with glinting eyes, begging, “Don’t leave me, Gabe. Don’t leave me—”
The angel’s body crashed into the ground not thirty feet from us. Despite Sol’s diminishing light, Gabe . . . shattered. His head rolled from his neck, wings in fractured blocks. His face remained whole, his whitened eyes seeming to stare at us.
Zara’s luck had struck, sending the freeze to guard her against him. She’d murdered the virtuous angel, our gentleman ally and friend.
Evie shrieked with fury.
Joules yelled right along with her. “I’LL KILL YOU, ZARA!”
“Do not release your hands, Tower,” I grated.
He seethed to lash out at Fortune—but if he let go of Kentarch, then he, Circe, and Sol would all freeze instantly.
Instead of meting vengeance, he had to do something much harder: take no action while beholding the remains of his best friend. “Not Gabe. Not Gabe.” Tears coursed down his face, cold tracks on his sparking skin.
Circe gave a cry. “No more electricity! I can’t hold on to you like this.”
I ordered, “Chariot, get us out of here.”
“No, Tarch, don’t do it! No retreat! We finish this tonight. We’ll see our loved ones on the other side. Do you understand me?”
Kentarch’s determined nod decided our fate. For better or worse, this battle would rage on.
Sol’s eyes blinkered, his rays eclipsed to nothing. Was Kentarch reaching his own limits?
With a final yell, the Chariot solidified, his powers tapped out. I took Evie into my arms, bracing. She shuddered against me. . . .
We lived yet! The freeze must have ended. But now we had no retreat—
Fortune’s bullets rained down in a crazed bombardment, and the ground quaked.
“Get to the foxholes!” I yelled, scooping up Evie as I ran.
The Emperor rattled the earth, shaking us like dice as I careened toward the closest foxhole, the others behind us. I couldn’t keep my balance. Bullets chewed the dirt at our feet. Fortune adjusted her gun and fired again. Seven bullets struck my armor’s backplate and ricocheted behind me.
Kentarch bit back a yell.
I glanced over my shoulder, couldn’t believe my vision. Blood poured from his torso and spurted from the end of his left arm.
The Chariot’s remaining hand . . . was gone.
I dropped Evie into the foxhole, then returned to help Kentarch and the others to cover. Lark huddled beside Evie, shaking in pain from that blaster. Her wolves howled with misery from the barn.
Evie slashed her jacket to make a tourniquet for Kentarch, who sat grim-faced and stunned. She injected him with something from her claws, but he didn’t seem to register it.
There’d be no teleporting me into Richter. Evie would have to handle the Emperor. For now, I needed to take down Fortune.
I ran back across the quaking landscape for Joules, but he wouldn’t come, was firing back at the guns-hot helicopter.
“Feckin’ kill you, Zara!” He attacked in a mad rage, hurling javelins with mind-boggling speed. My hair stood on end beneath my helmet.
He was draining her reserves; would it be enough?
Evie yelled from the foxhole, “Aric, get Joules out of there!” She’d climbed up to the edge, keeping me in sight. “Carry him back.”
“Can’t.” If I touched his sparking skin, he’d electrocute me. But I could shield him. “Stay behind me, Tower!”
Out of his head with grief, he didn’t seem to register my words.
A dozen bullets meant for him clanged off my armor, the force threatening to send me to my knees. I deflected more with my swords, but the quakes made it impossible to balance, and currents licked at me whenever I got too close to Joules. “Damn it, Tower”—I yelled over the sound of her guns—“you must get behind me!”
With furious tears in his eyes, Joules hurled yet another javelin. “This one’s for Gabe—”
The Lord of Lightning’s body crumpled to the ground, just as he’d landed a direct hit.
40
The Hunter
“If they survive, I’m goan to dog-cuss them up and down,” I told Tee. I sounded calm, but my mind felt like it was on fire. “Your père’s a slippery one, lemme tell you. He let me think I’d be at that battle, and all along he had me pegged for babysitting duty. Your mère too.” I talked to dispel my nervousness. The empty hangar felt weird without the guys.
Wanted a sip of whiskey to settle my nerves, but I needed to stay sharp when handling precious cargo. Tonight Tee would be the only one hitting a bottle. After I’d gotten him to stop crying, I’d mixed him up some formula, which he’d finished. But instead of nodding off, he continued to look alert and concerned.