Page 81 of Cheater Slicks

The wand glowed an eerie green, and a burst of light erupted from the tip, grazing my side as I dove out of its path. Burnt skin and fabric left a bitter scent on the air, and bright pain knifed through me. I gritted my teeth, gasping through it, and hit the grass. I spun the jarring impact into a controlled tumble (more like a geriatric starfish cartwheeling at maximum velocity) and put the battling shifters between us.

Their fight was winding down. The liger couldn’t keep up with Anunit. Had she been at full strength, able to manifest her solid form for longer periods of time, it would have ended before it began.

Head spinning, I got back on my feet, hoping I didn’t resemble someone who spent Fat Tuesday at the bottom of a hurricane glass on Bourbon Street.

“You’re spry.” Pencil Wand eyed me up and down. “Are you a runner?”

Seriously?

The first person in my life to look at me and make the connection, and he was trying to kill me.

Sheesh.

“Thanks for noticing.” Weirdly enough, I meant it.

A shock stole my breath as a tendril of Kierce’s power sizzled along my cheek, and I backed away as he advanced on me, shoving Pencil Wand out of his way. A distortion rippled across his face, revealing his crow god aspect. Round eyes gleaming like obsidian, a hard beak in place of supple lips, his expression was impossible to read.

Maybe that was why he did it, raising a final barrier between us.

Before he slammed three bolts of lightning through my skull in rapid succession.

I cracked my knees when I hit the pavement. I knelt there, ears ringing, skin pink, and coughed smoke.

He did it.

He actually did it.

He struck me.

So much for hoping I was different or special or whatever the hell had been running through my mind up to this point. I had been so convinced our feelings could overcome the will of an ancient god. That Kierce and I would break his chains and skip off into the sunset to braid flowers into one another’s hair.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

A loud crack rent the air, and for a second, I thought Kierce had attacked again.

Until the screaming began. Then I pieced together that Ankou was done playing with Josie—or the other way around—and noticed I was in trouble. While I was busy with an existential crisis, steam curling from my nostrils, he had used his osteokinetic ability to straighten Pencil Wand’s ribs, thrusting the bones through the skin down his sides. A thicker, louder crack bent him backward as Ankou snapped his spine.

“Get away from her, Kierce,” Ankou panted, limping toward me, blood smearing a trail behind him.

Slowly, Kierce pivoted toward him, but he angled his chin in my direction. “You have to kill me, Frankie.”

“No,” I rasped, wishing I had the sense God gave a rock.

“This won’t end until you’re dead…or I am.” His voice broke. “Don’t make me live with that, please.”

“Bijou,” Ankou said, ripping my attention to him. “This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.”

Wet, crunching noises filled my ears as Pencil Wand’s bones continued twisting him into a pretzel.

“Not that part,” Ankou clarified. “I don’t know that guy. I couldn’t care less what happens to him. I mean this part.” He quit yapping and ripped a skeleton up through the soil under my feet and flung it at Kierce. “We’ve been here before, haven’t we?” He twisted the spine, lengthening the ribs and manipulating the spokes into the cage I used to see in my nightmares. “It feels familiar, you know?”

“Don’t,” I whispered, unsure if I was pleading with Ankou or Kierce. God. Anyone. “Please.”

“He’s got his orders, and I’ve got mine.” Ankou spread his fingers, and the elongated bones pierced Kierce from throat to groin, cinching around him until he cried out and hit his knees. “You might not want to see this part.” He yanked again, and a second skeleton ripped from the earth and shot to him. “It’s going to get ugly.”

“Stop.” I advanced on Ankou. “You’re going to kill him.”

“That’s the idea.” He stabbed Kierce from hip to ankle with bone and wrenched, contorting his body. “We need him to go bye-bye for a little while.”

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