Like an Olympic gymnast preparing for her gold-medal routine, I put the steps of my counter attack—one Tre had taught me—through an imaginary dry run. Then I dropped into a crouch and pulled the golem forward onto the balls of his stone feet. Before he recovered, I reversed my trajectory, pushing hard through my thigh muscles, using my legs like posts. I shoved against the golem, twisting my upper body until I faced him. His grip slackened again, and his arms fell around my waist. We must look like couple of middle-schoolers in an awkward slow dance.
Nate laughed, a hard sound like shattering ice. “She won’t go down without a fight. How admirable.”
I shoved Nate and the other stone figures out of my thoughts and concentrated on the problem before me. Get free from this trap, and then you can work on getting free from the next one.
After pushing my shoulder up and out, I pounded a fist into his jaw, to the regret of my poor knuckles. Less punching, more squirming. I braced my forearm against the creature’s neck and used my arm as a lever, creating enough space to finally wriggle free. He lunged for me, but I danced aside, refusing that beckoning, stony embrace.
“Sorry, buddy,” I said. “I like my men warm-blooded.”
“Stop her,” Nate ordered in a bored tone. He must have been so confident in the certainty of my capture. I’ll teach you not to underestimate me. The other stone guards shuffled closer, but their movements were indecisive and slow. Nate’s directive not to kill me must have confounded their thought processes, or whatever passed for thought in their stony heads.
I willed the remains of my fire into a burst of flames, and heat left my body in a momentary but massive energy discharge. I turned myself into the equivalent of a temporary, industrial blast furnace. I released all my inhibitions and gave myself over to the fire. Flames engulfed me, burning away not just my clothes, but the rage and the pain and the fear. The effect lasted a fraction of a second and left me empty, bankrupt, and impotent, and I’d probably stay that way until I got a full night of sleep and a few thousand calories inside me. But the fire bomb had done its job.
The sprinklers kicked on as promised, but Nate lay senseless and crumpled on the floor, his face red and blistered, the edges of his suit charred. The closest two golems also showed blackened and well-cooked exteriors, but they remained on their feet, animate and threatening. They held their place, their expressions stoic, and their posture suggested uncertainty. Without their master’s directions, they posed no more threat than statuary in a museum. Was Nate dead or just temporarily out of commission? I placed my bet on the latter. No time to waste, then.
My small victory was tempered when a sudden and unmistakable howl pierced the air. The wolf had arrived, and probably Helen, too. Oh good, because this wouldn’t be any fun if it were easy.
I looked behind me, desperate for an escape route. On one side of my cul-de-sac, the industrial containers were wedged in a perpendicular configuration that formed an impenetrable wall. On the other side, the gap between the corners of two containers offered a tiny sliver of space, maybe just enough for an exit. I sucked in everything, making myself as skinny as possible, and thrust my hip and shoulder into the gap. With another desperate shove, I squeaked through, scoring and scraping the skin over my ribs in the process. A small price. I would have paid more.
The narrowness of the crack between the containers meant my brawny babysitters would never fit if they tried to follow me. Perhaps, just that once, luck had taken some pity on me after all. The wolf howled again, and his eerie song chilled my blood. Go, go, go.
The sprinklers cut off the same moment I reached the warehouse’s rear wall. Dead end. I stumbled to a stop and held my breath, and for a single heartbeat, the world went utterly silent. But then the wolf barked, and I whirled around. Skoll, the ruddy beast of my nightmares, crouched at the far end of an alley between containers. He spotted me and lunged forward, throwing an extra dash of speed into his step. I ran and turned into another impassable cul-de-sac.
If I climbed, the wolf couldn’t follow, right? Operating under that belief, I leaped toward one of the container’s front doors. Using the hinges and the locking mechanism for footholds, I worked my way up high enough to scramble onto the box’s flat top. I rolled to my feet, stumbled, cursed, and tried again to stand, but fatigue weighed against me. I panted like Darth Vader suffering a two-pack-a-day habit.
