Then she heard the sound of something tearing at the wall beside her. A section of the tunnel tore away, and she saw a second monster looking in. Sitting on its back was Eleni. When the Mog saw her, she snarled. Then she raised her hand. Six saw a ball of fire appear. Then it flew at her like a small comet, a burning tail stretched out behind it.
Six rolled away, and the ball of flame struck the side of the monster she was on. Its scales seemed to protect it from the worst of the heat, yet it shied away and gave an irritated shriek. Then a second one came, and a third. The last one struck Six in the shoulder. Searing pain bit into her as it ate through the leather of her costume and licked at her skin, and she cried out. Her grip faltered, and she felt herself falling. She scrabbled at the creature’s scales, trying to hang on.
The monster Eleni was riding pushed its way in, nosing the first one out of the way. From her position astride its back, Eleni looked at Six, clinging to the other creature, and smiled cruelly.
“Magdalena has outdone herself, don’t you think?” she said, lifting her hand and showing Six the fireball that was swirling there.
So, Six thought, they had succeeded in giving Eleni a Legacy after all. Meanwhile, she had none to fight back with. Six’s stomach burned with fury and pain as she slowly pulled herself up the back of her monster. Eleni watched, obviously amused.
“It seems unfair to kill you when you have no way of defending yourself,” the Mog said. “Plus, Magdalena needs you alive to harvest the parasite inside of you so she can give your Legacies to me.” She cocked her head. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t hurt you a little.”
She hurled another fireball at Six. Drawing on the last of her strength, Six dug her fingertips into the scales of the creature’s back and dragged herself up to its shoulder. Her burned arm screaming in agony, she grabbed for the end of her knife, still embedded in the beast’s eye, and jerked it to the side.
The monster whirled, turning to face Eleni as it sought to wrench the knife free. Six pulled back on the hilt, treating it like a steering mechanism and using the pain it inflicted to make the beast go where she wanted it to. She gave it another pull and the creature turned again, then started moving quickly back to the arena.
Eleni gave chase, following Six as her monster reentered the arena and headed towards the stage. Six still didn’t know what she was going to do, but she felt better not being trapped in the tunnel. Here there was more space, more options.
Eleni was attempting to hit Six with fireballs, but she succeeded only in striking the monster, annoying it and causing it to run more quickly. Several of her throws struck the debris scattered over the floor, starting small fires that immediately began to spread. This seemed to confuse and frighten the creatures, who darted away from the flames.
When her beast neared the stage, Six jumped. She landed on her feet, rolling to get out of the way as the creature, now enraged from the pain and its fear of the fire, turned its head and tried to bite her with a mouth full of sharp teeth. Six wished she’d been able to pull the knife from its eye, as she now had no weapon at all.
Then she spied something on the floor. It was one of the staffs that had been part of the costumes for the show. About six feet long, it was made of metal and had been intended for use during one of the acts in which six acrobats performed stunts using the poles to launch themselves into the air. Six picked it up.
Her injured shoulder burned, but she fought the pain as she crouched, gauging the distance between Eleni and herself. The Mog was urging her monster forward, screaming at it in her language. Fireballs shot from her hand as quickly as she could form them. Six swatted them away with the staff, shattering them into bursts of sparks.
She swayed on her feet, suddenly too exhausted to move. As if sensing her weakness, the parasite in her head seemed to grow stronger. She felt her thoughts begin to break apart, and she had trouble concentrating on what she needed to do. It felt like the best idea in the world to just give up, to set down the staff and let Eleni run her over.
Then she pictured Sam’s face. She wasn’t going to give up a chance to see him again. Not for a Mog. Not for anyone. And she was damn sure going to take Eleni out first.
Six reached deep, pushing down through the pain in her head, in her shoulder, in the rest of her body. She crouched, looking Eleni right in the eyes. Then she sprinted. Her legs pumped with the last of the strength in her. She held the steel staff out. When she was a dozen feet from Eleni and the charging monster, she planted the pole and swung herself up and into the air.
The monster opened its jaws to catch her, but she sailed past it and connected with the Mog. Her feet hit Eleni in the chest, knocking her backwards. Eleni fell, landing on the arena floor. Six fell beside her, the wind knocked out of her.
Neither of them moved for a moment. Then Eleni was on her feet. She called to the retreating monster, which turned and came towards them. Then she brought her attention back to Six and kicked her in the side. Six grabbed the Mog’s leg and pulled, throwing Eleni off-balance. Eleni stumbled and fell again. Six rolled on top of her, pinning her down. She gripped Eleni’s wrists and held her arms down.
“Try to make a fireball now,” she said.
Eleni thrust her hips up, trying to throw Six off. Six dug her knees into the Mog’s sides as hard as she could. She leaned forward, using her weight to press Eleni into the floor.
“You’ll have to try harder than that,” Six said.
Eleni turned her head and shouted something to the approaching beast. It opened its mouth and screeched.
“If it runs over us, it’ll kill you, too,” Six said.
“Then we die together,” said Eleni.
The enormous creature was bearing down on them. Six stared into Eleni’s face, deciding what to do. She knew she was too weak to fight her much longer, especially now that the Mog had a Legacy. If she was going to die anyway, maybe it was better to do it taking Eleni with her. At least then there would be one less thing for Nine and the others to worry about when they showed up.
She could feel Eleni struggling to throw her off. The Mog was scared. This made Six even more determined not to let her up. Let her feel what it’s like to stare death down, she thought.
The monster was almost on them. Six could feel each thunderous step it took. The smoke from the growing fires stung her eyes, and the heat was increasing around them.
When there were just seconds left, Eleni screamed and tried one last time to get out from under Six and save herself. Six almost relented. Then she felt a powerful push, like a great gust of wind. Smoke and flames streaked around her. The charging beast was shoved sideways, rolling over on itself with a grunt of surprise, its limbs flailing. Caught up in the blast of air, Six was tugged from atop the Mog and pulled along the floor.
When she came to a stop, she was on her back. She sat up, looking for the source of the force. The monster still lay on its side, unmoving but bellowing in pain. Six realized then that one of the metal staffs was sticking out of its chest. She looked for the second creature, but couldn’t see much through the smoke and flames. She also couldn’t see where Eleni was. She had disappeared.
Then a figure emerged from the inferno.
“I see you got some new pets,” Nine said.
“They followed me home,” Six said. “Can we keep them?”
“Okay,” said Nine, kneeling down beside her. “But you’re responsible for their litter boxes.”