Ah yes. He’d told me that once before. Whatever worked.
I continued forward, feeling a warning itch at my back. Not eyes, like I was being watched, but like an army was closing in and squishing me into a less-than-optimal situation.
“We need to hurry,” I whispered, feeling urgency press in on me. “We need to get out of this area. I get the feeling it’s a rough sort of place.”
It seemed the narrowest of the edges, and it’s one of the few entrances not currently watched by Vlad’s people.
“There is probably a very specific reason for that, and we’re more than likely about to find out what it is.” I chewed my lip as we stalked forward. My vision narrowed and my hands drifted in front of my chest, a biological response to danger.
I pulled out my sword, my personal reaction to danger.
Claws poked my shoulder. Darius’s response.
The rocks on the sides smoothed out and shrank, giving us more visibility. We started around the bend. A few heads bobbed ahead of us, some with horns, some with hair, so it would seem a variety of species and beings were communicating.
That was probably good, right? Not fighting, but talking?
So why was my entire person ready for war?
The path straightened out again, and I saw the first hovel. It was much bigger than I’d expected. As tall as a one-story house and about fifteen feet wide. The side facing us was open and two beings were inside, gesturing wildly. One held a boxlike item. Both creatures were demons, one with protruding teeth and a rough hide, and the other with no nose and a large mouth filled with matchstick teeth.
A lizard-looking creature crossed our path, following an intersecting walkway. Its long tail ended in a fierce spike. That would put a nice-sized hole through its enemy.
“On second thought,” I said softly, “maybe we should go back to the Brink and take our chances. Dizzy was right. This was a terrible plan.”
Number one, it’s too late. Second, you know you can’t. It would only give them time to organize and plan your extraction. We don’t have the resources to protect you for long.
“Stop talking sense. It’s not welcomed here.” I gripped my sword tightly, my arm shaking.
I was the chick who ran at problems. That was my shtick. So what was up with the fear?
I was overthinking things. Had to be.
After a deep breath, I sped up. My gut pinched. Our path ended and more structures dotted the way. Shacks almost. Maybe huts. Most of them were open to the elements, like the first, and many of them were occupied by creatures talking in low voices. Judging by the wild gesturing I saw in one hut, some sort of bartering was underway, and the shoppers were arguing for a lower price.
Which way? Darius thought.
Flattened against the rock, I glanced right, seeing more creatures crowding the throughway, all on foot. Or whatever served for feet. I spotted one creature that had a human-type shape, though with odd proportions and too much hair. Maybe we wouldn’t look so odd if the suits didn’t work.
The other way was a little sparser, and there were more loners, not many of which paused to talk to others.
I jerked my head right. “That way. Stick to the sides. Let’s try to blend in.”
We will soon see if the suits work, Darius thought.
Yes, we would. And if they didn’t, we would also see if I could keep from freaking out and accidentally killing things.
I stuck to the side and hunched, trying not to look so utterly human. A knobby thing staggered my way, and adrenaline dumped into my body. I kept walking, braced to lop off a body part should the creature swing one of those six-inch-long claws at my person.
Something jostled the creature and it hissed, but not at me. It looked over its—dislocated?—shoulder at whatever had tripped it. I couldn’t see the other creature, but it mustn’t have apologized, because the knobby thing swung around and lashed out. A splash of black blood hit the rock to the side. Creatures pushed away, opening up space for the fighters. The knobby thing lashed out again, but its target, a squat type of troll, roared and struck it with a spiked club. The club battered the knobby thing in the side, smashing its other shoulder and making it holler.
I plucked at Darius’s sleeve and moved into a stream of creatures edging around the disturbance. As long as we weren’t the only ones heading out instead of hanging around to watch the bloody battle, it was fine to move on.
Something dull and hard poked my arm. A different bony, gross thing bumped into me. Darius’s hand tightened on my shoulder and his claws dug into my suit as he pulled me away.
In front of me, a creature turned suddenly. Its half-torn wing jabbed my chest.
A blast of anger turned lightheadedness rolled through my consciousness. Fire roared in my middle, and I shoved the oddly squishy being without meaning to. My logical mind told me to stop, to make my way to the edge of the path so I could regroup, but I stalked forward like a woman turned battle-axe, forcing people out of my way.
My power pumped higher, daring any of these beings to challenge me. My power didn’t seem to call to anyone. The suit was at least partially working so far.
In the back of my head, I felt the underlying fear from before, telling me to get lost. It had never been so easy to ignore something in all my life. Not with more beings jostling and bumping me. Straying in my path when I was clearly the big man on campus.
Where are these feelings coming from, Reagan? a tiny voice thought in my head.
I had no idea, but I was powerless to stop them.
The crowd that had formed around the fight thinned at the outskirts. Something howled from within the press of creatures. A spray of blood shot out over the beings. I ducked just in time. The glob hit a scaly creature next to me.
There was definitely a reason Vlad’s people weren’t hanging around these edges. The brutality was intense.
I hated that a part of me thrived in it. The part my father had passed down.
An opening on the left gave us an option to leave the main drag. The question was, would it take us toward the river?
I had decided to go for it when a huge shape ducked out of the nearest hovel. I swerved as best I could, but my backpack bumped into it. The impact had me careening away, staggering to get my balance. Darius was beside me in an instant, helping me straighten up.
You know what else was straightening up?
The huge freaking creature that had just come out of the hovel, that was what.
Up and up until it was a little more than double my height. Horns like a mountain goat’s curled around its head and under its ears. Pointed ears stuck out of a leathery face with a hole for a nose. From huge shoulders hung monstrous arms, much too long for its body. A short waist and then thick thighs led down into weird, dinosaur-looking feet.
I dropped my sword a little, because regardless of the feeling from a moment ago, I did not want to tango with this monster.
Please work, suit, I said to myself as I turned slowly and continued on my way. Please work. Don’t let it see me. Don’t let it—
“What is this?” it said in a deep, booming voice.
Was it too much to hope that the creature was talking about some other idiot who’d bumped it with her backpack?
“Does ’ooman scum dare invade my pride?”
I didn’t know what pride meant in the context of that sentence, since the thing clearly wasn’t a lion, but I did know the suit wasn’t keeping me invisible. The creature had a problem with me. Joy.
I also knew that it clearly knew I was part human, not a demon with a human form. So that was unfortunate.
I took a moment to try and read its thoughts, but came up blank. It was blocking me, somehow. I ripped off the mask so I could see better. If the suit wasn’t hiding me from eyeballs, there was no use half blinding myself.
“You grew tired of summoning us to do your bidding, filthy ’ooman, and thought your reign would transfer down here?” It blew out fire through its nostrils, the flame washing down my face.
“Dang it! I wasn’t ready. There go my freaking eyebrows again.”
I turned to face the monster, much more horrible than Darius’s monster form could ever be.
“How dare you speak that filthy tongue to me, ’ooman!” the creature roared.
Do you know what the creature said? Darius thought-asked me.