Jordan spun around, his body thrumming with warning, still attuned to the stone.
He lunged with his arm outstretched as the rolling gem rocked free of its perch and plummeted downward. Unfortunately only his fingers brushed its facets before it landed into a bank of snow at the foot of the plinth.
As it struck, a resounding boom shook the ground. He crawled toward the gem as it continued to blaze from the snowbank. But the damage had been done. While the emerald bubble around him remained intact, still blazing with fire, one of the columns of the pyramid had been dislodged from its foundation.
Must get it back up there, before it’s too—
A series of sharp pops exploded near at hand, ringing out as loud as rifle fire, echoing from the lake’s surface.
Jordan looked up and watched the ice shatter, breaking apart like a dropped mirror. But what that mirror was intended to reflect was something much darker, something not meant for this world.
And it burst free.
Creatures boiled to the surface of the lake: lumbering, slithering, and shoving through the ice. The horde clambered toward shore, mostly toward him and the broken foot of the pyramid, sensing a way to escape.
Jordan flinched away, responding with the lizard part of his brain, refusing to accept what he was seeing, but unable to deny it at the same time. His stomach roiled at the sight, at horrors his mind could not fully grasp. But when his fingers reached back and brushed the inside surface of the flaming sphere that surrounded him, agony shot up his arm to his chest. He yanked his hand back. Smoke rising from his blackened fingertips.
He realized he was trapped in this sphere, unable to escape, remembering the monk’s warning.
It would be death to those whose heart still beats to pierce that brilliant veil.
But the abominations that crawled out of the lake had no such hearts, no such limitations.
Something sloshed out of the lake to the right, lumbering forth like an ordinary person, but with a flat black face, showing no eyes or mouth — yet still it screamed, howling at the world. To his left, a massive creature bounded to the rocks, clinging there, with cloven hoofs and a malformed head, then it leaped away.
He wanted to cover his eyes, but he feared the unknown even more.
Directly ahead of him, a black crocodilian shape slithered and clawed its way from the broken ice. But it had no head, only a puckered sucker at the front, showing a ring of teeth. It left a glistening trail of bile-colored slime behind it. Seeming to sense him, it clawed faster in his direction, passing unharmed through the emerald veil of his bubble, bringing with it the stench of sulfur and rotted meat.
Jordan’s mind struggled with the impossibility of it, tipping toward insanity. Still, one greater fear kept him grounded, momentarily anchored.
Erin.
But trapped here, Jordan could never reach her.
Only one person could.
Rhun lashed out with his karambit, parrying aside the monk’s sword — but the impact staggered him. This enemy was far more powerful and faster than any strigoi that Rhun had ever fought, its strength likely fueled by the malevolence wafting off the lake and the looming presence of its master of darkness, Lucifer.
To keep his feet after that blow, Rhun stumbled out of the blue veil of light. Beyond that sphere, the air reeked of death and pestilence. Revulsion crawled along his skin like a thousand spiders.
The monk pursued him, his long sword flashing down in a streak of reflected blue, but that strike never landed. Instead, something struck the monk in the side, knocking him down. The cub rolled away, but twisted back around, hissing loudly. The monk rose with the speed of a striking cobra, thrusting his blade at the cub’s throat — but instead, the monk toppled forward, his head flying off his body, while his sword harmlessly impaled a snowbank next to the cat.
Elizabeth stood there, dark blood dripping from her blade.
Again, she had saved his life, probably the cat’s, too, but he had no time to thank her.
During the heated skirmish, he had seen Jordan dispatch the monk alongside him, his pistol blazing. He also saw the gem fall, causing the lake to shatter on that side, allowing hell to break loose into this world. Even now beasts were clambering along the banks, spreading wider. Others bounded across the ice, gibbering around the foot of their master. Several spotted Christian and Sophia with the chest and went in pursuit, either enraged by the holiness of the chains or perhaps commanded by that dark angel himself.
“Defend the stone,” Rhun commanded Elizabeth.
He had to reach Erin. A moment ago, he had watched her get attacked as she tried to warn Jordan, and even now she still struggled in the iron grip of Xao. The monk’s fingers were wrapped around her throat, lifting her high, until only her toes brushed the snow.
Rhun raced along the shoreline toward her. A reptilian creature lunged off the ice at him, but Rhun smoothly stepped aside, striking out and decapitating its scaly head with a single stroke. Yellow smoke boiled out of the stump, while a splatter of blood dissolved through his parka and burned his skin like acid.
Still, he kept going, trailed by the lion.
A few other creatures threatened, but they seemed more interested in escaping the lake into the larger world, than truly attacking him. The same was not true for Christian and Sophia deeper out on the ice. The pair had set down the chest and battled a growing horde. Their robes were slick with blood.
Across the lake, a fresh spat of gunfire revealed Jordan had reloaded and was shooting at some beast within his emerald glow, still holding his own for now.
Rhun charged the last of the distance toward that ruby sphere.
Erin still lived, her heart hammering in her chest, her breath ragged in that chokehold.
Xao saw Rhun coming and smiled. Rhun knew the monk could have snapped Erin’s neck like a twig at any time, but Xao had refrained — perhaps only to better savor this moment.
The monk freed one hand and lifted a dagger to Erin’s throat.
No…
The blade sliced deep and wide, carving open that tender neck. Blood burst forth like a fountain as the monk let her go.
Erin dropped like a sack, falling to her side, her life steaming into the snow.
Rhun’s legs stumbled with the truth, knowing it was too much to stop, too much to heal. Still, he fought to close the last of the distance. He would not lose her. He had sworn to protect her — not only as a Knight of Christ, but as one who loved her, one who could not imagine the world without her in it.
Xao met his fury with a larger smile, his eyes shining dark with malice.
Here was not the work of Lucifer.
Rhun knew who stared out those eyes at him.
From across the lake, Legion savored the look of horror and defeat in the Knight’s face. He witnessed it both through the gaze of the possessed monk and through the eyes of this vessel now.
Legion still remained hidden among the rocks on the southern side of the lake, where he had been manipulating events from afar, lying in wait for the right moment to show himself.
Deep inside him, the small flame of Leopold quavered, shaken by the sudden death of the Woman at the hands of the monk. Legion imagined that feeble flame weeping smoky tears.
How easy it had been to make the trio dance to his wishes!
Using the stolen knowledge of Hugh de Payens, Legion had sped here ahead of the others, coming upon the monks unprepared.