I couldn’t see very well through the darkness and the goggles, but I didn’t think they were moving any closer to me.
I had no idea if demons were rushing at me from the north, but I hurled another jar in that direction, just in case, until I was surrounded by a cloud of homemade mustard gas on all sides.
Right now, the bleach and ammonia mix would be searing their lungs, stealing their breath, and burning and blistering their skin and eyes.
Was this prohibited by the Geneva Convention? Okay, technically yes, but those laws had been written for mortals. The demons would recover, even if the next twenty minutes would be deeply unpleasant.
I grabbed my backpack and started moving again.
With the gas mask on, I couldn’t run anymore. For one thing, I could no longer see where I was going, and for another, it was incredibly hard to breathe in that thing. I could only hope the mustard gas took out any demons around me.
I checked the watch, making sure I was still heading north.
Twenty-one minutes. I only had to survive twenty-one more minutes, and I’d be free. Holy shit, this was actually working.
When I thought I’d cleared enough distance from the mustard gas, I pulled off my gloves and took a little breath, testing the air. My skin wasn’t burning, and my lungs felt fine. I pulled the gloves back on and tried loosening my gas mask. Lungs seemed okay…
I took a deep breath. My eyes stung a little, but that was it.
I pulled the gas mask all the way off and took a few breaths, then quickly slipped my night vision goggles back on. Backpack hoisted, I started to run. I was closing the distance now, only a half mile or so to the river.
As I zoomed between the trunks, a chill rushed through the air, and the trees became hazy through my night vision goggles. Before I could figure out what had happened, I slammed into a wall of ice. A jolt of pain shot through my skull as the force of the crash cracked my goggles. I ripped them off and stared around me at a large sphere of ice.
Nama had already trapped me in here, and I didn’t know how far away she was. But just as Orion had said, the ice was thin as glass.
As quickly as I could, I sprayed the ground around me with gasoline, then reached for the glass-breaking knife in my pocket. It didn’t look like much more than a bit of plastic, but hidden within the plastic was a blade that popped out on impact. I slammed it hard against the ice, and it shattered around me.
With a thundering heart, I grabbed my flamethrower. I flicked the lighter on, pressed the deodorant, and blasted flames at the ground. Fire erupted around me, and fear twisted my heart. I hated fire.
But Nama was still running for me, and I blasted flames in her direction using the Super Soaker and the homemade flamethrower. In the distance, I stared in a sickening sort of horror as her hair and clothes caught fire from the flames on the ground. She screamed, the sound curdling my blood.
My pulse raced out of control. She’s a demon, I reminded myself. She’ll get better.
I only had a half mile left to go, and I checked my watch.
Ten minutes.
I just had to survive ten minutes.
I started to run again, but this time, I couldn’t see the trees. I flicked on a light on the Apple Watch—which wasn’t ideal, since people might see it. But it was the only way I could see to avoid running into an unyielding trunk. I ran with the flamethrower in one hand, pumping my arms hard as I headed for the river. The backpack bounced behind me, and I bounded over roots and stones. I was sweating hard in my suit as my body overheated.
As I moved closer to the city, I could turn off the light on my watch, as the lights from the town square illuminated the forest.
Suddenly, I heard Lydia’s husky voice cut through the forest. “Demons, hear me! I’m following her trail! She’s by the river!”
So that’s how they’d been finding me, even through the stench of fox piss. They were tracking me through the woods, looking for the broken branches I’d left behind. And broken demons, too.
And now, Lydia was trying to summon all the demons to attack me at once.
Four minutes left.
Through the forest, I heard the bellowing of demon war cries—a deep, malignant sound that slid through my bones and sent my heart racing out of control. The ancient part of my brain was telling me to panic, that predators were coming for me. And for once, that anxious part of my brain was fucking right.
Get to the river, Rowan. Get there now.
The demons were coming to her call, bellowing for my blood. They were all heading for the river, closing in. Their otherworldly cries turned my blood to ice, and panic scraped up my spine. But I could see the river now through the trunks, glimmering in the lights from the Tower of Baal.