But I wasn’t a mortal girl.
Far from it.
Instinct took over, forcing my body to move. I darted to the left as I tapped into the powers stirring inside me. Reaching the raised dais, I spun around. A small ball of flames hit one of the creatures in the back. Fire erupted, swallowing its body.
“Holy crap,” I whispered.
On the other side of the chasm, ultra-bright flames danced over Aiden’s knuckles. Then he turned, taking out another as Luke brandished a dagger. Apparently he’d been the only one who came out of his bedroom prepared. Overachiever. Jumping forward, he slammed the dagger into one of the eye sockets and jerked his arm back, his lip curling in disgust as maroon-colored blood spurted out at him. The thing shrieked as it fell to the floor, shattering upon impact.
“That’s so gross,” he muttered, flipping the dagger. He twisted, eyeing another creature. “So freaking gross.”
Tapping into the fire element, I welcomed the lava now coursing through my veins. My right arm heated, and a bolt of fire shot from my palm, smacking the closest creature to me in the chest. It went down in flames. I spun, hitting another creature. The third zigged and zagged on me, getting close enough that the smell of rot and death turned my stomach. I danced back a step, tapping into fire once more. Flames swamped that creature as it fell forward. I turned, throwing out my arm. Fire crackled over my fingers, and I let it go just as another creature shot forward. The fourth creature took the hit in the shoulder, spinning it around. I turned as the fifth one jumped—jumped like a jackrabbit, landing no more than a foot in front of me. I reared back, but it wrapped a bony, fleshless hand around my forearm.
Fiery pain erupted, robbing the air out of my lungs. The touch seared my skin, forcing out a hoarse scream. The creature laughed, spewing dirt into the air. Rearing back, I tore my arm free just as a dagger sliced through its face from behind.
It didn’t jerk or spasm—simply fell to the floor, exploding into a pile of clumpy ash.
I was standing face to face with Luke.
“Looked like you could use the help,” he said, twisting at the waist. “Are you okay?”
Breathing through the pain, I looked down at my arm. Four marks the size of fingers burned my arm. “I’ll be okay.”
Luke didn’t get a chance to respond, because those on fire were rising from the floor. The flames receded, revealing charred skin and bone.
“What the hell?” I gasped out, pressing my wounded arm to my stomach as I scanned the atrium.
Aiden and Alex were backing up, both with the same stunned expressions on their faces. “This isn’t good,” she said. “I thought fire killed zombies.”
“Yeah, I don’t think these are zombies, babe,” Aiden replied.
“Head shots seem to work,” Luke called out. “So they’re kind of like zombies.”
“We don’t have daggers.” Aiden stepped to the left, halfway in front of Alex. It seemed like an unconscious, protective move. “We could push them back into the crevice.”
As soon as he finished saying that, as if the gods were laughing at us, several more climbed out of the hole in the floor.
“I don’t think that’s going to work.” Alex sighed.
My dagger was nowhere to be found among the broken tiles. It could’ve even fallen into the chasm. If fire didn’t kill these things, then . . .
I only knew of one other thing.
Instead of pushing away the pain, I used it to fuel me, and I reached deep inside, tapping into the very center of my being. Akasha roared to the surface, and releasing the supreme power was like a flower opening up to the sun. It was a release—a burst of white light powered down my arm like a cyclone.
I let it go, sending it straight to one of the charred creatures lumbering toward Luke and me. The pale light shrouded the creature for a half-second, and then it exploded into ash.
“Well, that works, too.” Luke grinned, obviously having way too much fun with this, and I had to wonder how he ever thought he could stop being a Sentinel.
Following suit, Alex and Aiden summoned akasha, while Luke was more hands-on, using the dagger. We took down nearly a dozen, but they streamed out of the crevice like an unending Night of The Living Dead.
Exhaustion was already settling into my bones as I released another bolt of akasha. It might’ve been the lack of sleep or the battle with Atlas and how Seth had . . . how he had fed off of all of us, but we couldn’t keep this up forever.
Akasha rippled down my arm as the smell of sulfur deepened. The ground shook once more, tossing me backward. I grunted as I hit the floor on my bad arm and my akasha faded out. Shifting onto my back, I dragged in air between my teeth.