From the higher vantage point, I could see the exit, half a room away. Hopping from box to box, I skipped across the warehouse, aiming for escape, but I pulled up short when I saw two guards standing before the warehouse doors.
A thump behind me turned my attention away from the guards. Skoll, naked and in human form, had climbed to the top of a nearby container. He leapt to the box beside him, leaving two containers between us.
I threw up my hands and fell to my knees. “Okay, I surrender.”
Skoll stopped and cocked his head like a dog hearing a funny noise.
“I can’t believe you fell for that.” I dropped to my belly, rolled over the side, caught the edge, and hung there long enough to heave a breath before I dropped to the floor. The instant my feet hit the ground, I took off running again, heading toward the exit.
My lungs burned, my legs screamed, and fear sat on my shoulders like a crazy monkey riding piggyback. How long can I keep this up? Not much longer, and the wolf’s endurance surely eclipsed my own. I dodged around another container and another as desperate tears burned in my eyes. Dear God, I prayed, don’t let it end like this.
Gunshots rang out, deafening as sound waves rebounded against walls and containers. Not knowing what that meant, I slid to a halt and listened.
“Mundy!” Skyla’s voice echoed through the room.
Relief brought hot tears to my eyes.
“I don’t know about you, but I’ve had enough. Whaddaya say we blow this popsicle stand?”
Chapter Ten
I ran toward Skyla’s voice and rounded the corner of a big blue box. If only it were the TARDIS instead of a mundane shipping crate… The exit loomed before me, and Skyla stood in the doorway, gun in hand, two human guards at her feet, blood pooling around their bodies. I had almost closed the remaining distance when a golem leaped from a nearby crate and landed on the floor between Skyla and me, blocking my way. Skyla didn’t hesitate. She leveled her gun and pulled the trigger twice. The stone man’s head exploded, providing the opportunity I needed to scoot by.
Skyla threw a hand out, urging me forward. She kept the gun aimed somewhere behind me, and when she fired again, the bullet whizzed past my head close enough to stir my hair.
When I stumbled, Skyla lurched forward, grabbed me, and said, “Let’s go, girlfriend.”
We staggered through the big doors, turned, and ran down an alley between two buildings.
“The hell was that thing?” Skyla asked. “Looked like a skinny version of Thing from the Fantastic Four. And where are your clothes?”
“Tell you later.” I huffed as we ran. “Where are you taking us?”
“We’ve got to get the guys. I found them before I found you.” She paused quickly for breath. “Baldur’s tied up in mistletoe. Thorin’s knocked out on something.”
“Wh-what about Val? We split up right before I found you.”
“Haven’t seen him.”
Skyla hugged a sharp turn and wheeled us around the back of a warehouse parallel to the one we had escaped. As soon as I cleared the corner, she leaned around me and fired a few shots. Someone barked a sound of pain, but I didn’t turn around to look. Skyla is so freaking awesome. I vowed to worship her at an appropriate opportunity.
“Where’d you get the gun?” I leaned over, braced my hands on my knees, and wheezed. “How did you get free?”
“You know I’m part ninja, right? Also I’m a chick, and men so frequently underestimate me. Now, come on.” Skyla grabbed my hand and pulled me behind her as she took off again. “We’re almost there.”
Skyla and I turned another corner and threw our weight against a metal door. She yanked me through the opening and shoved the doors closed behind us.
“Help me,” she said, going to a big metal cabinet sitting nearby. “Turn it over against the door.”
We heaved, and the big box teetered on one edge. We pushed again, and the cabinet fell over, barring the door. Skyla turned and studied me, taking in my naked, bedraggled appearance. She tugged off her T-shirt, revealing her cascade of colorful tattoos, sports bra, and black leggings.
She threw the shirt at me and said, “Come on. The guys are just down this hallway. That cabinet won’t hold anyone out for long.”
