Demon Forged
foreseeing the dragon passing through the portal; a future which, itself, was uncertain.
It was an endless knot that she couldn’t untangle. But she did not know if it was time to draw her sword and cut through it.
Her eyes searched the darkness. Fear gripped her throat in its ragged claws. As frightened as she was of the nephilim waiting, the consequences of taking the wrong path terrified her far more.
Khavi cannot see what she does not know.
Maybe Khavi didn’t know that the tunnel was tighter than a dragon’s ass.
Irena turned to Alejandro. “We must decide—”
“We go back,” he said.
“Back,” Alice agreed.
Irena laughed, nodding. “Yes. But let us do what we can here first.” She glanced at Alice. “Did Jake give to you any of those missile launchers?”
Alice’s relieved expression flattened into a disbelieving look. “That question is just slightly more stupid than asking if he gave me only one .” Smiling, she joined Irena at the mouth of the tunnel. “Do you want to collapse it?”
“Or worse. I do not know how long a door would hold against them if there are many.”
“I have worse,” Alice said. “Namely, a tactical nuclear device.”
Irena stared at her.
The Guardian shrugged her thin shoulders. “Jake considered using it out there, but he didn’t know if exploding one against the ceiling would weaken the barrier.”
Irena wasn’t certain if shock or amusement had prevented Alejandro from replying. But now he recovered, and said, “What is the yield?”
“It is small—only ten tons. About two city blocks.”
“On a timer?”
“Yes.”
Irena found her voice. “And so this is your plan—we set it and run? But what if they take hold of it first and toss it back at us?”
“We carry it farther down this tunnel,” Alejandro said, gesturing toward the darkness beyond Irena. “We can see that it narrows. When it widens again, you create a steel box for it, wide enough that they can’t move the container beyond the narrow gap, and with the metal embedded into the stone so they cannot vanish the box into their cache without first hacking it free. Then we set it and run.”
Alice nodded her agreement. “If we take it to that depth, we’ll also be safer once we are outside.”
How could this sound reasonable? Either it was reasonable or they were desperate. Perhaps it was both.
“Get it ready, then.” Irena crouched in the mouth of the tunnel and looked into the shadows. “And I will watch your back.”
She glanced around once; Alice worked quickly over a device she’d taken out of a green barrel. They decided upon a five-second timer, with Alice in the lead to guide them around her traps as they ran outside. Alejandro only agreed to let Irena bring up the rear after she pointed out that, if something kept them in the tunnel longer than five seconds, she could create a thick steel shield to protect them.
She did not know if it would—she knew nothing of nuclear devices. She only knew that if they ran late, she would take the brunt of the explosion.
Alice finished, drew a deep breath, and vanished the device into her cache. “We are ready.”
The shadows in the corridor deepened. Irena couldn’t remember when she had last seen such darkness. She listened for heartbeats, heard only theirs. The human scent grew stronger. The tunnel narrowed. Her heart thumped when she heard a scrape behind her. Only Alice’s boot, and yet knowing didn’t ease her fear.
The tunnel wall angled wider. Alejandro watched the almost-complete darkness as Irena quickly formed the box. Alice called in her device, slipped it inside. They looked at each other. Alice reached forward, turned a key, touched a button, Irena sealed the box—and they ran.
The chamber passed in a blur. Alice raced ahead, springing traps with her blade, darting around others. Five seconds was an eternity. The screams from outside became louder and louder. White light flashed down the tunnel. Thunder crashed as Alice breached the entrance. Alejandro turned, grabbed Irena’s hand, leapt for Alice. They smashed to the ground.
Irena formed a thick, domed shield, surrounding them in six inches of steel. They waited. One second, two, three—
The steel shuddered beneath them, as if the mountain had been rocked by a small earthquake. A tiny tremor followed. Then all was still.
Irena lifted her head. Her fingers shook. She untangled Alice’s skirts from her legs. “I expected worse.”
“As did
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