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The beast paced the floor beside ainst limpse of its paw One claas the size of my hand And it had five of those on each paw Its feet alone hed more than I did It pawed at ainst theon so rowling registered in the back of my mind My time suppression never affected her either, but I could hold it back only so long I could stop Reyes frolanced across the floor He lay in a colossal pool of his own blood as I sat quivering under a table like an addled schoolgirl Fear laced upthe wetness past my lashes The shelf I lay under was so low, I couldn’t turn my head, I couldn’t see the Dealer or Garrett, but I could feel Zeus He lay next to e hi it

I had no choice I had to kick the knife out froet to it before the beast’s clawsaway from me When it bounced back, it would feel like a runaway train crashing through a railway station It would knock the air fros and disorient me

It was exactly what I needed

I readiedit slowly Counting down frooal, and released time

It slammed into me, as I kicked Zeus frorazed the leg of the pacing hellhound, but it had yet to orient to the tiet to the knife But I was also fighting gravity, as though tiravitational force field The barrier slowed th

Once free of the table, I lunged for Zeus, scooped him up in one hand, and buried the razor-sharp blade into the hell beast’s paw The creatures adjusted even faster than before, co from the one I’d stabbed

I pulled the knife out and slashed blindly, trying to get to Reyes’s side One swipe actually met its mark, and another howl reverberated over the sound of ti into place

My measly cuts would barely faze the ani like the dickens, enough to get their attention Enough, I prayed, to convince therowl, I finally sank ’s shoulder My hold on Zeus slipped, but I doubledfor the beast to leave now or die trying later

And then they were gone

My gaze darted around me as I whirled this direction and that, but even the silvery black dust was gone Still, for how long? I looked up The s sat high, as this was a lower level, and they were covered in a brown paper or cardboard or soht affected them, but the idea orth a shot Before they could return, I scurried onto the countertops at the far end of the roo at the paper So Using Zeus’s handle, I broke the panes out of the fraht streamed into the rooling to stand I hustled down and hurried over to help hi the area warily

"We have to get the the Dealer and Reyes, but the Dealer was already up, his head bowed, his hands clenched into fists as he glared from underneath his dark lashes

Reyes had told hter, and in hell, one could only assu to the death He said the Daeva, or slave dea slaves but any of the demons there, too He’d been a champion, afforded luxuries other slaves didn’t have, which led to his ability to escape centuries before Reyes had

He was clearly in his ele with blood and re That had been his gift His stillness His patience His ability to wait out his opponent, to let the fighter get the upper hand just long enough for hi, because once the cha for his opponent to die

I literally felt the force of his anger as he pushed it aside, turning it off so he could appraise the situation

"Holy fk," Garrett said, rushing toward Reyes

I was right behind him I dropped Zeus and slid onto ainst a counter He tried to lift hie it Garrett was there instantly, helping him to his feet as I took his other side

"We need to leave," the Dealer said, his eyes unblinking as he continued to scan the area "Now"

He didn’t have to tell me twice Garrett and I eased Reyes toward the door I slipped on his blood but was able to right er disaster of an already disastrous situation

"The knife," the Dealer said, and I knew he couldn’t just pick it up without some kind of protection No de on the floor

But we didn’t wait for him We hurried out the door and up the stairs, Reyes’s feet tripping as we almost carried him up Or, well, Garrett almost carried him up I felt more like a hindrance than a help