Nothing. His hands appeared just as empty as before.
“Until I’m tired of standing here,” he responded as if that answer should satisfy me.
I focused on the screen again, hoping for more insight, or even to see if I’d just lost my grasp of reality, but the letters hadn’t changed and still spelled the same message. Even if I could get my hands on a weapon, taking Ninurta prisoner would be damn near impossible. I mean, he was a god. I’d have to hope this message was right, that his desire to get Sharur back would force his cooperation. And that Inanna wouldn’t burst in with the whole damn Sumerian-hero army. I didn’t think I’d get many chances to glance in his direction again. The next one had to count.
“Maybe it would help,” I suggested while trying to discreetly search the god who held my father’s life in his hands, “if you told me whether these names are people or places.”
Ninurta sighed, exasperated. “People, Gavyn.”
As I lowered my eyes, prepared to accept that either the drugs or my situation, or maybe the combination, were causing me to hallucinate and there wasn’t actually a message on the screen offering me a solution, a chance to escape with my life and my father’s, the overhead light reflected off something, glinted, catching my attention. It had been brief, this glimpse of silver in the incandescent lights, but something was hidden, animated in midair, constantly awaiting Ninurta’s grip.
When we’d first arrived in New Orleans, I’d asked Frey if he always traveled with swords and he’d told me yes. I’d assumed he was just being a smartass—after all, he was learning from the best—but perhaps he was telling me the truth. I sat up straighter, pretending something on the screen had caught my attention and Ninurta leaned in closer, just slightly, just enough that when I shifted my attention from the screen to his vicinity, I could see the spear I needed in order to stand a shot of getting out of here with my dad.
I pointed to a random spot on the screen, and Ninurta leaned a bit closer and began to say something but I twisted in my seat and grabbed the spear. Part of me had expected my fingers to find nothing but air, so when they closed around the smooth shaft, I was almost as surprised as the god Sharur belonged to. Ninurta gasped, but I wrapped my free arm around him, forcing him in front of me like a shield, and pressed the tip of the spear against the base of his skull. “If you want your magic spear back, don’t move unless I tell you to,” I directed.
Truthfully, I didn’t know how to use a spear, but I figured as long as I had the sharp, pointy end directed toward the guy I wanted to kill, I was on the right track. The two guys holding my father had frozen, immobilized by the sudden turn of events. “Let him go!” I shouted. When they still didn’t move, I pressed the tip of the spear into Ninurta’s skull until it drew blood, which caused him to cry out in pain. His chest heaved and he hissed, “Do it. Let him go.”
The captors released my father’s arms, and his knees buckled. He caught himself before his face slammed into the floor, his hands splayed in front of him. But I couldn’t help him up. If I let go of Ninurta, my only leverage to get us out of our prison, we’d both be dead before I could reach him. “Dad, you have to get up. You have to stay with me.”
My fifty-seven-year-old father was still far stronger than all of the gods and demigods combined. His eyes met mine and he slowly, carefully, painfully pulled himself back to his feet. Each stumbling step physically hurt me. None of these gods or heroes would escape my vengeance.
I forced myself to watch the men who’d held my father prisoner instead. If they made one move toward my dad, I’d spear Ninurta’s head. I was certain not even gods could survive a spear through the brain. We couldn’t retreat into the hallway. I had no idea how many gods and demigods waited inside this massive labyrinth of a building. Instead, I dragged Ninurta toward the windows and my father set his jaw and somehow, kept pace with me. Perhaps it was the temporary rush of a possible escape after giving up hope that salvation would ever come.
He fumbled with the latches for only a few seconds then managed to swing the windows open. The drop to the ground was only a few feet, but in my father’s condition, it would be brutal nonetheless. But he didn’t hesitate. He climbed onto the sill and landed with a muffled groan. “Now what?” Ninurta asked me. “Do you really think you can get me outside this way?”
To be honest, I had no idea. We had to get across the lawn, which was a lot of open space to cover without a hostage. I needed to get Ninurta out if we were going to survive. I glanced in the demigods’ direction one last time. “Get over here. You’ll wait by the windows, and if I hear you call for help or see you leave this room, I’ll kill your boss.”
Ninurta grunted in response but nodded, and the two demigods reluctantly made their way toward us. As so often seemed to happen now, my body began acting before my brain had a chance to catch up. I pushed the Sumerian war god toward the window, punched him, and knocked him over the sill. A gunshot, followed quickly by the splintering of wood as a bullet embedded into the wall right next to my ear, warned me I’d have one chance to get out of this building, so I took it. I jumped through the window just as a second gunshot joined the chorus of shouting behind me, and the most difficult part of our escape began.
Also by S.M. Schmitz
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Other titles by S.M. Schmitz
Shadows of the Gods, book one of The Unbreakable Sword series (fantasy & mythology)
As a powerful demigod, Selena has been running from the gods who control the government agency, the New Pantheon, for the past three years, but now, they’ve caught up to her.
