Five: Out of the Pit (Five #2) (45 page)

“What was that?” Alec asked. “Who… who saved me?”

“Your dad,” I said. “Come on. We have Demons to kill.”

Alec nodded.

The Demons and other monsters of the Fae came at us too fast. Our attempts at trying to push them back into the pit proved futile. We retreated back, spreading out to cover as much territory as we could. The results of letting even one of the monsters escape would mean death… and worse… to the people of Moab and beyond.

I shot a steady stream of blue lightning from one hand and balls of exploding fire from the other. Halli stood to my left, and from the corner of my eye I saw her pull a handful of steel shot from the pouch of her gear belt. She threw it in the air and sent it hurtling like a shotgun blast toward a pack of Devil Hounds that were closing in on Joe. Creatures of the Fae don’t tolerate steel very well, especially when it’s deeply embedded in their bodies. The Devil Hounds howled, smoke rising from the pellet- caused puncture wounds. Halli sent another handful their way and before she even dropped her hand, she spun and landed a roundhouse kick to the side of a Goblin’s pimply face with such force that he dropped to the ground, dead, at her feet.

I felt exhaustion setting in somewhere deep beneath the rage that kept me going. I continued to explode and burn our enemies. The world’s enemies. But, as I looked around at the sheer number of evil things emerging from the pit, and those that had already emerged, I felt hopelessness overriding the exhaustion. We were in an impossible situation. We were going to lose. I kept firing anyway.

“Paige.” I heard Johnathan in my head; he sounded alarmed. “Seth and Joe are hurt. They need you.”

I searched in the increasing dark for my fallen companions. The moon and stars were completely obscured by the smoke and ash floating in the air.

“Where?” I sent to Johnathan.

A blue
star-bright
flew in the air half-way around the pit. I ran toward the light, shooting as I ran. I dropped to the ground between Seth and Joe. I formed my own
star-bright
and made it hover above my head so I could see what I was doing.

“Oh,” I whispered when I saw the extent of Joe’s injuries. He had a gaping tear in his abdomen; his guts spilled over the ragged sides, covered in blood.

I looked at Seth, whose injuries were just as bad. A large portion of his scalp hung limp over his ear. The exposed skull was cracked and depressed into his brain. His eyes were open but unseeing, and his pupils were starting to dilate. I froze. I didn’t know who to help first. I jumped when Joe’s blood covered hand touched my arm.

“Seth… first. He’s… more important.” I looked into Joe’s eyes and nodded. He tried to smile and closed his eyes.

I placed my hands directly on Seth’s exposed skull and worked to pull the crushed bone up and away from his already swelling brain. Alec, Johnathan, and Halli fought on around us, protecting us from the enemy’s attack. I then, with great delicacy, decreased the swelling of Seth’s brain. His eyes focused and he gasped in pain. I think I breathed for the first time since seeing his injury. Last, I flipped his dangling, bloody scalp back over the exposed skull and wove the skin back together with magic.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Yeah. Thanks, Paige.”

“Can you make us a shield?” Johnathan sounded anxious as the monsters he fought pushed him closer to us.

Seth nodded and an instant later, we were in the protective confines of his shield.

I turned to Joe. I didn’t even know where to start. A tear slipped from my eye and I wiped at it angrily, the impossibility of the situation sinking in. I put a hand on Joe’s chest. He took a ragged breath. His eyes fluttered open, then closed. Through tear-filled eyes I stuffed his intestines back into his open abdominal cavity, and fought back the bile that rose in my throat. The ground was covered with his blood, so much blood. I tried in vain to find the broken vessels from which the blood flowed.

“I can’t do this,” I whispered. “It’s too much.”

Johnathan rested his hand on my shoulder. No one spoke.

“S’okay,” Joe whispered. His hand moved on the ground toward mine but stopped after only a twitch. My hands over his wound, I continued to try to stop all the bleeding, I concentrated and sent my magic into him.

“I can’t,” I said again. “This is impossible. We’re all doomed anyway.”

With one last burst of energy, Joe grabbed my wrist with more strength than he should have had. I looked into his eyes. He breathed in a ragged and gurgling breath. A jolt shot into my wrist from Joe’s hand followed by an image flashing in my mind. His body shuddered once more and then remained still as his soul left it. I bowed my head and allowed myself to feel a moment of intense grief as a single, painful sob erupted from within my chest.

I drew in a breath and looked up at my grieving friends. “A pentagram.” I sent to their minds the image Joe had sent me—the image of the Five of us creating a pentagram with each of us as one of the points of the star. Determined nods from my four friends indicated they’d all received the image and knew what to do next.

Johnathan pulled me to my feet.

Seth stood, then grabbed Joe’s fallen sword from the bloody ground.

We knew what had to be done.

Seth dropped the shield, and we separated, fighting our way to the pit with renewed vigor.

