Page 89 of Another Damned Storm
Which left me and Hook to take on Thrain and Lapalme. That was where things would get really dicey. Hook managed to hold his own against Thrain, but even with my crazy ass power, Lapalme beat the shit out of me.
Sure, I felt stronger than I had that day. And yeah, I was getting better at controlling my magic. I had a much better understanding of Lapalme’s abilities, too. None of that eased the ocean of uneasiness churning inside me.
“Have you considered taking out the churches before a storm hits? Going for the jugular when they aren’t looking?” I asked. “It might weaken Thrain before he even has a chance to act.”
Matt rubbed the back of his neck. “We talked about that, but we agreed it would be better to strike when we know he’s in the park and wrapped up with the storms.”
“We don’t want him anywhere near those churches when they come down,” Lily added.
A solid argument, for sure. “Anything else?”
“I’m not going to lie, it’s tough trying to come up with viable backup plans when we don’t really know what to expect,” Matt admitted.
“Well, you’ve got us,” I said, sneaking a quick glance at my pirate. “The minute a storm touches down and you startmobilizing your people, we’ll flash into the park and inflict as much damage as we can.”
Hook leaned against the counter beside me. “I can be quite destructive when the situation calls for it.”
“Any chance you can counteract the storm? Weaken it somehow?” Matt asked.
He looked at the bottle in his hand as though it might hold the answer my brother wanted to hear. “If I can, I will, but I make no promises on that front.”
Matt let out a heavy breath. “Anything helps.”
“What happens if we actually manage to take one or both of them down?” Lily asked. “I can’t even picture what that will look like.”
“Primordial demons are like gods in that they are difficult to kill,” Hook explained. “It would take several powerful beings working together to truly destroy Lapalme. But he is also similar to other demons in that removing his head and keeping it separated from his body will slow his regeneration significantly. That will at least buy us time until the Brethren can fetch him.”
“Does the same hold true for the god?” Matt asked.
“Unfortunately, no. As long as he has a strong enough following, any injury we manage to inflict upon him will heal almost instantly.”
“So, we go for the demon first,” I said.
He tipped his beer toward me. “Like the lady says.”
“Then we’ll just have a pissed off god who rains lightning down on his enemies to worry about,” Lily said dryly. “Easy peasy.”
Three days later, every soul in Rutledge and Salus was on edge. The only sign of a storm was a weather notice from the station in Myrtle Beach about a meandering tropical storm that had been making its way north from Puerto Rico. The projected path showed it was headed for the Carolinas, but I’d seen those warnings a hundred times. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred all we saw was a day or so of heavy rain. If that.
Things had been eerily quiet on all other fronts. Which, of course, only amplified tensions within our somewhat delicate alliance. Matt had threatened to kick a couple of people out of Rutledge for instigating fights with Lily’s people, but so far, he hadn’t been forced to follow through.
I checked in with Lily a couple times a day too. While the transfers to her campus were also anxious, she and Matt had vetted all of them to ensure they were one-hundred percent magic friendly.
There was no point sending help across the park if they were only going to stir up trouble.
But the waiting was wearing on everyone, including me. I wanted to end this nightmare for everyone in Charleston. Maybe then I could talk my brother and Lily into taking Angie to the Nassa with Hook. And who knew, if we managed to quell the upheaval, maybe the fates would lay off for a bit and give me at least a little more time with my pirate.
A girl could hope.
It was that quiet little dream I was clinging to when a deafening crack of thunder wrenched me awake in the dead of night. The walkie talkie on the nightstand crackled to life, and reports started pouring in from both sides of the park.
Hook and I had taken to sleeping in our day clothes, so it took us less than a minute to slip on our shoes and grab our weapons.
He handed me the radio, which was little more than a child’stoy. “Take it, love. At least so you can track what’s happening with your brother.”
I didn’t like the idea of bringing it into a fight. What if a slippery demon got its hands on it? Or worse, Thrain or Lapalme?
Then again, I also wasn’t fond of leaving everyone else to fend for themselves.
