Free Before the Fall by Sable Grace Page A

planks, praying that those she could hear manning the cranks could make it go faster.
    Forcing her gaze back to the fight going on in front of her, she peered around Zach. A semi-circle of bodies stood beside him like solid stone, offering one last line of defense, protecting those already inside their headquarters and those literally dying to get in. Shanna tried not to think of what was about to happen to her world. She gripped the daggers in her sweaty palms, wishing she’d kept the shotgun and not just its useless shells in her pocket.
    Sword-wielding guards stood shoulder to shoulder inside and around the dry mote. The Ravelin was lined with bowmen trying to slow down the blur of shadows running across the sloping hills surrounding the fort, and protecting the people who’d taken up refuge there.
    The drawbridge cranks stopped and so did Shanna’s heart. If they didn’t get that bridge lowered right now, she and Zach and a hundred more humans were going to be devoured.
    And then, they stopped coming. In unison, the demons approaching the fort froze on the hill, gazing up at the sky. The majority were shot down in an instant, and as Shanna felt herself filling with hope that this whole nightmare might be over, she heard Ares shout one more time.
    â€œNow!”
    The ground began to quake and rubble fell from the walls of the fort as Shanna watched dozens of cloaked figures step onto the fort walls and point what looked like wands toward the ground.
    â€œSubsisto stabilis quod validus!” They chanted the words over and over again, and while tiny white lights lit up their sticks, nothing else seemed to happen.
    â€œThirty seconds!”
    â€œWhat the hell are they doing?” Shanna demanded, her pulse racing and her body swaying as the ground beneath her feet gave a brutal tremor. “We need to get inside now!”
    â€œSubsisto stabilis quod validus!”
    â€œProtecting the fort and the portals to Olympus and Below! Hell’s about to open and they can’t risk losing the fort—”
    The ground shifted, and her gaze fell over the short wall and onto the Matanzas Bay, she watched the water bubble, watched a palm tree splinter and fall.
    â€œSubsisto stabilis quod validus!”
    It was impossible to keep a steady stance, and Shanna clawed the small crevices in the coquina wall, looking for support. But it was like being on a violent carnival ride, and she wanted the hell off!
    â€œLet us in!” she screamed.
    But her pleas were lost as a loud, inhuman growl filled the air, and fire lit up the sky. On the other side of the bay, buildings folded in on themselves right before her eyes.
    And as she felt Zach lift her into his arms, the unstable ground beneath her feet nearly toppled her over the bridge. She watched in horror as the streets of St. Augustine were lit up with fire.
    It was done. Hell had fully opened.

 
    Chapter Twelve
    Midnight
    The Fall . . .
    I t wouldn’t take long before the archers’ arrows were no longer able to keep up with the influx of bodies pressing down on them. Hell was officially open, and bodies were swimming across the bay to attack as hundreds spilled from the cavities created beneath the crumbled buildings behind them.
    On the walls of the fort, Ares and several dozen of his soldiers leaped down into the dry mote surrounding the area. He looked magnificent, his army intimidating as hell. But they were outnumbered ten to one.
    â€œWhat is he doing?” Shanna screamed. “We need him here. He can stop all this!”
    â€œNo,” Zach said. “He can lead the fight. That’s where his power is. If he gets in trouble, he can port out, but right now, he’s offering us one last line of defense so as many humans as possible can get inside.”
    â€œIs the spell ready, then? We can go inside and they can make sure we’re all human?”
    What if they got inside only to be murdered because