Page 98 of The Stone Secret
The creatures waited for us to approach, waiting forusto come tothem. “Why aren’t they attacking?”
“I think there’s an attack zone,” Palia said. “Look at the ground. There’s a black painted line up ahead.”
“You mean they won’t attack unless we pass that line?” Dayn asked.
“I think so.”
“What are these things?Trainedgrotesque?”
Not trained. Maybe restrained. “Look at the cuffs on their ankles.”
“A restraint of some kind.” Hawke’s assessment matched mine.
“Cameron, what you want to do?” Derek asked. “We go through, or we take a new route?”
“I don’t think it matters,” Palia said, answering for me. “I think whichever route we take will have a threat on it.”
“I say we take these fuckers out,” Touron growled. His body rippled with tension, eager to do some damage.
I hadn’t seen him like this before, with such a desire for violence emanating off him. He needed this fight.
But if we were going to do this, then we needed to work together. “Once we cross that line, those things will attack. Not just the ones on the ground, but those above as well, and who knows how many more are up there?”
Hawke’s stocky frame blocked my path as he scanned the rooftops. “We need three units. One to focus on disabling the ground attack and two for dealing with the threat that falls from the sky.”
“Agreed,” Curi said. “Touron, Cameron, Shar, Palia, Ginia, Waxen and Saffe will take the ground forces.”
Hawke nodded. “The rest of you are with me.” He rattled off names, splitting his team into two. “We watch the ground team’s six.”
“Shields at the ready,” Shar said. “We’re going to need them.”
Derek’s feet left the ground, and he loomed above me, my own personal cloud.
“Let’s do this!” Touron let out a battle cry and burst into motion. We followed at a jog, crossing the dark line to meet the threat head on.
The grotesque let out a collective scream and attacked.
CHAPTER41
All the hours training, all the time in the gym, the katas, the grappling, everything came together as we fought the stone menace. My body was fluid as I ducked and evaded the swipe of talons, strong as I shoulder-slammed and punched metal plates. My stone skin activated easily, protecting me from the worst of the blows, and Derek remained close but didn’t intervene. He knew I had this becauseIknew I had this.
Shar and Touron flanked me, taking down grotesque after grotesque. Someone let out a bellow of pain somewhere, and snarls broke the air.
Hawke shouted instructions to his teams as more grotesque fell into the street. But we continued to move forward, knocking them down and taking them out.
“Another wave on the roof!” someone yelled.
I leapt back to avoid a swipe to my abdomen, then attacked with my talons, raking a line across the creature’s stony face to distract it so I could follow up with a left fisted punch to its chest plate.
It crumpled in a heap.
“I see a black line up ahead!” Palia yelled. “I think it’s a safe zone.”
“Then let’s move it!” Touron said.
We broke into a jog as Hawke bellowed a warning from behind us.
The world rumbled and the ground shook as a hoard of grotesque spilled into the street, blocking us off from the exit.
