Shay's eyes grew wide as he saw Hex.
Jazz looked over her shoulder at him.
Hex made his decision. Just before his jaws clamped down onto Jazz's silvery body, he realized that the bulge on her back looked a bit like a woman's face.
He dug his teeth into Jazz with all his might. It sounded as if two voices screamed inside his mouth. He spread his wings to come to a halt before he crashed into the columns of the temple. He stumbled as he hit the ground. The wind at his back was like a hurricane. He tumbled and rolled, losing his grip on the silver woman. He bounced up the steps of the temple, pushed by the incredible wind. He dug his golden claws into the polished marble as he continued to slide. He craned his neck and saw Skitter struggling to keep from being pulled into an enormous black pit over which a second Jazz stood.
While his golden shell was stronger, and his claws were sharper, his metallic scales did lack one important quality: friction. Nothing he did halted his slide toward the void.
A sharp pain punched into his left wing. He came to a sudden and complete halt. He looked toward the source of the pain.
One of Bitterwood's arrows jutted from his wing. Half the shaft was buried in the marble floor. The force that tugged on him would no doubt have torn his ordinary flesh, but the golden shell held firm against the arrow. He was pinned.
"Take her down!" Hex growled.
Somehow, even above the howl of wind, he suspected the Murder God heard his prayer.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE:
LOST CITY
The silver-shelled woman at the foot of the temple steps rose on wobbly legs. Deep, ugly puncture wounds seeped dark blood from both sides of her rib cage. Shay approached her carefully, having retrieved the angel sword. Yellow flames reflected on her metal cheeks as she stared at him with eyes full of murder.
"She killed Lizard," said Shay.
The woman's left eye twitched.
"N-nice t-try," she said, wiping her silver lips with a bloodied hand. "But your f-friend's attack put me back in the d-driver's seat."
"She killed Vendevorex," said Shay, though he wasn't certain this was true.
Jazz's silver skin literally crawled as is it crept over her wounds.
"A-attacking me… only reinforces… the defensive programs in my genie." She sounded winded. She grew more stable on her feet as she took a long, slow breath. "I'm the living embodiment of the concept that whatever doesn't kill me makes me stronger. I've silenced Jandra forever. I've flushed Atlantis into orbit around Proxima Centauri. You can't win this, Shay. Do you think they call me goddess because I have a fabulous body? This is my world now."
Shay willed the flames of the angel sword even brighter. "You've been beaten before."
"You want to sword fight?" Jazz giggled. A rainbow sword grew in her left hand. She planted her black boots in a fighting stance. "Let's do this thing!"
Shay gripped his sword with a sweaty hand. He watched Jazz's face intently. He had to know. "Remember Lizard!" he pleaded.
"I remember," she said, as a smile played upon her lips. "His neck made the most satisfying snap when I twisted it."
Shay lunged. The goddess leapt.
There was a flurry of motion that Shay found difficult to understand. He felt suddenly light-headed. He looked down. His sword was lying at his feet. His right hand was still wrapped around the hilt.
"You might be worse at this than anyone I've ever seen," said Jazz.
Shay grabbed the stump of his wrist with his left hand, pinching off the blood flow.
"You might not have got the memo that my sword can cut through anything," said Jazz, as Shay dropped to his knees. "Still want to fight?"
He shook his head mournfully. "I never wanted to fight you," he said. He looked into Jazz's eyes, into whatever tiny echo of Jandra remained, "I love you."
Jazz's left eye twitched shut. Her head twisted until it pressed against her shoulders. Her lips trembled as she whispered, "I love you too."
Seconds later, she screamed, "ShutupshutupSHUTUP!"
"Nooooo!" a second voice howled from her back.
"If you like him so much, we'll keep the head!" Jazz snarled. She lunged forward once more, swinging her rainbow sword in a powerful arc.
Shay fell backwards, pulling Jandra's pack off his shoulder with his left hand. He let go as the sword sliced through the bag. He prayed it would slice open the impenetrable crystal ball within it. When the severed pack fell to the ground, the only thing to tumble out was Jandra's blue silk coat.
Above the roar of wind came the howl of ghosts.
Jazz was plucked from her feet by an unseen hand and thrown into the temple. Shay clamped the severed veins of his wrist shut again and rose on wobbling legs to follow her.
Jazz bounced across the marble floor, sliding past Hex's sprawling golden form. Her face and shoulders were no longer silver. The shell coating her skin was being peeled away by invisible fingers.
"Shay!" Jandra screamed as she was sucked toward the pit.
Shay didn't need his hands to use the wings. He shot forward, letting go of his bloodied stump, reaching out with his left hand. Her right hand closed around it. He tried to lift off, but the wind was too strong and he felt too light-headed as even more of blood gushed from his wrist.
Jandra looked at him, fear and confusion in her eyes as they continued to slide toward the pit. Her feet went over the edge, then her body. He clamped onto her hand with all his dwindling strength as his arm and shoulder slid over the edge.
They suddenly halted. Shay felt pressure on the tip of his left wing. He looked and saw that Hex had snagged his wing with his hind-talon, piercing the metal feathers with a single golden claw.
The ghosts continued to howl around him, even louder than the wind.
Below him were stars. The cold within the pit was far worse than any winter. Jandra looked up at him. The silver skull cap that Vendevorex had worn had crawled onto her brow. She reached out and grabbed the stump of his right hand. There was a sizzling sound and the bleeding stopped.
The ghosts slowly fell silent. They'd had their chance to tear Jazz free from Jandra and banish her into the far reaches of space.
And they'd failed.
A silver-skinned woman, an exact duplicate of Jandra, had the metal nails of her left hand sunk deep into the flesh of Jandra's calf. Her eyes were utterly empty. It was the hollow shell of Jazz's genie, still clinging to her new body. She swung her right arm up and sank it into the flesh of Jandra's thigh.
Tears welled in Jandra's eyes as the goddess clawed further up her body. The hollow woman pulled the nails of her left hand free and swung them higher, sinking them into the dimples that sat at the base of Jandra's spine.
Jandra screamed as the goddess advanced another foot.
"I'm sorry," Jandra cried, as she let go of Shay's stump. Her fingers loosened in his left hand. He squeezed with every fiber of muscle remaining to hold on to her.
"Let go!" she begged. "We can't let her climb back!"
The shell's hollow eyes gazed at Shay. Its lips curled into a smirk.
He turned away. He knew he would save the world if he let Jandra go. He knew that she was willing to make this sacrifice. But he couldn't release her, and he couldn't meet her gaze to let her know this.
He saw, as he glanced across the pit, that Skitter and Zeeky were safely out of the temple, clinging to the trees.
The goddess sank her claws into Jandra's shoulders.
He couldn't let the Goddess back into the world.
He couldn't let go of Jandra.
His wings responded to his thoughts.