“I’m a tango dancer, you asshole,” I snarled, and kicked him in the face. I was wearing four-inch heels. Blood spurted from his nose in a hot red gush that reminded me too clearly of the flood from Lyra’s slit throat, so I kicked him again, harder. We generally make it a rule not to kill humans, but if a few bone slivers found their way into this dick’s brain, I wasn’t going to lose any sleep over it.

Jessica was still screaming. I started to turn, to order Pax to shut her up—through whatever means necessary, which sure, could mean decapitation, but I was out of fucks to give—when I saw the snake moving out of the corner of my eye, drawing back to strike.

There was only a second for me to make my decision, and I chose the path most likely to end with my survival. “Pax! Move!” I shouted, diving to the side. The snake slammed down on the stage a second later, striking unerringly for the sound of screaming and the smell of blood.

Jessica stopped screaming. That was a mercy. My shout had given Clint time to move out of the way; when the snake pulled back again, he was still standing, glaring at me with blood on his face and shirtfront and hatred in his eyes.

“Catch!” Malena’s voice came from above. I stuck my hand out, and the gun dropped into it. The weight was a great comfort. The feeling of the safety clicking off was an even greater comfort.

“Thanks!” I called. “Any eyes on Dominic?”

“Other side of the stage,” said Malena.

The snake was rising back into position, head moving back and forth with increasing speed as it took in the situation. It was recovering from whatever disorientation accompanied its passage through the wall between worlds; soon, it would be back to whatever served as normal for a massive fucking snake, and then we were going to have to deal with it.

I was fast. The striking snake was faster. Once I started moving, I was going to have to keep on going. “Pax, I need you,” I called.

The Ukupani’s footsteps sounded like flippers slapping against the wood. I turned to the massive shark/human hybrid as soon as he was close enough, and said, “I need you to throw me at the snake.”

Pax no longer had eyebrows, or the sort of face that transmitted human emotions well, but he didn’t need them for his dismay to show. I found myself grateful that he couldn’t talk, either. If I had to explain myself to him, he might try to stop me, and I didn’t see another way through this—not without risking a hell of a lot of people who hadn’t had any idea this was going on. It had only been a few minutes since the snake broke through the stage, and two people were dead. Sure, Jessica may have deserved it, but not Lindy. I had to move. I had to act. And as soon as I did, I trusted my family to have my back.

“Seriously,” I said. “Throw me.”

Pax shook his head in pantomime disbelief. Then he knelt, forming a basket with his hands. I shoved the gun into the back of my dress, anchoring it as best I could, before running at him, my heels like gunshots on the polished stage floor.

My foot hit his hand and I was in the air, launched by all the force an eight-foot, four-hundred-pound Ukupani could generate.

Please realize what I’m doing, I thought. Please follow this lead.

I couldn’t blame them if they didn’t. I wouldn’t blame them if they didn’t, because I would be dead, and dead women aren’t usually big on slinging blame around—well, except for a few of my relatives.

The sound of me hitting the side of a giant snake from another dimension was surprisingly mundane, the same dry slap I used to hear when my father dropped a leg of lamb on the counter. I’d expected something more exciting. There wasn’t time to dwell on it: I had to scramble to get a handhold on its rough-edged scales, cutting up my fingers in the process. Another thing to worry about later. Right now, I had a giant snake to worry about.

Gunfire from the other side of the snake told me Alice had seen me move, and was reacting accordingly. Dominic was more of a knife man—a fact that was reinforced a few seconds later when the snake suddenly hissed and whipped its head around, so fast that I was sent flying.

This is it, I thought, as my body inscribed an arc through the air. This is how I die.

Malena dropped from the ceiling above me, wrapping her arms around my waist as she fell. The sudden added weight dragged me down, and we both landed, with a thump and a grunt, on the judges’ table. It collapsed underneath us, dropping us at the feet of a stunned Adrian.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I demanded, pulling away from Malena and staggering upright. “Run!” I kicked off my heels and followed my own advice—although sadly, I was going in the wrong direction. If Adrian was smart, he’d be heading for the door as fast as his legs could carry him. I was heading for the giant fucking snake.