A Huntsman dropped, eyes rolling back in her head. The vampire beside her also staggered, a dart in the side of her neck. I couldn’t see Kieran anymore, or even Solange. There was too much happening, too many grunts of pain, too many snapping bones and swords clashing. A vertical deadly rain of stakes threatened everyone, no matter who or what we were defending.
Three hunters lay defenseless in the snow. Tyson crawled forward, keeping his head out of the line of fire, and dragged them into a copse of cedars to protect them. Tranquilizers were a good idea in theory, but they had their own pitfalls. Chloe and Jason rushed out to help them. I saw Duncan and Marcus doing the same with fallen vampires, bringing them to the same shelter. Sebastian helped Jason with a particularly large hunter.
While Quinn and Nicholas took on three Host between us and the platforms, I turned just in time to see a Huntsman, flung by an angry vampire, crash right into Hunter behind me. She fell hard on her knee, gasping in pain. She grabbed for her crossbow, which had skittered just out of reach. I didn’t have the space to nock an arrow. I leaped forward, kicking the crossbow back to her.
When she tried to stand up, her leg buckled. She nearly pitched forward. I tried to get to her but there was a vampire and a Huntsman in my path, each trying to tear the other’s throat out. I tried to go around them and got knocked off my feet.
Hunter propped herself up by holding onto a low branch to steady herself. She lifted her reclaimed crossbow, resting it on the branch and taking aim, but there was no hope for a clear shot. I scuttled toward her, staying on my back where I had enough clearance to use my own crossbow. I took out two Host vampires with regular bolts, turning them to ashes.
“You again.” Ms. Dailey, who I recognized from the caves, picked her way over clumps of ashes and the bodies of her fellow hunters. She looked so furious that she’d tipped over into a creepy calm.
And she was pointing a gun at Hunter.
Hunter froze. I fumbled to load my crossbow with another arrow. A boot clomped down beside me, nearly snapping it out of my hand.
“This is your fault,” Ms. Dailey spat. “If you’d just died like you were supposed to, Hope and I could have taken care of this under the radar. You had me put away.”
“You slipped me vampire roofies,” Hunter returned, her voice shaking slightly.
“You really could have been someone.” She shook her head. Her gun aim was steady. “You chose the wrong side, Hunter.”
I tried to creep closer and get proper aim but there were too many fists and stakes between us. The clouds of ashes didn’t help either. Quinn swore, trying to fight his way to Hunter, but he and Nicholas were surrounded by more Host.
Ms. Dailey pulled the trigger.
Hunter fell backward before I realized the bullet hadn’t touched her. It hit her grandfather instead.
“Grandpa!” She crawled to where he’d landed, sprawled on his back. “You’re okay!” she said. “You’re okay.” She pressed a wadded-up bandanna to the wound in his chest. Blood soaked through it within seconds. “No,” she pleaded. “Grandpa, don’t go.”
He coughed. “Don’t fuss, kitten.”
And then he shot Ms. Dailey over Hunter’s shoulder before she could fire again. She slammed into a tree, and fell into a spindly hazel thicket.
“I’ll get help,” I babbled, even though I had no idea how I was supposed to do that. There was no way I’d be able to find Uncle Geoffrey in this chaos. Hunter kept applying pressure to her grandpa’s chest. Her ponytail slipped over one shoulder, the tip dragging in his blood.
“No need for that.” He tried to smile, blood foaming at the corner of his mouth. “You’re a good girl, Hunter.”
And then he died, smiling and patting her hand.
Quinn slid to her side in the snow.
That’s when the first wave of Hel-Blar hit.
Chapter 37
Solange
I was floating over the battle, pale and transparent as mist.
For a long, sickening, horrifying moment, I thought I was back in Viola’s spirit castle.
“No,” I said, frantically. “Absolutely not.”
I had to get out of here. I couldn’t be trapped like this again, not now, while I could see my family below fighting for their lives. They glowed faintly blue. I shook my head, as if that would make everything normal again.
“I really can’t be crazy right now,” I moaned out loud.
“Merde, Solange, what are you doing here?”
Isabeau’s voice startled me so thoroughly I hollered, and jerked back violently, spinning like cotton candy at a carnival booth. I came to a dizzying stop while Isabeau floated next to me, frowning delicately.
I flapped my hands at her. “Help me!”
Her eyes were fierce as wolf’s eyes. “Where is your body, Solange?”
“Kieran and I were on one of the platforms,” I said, trying to remember. I squinted at the strange, black-and-white, overexposed photograph of the camp below us. People and vampires glowed like superimposed colorful fireflies. “There!” I pointed, trying to see through the leaves. I could just make out the gold flare of Kieran’s aura outlining his body as he stood over me, where I was sprawled unconscious at his feet.
“I have got to stop doing that,” I muttered.
“Bien.” Isabeau looked relieved. “But this is still most unusual. The energy I put into your spirit cord when you were trapped in the castle must still be linking us.” She looked briefly curious. “You and Logan are both naturals at dreamwalking.”