Page 122 of Lost and Stolen Gods
Huge white fingers shot out of the brush and pulled him into darkness.
His scream cut out, and Meena’s began.
Chapter 41
INTO THE THICK OF IT
Meena’s scream rent the air behind me as I sprinted across the lawn and into the brush after the huge beige monster that had Viki in its grip. Its insectile body ran spiderlike on four tapered legs. Viki was pinned to its back by crablike fingers, one of which was over the terrified boy’s mouth, cutting off his screams.
“Fall back!” Pooja cried from behind me. “Dammit, potential, fall back!”
But the petrified boy’s face filled my vision, and my legs refused to obey. I continued to chase the beast as it leapt over a fallen log, wove between tree trunks, and smashed through brush.
There was no way I was letting it have Viki.
We hurtled into a clearing surrounded by tall trees that leaned inward so that their branches created a single canopy almost blockingout the moon.
The creature leapt onto a trunk and began climbing.
Something whizzed past my ear.
Thunk.
An arrow buried itself in the creature’s body, mere inches above Viki’s head. The fingers holding him sprang back, and the boy fell.
I rushed forward and caught him before he hit the ground.
“Back up. Now!” Pooja ordered, bow drawn, arrow pointing upward.
The rustle of leaves registered. The canopy was moving. There were more of the creatures up there.
I backed slowly toward the edge of the clearing, a trembling Viki held to my chest.
He was in shock.
Pooja held her ground, arrow up, eyes on the leaves above. “Keep moving.”
More elite appeared at the edge of the clearing, weapons at the ready. I was almost out of the danger zone, almost level with Pooja as she took a step back, when there was a godawful screech followed by a rush of air.
“Run!” Pooja let arrows fly.
I bolted out of the clearing, and elite shot past me into the danger zone, maces swinging, swords slicing.
I looked back to see them in a lethal dance across moon-dappled ground, cutting down monsters twice as large as the one that Pooja had killed, and Pooja wason the edge of it all, shooting arrow after arrow, summoning them from thin air because where the fuck was her quiver?
Fuck. She was an ascended.
She was a god.
“Leela!” Araz burst through the foliage and ground to a halt at the sight of me.
Viki let out a strangled whimper.
Shit. “It’s all right. I’ve got you.”
Araz scooped us both up and ran.
We enteredthe temple to pained screams.
