The Demonata #10: Hell's Heroes by Darren Shan

He does a quick head count of the remaining demons. “We might have to face as many as eight clones within the next six minutes.”
    “We could do with a plan,” Shark barks.
    “I’m working on it.” I look around, weighing up my options. Trying to punch a hole through the wall of bones and flesh is probably our best option. Maybe we could explode a demon against it. But I’m not convinced that will work. Demon masters make many of the rules in their own realms.
    If we link, Kernel and I
might
get the better of it in a fight to the death, but again I’m dubious. Even Beranabus avoided direct confrontation with the stronger Demonata on their home turf. We’ll be taking an awful risk if we pit ourselves against it.
    There’s one other option. The words “frying pan” and “fire” leap to mind as soon as I consider it. But if it’s a choice between facing a firing squad and jumping off a cliff, I’ll always opt for the jump because you might get lucky on the way down.
    “Follow me!” I shout, grabbing Kernel’s hand and darting forward. I narrowly dodge the pillars of liquid, racing past them as they crash to the ground less than a yard to my left. I head for the spot where the pool used to rest, and where the window that the demons crossed through is still hanging in the air.
    “You’ve got to be joking!” Shark roars. “That leads to Lord Loss’s realm!”
    “That’s where we were heading anyway, wasn’t it?” I yell back.
    “But the plan was to take him by surprise. If we jump through a window that he made…”
    “Hell,” I chuckle, “if I was in his shoes, and some nutcase jumped through my window and straight into my arms, it’d sure take
me
by surprise!”
    Before Shark can argue, I hit the window of light and throw myself at it, bursting through, bellowing wildly, relishing the insane buzz of my suicidal lunge.

KNIGHTS IN SLIMY ARMOR

    N OTHING but cobwebs. I whirl wildly as the others crash through after me, sure Lord Loss and his minions are hiding in the shadows. But we’re alone in a large, bare room. No time to wonder at that. I don’t know if the mobile pool can cross after us, but taking no chances, I cast a spell over the window, establishing a shield to block anything else from following.
    “Where is he?” Shark growls, casting an uneasy eye around the room.
    “I don’t know.” I try sensing the demon master’s presence, but I’ve never been good at that type of magic.
    “Let’s get out of here,” Kirilli moans.
    “Don’t be stupid,” I snap. “This is where we wanted to get to.”
    “But it’s different now,” Kernel says, taking Kirilli’s side. “Lord Loss herded us here. It’s obviously part of a plan. We’d be crazy to go on.”
    “That’s the way it always is,” I shrug. “Lord Loss sets a trap—I blunder into it and hope for the best. So far I’ve got the better of him. My luck’s bound to run out eventually, but there’s nothing else I can do. I don’t have the brains to outwit him, just the brawn and guts to fight back.”
    “So you want to walk into his den and take things from there?” Kernel asks.
    “Yeah,” I grin.
    “That’s madness.”
    “Maybe. But in my experience, the cleverer you are, the more ways you find to shoot yourself in the foot. Juni, Davida Haym, and Antoine Horwitzer were way smarter than me, and each set me up for an elaborate fall. But I’m here and they’re dead. Sometimes it pays to be simple.”
    Kernel frowns. “In a strange way, that almost makes sense.”
    “Stop talking!” Kirilli shrieks. “Get us out of here!”
    “We’re not leaving,” I growl. “Kernel, how are those eyes coming along?”
    “I reckon another ten minutes if we aren’t distracted.”
    “Coolio.” I crack my knuckles. “We could wait here, but I think we’re better off taking the fight to them.”
    “Knowing you as well as they do, that’s probably what Lord Loss and Bec are counting on,” Kernel warns me.
    “Good.