Cracked by Eliza Crewe

Author:Eliza Crewe
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781908844682
Publisher: Strange Chemistry
Published: 2013-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

TWELVE

Chi presses himself against the wall (gross) at the corner, both of his swords in his hands. I’m tucked behind Jo, as far away from the entrance as possible. We click off our flashlights and I miss my vision – without it, I swear my nose gets more sensitive and the heinous smell is even worse. We wait, crouching in the dark. The instant our pursuer comes around the corner, Jo and I are going to blind him with our flashlights while Chi attacks.

We don’t have to wait long. The bouncing beam of a flashlight lights up our little tunnel accompanied by a fast-moving splash of feet in sludge. Only one set of feet that I can count and I smile. One we can handle. The light gets brighter and I can see Chi’s outline. He’s smiling too, that violent, vicious smile I love. He must count one set of feet, too.

Our pursuer breaks around the corner. We flash our lights and Chi leaps – then drops his weapons and windmills, trying to stop. He can’t and slams into the form that is way too small to be a demon, and they both hit the side of the tunnel with a grunt, but fortunately, don’t fall into the sludge. Chi pushes himself off to reveal Uri, the professional tag-along.

Less terrifying than annoying, but I still have to stop myself from killing him. Seems only fair: he scared ten years off my life, so I should take ten years off him. He’s so annoying someone’s bound to kill him before he hits twenty-two, so killing him now would make us even. In fact, he might even be thirteen, so that would put him a year up. What can I say? I am the soul of generosity.

But I can’t, so I just snarl at him. Jo reads him the riot act and Chi welcomes him like a long-lost brother.

There’s rope in our supply pack so Chi boosts Uri through the manhole. He ties a rope somewhere above and we climb out. After the sewer, the crisp evening air of the mountains smells especially sweet. No matter the season, it makes me think of apples.

It’s twilight now and we’re on a quiet side street in what I guess must be downtown Sylva. I can just make out a white building with a dome, complete with statuary on top. Definitely a downtown-like building. The chant of crickets and the distant drone of cars are the only sounds, and we try to keep it that way by not speaking and moving stealthily. There’s an entire demon army a few miles away and there’s no telling whether they left someone to stake out the town. They know the Templars have tunnels – they managed to block one off.

Chi and Jo must have previously taken the thirty seconds necessary to memorize the tiny town’s layout because they don’t hesitate in leading us to the Iron Snake.

The Iron Snake is a small dive in a brick-and-green strip mall,

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