Sidona shouted behind her, voice filled with rage and grief – but she was still in control, issuing an order. Nina glanced back. To her horror, she saw two of the Nephilim warriors she had revived emerge from the mausoleum. They didn’t need to understand what was going on, what had happened to the world during their long hibernation; all that mattered was that their high priestess had commanded them to kill her.

She jumped down the stairs and sprinted along the metal and crystal corridor.

The giants pursued her.

Chapter 30

30

Colonel Wu ran for the exit tunnel, cursing. His ambush had failed; the presence of more of the monsters had caught him off guard, making him hesitate before firing. A second, less, but it had saved Gadreel’s life.

And now the giant was pounding after him. There was no way he could outrun him, and even if he got outside, the fall to the ground would be fatal. He had to stand and fight . . .

He darted into cover behind one of the glowing crystal ribs. However big Gadreel was, three shots to the centre of his mass would drop him like any man. The thudding footsteps grew louder. Wu readied his gun as he came into sight down the curving corridor—

Gadreel’s right hand lashed out as if cracking a whip. A blur of golden metal flashed from it. A trikan, Wu realised – but the yo-yo-like weapon was heading well wide.

He locked his gun on the giant’s chest—

The trikan swerved at him.

Its whirling blades snapped out and hacked chunks of flesh from his raised arm. Wu fell back with a scream, a reflexive shot clanking uselessly from the ceiling. The trikan whisked back towards Gadreel on its wire. The Nephilim held up his hand – and the weapon returned to its resting place in the handguard with a clack, the blades retracting.

Pain almost overcame Wu, but he forced himself upright. Ragged strips of bloodied muscle cut to the bone hung from his arm, tendons severed. The gun fell from his paralysed fingers. He crouched to find it with his other hand, but froze as Gadreel advanced. His expression filled the colonel with a new fear. The Nephilim’s rage would only be satisfied by his death. He turned and ran.

Gadreel raised the trikan – and flung it again.

Wu heard the shrill of the wire and the blades slicing through the air. He lunged behind another crystalline column—

The trikan made another impossible change of direction in mid-air.

It struck just below his right shoulder. The blades carved straight through skin and bone like an axe. The colonel screamed. Gadreel yanked his hand back, the trikan whirling home – and Wu’s arm fell to the floor amidst a fountain of blood.