“Cy, no!” I shouted. He was going to die, and it would be my fault. The dog didn’t even look at me as he stood between me and the monster. He grew bigger, until he was the same white dog, but the size of an elephant. “Holyshit.Big puppy.”
Giant Cy attacked the she-monster, who hissed. Cy howled again, the sound so fucking eerie that it sent shivers down my spine. Behind Ekhidna, a dark pit opened, its yawning maw hinting at glowing fire below.
Holy shit…Had Cy just opened a mouth to Hell? Dogs appeared from everywhere, biting and converging on Ekhidna, pushing her back toward the Hellmouth, nipping and biting, shredding what they could, even as she flung them away.
But there were too many. “No,” Ekhidna breathed, and I saw the moment she knew what was happening. That she was about to lose.
Some part of me wanted to tell them to stop, to give her mercy, but another part of me knew she was going to kill my babies and me. She wouldn’t have shown me mercy, and if she lived, she wouldn’t stop.
Instead, I gave her the same sympathetic look as she’d given me moments earlier, as she stumbled back into the pit, her screams whistling for far too long. Maybe it really was a pit that went to Hell.
Cy was still massive, and he turned to look at me. Shrinking back down, his tongue hanging out, he stopped when he was head height.
And then he turned into a man.
A naked, handsome man with a lopsided grin on his face. “Hey, Wren.”