Page 64 of Hijack the Seas: Tsunami

But then the portal cut out in a blinding flare of light, bisecting the creature, who let out a howl of mingled fury and anguish that almost ruptured my eardrums.It echoed in the enclosed space like all the kettledrums in the world, like a thousand banshees, like the beat of my heart, which was threatening to crack through my ribs and drive its way out of my chest.The sound was quite literally stunning, sending me to my knees and stopping the fight between Alphonse and the silver cat, both of whom stopped to stare.

But it didn’t stop the war mages.

Dozens had poured through the portal alongside the creature and were now slamming spells into the massive body in an almost constant barrage.And the ones who had initially fled were already regrouping, were coming back, and were joining the fight with magical shields held out in front of them, not that those were helping much.Because the god was furious, and the great wound where his other half had been was spewing brilliant golden light that ate through shields like acid.

A second later, the creature had recovered, at least enough that mages were being flung in all directions, flying through space to hit the sides of the cavern with sickening smacks.Others were disappearing under volleys of what looked like molten gold, which reduced anything it touched to cinders in less time than it took to blink.People were screaming; spells were ricocheting, and we...were halfway down the steps already.

And then all the way down because we weremoving, and the fight was trending away from us and toward the other side of the cavern.Where a thick cluster of mages under heavy shields surrounded Jonas Marsden, who had what looked like a bazooka over his shoulder.One that the old man was swiveling around, was taking aim, was—

“No!”Pritkin screamed, but no one heard him, and anyway, it was too late.

A blast of something that I assumed must be life energy hit the mad god, and okay, yeah.He feltthat, I thought, as my whole body was shaken by the howl the creature let out.And by the screams of the trapped necromancers as gold spewed everywhere, a huge burst of it that had half of them melting while a dozen Corpsmen shielded before they went up in flames.

Or maybe not, because the smell of burning pork flooded the air, and my eyes went swimmy because what thehell?

Jonas was yelling orders, magical lassos were being thrown over the writhing remains, and the Gulliver-sized torso with a jagged hole torn through it was being dragged into the middle of the burning circle of necros and—

Strapped down.

“Hope you’re hungry,” Alphonse said as I stared in disbelief.And swiftly decided that passing out seemed like a viable option, but that wasn’t happening.

Pritkin had paused with the rest of us because whowouldn’tpause at that?But he’d just come back to life and started dragging me toward the portal.And then carrying me when I failed to keep up, my feet as stunned as my brain.

“Here, gimme,” Alphonse said, taking me from him.“You guys get that thing working.Cas and I will be right behind you.”

And I guessed that was acceptable because Pritkin, Bodil, a wild-eyed Æsubrand, and Enid ran for the portal, and they ran fast.

But not fast enough.

“There!”Jonas’s magically enhanced voice echoed around the space, even louder than the cries of the dying god.“Detain them!”

And, okay, not happening, I thought, groggily trying to run even though I already knew it wouldn’t work.But the coven, which had stayed back with Alphonse and me, wasn’t even trying, and never had I seen five women look more pleased to be facing certain death.Choosing not to fight the Silver Circle all these years had been the smart play, but it had definitely rankled, and now that they had no other choice, they were going all out.

I swear, I heard one of them laugh as the barrage of spells heading for our advanced group was grabbed out of the air by a burst of Coven magic, vivid purple, neon green, and lavender-tinted blue.Some of the witches’ bolts caused the war mage spells to explode mid-air into colorful confetti; others sent them flying back at the mages who had sent them or twisting upward to the ceiling, where they hit hard enough to crack it.And still more were knocked to the floor, plowing up great furrows in the earth and rock and sending shards flying.

But one put the rest to shame, deflecting a combined war mage spell into one of the pens of rank-and-file dark mages, shattering the ward and spilling a mass of motivated fighters into the room.

Most of them were still bound, but a few had managed to get their cuffs off and their gags down, and they set about freeing the others.But Jonas’s mages acted as if they barely noticed, and the old man wasn’t leading his troops so much as scanning the room.And those rheumy eyes must have been sharper than before, sharper than they had any right to be, because he spotted us.

“There!In the shadows by the stairs!”

The cry echoed around the space, followed quickly by another.

“Don’t hit Cassie!”the old man yelled, but too late.

Hedged by a wounded god on one side and a mass of crazed dark practitioners on the other, his mages reflexively sent a barrage at us, and they sent everything they had.All I saw was a wash of color that filled my vision, caught my breath in my throat, and prickled over my skin from half a room away because this...

Was not survivable.

Chapter Nineteen

The blast hit before anybody had time to so much as flinch.For a moment, there was nothing but a boiling multicolored cloud, crashing and beating and battering at us like a wild thing, like a whole squad of furious demons straight out of hell.It was huge, it was ferocious, it was terrifying—

And...not touching us?

I realized that we’d been saved, but I didn’t know by who.Or how, because that spell had the strength of several dozen war mages behind it, and not just any war mages.The elite who had somehow survived this long despite all the odds.

And watching their power claw at us, I knew why.They’re so strong, I thought dizzily, staring at the intensity barely a few feet away.And so angry.I could feel their emotions through their magic, and all on their own, they were almost enough to knock me down.

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