Page 35 of Hijack the Seas: Tsunami

“Dining,” Alphonse said, and a moment later, another empty was thrown into the shadows.

“Call it,” the big vamp said, looking at me.“’Cause I can’t eat ‘em all.”

I stared at the emaciated group now being pushed forward with jeers and curses.And at all the animated hardware surrounding them, including another two dozen well-armed guards who followed them out.And at all the backup in the crowd, backup we didn’t have.

Yet.

“Hit the deck,” I said.

“What?”

“Hit thedeck!” I yelled and threw everything I had left—at the bonfire.

Chapter Eleven

Contrary to popular belief, witches don’t have unlimited power; they just use less of it than mages when casting a spell.The reason is that wild magic, the stuff the world creates on its own, loves hanging out with other magic.It loves it so much that a tiny piece of a witch’s power placed at the end of a wand like a lure can attract enough wild magic for said witch to throw a hell of a spell.

And I hadn’t just used a tiny bit.

I’d used everything I had left, and while the chaotic pile of broken furniture, firewood, tree debris, and whatever else the drunk bastards had been stacking up for their bonfire wasn’t a nice, well-made wand, it waswood.And I guessed that was enough, especially with the lightning still flashing overhead, because did I mention?Wild magic loves lightning, too.

So there was plenty hanging about in the skies overhead until suddenly, it wasn’t.It was stabbing down, hitting the massive pile of wood and the pool of magic that I’d just thrown on top of it, and causing the whole thing to go up like, well, like a bonfire.Only not like any I’d ever seen.

This bonfire was suddenly spearing as high as the clouds in a furious column of strange pinky-red light, like the world’s biggest wand.Which in turn attracted more wild magic and then more and more until, suddenly, the formerly greenish-black night was flooded pink, and fire danced in the middle of it.And I do mean danced.

I stared as a mass of fire sprites, tiny man-shaped creatures I’d seen in the hells once, spilled out of the column of flame like a red tide and leaped at the horrified crowd.There were hundreds of them, each looking like a tiny bit of lava had suddenly come alive, with boiling red-gold skins and eyes of searing, yellow-tinted white.And claws that started fires on everything they touched—

And everyone, I thought, as a mage screamed by, his whole body on fire from the five sprites who’d jumped him and were now ripping him to pieces.

Guessed I knew what Pritkin’s plan had been, I thought, as the horde gleefully started torching everything in sight.And itwasmy partner’s horde, not Rosier’s, based on the fact that Pritkin’s old man was screaming and cursing and zapping the little demons off himself with the same fury as the rest of the crowd.At least, that part of it that wasn’t busy trying to get away as the night descended into madness.

Only no, it wasn’t mad yet, but it was about to be.Because somewhere I couldn’t see, but somewhere close enough for a bellow to go up and spread across the night, was another party crasher.And this one...

Yeah, okay.

This one was my fault.

“What did you do?”Zara was screeching into my face.“What did you do?”

I didn’t answer because I was on fire.

Some sparks, whether from the bonfire or the imps or a stray spell—I couldn’t tell anymore—had ignited on the skin I was wearing.And damn, someone might have mentioned that these things had the ignition point of flash paper!I tore it off and looked up breathlessly, trying to see through the rain of fire falling all around us.

Only to see Pritkin, the familiar blond head pinker than a fey’s with reflected light, running headlong for—

“Why are you bothering with me?”I yelled, gesturing at the sky where the great bellow was still echoing like a clap of thunder.“GetJonas!We need toleave!”

But he grabbed me anyway, and the usual shaking commenced, which I shrugged off because we didn’t have time for this!“I just summoned agod!” I yelled back at him because he was saying something, but I could no longer hear in the utter pandemonium that had broken out.“GetJonas!”

Pritkin stared at me wildly for a second and then had a wadded-up human skin thrust into his arms by Alphonse, who had just ripped it off.Probably because he’d seen how fast mine had ignited, and if there’s one thing vamps hate, it’s fire.And it was everywhere now!

“For the old guy,” I saw him mouth, and Pritkin grabbed it and went running back the way he’d come like the madman he looked to be.And so was I because there was only one of him and a lot of Black Circle guys, and Caleb was still in his cage and—

Damn it!

Pritkin couldn’t get both him and Jonas in the time we had left, so I sprinted forward like a lunatic, which I absolutely was because this had to be the stupidest thing I’d ever done.And that was saying a lot!But this was definitely a contender for first place because I was pelting headlong toward the approaching god with Butch Cut by my side while the other witches cursed mages out of our way left and right from behind.

And they cursed a lot because everybody was running across the burning ground now, with the grass under our feet going up thanks to the rain of sparks and the fiery little imps who were leaving burning trails everywhere.

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