Chapter Twenty-Four
Covington’s eyes widened as he realized I wasn’t under his spell anymore. He started to jerk his hand away, but I was quicker.
Besides, I was a Spartan—and I didn’t miss.
The sword slammed into his hand. The second Babs’s blade touched the signet ring, a searing red light filled the entire rotunda, making everyone yell and avert their eyes from the harsh glare, even the chimeras.
Crack!
The blood-red stone shattered under Babs’s blade, and a second later, the intense light snuffed out. I blinked and blinked until my vision cleared. The stone had vanished, although fire had taken its place—a literal ring of fire around Covington’s hand.
The librarian screamed, yanked the burning ring off his finger, and tossed it onto the floor, where the gold started to melt. But the flames continued to scorch Covington’s hand, and he snarled and slapped his fingers up against his red cloak, trying to smother the fire.
“Yeah! Take that, Reaper scum!” Babs called out, proud of the destruction she’d caused.
I grinned. I was proud of her too.
While I dealt with Covington, Ian took care of the chimeras, which were rearing back on their haunches, getting ready to strike. Ian plucked a dagger off his belt, drew his arm back, and threw the weapon at one of the creatures. The blade sank deep into the chimera’s throat, and the monster screamed and vanished in a cloud of smoke at the mortal wound.
The second chimera hissed and sprang at him, but Ian was expecting the attack, and he went down on one knee and sliced his ax all the way across the creature’s chest. That chimera also screamed in pain, and then it too vanished in a cloud of smoke.
With the monsters out of the way, Ian charged forward and ran up beside me.
“Get them!” Covington screamed, finally snuffing out the fire on his hand. “Kill them, you fools!”
Lance and Drake raised their weapons and charged at us, and Ian and I stepped up to meet them.
Clash-clash-clang!
Clash-clash-clang!
The sound of our weapons crashing together rang out through the rotunda. I battled Lance, while Ian took on Drake.
Lance was a good fighter, but he was no match for me, and he knew it. Almost immediately, he started swinging his sword in wider and more reckless arcs, trying to take me by surprise, but I anticipated everything he was going to do, and I easily avoided his clumsy blows. His Roman speed was the only thing that was saving him right now, and he’d get tired and slow down soon enough.
Lance realized it too, and he decided to fight dirty. He snapped up the gold scepter to conjure more chimeras, but I slashed out with my sword, making him drop his hand before he could complete the summoning motion.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ian swing his ax, trying to bury the weapon in his brother’s shoulder, instead of straight into his heart like he should have. Drake dodged the blow, stepped up, and punched Ian in the face. His massive Viking strength made Ian stagger back.
Ian wasn’t trying to kill his brother. Wound him, yes. But kill him, no. Despite everything that had happened between them, Ian was still trying to save his brother. At least from dying. Because that’s the kind of good guy he was.
The same couldn’t be said for Drake, who seemed determined to run his brother through with his sword the first chance he got. I just hoped that Ian would realize that it was him or Drake and that Drake wasn’t giving him a choice. That he wouldn’t be captured and put in prison and that there was only one way to end that kind of fight.
But for right now, I had my hands full with Lance. The other warrior’s speed was quickly deserting him, and he kept trying to raise the scepter to conjure more chimeras. Every time he lifted the scepter, I lashed out with my sword and forced him to drop his hand back down to his side or risk my chopping it off completely.
“What’s wrong, Lance?” I mocked. “You’re looking slow and weak. I thought Romans were faster than that. You’ve spent too much time partying and not enough time training. Your endurance sucks.”
“Shut up, Spartan,” Lance growled back. “I’ve still got plenty of energy left to kill you!”
He swung his sword at me again, but I ducked under the blow, came up, spun around, and sliced my blade across his back. Lance screamed and staggered forward. He managed to hang on to his sword, but the gold chimera scepter flew out of his hands, hit the floor, and rolled away. I charged after the artifact—
“Rory!” Babs’s hand moved under my mouth. “Over there!”
I stopped and looked to my right. While Ian and I had been fighting Drake and Lance, Covington had made a beeline for the display case. With everything that had been going on, I’d forgotten that he was a Roman and how fast he could move. He shoved his elbow into the glass, shattering it, then reached inside and grabbed the black jewelry box.
“Forget about them!” Covington screamed. “We got what we came for! Let’s go!”
Drake ducked Ian’s latest attack, put his shoulder down, and barreled into his brother. The move took Ian by surprise, and his legs flew out from under him. He hit the floor hard, and his head snapped back against the stone. Ian let out a low groan, and I could tell he was dazed. But instead of attacking him again, Drake kept right on going, running past his brother and scooping up the gold chimera scepter from the floor.
“Lance!” Drake yelled. “Let’s go!”
Covington was already sprinting toward the closest archway, and Drake fell into step behind him. Lance darted forward as well, but he didn’t follow the other Reapers. Instead, he veered off to the left, where Ian was still groaning and trying to shake off his hard fall. My breath caught in my throat, and I raced in that direction, moving faster than I ever had before.
Lance stopped right in front of Ian and raised his sword high. “Die, Viking!” he snarled.
“No!” I screamed.
