Marcus Pelegrimas - The Breaking

Paige took a sideways stance so she could glance back and forth between the Full Bloods and the reservoir without letting either out of her peripheral vision.

The water churned until it began spraying up from the rippling surface. Instead of the shimmering glow she was used to seeing through the beaded curtain of a Dryad temple, Paige watched as droplets of water froze several feet above the surface of the water, as if they’d spattered against a window suspended in midair behind her.

Liam smiled. “Better run, Skinners. Just to keep it sporting.”

The crackle that came from the glistening smudge in the air sounded like a static charge preceding a lightning strike. Cole emerged from the dim green glow as if he’d been thrown through it. He grunted in agony and dropped straight down into the cold waters beneath his feet.

Liam drifted between an amused smirk and a surprised grimace.

Minh raised the hackles on her back, preparing for whatever came next.

Kawosa sat calmly and watched.

Paige turned to the closest Full Blood and snapped her arm like a whip to throw her sickle before the diversion Cole had provided was wasted.

Without even bothering to shift his weight to dodge the incoming weapon, Liam caught the spinning sickle less than an inch from his nose. He flipped it around to grip the weapon by its handle, cocked it back next to his ear, and threw it into Bill’s head, where it landed with a solid thunk . Before Bill could drop, Liam’s ears pricked as another shrieking wave of hooked talons and flattened skin poured through the shimmering opening hanging above the water.

Though she’d heard Cole’s rushed explanation of what he’d found in New Mexico, there was no way for Paige to prepare for being in the middle of a gargoyle hurricane. They emerged from the dripping bridge between two states, veering off to either cut straight up into the air or out to either side before curling back in to dive-bomb those who stood below them. When Liam reflexively swiped at one of the fliers and cut it into ribbons, the rest descended upon him and every other living thing on that shoreline.

Screaming from above, the leathery things swept down to scratch at her face and wrap bony arms around her body, putting even her steely nerves to the test. She, Milosh, and Nadya wrapped their arms around their heads and tried to duck beneath the incoming swarm. Bill, on the other hand, lifted his shotgun to aim at a cluster of the things diving at him and pulled the trigger. The shotgun blast was all but washed out by the grating wail of air passing through the gargoyles’ bodies. The powerful blast obliterated most of that group, spraying their clear blood and fluids across the entire shoreline.

Once the rest of the gargoyles caught that scent, the swarm of flapping bodies drew even closer, to wrap around him and latch on using their long, curved talons. Paige had almost made it to the water when she was slammed down by a gargoyle that dropped onto her like a wet leathery towel. It covered the back of her head, scraping at her shoulders and convulsing against her hair while sucking air through a wide, toothless mouth. A warm dampness spread between her shoulders, and before she could wonder if the thing had pissed on her, that spot began to tense and twist as if an invisible fist was clenched around her flesh and drawing it in. The sensation spread through her body, accompanied by a feeling of dry numbness.

“No, no, no!” she shouted while rolling over and swinging both arms at the creature. She saw, then, a muddled, sloppy attempt at a face that reminded her of a stingray’s underbelly. It gazed blankly at her until the gargoyle was sent hurtling away from its meal. Scraping its talons against the dirt, the thing popped itself less than a foot off the ground, drifted forward, then swung back at her. Paige watched it gain altitude like a piece of paper fluttering back up to a spot from which it had been dropped. More of them descended from a whirling cloud circling the shoreline, separating to glide away and adjust their flight path to find her. Even as she staggered toward the water, Paige doubted she’d be able to dive in before at least one of those things wrapped around her. The substance that had been poured onto her back was still hardening, making it difficult to remain upright. Suddenly, the water erupted and a large figure rose from the reservoir to charge at her. Her arms came up reflexively to defend herself, and by the time she spotted Cole’s face, her punch was already on its way to his chin.

Cole ducked under the swing, thanks to a familiarity with her that came in no small part from getting his ass kicked throughout months of sparring. Keeping his head down, he pressed his shoulder against Paige’s torso and wrapped an arm around her so he could drag her into the water. “Did they get any of that stone juice on you?” he asked.

Paige knew what he meant. “Yeah, but—” Before she could say another word, he shoved her into the water and held her there. As soon as the pressure on her eased, she stood up and sputtered, “I have to breathe, you know!”

“That crap dissolves in water before it hardens,” Cole said. “Just stay in there until it comes off.” After that he was forced to swing his spear at a group of the creatures that flapped over his head. The spearhead tore a few of them open badly enough for one to do a flat spin into the water and another to wind up hanging on the end of the weapon like a flag made of pale skin. Cole kept his spear upright and charged onto the shore.

Paige dropped below the water as three gargoyles screamed down at her. Their muddled, stingray faces gaped into the reservoir as the fliers swooped above water that was still reflecting pale glows emanating from the moon and the nearby portal. Pushing up with both legs, she broke the surface of the water to find the Amriany standing their ground no more than ten feet away.

“Milosh! Nadya!” she shouted. “Get in the water!”

Milosh turned while Nadya fired up at a cluster of the gargoyles without hitting a single one. “You hide there and we will keep them away,” he replied.

“You’ve got to come in the water or they’ll poison you!”

“Turn you to stone is more like it, but not if you scare them away. Takes loud noises,” Milosh said. Both he and Nadya stood their ground as two of the shrieking gargoyles swooped in from opposite sides to try and close in on them. Nadya waited for them to get close enough to see the black slits of their second pair of eyes before firing a short burst of automatic fire directly above them. The gargoyles parted and flapped away, getting close enough to the humans to slap the Amriany’s heads with the tattered tails at the ends of their bodies.

“Noises,” Milosh said with a crooked smile, “and a set of cast iron balls!”

Not far from the Amriany, Liam and Minh had their hands full. While Liam roared and swiped at the gargoyles, Minh kept her head down and did her best to avoid getting hit. As Paige watched, Liam turned one gargoyle into wet ribbons while another clamped onto his back. The Full Blood reached over both shoulders, grabbed the fleshy creature and ripped it away before howling with a pain Paige could actually recognize. He turned to bite another one in midair, giving her a good look at a strip of his back that had turned from a dirty white to light gray. Liam howled louder, arched his back and cracked the substance off him in what looked to be chunks of freshly dried cement.

Paige smiled and reached around for the spot where she’d been hit. The substance was still on her but had the consistency of paste. When she examined her fingers, she could feel it solidifying around their tips. The stuff broke away in a thick crust, taking a layer of skin along with it.