Almost experimentally, high enough off the ground that a fall might have dashed me to pieces, I turned over. A sharp bend of each wing, catching the air, a barrel roll of sorts.
Turning my face and chest skyward, facing the sun. Wings spread, Taking in the warmth.
One last time.
Evan caught me, nudged me, and I righted myself, stomach again facing the ground.
A twist of my body, a fold of the wings, and I plunged into the darkness and the night, wooden feet scraping on ice, salt, and pavement.
I heard a yowl, not so far away.
Distractions. The barrier Mara had talked about?
No, I was still too combative in mindset. What danger was a monster, compared to the right words in the wrong ear?
My allies hurried to follow, entering the darkness behind and below me. Roxanne, a bit shorter than the rest, was slowing us down.
I dropped out of the sky and landed.
My hand pulled free of my wing just in time to block the barrel of Sarah’s rifle, before it could point at me.
“Shit,” Peter said. “Scary, you dropping in like that, just after it all suddenly turns back to night.”
He leaned over, panting a bit. Sarah seemed even more out of shape, despite being the gun-toting ‘Knight’.
“Gotta catch my breath,” Peter said.
“I’ve got to go,” I told him. “Timing matters. I’ve got to get ahead of this deal, convince them not to take it. If I head out leaving you guys behind, our chances should get better.”
“Not far from where we ran from a dragon and a giant,” Roxanne said.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “But-”
“Go,” Peter said. “You told me to ditch you before, you were dead weight. Now we’re the dead weight. Fly.”
“I can spend power,” Ainsley said. She wasn’t breathing as hard as Peter was. “We’ll be right behind you.”
I turned and flew.
A dark form against a dark, unlit sky, joined by a small bird. The wind sang through the gaps in my body.
A deal. One that encapsulated all of the ones in attendance. A trap.
It was as I glanced back at the trio that it started to click.
A path they might take, in striking the deal.
Green Eyes had been a threat to me, once upon a time. Polite, conversing openly, she’d nonetheless lurked and hoped to catch me and eat me.
Peter and Roxanne were relatives, but they weren’t family. Not until tonight, when they were making sacrifices, taking risks. Prior to all of this, they had been the primary antagonists in my life.
Fell, the Hyena, June, the Duchamps, the Behaims, the High Drunk, they’d all had their tries at killing or maiming me.
The line between enemy and ally grew so blurred.
When I thought of classic enemies and allies…
Gears started turning in my head.
Enemies became allies…
Hillsglade House seemed to appear from the darkness. I shifted the angle of my flight, reoriented.
My feet skidded on the ice of the short path that lead from the long driveway to the front door. Coarse salt scraped between my feet and the wood of the steps.
The texture of the doormat felt strange underfoot. I didn’t wear shoes or boots. My feet were wood, a rough approximation of the individual components of the foot, all worked into one another. The coarse mat was almost pleasant, scraping salt and accumulated snow from the gaps and the cracks.
R.D.T. Stenciled images of thorny vines.
The door was unlocked. I pushed it open.
The ground floor was empty, but tracks of moisture, sand, and salt marked the hallway, distorting the bloodstains that painted the floor and surrounding walls. They led up the stairs.
“Where are the bodies?” Evan asked.
“Fed to something, maybe,” I said. “Or thrown into the basement to be cleaned up later.”
“Not it!” Evan said.
“Shh,” I said.
The landing of the stairs was even worse. I saw bits that hadn’t quite been cleaned up. Ends of fingers or ears or little blobs of gristle, worked into the space between the floorboards and the wall.
When I reached the second floor, I saw that the doors to the inner library were open. Floorboards had been torn out and splintered, set ajar so they fanned up and out like so many spikes. The space around the gap twisted, and a hole in the ceiling and the floor above us suggested that it had all been torn open. A glimmer of funhouse mirror architecture.
People had gathered. Eyes turned my way.
A maenad glared. The High Drunk, just to her right, gave me a dispassive look.
I could hear voices in the next room.
Rose had been too late. Not in terms of a great fight, some trap, or other issue.
Johannes had talked to the Drunk. Won the man over to his side, or at least set the tone. Dictated all that came after. Rose could hardly arrive and attack when the High Drunk was standing by, having a civilized discussion.
I moved through the crowd, and saw the library, devastated, every book knocked from its respective shelf. They had been salvaged, moved into stacked piles, but it was so little, so late.
Rose, Johannes and Alister were all present. Ellie, Christoff and Kathryn stood off to one side with Ty, Alexis, Tiff, and the Knights.
Alexis met my eyes. I could see her as she’d been when she’d died. Corvidae’s glamour.
I could see the betrayal, the agreement to keep my nature a secret from me.
I loved her and I couldn’t bear to look at her. I wasn’t sure that would ever change.
“Blake,” Rose said.
If I told Rose, would that ruin the intent? Did she have to reject this deal by her heart, not by logic and argument?
“Johannes explained what he’s doing,” Rose said.
“Mara kind of told me,” I said. “She thinks this is a mistake. I don’t even know what it is, but she thinks this is a monkey’s paw”
“Mara isn’t the most trustworthy source,” Johannes said.
“Her home is burned, her power base destroyed, and she’ll live out the rest of her natural life without being able to draw on her hag powers,” I said. “She wanted to taunt me, told me that I couldn’t stop this from happening. Please. Rose. Anyone. Help me prove her wrong.”
“It works,” Alister said. “It’s a solution.”
“Blake,” Johannes said. His voice was low, smooth, calm. “It’s been a long road, getting this far. In a way, you helped bring it to bear. You fought long and hard, and now it’s time to stop fighting. Put the sword away for good.”
I touched the Hyena at my hip, just to remind myself it was there.
“My familiar can give you a body again,” Johannes said. “There’s nothing tying you here. All you need to do is stand down. Leave your weapon in its sheath.”
“And then?” I asked.
“A controlled sink. We transplant a portion of the town to the Abyss. We send the demon upstairs with that section of the town.”
“Or,” I said, “Rose can banish the demon. There’s no need to give up the town.”
“If banished, it can be summoned by another diabolist,” Alister said.
“If we send it elsewhere,” Johannes spoke, “My familiar can strike at the demon. There are old, forgotten gods in the Abyss. He can put this demon right in front of those gods, and they can kill it.”
His familiar. I noticed Faysal Anwar wasn’t in the room.