I reached my position and fought on as the others made their way to theirs. We were spread out equally around the circle of the pit. Seth was the last to reach his spot. As soon as he arrived, he dropped Joe’s sword, and—in unison—we raised our arms straight out from our sides. I sent all my energy out through my hands, fingers splayed wide. The others did the same until our energies connected in an unbreakable force. White light spread forth from my chest to meet up with the light from the others, forming a perfect five-point star over the circle of the pit. As the energy of the Five, the
Quinae Praesidia
, fused together, the power grew in intensity until the light shown as bright as the sun.

“
Lacio. Expello. Locus. Exigo
,” we roared, and the ground shook below our feet.

We stood firm as the air moved above and around us. The vortex we formed pulled at the Demons, Fae, and the other monsters that had been created in the Netherworld. Screeches, hisses, and roars filled the air as the creatures were sucked back into the pit from where they’d come. A familiar shape floated past me, nerd glasses still plastered to its ghost-like face. When the last of the Dark Ones had been sucked in, the pit snapped closed, shaking the ground for miles.

I’m not sure who severed the connection first, but it was severed. The immense power I’d felt while linked as the
Quinae Praesidia
disappeared in an instant, and I was more tired than I’d ever been in my entire life. My arms dropped like lead weights to my sides.

I started to lower my weary body to the ground. I turned my head to avoid a sudden burst of wind that blew dust in my face. I blinked to clear my eyes. In the center of what had moments before been the Pit, Brone appeared—not the image like before, but the real, live, evil Warlock in the flesh. I groaned and forced myself to stand straight. I stepped toward him, hands raised.

He laughed. An angry, low-pitched laugh that resembled a growl. “This is quite unexpected
Quinae
. I applaud your power.” The slow, loud claps of his hands echoed off the surrounding rocks. “Now I will
end
you!”

I pulled at what little remained of my magic and shot a weak bolt of lightning at him. It reached him a millisecond after Johnathan’s ball of flame did. Brone deflected them both with a flick of his hand. While his scarred up right hand deflected everything we threw at him, he took his time conjuring a ball of magic like the one he’d killed Mr. Grewa with—the one that had been meant for me. Wind whipped around him, blowing his dark hair wildly about his face. His long black coat thrashed around him.

I screamed in frustration. Nothing we did reached him. I noticed that Halli had moved closer to me and I heard her let out an exasperated huff. “Screw magic.” She threw her channeling rod at Brone and rushed him, arms raised in preparation to pummel.

He released the enormous ball of death at me before turning to face Halli. I dove out of the way, rolling as I hit the ground. Searing pain like none I’d ever felt burned into the flesh of my left upper arm. I brushed furiously at the orange flames still attached to what was left of my sleeve. Teeth gritted against the pain, I stumbled to my feet.

Halli held her own for a few seconds, sweeping Brone’s knee with her shin with a sickening crunch. He roared and pushed his right hand toward her, palm out. Halli flew twenty yards and rolled another five before dragging herself to her knees.

If ever I’d needed my anger magic to kick in, it was now. Nothing. I focused on Brone’s hypothalamus and poured on as much heat as I could gather. His head jerked in my direction, eyebrows pulled together. He smiled and
pushed
me out of his head.

We’re doomed. We’re too tired.

“Time to end this!” Brone circled his hands above his head. Blasts of crimson energy shot from the red oval that had formed over him. Seth yelped and rolled away as he was hit. Johnathan let out a grunt. I dodged as best I could, trying to think of a way out of this.

“
Cover me,”
Seth sent.

With one last effort, Alec, Johnathan, Halli, and I blasted Brone.

“
I don’t know what you’re planning, but do it quick,”
I sent to Seth.

A shield appeared. Not around us or even around Seth. The glimmer of Seth’s shield surrounded Brone.

The smirk on his face turned to shock and then pain as his own magic ricocheted off the inside of the shield and pelted him all at once. Splashes of his blood hit the shield just before Seth dropped it. The smell of singed hair and skin wafted toward me.

Brone dropped to his knees, his face a mask of twisted pain and fury. He roared—and then portalled. He was gone. Every plant and living animal within sight withered and died.

My legs collapsed beneath me, muscles like liquid.

I looked around at the others. They didn’t seem to be faring any better. My eyes met Halli’s, closest to my right. A smile played across her pixie face as she slowly lowered herself to the ground.

A nearly invisible force swooped down from the sky and grabbed my little friend. I screamed. There and gone in a flash, flying away so fast the whooshes from its wings came to my ears seconds after the abduction. I stood on shaking, wobbling legs and thought to open my
sight.
All I could make out were some glimmering scales and huge, sharp talons that gripped Halli by the shoulders. I tried to raise an arm and shoot at the blurring image, but nothing happened. My magic was depleted.

“Halli!” I screamed.

The tiny, far away image of my friend disappeared—leaving behind only a red puff of smoke.

All went black slowly, and I felt myself falling. I was out before I hit the ground.

aige, wake up.” Johnathan’s soft voice called to me.

It took every tired muscle in my face to pry my exhausted eyes open. Johnathan’s worried face loomed over me. Seeing those amazing eyes I loved so much made me forget, for a second, all that had just happened.