And slowly, it started to happen.
One of the Protectorate guards fell under a Reaper’s slashing sword. Then another. Then another. Soon, it was all the guards could do to keep the Reapers from advancing. And then, one of the Reapers broke through the ranks of the Protectorate and started running up the cobblestone path toward the main quad.
Logan, Alexei, Oliver, and I all checked our weapons for the last time. It was up to us to stop the Reapers now. “Wait,” Logan murmured, his eyes locked onto the
Reaper racing toward us. “Wait.”
In the distance, another Reaper broke through the Protectorate line and started hurrying this way. Then another one. Then another one, until there were half a dozen Reapers headed in our direction.
“Hold your position,” Logan murmured again, his icy eyes almost glowing with anticipation of the battle to come. “A few more seconds . . . they’re almost here . . . now!”
The four of us leaped out from our hiding spot and attacked the Reapers. Alexei engaged the first two, the twin Swords of Ruslan whipping back and forth from one enemy to the next, just like his dad was doing with his own swords down at the gate. Logan punched one Reaper in the face, making the warrior stagger back, before whirling around and burying his sword in the chest of the next closest Reaper. Oliver engaged the one Logan had punched, ramming his sword into that man’s stomach. And that was all that I saw before one of the warriors rushed at me, and I stepped up to battle him.
Clash-clash-clang! Clash-clash-clang! Clash-clash-clang!
I parried each one of the Reaper’s blows before slamming Vic into the warrior’s chest. He collapsed to the ground, but I barely had time to raise my sword again before another Reaper stepped up to take his place.
Back and forth and around and around, my friends and I fought the Reapers. Every time I thought we were finally making some headway, finally turning the tide in our favor, another wave of Reapers would surge toward us. They just kept coming and coming, pouring through the gate and even climbing over the stone wall and dropping down to this side.
And I realized we were going to lose this round.
There were too many of them, and we were too spread out, trying to keep them contained here by the gate. I whipped first one way, then the other, lashing out with Vic over and over again, bringing down Reaper after Reaper after Reaper, but it wasn’t enough. Around me, Logan, Alexei, and Oliver were fighting just as furiously, and it was all the four of us could do not to get separated.
Eventually, the Protectorate guards got pushed back to our position, and then we all started giving ground, inch by inch, foot by foot. And still, the Reapers kept coming. To make matters worse, the Black rocs had finally hopped over the stone wall, and the enormous birds added to the chaos of the fight, stabbing their beaks at any members of the Protectorate who got close to them. One of the guards fell down screaming, clutching at the ugly wound a roc had opened up in his gut.
“To the quad!” Linus finally yelled out, wounding the Reaper in front of him and backpedaling at the same time. “Fall back to the quad!”
And so we turned and began our first retreat of the fight.
Chapter 25
We raced up the hill to the main quad. The Reapers were right behind us, and I could hear their footsteps smashing against the stone paths, and their cruel shouts cutting through the air, chasing after us like a pack of Fenrir wolves nipping at our heels.
“Death to the Pantheon!”
“Take out the Protectorate guards first! Then whoever’s left!”
“Kill everyone you can!”
And on and on it went. I gritted my teeth and tried to shut the shouts out of my mind, but I couldn’t. I’d been in battles before, but nothing like this.
Nothing so horrible.
Still, I made myself run faster and pump my legs that much harder as I struggled up the hill. Of all the times I’d trudged up that slope, it never seemed as steep as it did right now. Every breath came in a painful rasp, and the cold winter air seemed to burn my lungs worse than ever before.
“Come on, Gwen!” Alexei shouted beside me. “Hurry! They’re right behind us!”
I didn’t dare look back, but I sucked down another breath and finally surged up over the top of the hill. The quad stretched out before me, seemingly deserted, but I knew that the other guards, students, and adults were holding their positions, waiting for the Reapers to step into the middle of the area before flanking the warriors on all sides.
I headed for the library steps, where Carson was still crouched down beside the gryphons, his staff in one hand and the Horn of Roland in the other. I spotted Rory and Rachel on one of the second-floor library balconies, with Daphne right beside them. The Valkyrie looked as cool and calm as ever, already taking aim with her onyx bow and golden arrow, waiting for a Reaper to get close enough for her to fire.
I reached the library steps and whirled back around, already raising my sword to give the signal to the archers above.
“Now!” I screamed.
A hail of arrows darkened the air above my head before slowly starting their inevitable, downward arcs. The arrows slammed into the first wave of Reapers that had crested the hill and stormed into the quad, knocking them back. Screams and shouts cut through the air, and the archers sent another volley of arrows at the second wave of warriors. But I could already tell it wouldn’t be enough. There were too many Reapers, and we didn’t have enough archers to stop them all, even though they were shooting as fast as they could.
Caw-caw-caw. Caw-caw-caw. Caw-caw-caw.
And just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, the Black rocs finally got involved in the fight.
They appeared in the sky like thunderous storm clouds, hovering over the quad for several seconds before abruptly dive-bombing, just as I’d feared they would. The Reapers riding them made the rocs target the archers on the towers and balconies, and the creatures raked out with their talons, catching more than one archer across the chest and making them fall from the balconies to their deaths on the ground below.
The sound of cracking bones was horribly loud. “Take out the rocs!” Logan screamed, waving his
hand at the archers above our heads. “Before they kill you all!”
That’s what Daphne, Rory, Rachel, and the other archers were trying to do, but there were simply too many rocs and not enough of them. Daphne, in particular, sent arrow after arrow after arrow at the creatures. Every projectile she fired was true, but she couldn’t launch the arrows fast enough, even though they were leaving her bow in a golden blur, one after another—
Daphne sent three arrows straight into three different rocs.
I blinked, wondering if I was only imagining things. But she reached back, drew three more arrows out of the quiver strapped to her back, and sent them into three more rocs, all of which plummeted to the ground, taking their riders down with them.
For a moment, Daphne looked as startled as I did. She stared down at her weapon, Sigyn’s bow, the one she’d had ever since the Reaper attack at the Crius Coliseum, the one that had kept reappearing in her room no matter how many times she gave the weapon back to Metis. Then, she grinned, gave me a thumbs-up, and reached back for three more arrows.
Nike had once told me that Daphne would know what to do with the bow when the time was right. It looked like Daphne had finally figured out what her artifact did, and she put it to deadly use.
But more and more rocs still swooped over the quad. I heard a loud screech and realized that one of the creatures was heading for me, its talons outstretched as it aimed straight for my throat. I threw my hand up, trying to block the attack, although I knew how useless my hand was against the creature’s sharp claws—