Lance raised his sword even higher, then started to bring his weapon down on top of Ian’s head. I leaped forward, closing the distance between us, and thrust out with my own sword—shoving it straight into Lance’s heart.
His eyes bulged, and he screamed with pain. I yanked Babs free of his chest, making him scream again. Lance stood there, wobbling on his feet. He stared down at all the blood staining his chest, as though he couldn’t believe I’d actually gotten the best of him. Then his sword slipped from his hand, and he toppled to the floor—dead.
“Ian!” I turned to him. “Are you okay?”
He shook off the rest of his daze, took my outstretched arm, and let me pull him to his feet. “I’m fine! We can’t let them get away!”
My head snapped around just in time for me to see Covington and Drake vanish through the open archway. Ian and I headed after them, but we hadn’t taken three steps in that direction before Covington and Drake rushed right back into the rotunda. A second later, I realized why they’d changed course.
Zoe and Mateo were here.
The Amazon and the Roman stormed into the rotunda. Zoe was brandishing her electrodagger, while Mateo had his crossbow in his hand. The two of them charged after Covington and Drake, and Ian and I did the same thing.
“Give it up!” I yelled. “You’ve got nowhere to go!”
The Reapers didn’t pay any attention to me. Instead, Covington and Drake raced for the other archway on the far side of the rotunda.
“We can’t let them get away!” Ian yelled again.
The four of us chased after the two Reapers. Mateo pulled ahead of the rest of us, since his Roman speed made him the fastest. He snapped up his crossbow and fired off a bolt.
Thunk!
The bolt clipped Covington’s arm and slammed into the wall. The librarian yelped, and the sharp, stinging blow made him lose his grip on the jewelry box. The artifact clattered to the floor. Covington slowed down, like he was going to double back for it, but Drake shoved him forward. Covington cursed and kept running. So did Drake.
Ian stopped long enough to snatch the jewelry box up off the floor, and we all ran on.
The Reapers sprinted from one room to another, with us chasing after them. Covington’s Roman speed easily kept him in the lead, and Drake lagged a few feet behind him. Around and around we all went, from one exhibit area to another, until I almost felt like we were running laps of the dungeon section of the museum.
My gaze darted left and right, and I hoped that Takeda, Aunt Rachel, and the Protectorate guards would show up, but they didn’t appear. They must still be searching the exhibit rooms on the first floor. With our comms jammed, they probably had no idea what was going on up here, which meant it was up to me and my friends to stop the Reapers.
I was okay with that.
Covington and Drake darted into a room up ahead of us and disappeared from sight. We charged after them, and I realized that we were right back where we’d started, in the rotunda with the smashed display case and dead Reapers littering the floor.
I expected Covington and Drake to already be gone from this area, but to my surprise, the librarian was standing in the archway on the far side of the rotunda, bent over double, his hands on his knees, as if he’d run out of energy and couldn’t take another step. I didn’t believe that for one second.
Mateo was still ahead of Ian, Zoe, and me, and he increased his pace, determined to get to Covington before he escaped.
“Stop!” I yelled. “It’s a trap!”
Mateo charged ahead anyway, and Covington stepped back into the other room. Drake was in there as well, and he slashed his sword through the air at something I couldn’t see. A loud screech of metal rang out, and the spiked iron gate at the top of the archway dropped down. Drake must have hacked through the rope that was holding up the gate.
“Mateo! Watch out!” Ian shouted.
Mateo’s head snapped up, and he realized he was about to get skewered by the gate’s sharp daggerlike points. He stopped running, but one of his boots slipped on the floor, and he stumbled forward, right into the center of the archway. He also lost his grip on his crossbow, which hit the floor and skittered away.
Zoe reached out, grabbed Mateo’s shirt, and yanked him back as hard as she could. Blue sparks of magic exploded in the air all around them. The Valkyrie must have been stronger than she realized, because Mateo lurched back, and the two of them fell to the floor on this side of the archway. And not a second too soon.
Bang!
The spikes slammed into their slots in the marble floor inches away from Mateo’s boots.
Ian and I rushed over to our friends and helped them to their feet.
“Are you guys okay?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Mateo said. “I’m fine, thanks to Zoe.”
He flashed her a grateful smile, and she winked back at him.
“And don’t you forget it,” Zoe said.
Together, the four of us turned toward the archway. The gate was still down, blocking the opening, and we didn’t have any way to lift it from this side. Something that Covington and Drake both realized, since they were standing right on the other side of the iron bars, smirking at us.
“This isn’t over,” I growled. “You won’t get away with this.”
Covington gave me an evil grin. “I already have, Rory. You just don’t realize it yet.”
I opened my mouth to growl at him again, but Covington lifted his hand, and I realized that he was holding the gold chimera scepter. Drake must have given it to him sometime during the chase.
“Good-bye, Rory.” Covington saluted me with the scepter, then snapped it around in those sharp, familiar figure-eight motions.
Thick, choking clouds of smoke exploded out of the end of the scepter, driving us away from the iron bars. The clouds of smoke vanished in an instant, but something far, far worse stood in their places.
Seven chimeras, all slowly advancing on me and my friends.