Page 105 of Hijack the Seas: Seismic

I’d seen one of those creatures gut an ancient demigoddess who was a hell of a lot scarier than him. Only one thing worked on them, and he didn’t have it. Son of a bitch!

“Get them away,” I whispered to Pritkin, who had crawled up beside me.

“Do you know what those are?” he hissed because, yeah, I didn’t have to explain it to him. He’d gone with Adra to check out the demon prison worlds and found their population largely missing.

“Yes! And I can’t shift you all!”

“Leave that fucker!” Alphonse growled at me while glancing back at Æsubrand, but I couldn’t.

Fey bodies were almost as resilient as vampire ones, and I knew his fate if they caught him. He’d be lucky if they just ate him. Really lucky, I thought, my mind flashing back to the vampire bodies I’d seen in Wales, which the Horrors had invaded and then fused to make themselves even more deadly forms.

Some of the bloated results had looked like a rat king by the time they’d finished, only far more terrible. I still had nightmares about a pair of horrified blue eyes floating in a prison of flesh that had once been his body and was now just part of a demon construct. One that wasn’t reversible.

The demons would use their fleshy tanks in battle then discard them and find new patsies. But he was trapped like that permanently, along with whoever else’s bodies had been commandeered and morphed out of all recognition. And as bad as Æsubrand might be, no one deserved that.

“Go!” I told them, and for a wonder, they went. And dragged Enid and Bodil along with them, just as something hideous and multilegged was silhouetted against the starlight as it jumped into the mud.

And was met halfway through the arc by my whip, which was thinner now and not nearly so impressive-looking. But which nonetheless spilled the creature’s guts all over the haughty fey prince. Who turned on me savagely.

“I don’t need—” he began right before the wounded creature lunged for me, trailing half its entrails through the mud but not caring. And allowing me to see it clearly for the first time, only my eyes couldn’t quite manage to focus.

Maybe that was a self-defense mechanism because what I could see was so hideous that it broke my brain. I realized I’d never seen one of them in their natural state unless you counted a snake-like version that Pritkin and I had fought what felt like ages ago and which must have been the beauty pageant winner. Because this. . .

“Augghh!” I whispered, the visceral No! having to come out somehow. But it was pitifully inadequate because the thing was . . . the thing was . . .

The thing was on me.

Chapter Thirty-One

I shoved the guttering remains of my whip into the creature’s maw because I couldn’t think of anything else. Or think much at all with its teeth trying to bury themselves in my flesh and its blood splattering and hissing against my armor. All while Æsubrand hacked at it with no effect from that impressive-looking sword.

He finally realized that and paused, looking at his weapon in confusion while the creature’s insides burned, its eyes became even more fire-like, and the golden light I was shedding poured out from under the scales that covered it. Until I ripped my acid-etched armor out of its mouth, its saliva hissing and dancing on the surface as it fought to consume me, even as the creature it had come from writhed helplessly in the mud. And then I grabbed a foolish fey prince by the leg and shifted.

Or rather, I tried.

But several more somethings had just torn through the air, leaping down on top of us. I could feel claws raking me even as we started to disappear, could sense them opposing my spell, trying to throw it off, and could tell when my already tenuous concentration started to wobble. Which would be bad since I didn’t think I had enough juice to try this again.

I wasn’t even sure I had enough to finish this spell, not carrying two—including the idiot who was currently fighting me! He didn’t understand that I was trying to save his stubborn hide, and I didn’t have the strength to explain it right now. I didn’t have the strength for anything, which was why my spell started to falter, the thread beginning to vanish like smoke in my hands without enough power behind it—

Until someone sent me some.

Pritkin must have re-engaged Lover’s Knot because I felt a hit of energy flow into me through the bond. It wasn’t much—I doubted he had much—but it was enough to tip the balance. The spell caught, flinging us across the lake to the concave side of the far wall.

It was deeper than I’d thought, arcing far overhead like a frozen wave of dirt. But it cast a shadow so dark that even Æsubrand’s silver magnificence couldn’t be seen. But he could damned well be heard if he didn’t shut up.

I shoved him face-first into the mud at the first intake of breath, then managed to get a hand over his mouth. So, of course, he bit me and put enough force behind it that I could feel it through a dragonscale gauntlet. I hope you break a tooth! I thought right before he got me in yet another chokehold because he was a bastard, but he could fight.

Only not well enough to defeat the things that were hunting us. Something he must have finally realized because he stopped moving as a dozen more shadows leaped down to the spot where we’d just been. And started savaging the creature I’d disemboweled, heedless of the fact that he was still alive and one of theirs.

It was over in seconds and probably could have been even faster considering how quickly some of those things moved. But it seemed like they were enjoying the carnage and their former ally’s desperate cries more than the meat. Blood, viscera, and body parts went flying, and the sounds, the horrible, laughing, gobbling sounds, were enough to make me dizzy.

They must have affected the haughty bastard choking me the same way because he made another mistake.

“Pah,” he exhaled, barely a breath on the air.

But that was enough.

A few of the creatures looked up, having locked onto that tiny sound despite all the noise they’d been making. One of them had huge, bat-like ears that stood up from its head and turned this way and that while it sent out weird little clicks in all directions from its bloody maw. Clicks I could feel as a tangible force as they swept over us—

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