Spartan Heart (Mythos Academy: Colorado #1)(16)

Crunch.

The chimera landed beside me just as I shoved the sword upward—straight into the creature’s stomach.

The chimera threw back its head, snarling and screaming with pain, and it stretched a giant paw up, as though it were going to swipe it down and lay my throat open with its claws. I gritted my teeth, locked both hands around the sword’s hilt, and shoved the weapon even deeper into the creature’s belly. The chimera might kill me with its claws, but I was taking it with me the way a true Spartan would—

Poof!

Just before the chimera’s claws would have cut into me, the creature dissolved into a cloud of smoke. I coughed and coughed, trying to get the sulfur stench out of my lungs, and waved my hand in front of my face, trying to clear away the smoke, which stung my skin with its intense heat.

Babs slipped from my hand and clattered to the floor. The second the sword stopped rattling around, her eye snapped open, as though she had it shut tight during the fight with the chimera.

“Okay, that wasn’t so bad.” Her high, nervous tone made her Irish accent far more pronounced. “At least there was no blood to dirty up my blade. Now, if you’ll just do me a favor and find me a new display case, we can forget that this whole thing ever happened…”

Babs babbled on and on about how all she’d ever wanted was to live in a case with a nice view, but I tuned her out, got to my feet, and lurched over to the balcony.

Down on the first floor, Amanda was still running circles around the other chimera, which was taking great pleasure in leaping from table to table and swatting at her like a cat playing with a mouse. It wouldn’t be long before the creature moved in for the kill. Amanda knew it too, and she was trying to get to the exit doors. But every time she moved toward the main aisle, the chimera would leap onto the table in front of her, cut her off, and force her back to the center of the library. Amanda swung her staff at the chimera over and over again, landing several solid hits, but she couldn’t do enough damage to slip past the monster.

She was dead—if I didn’t save her.

I had already killed one chimera. I could kill another one. Even more than that, I wanted to do it. My Spartan instincts screamed at me to wade back into the fight, to hack and slash until all my enemies were dead, dead, dead.

The chimera leaped closer and closer to Amanda. In seconds, it would launch itself at her one final time, knock her to the ground, and tear her throat open with its teeth. I didn’t have time to run over to the door and rush down the stairs, and there was only one other way to get down to the first floor. I looked over the balcony railing, judging where I was in the library and the distance down to the ground. This was going to hurt, but there was no other way. But first, I still needed a weapon, so I whipped around and sprinted over to where I’d dropped Babs.

“Oh, no! Not again! Don’t pick me up!” Babs yelled. “Don’t pick me up! Don’t pick me up—”

Too late. Once again, I ignored her frantic cries and scooped the sword up off the floor. Then I ran forward, took hold of the stone railing, and leaped up and over the side of the balcony.

For an instant, I had the weightless sensation of free-falling, but all too quickly, the ground rushed up to meet me. Or in this case, a library table.

My boots slammed into the top of the table, and the jarring impact shot all the way up my legs, spread out into my hips, and wrapped around my back. I lost my balance, staggered forward, and fell off the table, landing hard on my left side on the floor. A low groan escaped my lips, but I pushed the pain away and scrambled back onto my feet, ready to stab this chimera the same way I had the one upstairs.

But I was too late.

Amanda lashed out with her staff, but the chimera was faster, and it avoided the blow and slammed her to the floor. The creature raised its paw, then swiped it down, raking its claws all the way across Amanda’s stomach. She screamed and beat at the creature with her staff, but the chimera grinned back at her. More of that noxious black smoke boiled out of the creature’s mouth and dripped onto the horrible wounds in her stomach, adding to her agony. The coppery stink of her blood mixed with the smoke’s sulfur fumes.

The chimera drew its claws back for another strike.

“Hey!” I screamed. “Pick on someone your own size!”

It was a stupid, cliché thing to say, since the chimera was even longer than I was tall, but my shout got the creature’s attention. It hopped over Amanda and stalked toward me.

I shook off my hard landing and subsequent fall and slowly started twirling the sword around in my hand, getting a feel for the weapon, since I hadn’t had a chance to do that earlier when I’d been battling the first chimera.

Strong, durable, lightweight, perfectly balanced, with a razor-sharp blade. The sword truly was a beautiful weapon, and I couldn’t have asked for anything better. Well, maybe something a little more cooperative. All the while, I could feel Babs’s lips moving under my palm, and I could still hear her babbling at me.

“Put me down! Put me down! Put me down!”

But I didn’t have a choice, so I ignored the sword’s cries and kept twirling her around and around, until the weapon felt like an extension of my own hand rather than something separate from it. More of my Spartan instincts were kicking in and letting me use what was handy in order to do what was necessary.

Kill the chimera before it killed me.