When they trap Selena in an alleyway in New Orleans, she is ready to admit defeat. But an unfamiliar demigod rescues her, and the more she learns about Cameron, the more she discovers their common bonds may be the key to unraveling her own mysterious history.
In the first book of The Unbreakable Sword series, Selena and Cameron must not only evade the New Pantheon, which is ruthlessly hunting the remaining gods and their descendants, but an angry Aztec god that wants Selena’s power to himself. And they will discover in the impending final battle of the gods, no one can be trusted.
Blades of Ash, an Unbreakable Sword series prequel
When Olympus is destroyed, the Tuatha Dé and their Greek allies want revenge. But what their vengeance costs may haunt them forever.
Badb, one of the triune of Irish war goddesses known as the Mórrígna, is having a rough millennium: the mortals of Ireland have turned away from the Tuatha Dé, and now, the Sumerians have launched a disastrous invasion into Olympus.
Worse, the reason for the invasion isn’t as straightforward as they first thought. With powerful players stoking the flames between the Irish alliance and their enemies, both sides may ultimately lose everything, including their own worlds.
The Resurrected trilogy, a science-fiction romance (also available in The Complete Resurrected Trilogy Box Set)
Awakened from death. Herself but no longer alone in her own body. Two lives merged into one.
A mistake. An aberration. A miracle.
And a company that wants her dead for existing.
When Dietrich’s fiancée, Lottie, is killed in a car accident, he descends into his own personal Hell until he runs into her in a café two years later. Claiming she isn’t really Lottie but only possesses some of her memories, the young woman offers him an unbelievable story then disappears.
Using his position as a CIA agent to track her down, Dietrich quickly discovers Lottie remembers far more about her past life than she’d originally let on. But his attempt to learn more about the planet she comes from or the woman she is now is disrupted by a group of men from the company that transports people from their home planet to Earth when they find out about her resurrection and attempt to murder her.
Be
cause for Lottie, something went wrong, and her existence threatens their entire business on Earth. And Dietrich’s ultimate second chance with the only woman he’s ever loved will be threatened as well.
The Chosen, a Resurrected series novel
They promised her happily ever after. Instead, they gave her Hell. Now, she's getting revenge.
When Bella agreed to travel to Earth to start a new life with the man she loved, she’d been promised two things: healing dead human bodies so they could live on this planet always worked, and they could have the happily ever after forbidden to them at home.
But soon after arriving on her new planet, she discovers both of those promises were lies. And the consequences for trusting the wrong people are deadly.
After six years of hiding from the company that helped her cross over, she is approached by a beautiful but mysterious stranger who offers her a different kind of promise: the chance for revenge. And Bella’s journey to end her own nightmare and to seek justice for the man she’d once loved is finally able to begin.
The Immortals series, a fantasy & mythology series (also available in The Complete Immortals Series Box Set)
When demons refuse to play by the rules, all Hell will break loose.
Colin and Anna have been hunting demons for a long time. But something is different in Baton Rouge. The rules are being broken and they're powerless against some of the greatest forces Hell can assemble. If they can't stop these demons from manipulating every rule of this war, then Heaven may lose the only battle that's ever really mattered.
The Golden Eagle, a romantic suspense
After a vicious second civil war in the U.S., the states that seceded are occupied, and the people there live by different rules.
Jon is the highest-ranking officer in an elite Task Force whose purpose is shrouded in mystery. Ava is just trying to survive the occupation after two years of brutal war. After meeting unexpectedly, they discover they are both willing to risk everything for the chance to love one another. But what those risks entail may be far greater than anything either could have imagined.
The Cambria Code series, a science-fiction romance
When a mysterious spaceship appears above Cambria, Zoe remains skeptical that it’s anything but an elaborate hoax. By the time the first spaceship is joined by two others, Zoe reluctantly admits that Earth has been invaded, even though it’s a pretty lame invasion: the aliens look remarkably human and keep to themselves. From what humans are able to learn about them, they seem incredibly arrogant and boring anyway.
After meeting Peyton, one of Earth’s newest residents, Zoe feels an immediate attraction to him although she is reluctant to become involved with someone who isn’t even human. But she soon discovers that these aliens are far more dangerous than they’ve led everyone to believe, and the secrets they are hiding may signal the destruction of her entire planet.
The Scavengers, a post-apocalyptic novella
When nothing is left, what will you treasure most?
In a world completely destroyed by adults, eleven-year-old Nic believes he is the only thing still alive after four years of isolation—the only thing except for the Scavengers.
When he meets Celia, another child in an empty world, they offer one another hope and the promise of an end to the kind of fear and loneliness that only a child abandoned on a dead and forsaken planet could understand.
But Nic's universe, for years centered around Celia, will be tested, and he’ll discover just how far he’s willing to go to protect them both.
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