Crux (The Aurora Lockette Series) (19 page)

“
I didn’t either. I wouldn’t have done it if I’d known it would leave me like this.”

“
Yes. You need your strength.”

He went on for a couple minutes.
“Do you think you can do Spirit?”

I tried to call the fog to me, but it was so thin I couldn’t catch hold of it.
“No, but I think I can walk.”

He put me down gently and I jogged. Slowly, at first, but my endurance training took over.

“We need to go faster,” Sam said. He was panting now, and his brown eyes were wide. I realized he was scared.

I pictured Gavyn, then I flew, grabbing Sam’s arm at the last second. I got us back to the SUV in a couple of short minutes.

I landed right in front of the car. Gavyn tumbled out and sprinted towards me, sliding on the rocks and sand to get to my side.

Sam kept going, running to the car.
“Get Dennis on the walkie!” he shouted.

“
Are you okay? What is it?” Gavyn asked.

“
Asag is there. He’s opened something. They’re coming through now.”

“
What is coming?” Gavyn said.

“
Bad things. Very bad things.”

Gavyn pulled me to my feet. We lurched towards the car. Now that I was above ground, I
started to feel stronger and stronger.

I jumped in the back seat of the SUV and Gavyn slid in next to me. Sam shoved the walkie-talkie into my hand.

I pushed the red button. “Dennis!” I shouted. “Dennis!”

“
Here,” his voice came over the walkie. “What’s going on?”

“
Asag is in there with thousands of Shyama. He’s opening some sort of gate with thousands more behind it.”

“
Copy that. When?” The tension in his voice ratcheted up a notch.

“
Now. Right now. It’s opening right now. It’s getting bigger and bigger. They’ll be squeezing through in a matter of minutes.”

“
What are they?” Dennis asked.

God damn it!
“I don’t know what the fuck they are. Fucking monsters. Thousands of fucking monsters! We have to go in now.”

“
Roger that. Mobilizing all forces. Hold your position. I’m sending you in with a strike force.”

And with that, the line
went dead.

We all sat in the car, staring at each other.

It was on. This was it. This was war, and we were just sitting here. I dug around in the car until I found a bottle of water.

It
seeped all the way though my body, and I felt better for it. My limbs tingled as my strength slowly came back.

“
What do we do?” Sam said.

“
Get ready to fight.”

GAVYN

Aurora twisted around in her seat, big eyes scanning the desert behind her. Sam was slouched in his seat, looking how I felt.

Aurora polished off another bottle of water and tossed it behind her.

“
What happened in there?” I asked.

She shook her head back and forth.
“Asag was there. He’s...a collection of nightmares. A giant Shyama. I don’t know how else to describe him.”

“
And?”

Her eyes
were focused behind me, scanning the horizon. “And there’s a portal of some sort. It was small but growing by the second. I looked through it and saw what was on the other side waiting to come through.” She pushed her hair out of her face. “And what I saw needs to stay over there.”

“
What were they?” I asked.

“
Picture every monster or demon you’ve seen from every scary movie. It was like that, but worse.” She flicked her wrist up so she could look at her watch. “They’re probably already coming through now.”

Low rumbling interrupted our conversation
, and the ground shook beneath us. “What is that?”

Aurora twisted in her seat to look behind us
, a hint of a smile playing on her lips. “The cavalry.”

The entire horizon was filled with
vehicles, mostly SUVs and trucks. A Hummer slid in the sand as it slowed next to us. Dennis leaned out the driver’s side and waved his arm forward.

“
Let’s go!” Aurora shouted.

I grabbed on the headrest as the driver of our car slammed down on
the accelerator. We were chasing Dennis who was leaving behind a flurry of sand and gravel. I twisted in my seat as we bounced over the land. Cars were everywhere behind us along with dots of black above us. The dots were Flyers, like Aurora.

My hands were holding the seat so tight that my knuckles were white. I glanced over at Aurora. She was sitting back in her seat, arms braced against the door. She caught my eye and gave me a nervous smile. She was ready for whatever was coming. That meant I had to be ready, too.

We approached the red peak rising out of the desert like a strange pyramid. Our SUV skidded to a stop behind Dennis. Some cars stopped with us, but others split to our left and right, making a loose semicircle around the rocks.

Aurora jumped out of the car. I scooted over and got out behind her. Dennis already had his trunk open and was tossing a firearm to Aurora.

She holstered it on her hip and straightened back up. She had that glint in her eye that I only saw before she went into battle.

“
Hurry,” she said to Dennis. “They’re already here. It’s already started.”

He
nodded once. “Bad?”

“
Very,” she said.

He
shouted, “Strike Team Alpha and Beta, move out NOW. Kill on sight!”

With his words, an ocean of
people moved towards the cave entrance. They split into loose lines, three people across, and stormed in. Aurora grabbed my hand and pulled me with her.

“
I love you. No matter what, I love you,” she said. Her eyes were sad and tense.

“
And I love you.” I squeezed her hand one last time before she pulled away.

And then we descended into chaos. The dark cave was filled with the sound of shouts and thumping boots
and the bobbing lights of hundreds of flashlights. I was swept into the crowd as they swarmed the space. Soon those sounds were punctuated by short bursts of gun fire.

