The beast paced the floor beside me, its growls ricocheting against my bones, and I periodically caught a glimpse of its paw. One claw was the size of my hand. And it had five of those on each paw. Its feet alone must have weighed more than I did. It pawed at me periodically with one of them, the claws scraping against the metal table, the screeching sound disturbing on so many levels.
The fact that Artemis was still barking and growling registered in the back of my mind. My time suppression never affected her either, but I could hold it back only so long. I could stop Reyes from bleeding out for only a few moments more.
I glanced across the floor. He lay in a colossal pool of his own blood as I sat quivering under a table like an addled schoolgirl. Fear laced up my spine and watered my eyes. I closed them, pushing the wetness past my lashes. The shelf I lay under was so low, I couldn’t turn my head, I couldn’t see the Dealer or Garrett, but I could feel Zeus. He lay next to my right foot. If only I could nudge him toward me… but I could barely move my leg without exposing it.
I had no choice. I had to kick the knife out from under the table, then try to get to it before the beast’s claws met their mark. I felt time slipping away from me. When it bounced back, it would feel like a runaway train crashing through a railway station. It would knock the air from my lungs and disorient me.
It was exactly what I needed.
I readied myself by inhaling a long draft of air and releasing it slowly. Counting down from five, I tucked Zeus under my foot, focused on my goal, and released time.
It slammed into me, as I kicked Zeus from underneath the table and scrambled after it. My head grazed the leg of the pacing hellhound, but it had yet to orient to the time shift, giving me precious seconds to get to the knife. But I was also fighting gravity, as though time had its own gravitational force field. The barrier slowed me down and I had to push against it with all my strength.
Once free of the table, I lunged for Zeus, scooped him up in one hand, and buried the razor-sharp blade into the hell beast’s paw. The creatures adjusted even faster than before, coming to life with deafening growls, the loudest snarls coming from the one I’d stabbed.
I pulled the knife out and slashed blindly, trying to get to Reyes’s side. One swipe actually met its mark, and another howl reverberated over the sound of time ricocheting into place.
My measly cuts would barely faze the animals, much less kill them. But the lacerations would sting like the dickens, enough to get their attention. Enough, I prayed, to convince them to back off. When the third beast stepped forward with a growl, I finally sank my blade. From what I could tell, it landed in the thing’s shoulder. My hold on Zeus slipped, but I doubled my efforts to withdraw him, screaming for the beast to leave now or die trying later.
And then they were gone.
My gaze darted around me as I whirled this direction and that, but even the silvery black dust was gone. Still, for how long? I looked up. The windows sat high, as this was a lower level, and they were covered in a brown paper or cardboard or something.
We still didn’t know if daylight affected them, but the idea was worth a shot. Before they could return, I scurried onto the countertops at the far end of the room and started ripping at the paper. Some of it was stuck to the glass, so I did the next best thing. Using Zeus’s handle, I broke the panes out of the frames until sunlight streamed into the room.
I heard a moan and looked toward Garrett. He was struggling to stand. I hustled down and hurried over to help him.
“I’m fine,” he said, scanning the area warily.
“We have to get them out,” I said to him, indicating the Dealer and Reyes, but the Dealer was already up, his head bowed, his hands clenched into fists as he glared from underneath his dark lashes.
Reyes had told me the kid was a champion fighter, and in hell, one could only assume that meant fighting to the death. He said the Daeva, or slave demon, was the fastest and strongest fighter in the games, not only among slaves but any of the demons there, too. He’d been a champion, afforded luxuries other slaves didn’t have, which led to his ability to escape centuries before Reyes had.
He was clearly in his element. Even with his back raw and dripping with blood and remnants of flesh, he stood deathly still. Watching. Learning. That had been his gift. His stillness. His patience. His ability to wait out his opponent, to let the fighter get the upper hand just long enough for him assess the beast’s strengths and weaknesses before attacking, because once the champion attacked, it didn’t take long for his opponent to die.
I literally felt the force of his anger as he pushed it aside, turning it off so he could appraise the situation.
“Holy f**k,” Garrett said, rushing toward Reyes.
I was right behind him. I dropped Zeus and slid onto my knees as Reyes braced a hand against a counter. He tried to lift himself off the ground but couldn’t quite manage it. Garrett was there instantly, helping him to his feet as I took his other side.
“We need to leave,” the Dealer said, his eyes unblinking as he continued to scan the area. “Now.”
He didn’t have to tell me twice. Garrett and I eased Reyes toward the door. I slipped on his blood but was able to right myself before making a bigger disaster of an already disastrous situation.
“The knife,” the Dealer said, and I knew he couldn’t just pick it up without some kind of protection. No demon could.
“There.” I nodded toward a dirty dishrag on the floor.
But we didn’t wait for him. We hurried out the door and up the stairs, Reyes’s feet tripping as we almost carried him up. Or, well, Garrett almost carried him up. I felt more like a hindrance than a help.