Chapter 222

Chapter 222

What I need is for someone to tell me the truth.

I switched targets at the last second.

My body boiled under the strain, most of the mana Id regenerated draining away.

All at once, I understood Keith in a way Id never truly understood anyone. Fully grasped every neuron of his psyche, as I parsed through what made him tick, what drove him, the struggles hed gone through and the utter absence of self-confidence, all tied to a hundred different threads that were just waiting for someone to come along and pull them.

Dodge backward.

Keith did, in the process doing what Id pictured, rather than following the command to the letter. He leapt away from the edge and Nicks descending blade, and stumbled a little. The movements were significantly smoother than standard-Keith, but it was clear his body couldnt quite keep up with his mind and I needed to account for that.

Frustrated by the unexpected resistance, Nick roared and charged at Keith, sword stabbing out towards his chest.

Redirect his momentum

Keith grabbed Nicks sword arm and pivoted, sending him stumbling awkwardly across the bluffs.

Nick reeled back a few steps, then leaned and spit, his face dark. The surrounding aura swelled out like crimson wings. Id hoped that Keiths sudden shift would snap Nick out of the rage, or at the very least, confuse him enough to contravene his tunnel-vision, but it wasnt working. If anything, the sudden difficulty made him more motivated to follow through.

As Keith didnt have the baked-in experience of Audrey or Talia, I micro-tasked, puppeting him through a series of short direct commands and together, we evaded Nicks onslaught.

But this was just delaying the inevitable. Spinning a stalemate into a loss.

I needed to separate them. The question was how.

Ideas cycled through my mind until I landed on one. Something dangerous that Id never consider in less dire circumstances, but all I could come up with on the fly.

I directed Keith to run a wide circle across the bluffs. As Nick chased after him, I scrambled towards the ledge and looked down, mind running through several calculations. There was nothing but ocean below, most of the rocks on the far left side.

With a fragment of a plan, I sent Keith the silver bullet.

Keith ran to the far end of the cliff, then threw his hands in the air and shouted a name.

JINNY.

Nick halted dead in his tracks.

I false-started, stopping to watch. All Id done was send Keith a redacted image of Jinnys death, along with instructions to shout her name. But now, Keith was continuing on his own. That was her name, wasnt it? He asked breathlessly, withdrawing the wand from his inventory. And this was hers right?

Crack

The back of Nicks head smashed against my mask with enough force to stun me and nearly loosen my grip.

Fucker! Stop! Theres something in the water

THUNK

This time, when Nick curled inward and threw his head back, I was ready for it. I tucked my chin, and the back of his head bounced painfully off the stable upper-section of my mask. He stopped struggling, and I tightened my hold, propelling us towards the sandbank with haphazard kicks.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the shadow. It was bigger than Id originally thought.

Audrey. Can you swim?

Nooooo. My summons mental voice sounded utterly miserable, and I realized that from where she clung to my back, her head was probably well below the surface.

Can you at least breathe? I asked, monitoring the circling shadow. Now that Nick seemed to be panicking lessmaybe hed finally realized I wasnt actively trying to drown himI reached back, kicking and treading with one arm. Faster, but not fast enough.

Audrey sent back a complex reply, a composite of words and images. I gathered she didnt need to breathe regularly, though being underwater was unpleasant, and if we submerged her for too long, it would kill her.

I felt bad for doing itbetween Miles, the Crimson Nosferatu, and the Grimelings, this outing had been stressful on my summonsbut I sent Audrey a picture of a net, and an image of her zipping towards a generic shark and wrapping it up.

Her response was reticent. If I catch it

Of course. Dig in. Assuming you can even eat that much, from the size its probably hundreds of pounds

The dark shadow made a second pass, and there was a tangible relief as the vines released from my shoulder. As the shadow retreated, a much smaller shadow followed it.

Good, Audrey snagged it. Assuming she could distract whatever it was for even a few minutes, we were probably in the clear. Id need to compensate her later, especially if whatever was out there inevitably got the better of her. Something fancy. Sushi, maybe.

As soon as there was enough sand underneath us to stand on, Nick pushed me away. I let him go, crawling up onto the sandbar and heaving for breath.

shrieked. I rolled away, just as Nick buried a massive knife into my imprint in the sand. His aura returned full-force, spite radiating from it.

Are you insane? I scrambled backward, trying to keep away from him as he advanced. Now that the crisis was over, a dark curtain of anger descended over me. But Nick wasnt listening. I wasnt even sure if he was hearing me. He stomped across the sandbar like a malevolent automaton, his eyes dead, nothing left of him but rage.

Id been more or less in hiding since the transposition started. Maybe even before that, if I was being honest. Itd kept me alive. Kept my family safe. But I was tired of hiding.

I took the mask off.