Julius dropped like a stone. His chest, already ripped to ribbons by the magic eater, was on fire all over again, though this time the pain was focused just below his left lung. He supposed he should be grateful that the shot hadn’t gone through his lung, but he was in too much pain to think about anything except holding on to the detonator. That he clung to for dear life. He was trying to roll over and curl himself into a protective ball around it when someone grabbed him unmercifully by the shoulders and laid him flat again with a snap.
“Of all the—” Justin growled, snatching Tyrfing out of Julius’s hand before the exposed blade could stab anyone. “It was one bullet, Julius!”
His brother’s bedside manner left much to be desired, but at least Justin’s scathing appraisal helped to remind Julius’s panicked body that it wasn’t actually dying. He was, however, in a great deal of pain, not to mention bleeding like a hose. But neither of these things would kill a dragon, even an awful one, and he was certainly doing much better than Bixby.
The mobster had collapsed after Julius sliced his hand off. He was now lying on the floor, gripping the stump at the end of his arm and screaming at the top of his lungs. Marci was down right beside him, coughing on her hands and knees. Any other time, that would have been a sorry sight. Right now, though, the relief of seeing her alive and whole was almost enough to make Julius forget the horrible pain in his chest, especially when she looked over at him and asked, “Are you okay?”
“He’s fine,” Justin snapped before Julius could open his mouth. “He’s just being a baby.” He kicked what was left of Bixby’s severed hand away with practical ambivalence before kneeling down to glare right into Julius’s face. “Honestly, who ever heard of a dragon going down to one bullet? All that big talk about not leaving anyone behind, and then you go down like a leaf at the first shot. You should be ashamed. I’m ashamed for you.”
“If anyone should be ashamed around here, it’s you!” Marci cried, yanking herself up on pure indignation. “What were you thinking, letting your injured brother get shot like that?”
“How was I supposed to know he’d be stupid enough to try and save you?” Justin roared.
Marci sucked in a furious breath, but Julius cut her off. “Can we talk about this later?”
Both of them snapped their heads down toward him, and Julius nodded at the ceiling, which was now crawling with magic eaters. A fact he had an excellent view of, being on his back.
The visual reminder worked as intended. Justin and Marci gave each other a final glare, and then they put their argument on hold as they burst into action. But while Justin leaned down to get Julius, Marci went for Bixby. The mobster made a few feeble attempts to keep her away, but he was too busy going into shock to run any real interference as she plunged her hand into the bag on his belt and pulled out the Kosmolabe.
“Really?” Justin said as he hauled Julius to his feet.
“Waste not, want not,” Marci said, shoving the golden orb into her bag. “Besides, the Kosmolabe is the whole reason Estella did this. I’m not just going to leave it here for her to scoop up.”
Justin rolled his eyes. “Well, if you’re done collecting, can we go?”
“One last thing,” she said, reaching down to pick up the gun Bixby had dropped. Before Julius could ask what she meant to do with it, Marci turned the barrel on Bixby and shot him in the heart.
There was no warning, no hesitation. Even Justin jumped when the crack of the shot filled the room. The bang was still echoing when Bixby’s thrashing stopped, and he let out a last, gargling breath before falling still forever.
Marci let out a breath as well, bending over to set the gun back down on the now very bloody gym floor. “There, now we can go.”
Everyone was staring at her when she looked up again. “What?” she cried. “He killed my dad! He tried to kill Julius, and he was going to put me in a coma. He deserved that.”
“No argument here,” Justin said, hoisting Katya’s still-unconscious body back onto his shoulder from where he’d put her down to tend to Julius. “You’re a better dragon than he is.”
Marci didn’t seem to know quite how to take that. Julius wasn’t sure either, but he was very, very glad when she stepped in to support his other side. “Thank you,” he whispered, leaning on her. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
“That’s my line,” she grumbled, sliding her arm around his waist to support his back. “You’re the one who got shot.”
“It was just one bullet.”
Marci shook her head and leaned closer, supporting more of his weight as the four of them—Justin carrying Katya on one shoulder and supporting Julius with the other—half ran, half hobbled to the gym’s main doors.
“All right,” Justin said when they got close. “This whole situation is FUBAR, and if you don’t want it getting more so, do exactly what I say. The magic eaters are predators. They’ll go for the wounded first, so we’re going to stay close and move fast. Marci, you keep Julius up. I’ll get everything else.”
“Right,” Marci said, pulling Tyrfing back out of the sheath on Julius’s belt.
Justin arched an eyebrow. “Can you even use a sword?”
“Nope,” she replied. “But that’s kind of the point of a sword that never misses, and it’s not like I can use magic at the moment.”
Now that she’d mentioned it, Julius realized he couldn’t feel any magic in the air at all. The dark, heavy aura of the Pit had vanished completely, leaving only a void that was somehow worse. No wonder his family complained so much about the days before the magic returned. The unnatural emptiness felt terrible. It also brought to mind a pertinent question.
“How many magic eaters do you think are here?” he asked as Justin lifted his foot to kick the press bar that opened the gym door.
“Not enough to take me,” his brother said confidently, smashing the exit open. “Just stay close and there won’t be any troub—”
He stopped short, causing Marci to bump into him. This, in turn, bumped Julius between them, jostling his wound hard enough to make him see spots. He was still blinking them away when Justin said, “Okay, this is a bit more than I anticipated.”
‘A bit’ didn’t begin to describe it. Back in the gym, Julius had assumed the magic eaters who’d come in through the ceiling had been the boldest, or at least the hungriest. Now, he was starting to wonder if they hadn’t just been pushed in by the rest. The area outside the gym was a solid carpet of magic eaters. The ground was literally black with their crawling bodies, and the beat of their wings in the air above was so constant, it actually raised a wind. Everywhere Julius looked, the darkness was moving, and he didn’t need his brother’s unusually serious scowl to know that they were in very real trouble.
Marci swallowed. “Should we—”
“No.” Justin swung Katya’s unconscious weight into a fireman’s carry across his shoulders to free his right arm to draw his own sword. “We’re going to do this quick, so keep that kitchen knife up. Julius, you hold tight to that detonator until we can tie it down. And try to stop bleeding so much. You’re only drawing more.”
Julius sighed. “I can’t just stop—”
“I’ll carry the girl and go offense,” Justin went on, rolling over him. “Ready?”