Tainted: Book Three - Enslaved

22. Saving Your Dumb Behind

Mira

I needed more metal, but there wasn't any.

And we were almost outta time.

As the rupture spread a little more, I could hear horrific sounds coming from it. Rome had broken through the drywall into the outer office and carried Josef and Mimi out, then came back. Gigi was either invisible or 'porting too fast for us to see and Jax wouldn't leave her, so the three of us moved everything out of the way and waited.

As Rome hurled the last of the cushy office chairs down the rupture, I choked back a hysterical giggle as I pictured a red-tailed demon lounging in one as bad elevator music hummed in the background.

"Aarrgghh!"

Something like a decaying pterosaur shot out of the hole with an ear-piercing screech to rival Jax's. I reared back in surprise, then had to scramble to grab the cable before it fed all the way through the pulley.

Out of the corner of my eye, I glimpsed a blue glow as Rome sliced it up with his twin short swords.

"The longer this is open, the more will come up!" he shouted.

"Aw, you can handle it, big man!" I yelled back. Then I felt a jerk on the cable and hauled it up as fast as I could. "Jax, get ready to catch someone!"

When the cage reached the edge, Titus jumped out. Jax grabbed him and pulled him away as more of the floor crumbled.

"Get that back down there!" Titus roared. "He's surrounded by now!"

Immediately, I dropped it, the braided metal cable sliding through my hands a mile per second. Titus slumped against Jax. His one leg was a mangled mess.

"Can you call a healer?" I played out the cable until it reached the same place as before.

"Later! Just get him out of there! A flock of rivens was on my tail. Keep your blades out."

"Already bagged one."

Rome directed Jax to take Titus out to Mimi. When they were gone, he moved closer to the edge. Holding his swords at the ready, he asked if I felt anything on the cable.

"No. Nothing. Do you think the cable—" The cage was suddenly gone from my control. "It's gone!"

"What is? The cable?"

"All of it!" I pulled up the cable, but only got a few yards before I reached the frayed end.

The screech of rivens got louder.

Snarling, Rome dropped his blades and grabbed the table Jax had collapsed and leaned against the wall. He flipped it lengthwise over the widest part of the rupture and flattened himself on top of it. About a dozen rivens slammed into it with dull thuds.

"I can only hold them back for so long like this." He spread his arms and legs to weigh the table down. "Any ideas to get Kerry out?"

"How much time do we have left?" Gigi's voice came from everywhere and nowhere.

"Forty seconds," he called back. "Get ready to close it up!"

"I am not leaving him down there," I hollered.

"We have to, Mira! It's him or us and this whole building!"

Ideas, ideas! Gotta save Kerry! If only someone other than Gigi could tele—

"I know what to do!" I pulled one of the charms off Zick's bracelet and smashed it between my thumb and forefinger.

"Mira, w—"