Every step I took had a reason
Every decision I made had a pattern
Every breath I took had the purpose
To take me home to you
The earth stopped shaking, and Sarah got back on her feet. She gazed at each of her friends, standing around her in the wind under the purple sky, and her heart bled as she realised with sudden intensity that not all of them – maybe none of them – would make it home.
Elodie, with her obsidian eyes, the memory of Harry weighing on her shoulders and her soul poisoned by Nicholas’ blood. Niall, brave and cheerful and forever the optimist, Winter in his heart with every step he took. Alvise, with his lost powers and ailing sister, who had given them his loyalty without question, embracing the mission and its dangers. Micol, younger than Sarah was when it all started – alone in the world, just like she was. And Mike, gone but with them always.
And then her thoughts went to the people back home: Aunt Juliet, who would wait for her for a long time, until finally she’d accept that Sarah was never coming back. Bryony, who would grow up and get married and live the life Sarah would never have. Or if the Time of Demons happened again, what would happen to them? She’d never know.
And above all this, above the people in her company and the memories of home, was Sean. Memories of their time together – of those stolen moments when they were in each other’s arms – flowed in her mind like a cool, fresh stream . . . something pure and beautiful among all that death, all that strife.
Sarah smelled them before she could see them, a foul stench of wet beast and rot, and then high-pitched screeches, somewhere between the calls of monkeys and the screams of birds.
The first wave of evil, thought Nicholas. The Guardians. “Demon-apes. Be ready,” he commanded.
And then, the voice in his head: Protect her. I need her.
Yes, Father, he replied at once. Elodie looked at him. She’d heard the voice too and she knew what she would do when the time came.
Sarah’s eyes narrowed and shone deadly green, her hands smouldering with the Blackwater. Sean had his sgian-dubh in his hand, and was already whispering his deadly runes. Niall started humming softly, eyes semi-closed. Elodie’s lips were taking on a deadly shade of blue. Alvise’s bow and arrow were ready to shoot, though only four arrows remained in his quiver. Micol’s hands were shimmering and crackling with electrical charges. Only Nicholas was standing completely still. Deadly energy was building inside him, ready to burst.
The night was still and dark and silent for a moment – and then it all happened. The foul smell intensified, and the trees at the edges of the clearing shattered in a shower of broken leaves and twigs. White, hairy limbs appeared, and monkey-like faces with enormous yellow teeth, mixed with branches and ferns, running in the grass, climbing over the boulders, banging their chests and baring their teeth. They were as big as humans, too many to be counted, long arms out to grab and teeth bared to devour. The creatures of nightmares, creatures that should have never seen the light, that should have never been born – creatures that, in the human world, nature had decided to obliterate.
Screeching ape-like calls that chilled the blood, the Surari pounced on Sarah and her friends, clawing and biting and shrieking so loud it hurt their ears. Soon they realised that the demon-apes didn’t just want to bite; they wanted to eat. They threw their heads backwards and smelled the air, savouring the scent of human flesh, tasting it already.
In a haze of fury and terror, Sarah heard Elodie calling, “Niryani!” and Niall’s song rising into the air, thick and powerful and singing of death. Sean’s mouth was moving incessantly, pronouncing Secret words she couldn’t hear, while his sgian-dubh traced deadly scarlet ribbons in the air, flying around like shards of glass, cutting and stabbing and lodging themselves inside the demon-apes’ foul white fur. And then her powers flew through her so intensely that they swept her away to a place where only the battle mattered. She focused on the beast closest to her and glared at it with bright-green eyes, the Midnight gaze cutting it between the eyes. The creature shuddered and shrieked and then it bent double, unable to move, trembling. Sarah was on it at once, sinking her hands into its fur and holding on to it with all her might, giving it no chance to recover enough to bite her. And then she was everywhere, stabbing and paralysing and dissolving the demon-apes with silent, deadly efficiency. One after the other the demon-apes began falling, cut and burnt and dissolved. Blackwater was soaking the ground and the stones and the grass, turning them black. The forest itself had turned on them; the whole place had become polluted, poisonous, a place where no human being was ever meant to set foot.
Soon Niall’s song was at its peak, high-pitched, painful and deadly. Quickly, it began to affect them all, hurting their ears and their heads. Sean touched his ear and saw blood trickling from between his fingers. The only one who was unaffected by Niall’s deadly sound was Micol.
Sarah surveyed the scene. Demon-apes’ corpses were all around, and only a few were still standing, shrieking in fury at their own demise. She allowed herself to breathe for a moment. She dared to hope that they’d overcome the demon-apes and were closer to the King of Shadows . . . And then she heard a strange sound coming from the trees that crowned the clearing, somewhere between crickets and scurrying rats. In horror, Sarah realised it was the sound of rattling teeth.
They crawled down from the trees, falling like deadly rain, scurrying through the long grass. They were black, thick-skinned, furry and fat like rats, but their faces and tails were reptile-like, and had a fan of leathery skin around their heads that reminded Sarah of a small dinosaur. Another abomination, another creature that evolution had concocted to be as deadly as it could be. Micol shivered, reminded of the fat black rats swimming in the canals in Venice.
The second wave, Nicholas thought. “Demon-lizards!” he shouted. “Don’t let them bite you. They are poisonous!”
“Too late for me,” said a voice, strangely cheerful, as if beyond despair.
They all turned around to see Niall clutching his chest, his clothes so ripped and slayed that his skin was bare to see; right in the middle of his breastbone was the imprint of two sharp animal teeth.