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Taking aim at the first stumbling, insistent skeleton to come close enough, he fired a bullet straight through the corpse’s skull. It punched a hole straight through the brittle thing, sending mud and dirt and bits of bone flying.

But still, it shambled forward.

They’d have to bash them all to pieces. And there were a lot of them. He didn’t know what it would be like to die from being pulled apart by skeletons, but he wasn’t particularly excited about finding out.

He scooped up the bolt cutter. “Fuck. Ally?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Ally’s form glowed, suddenly bursting into an eerie, yellow-green light, as she stood from the wheelchair. Her human body seemed to simply shimmer away, disappearing as if it were never there. As if it were nothing more than a blanket she had pulled over herself.

It took him all his will—and sense of self-preservation—not to be frozen, staring at the creature that stepped forward to help him fight.

Blue-green skin shone in the glow from her bright, pupilless eyes. All four of them. She stood at seven feet, her legs canted like those of an animal, her claws digging into the dirt and gravel and broken asphalt easily. Lifting her six hands, weapons appeared in them, sharp and blunt alike. The voice that came from her was a whisper even as it was a roar. “Shall we?”

He swallowed the rock in his throat. “Yeah.”

* * *

Maggie crawledout of the window and rounded the corner back toward where Harry had parked the car. She pulled up short as she saw a giant turquoise demon ripping through a horde of skeletons that were swarming around it.

Her. Judging by the body and her blatant nudity, the demon was female.

She blinked as another skeleton staggered past her. It was little more than bone and bits of unidentifiable stringy bits. Mud and dirt dripped from it as it went in the same direction as all the others she could see. It was mindlessly stretching towards its target—the giant demoness.

“Huh. Animated corpses. Gotcha.” She shook her head. “Okay, then. Hey, Ally!” she half-shouted over the sound of the fight. “You guys good?”

The demoness looked up, her long yellow hair flowing as if caught in a breeze. She raised one of her six hands in greeting and cracked a toothy smile before going back to ripping through skeletons, sending bits and pieces of bone fragments and dirt scattering everywhere. And it was hard to see, but Rinaldo might have been part of the mess, smashing up dead things with a long, heavy object.

“Holy shit!” Maggie laughed. This was nuts. Even for her. A hand grabbed her wrist, and she whirled, punching whoever it was who grabbed her straight in the face.

Harry grunted. “Ow.”

“Sorry! Sorry.” She put her hand to his cheek where she had nailed him. “Didn’t know it was you. Got distracted by watching ‘Demon Sister versus the Undead’ over there.”

“Sorry I didn’t bring popcorn, but it’s time to go.” He tugged her along.

She went willingly but couldn’t help but keep glancing over her shoulder at the insane sight. “Frickin’ cool.”

“Glad you think so. Now, will you hurry up?”

“You’re no fun.” She probably shouldn’t have been smiling, but she couldn’t help it. That really was just a badass thing to see. The world was fun, and she really wished she had known that much earlier in her endless cycles of death and rebirth. When they reached the edge of the woods, they walked along the path before finding Gideon about a hundred feet away, talking quietly to Eurydice where she was perched on a nearby branch.

As they approached, he turned to them and smiled. “Were you successful?”

“Yeah. Haven’t touched it yet. Figured it was a bad time, what with the B-grade horror movie going on back there.” She jabbed a thumb over her shoulder.

“Very likely.” He looked up to Eurydice and clicked his tongue. The vulture took wing and soared up into the night sky. “Come. It’s late, and we have a long drive back to Boston.”

She jogged a little to catch up with him. “Boston? Why there? I figured we’d go back to the hotel, I’d touch the talisman piece, and then we’d know where to go next.”

There was a strange, pained look on his face. He didn’t look at her as they walked. “We should go to Boston. Trust me.”

She frowned. “Y—yeah. Okay.” She paused. “What aren’t you telling me?”

He let out a long breath. “Nothing you won’t find out by midday tomorrow.” Suddenly, he looked so tired she thought he might collapse.

Warily, she took his hand. “Gideon?”

“It’s all right…I’m fine.” He smiled weakly. “I, too, am eager for all this to be done with. The lies, the masquerades, the manipulation. But I need to hold the line one more time. I hope you understand.”