I glanced up at the filmy black things floating above us.
What the bloody hell are those?
Our Flyers attacked them midair.

The Shyama burst into the tunnel like an explosion of black smoke. Their clicks filled the air, and soon I was deaf in the dark space.

I held my gun up, too and started firing at the ones that got close. There were so many and more kept pouring into the space.

I saw a flash of Aurora’s gun ahead of me, so I surged forward with the rest of our people. The narrow tunnel suddenly gave way to a massive underground cavern
that opened above our heads. I was disoriented with the sudden change in space.

But that was nothing, because every inch of space was
filled with Shyama and worse. Horned, three legged beasts were attached the ceiling and walls. More of the weird stringy black things were floating around, wrapping their gossamer tentacles around our heads. Crab like creatures scuttled across the floor.

It was chaos. Demonic, evil chaos.

At the far end of the cavern, I spotted a spinning, circular vortex in the rock wall. It was tall enough for me to climb through. Weird creatures poured through it and spread out like ink through water.

I’d lost Aurora, but I
headed to the opening because I knew that was where she’d go. A crab-like creature with way too many legs grabbed me and I fell down. I kicked it off then shot it three times before it stilled.

I patted my pockets to make sure I had more ammo. I turned around and ran into a Shyama. It grabbed my neck with
its icy cold fingers. I kicked it in the stomach. It staggered back, then its head exploded. Carmen stepped out from behind it.

“
Thanks!”

She said nothing, but grabbed my hand. Together, we ran forward. I had to find Aurora.

We were closer to the end of the cavern, jumping over the crablike things and dodging Shyama. The bangs and clashes of battle surrounded us.

I looked frantically for a flash of long brunette hair, but in the chaos, I couldn’t find her. I stopped short when Carmen stopped moving.
“Here!” she shouted.

She pulled me into the nook of the cave.
“Look!” Just ahead of us was a massive black figure, swirling and flashing like the Shyama. Its stench of rotten eggs and bile filled my nose and its sickness wrapped around me. “That must be Asag,” she said.

I leaned out to get a better look at the massive
demon.

Then I saw her, Aurora, zooming through the air, headed straight for him.

AURORA

I flew around the cavern, killing the flimsy air demons as I
looked for Asag. Dennis was making his way over on foot with an elite group of fighters. I saw them weaving their way through the massive crowd of Shyama, demons, and humans.

I spotted Asag by the portal. He was still ther
e, mostly in a humanoid form. Black smoke and lights arched from his body into the rock. The swirling hole was the size of a small car now, and creatures were pouring out like a waterfall of darkness.

Crap
.

Dennis and his elite squad were still a couple hundred yards away
, and they were stuck fighting these sparkly white flashes of light that I’d never seen before.

There was no time. I’d have to attack him
alone.

I dove straight toward him, aiming for his neck. I flew into him full force and wrapped my hands around his neck, clinging to his back like a deranged spider monkey.

He rocked back a few feet at my charge. His arms dropped and the portal started to close.

Good.
I guess he needed to concentrate on it to keep it open.

He reached one massive, cold arm behind him, plucked me off, and threw me to the side.

I whizzed through the air, but managed to regain my senses before I slammed into the cavern wall.

I floated in the air, circling around him while I decided how best to approach him.

“Daughter of Ki,” he said in his strange gravely tone.

“
And Uras,” I said.

The portal was still closing, slowly
; the Shyama on the other side were clamoring for a small space to squeeze through.

“
And Uras,” he said, flickering wildly at the mention of her name. “I have ordered them not to harm you.” He swept a long, misty arm towards the hordes of darkness fighting below.

“
Thanks, but I can’t say the same for you.”

“
Stop!” He held up his palm, and I couldn’t freaking move.

Damn it.

“I am sparing you and a few others because you contain both the bloodlines of Uras and Ki. It is a gift I wish to retain in the new world.”

I struggled against his invisible hold.
“You can’t do this. There are billions of people up there.”

He raised his other hand, widening the portal again.
“And they have destroyed it. This is our world. The old gods are gone. It is my time. Tell your people to stand down, and they will be spared from the same fate of the humans.”

“
The humans are my family.”

He moved closer, still holding me in his invisible grip.
“After centuries, you will forget their loss. Do not concern yourself with their fate.”

Something inside me shattered.

I broke free from his hold and dove at him. I feigned like I was going for his neck again, then changed directions and slammed into one of his legs instead. It actually worked, knocking him off balance so he tilted towards the ground.

Dennis was there, jumping on his back with a few of his fighters. They plunged their long swords into his back.

Asag screamed and surged forward; then he collapsed. Black and blue smoke billowed around me, filled with strange flashes of light.
How the hell was I supposed to kill this thing?

Dennis and his men sliced helplessly through the mist with their weapons, and Asag’s laughter reverberated through the cavern.

Crappity crap.

I slipped into
Spirit, reluctantly leaving my body behind. The black smoke disappeared when I called my white fog to me, then I was gone.

Asag roared.

The black smoke swirled into a tornado while I drifted away. Dennis was frantically gesturing for his men to surround the cloudy form.

The portal was shrinking and closing when a large, feminine hand came through.