Page 142 of Hijack the Seas: Tsunami

We hit real space on the other side of the atrium, but there were gods there, too, because they had our number now, and there was nowhere else to run.We started backing away, into the soot-filled room, with a line of gods stalking us.But unlike the others, these weren’t immediately attacking; I didn’t know why.

And then I realized: they were the smarter ones, who had just sent the cannon fodder into the Paths after us.They were waiting on the others to return, the ones they didn’t mind losing.They’d had to come through the lobby to get here and had seen what we’d left of Poseidon and his boys.

They didn’t want to end up the same way.

But I guessed they could communicate with the fodder, because more and more were popping out of nowhere constantly, crowding that side of the room.Several were covered with fresh blood, Tony’s blood, or possibly Rhea’s, that she’d spilled to save me, making something in me go cold at the sight.Yet it had all been for nothing.

We weren’t getting out of here.

“When I tell you,” Æsubrand said softly.“Take the Pythia and go.Get her back home—”

“No!”Enid hissed.“No, you’re not doing this!”

“There’s no other choice,” he said simply.

“No!”

“It won’t be enough,” Bodil said.She’d been so quiet that I had almost forgotten she was there.But she was, and her eyes were distant, as when she was seeing something in her mind and borrowing other people’s vision.“There are hundreds more outside, flooding the building on all sides.We’re about to be overrun.”

“Take her and go!”Æsubrand said, shoving me at Pritkin.

Only Pritkin immediately handed me off to Mircea.“Take her,” he told him harshly.“Get her to her father.Get her home.”

No, I thought, but didn’t say the word because I couldn’t.For a second, I couldn’t think, move, or do anything but stare at him in frozen horror.Enid was losing her shit, screaming at Æsubrand even as Alphonse pulled her away, but I didn’t do anything.

This wasn’t happening.

“Alphonse,” Mircea said.“Take Cassie as well, and go.”

“What are you doing?”Pritkin demanded.

“You plan to combine your power with his, two triskelion spells instead of one, yes?”

“Do you see an alternative?”

“No.I will help you.”

No, I thought, but my lips still wouldn’t move.No.

“You can’t; you don’t have the gift,” Æsubrand said, as the room filled with gods.

“If he does, I do,” Mircea said, nodding at Pritkin.“Take the spell off of Cassie,” he said.“And let us see what three of us can accomplish.”

Three of us, I thought blankly, as Alphonse grabbed my arm.

Three of us, as he started to pull me away.

Three of us, as the gods tensed, preparing for a fight.

“Three of us!”I screamed and grabbed the spell that Pritkin was trying to unravel, the one that bound us together into a triumvirate of power, the one that looked a lot like the old triskelion designs, with three spirals of energy connected into one being.

I know why it kills a single caster, I told them mentally.

“No!”Pritkin screamed, but it was too late.Because Bodil had seen the spell in Æsubrand’s mind, and with the last of her power, she sent it to me.And as Zara had said, whatever else I might be, I was a witch.

And a good one.

“Triskeles,” I whispered, and couldn’t even hear myself, because the gods had realized we were doing something, and all of them had jumped for us at once.

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