City of Thorns by C.N. Crawford

Chapter 21

Darkness surrounded me in the oak grove. Beyond the stench of fox pee, the air smelled of moss and soil, and faintly of gasoline.

For years, I’d been waiting for the demon apocalypse, and now it was happening. At least for me.

My knees shook as I waited for the sound of the klaxon that would herald the beginning of the Trial.

There was only one rule: no flying. As the Lilu were the only type of demons with wings, if I could actually use them, I’d be simply flapping around above the trees the entire time.

I glanced up at the sky. Clouds covered the moon, which was both good and bad. The bad part was that I’d be reliant on the night vision goggles I’d bought last year off Amazon (in case of the apocalypse), and they weren’t great. But the darkness was good, too. It gave me a little cover for the ridiculous suit I had on—a navy flame-retardant suit, with the safety stripes covered up. The demons might not notice the night vision goggles, the safety gloves, or the backpack I carried filled with supplies. They wouldn’t see the sheen of the flame-retardant gel on my cheeks and chin.

And when this ended, I’d need to get this shit off quickly before anyone could see what I’d been up to.

Sweat ran down my body under the suit. Tonight, the forest air was hot and humid, and heavy with tension.

Demons never considered using tools or weapons. Honed by evolution, they didn’t need technology. But me? I could only hope that my little arsenal would help me. And I prayed that the fox pee would disguise my scent, the way hunters used it in the woods.

My heart slammed against my ribs. Any moment now, the Trial would begin.

With my goggles on, I scanned the trees for signs of movement. My vision was black and white, and I could just see the trunks around me.

My plan for now was to get as close as possible to the river as quickly as I could. Before coming out here, I’d installed a compass app on Morgan’s Apple Watch, so I knew exactly which way was north, and the river was about four miles. When I got there, I’d spend the rest of the time fending off attackers.

With a thundering heart, I checked my borrowed watch—two minutes until midnight.

In high school, I’d run track and cross country. I’d even made it to nationals. This felt a lot like the start of those meets, burning with adrenaline, waiting for the gun to go off…except in this race, I could end up battered to death by an angry mob of demons, so the stakes were just a tad higher than coming in second.

I watched the countdown on my watch for a few seconds, then pulled out my first weapon—the Super Soaker.

When the klaxon sounded, I started to run.

Unlike my high school track meets, I was carrying about ten pounds of weight, encased in a metallic suit, and wearing goggles. I was already sweating into the suit, so speed wasn’t on my side tonight. As I ran, I breathed in the musky, acrid scent of fox pee, and my eyes watered.

With my night vision goggles, I scanned the trees for signs of movement. I ran for about ten minutes, sucking in breath sharply, without seeing a single demon. I thought I’d probably made it a mile and a half.

Only fifty minutes to go.

When my foot loudly snapped a twig, it occurred to me for the first time that speed might not be the most important thing. If they couldn’t see me easily or smell me, they’d be relying on sound. That twig breaking the silence might as well have been a cannon going off.

I froze, scanning the woods around me and catching my breath.

My heart skipped a beat as I saw a demon moving toward me. Unlike me, he moved with shocking speed, his body like wind through the trees. But he was still some distance away.

Before he could get to me, I used the Super Soaker to spray gasoline on the ground between us. I created a wide arc, at least twelve feet, then dropped the gun and snatched the deodorant from my tool belt. I’d superglued a lighter to the can using a plastic binder clip, so it stuck out at just the right angle to form a blowtorch. The lighter itself had a rubber band around it to hold the flame when it was depressed.

My body shook as I flicked the lighter and the flame sprang to life. Then I pressed the top of the deodorant. Four feet of flames shot out into the air, and I lunged forward, angling the fire toward the gasoline. The reaction was instant—an enormous wall of fire surrounding me.

Now the demon was just on the other side of the flames—and by his luscious curls and ivory horns, I recognized him as a duke. The blood-guzzling gluttony demon bellowed in rage, and the sound slid through my bones. It wasn’t just the sound itself that sparked my fear—he’d just alerted the entire demon army to my location.

I snatched the Super Soaker from the ground and sprayed through the flames toward the demon. The fire spread in his direction, and he backed away, staring at the flames and roaring.

I pivoted and broke into a run before more of them could find me. I had to put as much distance as possible between the bellowing demon and me.

I usually ran five days a week, often six to seven miles, maybe up to ten, and even with my backpack on, the adrenaline was giving me extra strength. I pumped my arms hard, running faster through the trees than I’d been moving before. But when I stole a glance behind me, I saw movement in the distance. A demon was closing in on me. No—not just a demon. With my goggles, I saw two…three…six?

Fuck. They were all over, and I still had a mile to get to the river.

New tactic.

My hands were shaking as I pulled off the night vision goggles, and I felt blind without them. Vulnerable. But for what I needed to do next, I couldn’t have them on.

I unzipped my backpack and found the gas mask. When I slid it on over my face, my sense of vulnerability only increased. I pulled the hood over my head and tightened it as quickly as I could, and the eyepieces fogged a little.

Just like I’d done when I was mixing chemicals earlier, I had to test the filter first. I covered it, checking to make sure no air was escaping into the mask from other gaps. With the filter covered, I couldn’t breathe at all, which was both terrifying and what I wanted.

Now I was ready.

I knelt down again and reached into the backpack for my glass jars. I started hurling them at the tree trunks, one by one. Within moments, the demons were coughing, then screaming.

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.

Three minutes left.

And what’s more, I could smell the scent of gasoline I’d poured out two hours ago.

It was time for the pièce de résistance—my real shock and awe.

When I reached the riverbank, I pulled out the flamethrower and flicked the lighter. As I touched the arc of flame to the ground, a wall of pure fire raced out from either side. I’d created a mouth to hell.

I leapt through the fire into the ice-cold Acheron River and swam down to the bottom, deep into the murk. Turning, I swam east for a moment and then I unzipped my fire suit. My lungs started to burn as I held my breath and stuffed the suit and tools into the backpack. I zipped it up and let it sink to the bottom, and then, my secret hidden, I swam to the northern bank.

And as I pulled myself out, I heard the sound of the klaxon blaring. There they were—the king standing by Orion’s side, waiting for me. My little victory party. A small crowd stood behind them, staring at me.

Holy fucking shit.

Holy fucking shit. I’d made it.

Joy surged through me. I’d survived.Maybe everything was going to be okay after all. Had I really done this?

Soaking wet, I hoisted myself onto the bank, trying to hide exactly how exhausted I was.

I saw the king raise his cocktail glass in a toast to me, and Orion’s pale eyes shone brightly in the darkness.

Under my fire suit, I’d been wearing a sleek black outfit—fitted black pants and a corset. If I weren’t soaked in river water, I might actually look pretty good right now.

As I stepped into the stony esplanade before the Tower of Baal, I raised my arms in victory and surveyed the demons around me. No one was exactly cheering at my survival, which seemed a bit rude. In fact, they looked a little pissed off.

And as the klaxon continued to blare, I felt a sharp tug at my wet hair, dragging me back onto the stones. I slammed down hard on the ground. The next thing I knew, Lydia was on top of me. She wrapped her hands around my throat and squeezed, fangs bared and a maniacal look in her eyes. Then she raised one of her hands, and gleaming claws burst forth.

She was going to cut my heart out, wasn’t she? That was how demons killed each other. They ripped each other’s hearts out with their claws.

“There’s only room for one queen,” she hissed under her breath.

I couldn’t breathe. Oh, holy fuck, I couldn’t breathe…