Page 7 of Lunar Diamonds
I purposely avoided making eye contact, focused on the monstrosities.
The shade I’d tripped came at me.
“Trip!” Losing its footing, it tumbled and crashed into a public computer.
The woman with the skillet attacked, bringing her weapon down on the shade’s head. Oof. It clanged like a bell, the shadowy arsehole crumbling.
My skull throbbed in solidarity.
“Take that,” she said, pushing her half-moon spectacles up her nose.
Hecate bless her and her skillet.
Okay, time to clear this floor.
“Quickly,” I told the customers, directing them toward the stairs while the shades saw stars.
I activated my aura lenses by blinking the unlock code. None of these people seemed to be supernaturals from what I could make out, their auras a human yellow.
Nina joined me, brushing down her clothes. “Those ones are gone.”
“Thank Hecate.”
She nodded, launching into an attack on the two remaining shades. She broke one of their necks, then stomped on the other’s head, cracking it like an egg.
They screeched, their shadows swirling in an angry vortex of black smoke for a couple of beats before dissipating.
Although shades were unkillable, delivering a ‘fatal’ injury sent them packing, their essence sent away to search for a shadow witch to recycle it.
Nina flipped her hair. “Done.”
In the name of Hecate, she was fabulous. “You’re amazing.”
She didn’t respond, directing the customers to the stairs.
Right. Evacuation.
I stayed alert, turning slowly for a three-sixty of the first floor. My courage held, but the crash would come soon. It stalked my perimeter, ready to take me down.
Hard.
Still, go me for kicking some arse today.
“Riley! Nina!” Carol called from the ground floor.
I hurried to the balcony.
“We’re here,” I said, leaning on the wooden balustrade.
The library doors were open, customers and colleagues evacuating. Not the goblin, he jabbered on his phone by the photocopier, constantly throwing glares at my boss.
Was it really that deep? We’d suffered a shade attack. HisWar and Peacedrama really paled in comparison.
“Are you alright?” Carol asked.
“Yeah. You?”
“I will be. Get down here.”
