Authors: Rebecca Ethington
It was only us surrounded by the wicked creatures, the magical sounds and flashes of what I assumed to be Joclyn and Ilyan echoing from behind us.
If only I could make it to them, I was sure we could face this onslaught together and somehow reach the clock. However, I wasn’t even certain where they were. The wall of rat birds—of Vilỳs—was too thick.
This was Edmund’s plan all along, just as Jos had said. As much as I wanted to help, to fight this new enemy, I couldn’t. Not now.
I needed to get us out of here then get to the clock and hope everyone else was there. Maybe together we could somehow find a way to get out of this mess.
I certainly wasn’t going to be able to do it on my own.
First, I needed to get the incredible hulk under control.
Once again, I was faced with the task of subduing in a situation I would normally destroy. My muscles tensed as I turned to him. His wide, black eyes were staring into me for the briefest of moments before his mouth opened in a scream, the blue rushing back to the wide orbs as the fear took over him.
With a wide jump, I flew into the air, taking down several of the monsters before I collided with the barrel-chested boy beside me, the force of my flight sending us both into the blood-streaked cobbles below us.
He shouted at the impact, while I tensed at the black eyes that stared at me, a smile curling over my lips no matter how hard I tried to stop it. My heart thundered as I looked into Edmund’s eyes, letting my fire ignite right before him. The fire burst from me in an orb of magic, traveling on the back of my ability, streaking through the air until it met the Vilỳs in flight. It burned the winged rats from the sky, their memories gone as quickly as their bodies.
The fire continued to burn and smolder as more creatures came, and then I looked into Ryland’s black eyes and turned him off as easily as Cail had done so many times before, my magic forcing him to sleep.
I wished I could relax with the removal of one of the threats, but I couldn’t, not when a thousand more were now flying toward us, their tiny, ravaged bodies calling to me like a moth to a flame.
Their screeches rang out in a high pitched thunder that tensed down my spine, my magic boiling and tensing under the surface as it fought to be released and begged to destroy the creatures.
I needed to get the debilitated out of here before they got here. Besides, judging by the sheer amount of the monsters and the size of the city, I would have plenty of time to kill my fair share.
Ryland first.
My magic plunged into him as his body elevated, lifting into a weightless mass beside me. His arms drug down to the ground, and his battle worn clothes hung off him as his hair sagged. Unaware of what was going on, I began to run, dodging around the vicious bats as I dragged Ryland behind me. The screeches of the things only grew in anger as I avoided them.
I knew I wouldn’t be able to evade them for long. I was still several blocks from the clock, and the more I moved, the more their numbers increased, like snails after a rainstorm.
I only wished they would drown in it.
The rats clawed at windows, and they sat atop fallen bodies, biting over and over as strange gurgling noises came from their mouths.
I didn’t stop to look. I didn’t dare. I merely ran through the still fleeing mortals, dodging cars as they careened out of control, every inch of the frames covered with the things. Ryland’s elevated frame bobbed beside me as, one after another, I grabbed the things, throwing them away in little balls of fire as I ignited them. The hot, burning embers ignited others as they went down, the snow ball of my magic working in a way I hadn’t expected.
I turned onto a seedy side street, the old buildings closing us in as I ran through the crowd of desperation, narrowly dodging a shovel that was dripping with blood.
It was madness, everyone running in zigzags in their attempt to escape, even though I could tell by the look on their faces that they knew there was nowhere.
The streets where littered with belongings as a foolish few had tried to take belongings in their flight, only to end up bleeding and writhing beside their precious things.
The street ended at a yellow flower shop, the building I clearly remembered being a church at one point in history blocking the street, leaving only two narrow alleys on either side.
The pitch black caverns called to me as I ran, the depth of the haunting color screaming anything other than safety. I had to trust that was what I would find. Perhaps, mercifully, the forgotten spaces would be forgotten by the rats, as well.
Ebony blackness enveloped us as we ran into the narrow side way, the screams of the battle dimming as the high stone walls swallowed everything whole. I fought the urge to flare my magic, to bring light to this space, knowing it would only call them to us. However, the dark was too much for the shadowed sounds of terror. Everything was too heightened, the reality of what we were trapped in only growing in the supposed safety of the alley.
Gravel crunched under my feet as I walked with one hand against Ryland and the other against the cool brick surface of the building beside us. Taking us forward step by step, closer to the clock.
Beyond this alley was another narrow street. Beyond that was the large courtyard that would connect us to the famous attraction. Only a few more minutes, and we could be there.
That was, if nothing else went wrong.
I would say jinx, I would call for wood or throw salt or whatever else superstitious people did, yet given the situation, everything had already gone wrong.
Someone had handed me moldy lemonade, but I was definitely going to make the best of it.
I almost expected someone to jump out of the dark, a wall of the poisoned Vilỳs to erupt and take us down with no recourse, but there was nothing. Nothing except blackness and the haunted echoes of the battle I was doing my best to escape.
Nothing but the sound of my shoes against the gravel.
The screams grew as we reached the next road, this one as seemingly empty as the last two. If only it would stay that way.
I could see the little things hanging from the eaves. I could hear the heightened sounds of their teeth gnashing together as they echoed back to me.
It was only empty because the Vilỳs had done their job. I could see bodies—alive or dead, I wasn’t sure—strewn over the street. I could see the rivers of their blood, but nobody moved. Everything was still.
There was nothing other than the mutated bats as they waited.
Steeling myself against what was coming, I took one step into the dimly lit road, the sound of my feet against the pavement soft, and yet, somehow, they heard. Even though they couldn’t see us, thanks to the powerful shield we were shrouded with, they heard.
They heard it as if it was a battering ram.
Tiny heads snapped toward me as one, beady eyes narrowing as if they could see me. For one terrifying moment, I was sure they could, until their lazy focus snapped back to the bodies that already littered the street, the desperate hope they would somehow awaken and give them something else to bite clear on their face.
Their change in focus should have been calming; instead, it merely boiled underneath me until my heart ached with the fierceness of the beat. They might not be able to see me, but they sure could hear me.
It was a death march.
I guessed I should have said jinx.
Luckily, I already had a way around this.
Wind swirled around me with one pulse of my power, the element growing warm as it intercepted with my ability, creating a small whirlwind of hot air that lifted me into the air enough to soar through the street. Perhaps make it to the clock.
The power grew as flags and overhangs that lined the buildings began to whip around, the force of their unsettlement growing as the power did.
One after another, the little beasts turned their heads to me. Eyes wide as they searched, several of them hissed into the air as they tried to decide what was going on, as they desperately searched for something else to attack.
It only took a moment for them to figure out what was going on, but it was a moment too late.
The wind moved as I did, pushing myself into the street, soaring past the store fronts, past the bodies, past the carnage with Ryland at my side as I towed him along.
The wind followed us as we moved, sweeping through the air as it supported us, the movement so fast and calculated it didn’t take the Vilỳs long to figure out what had happened.
I heard their calls as they descended from the rafters, speeding after the wind, past their enemy they couldn’t see.
The force of the wind grew as they moved over me. The unstable gusts pulling at my hair and clothing, shifting the flow of my own powerful surge until it almost sent me off course.
It almost would have been better if it had.
Even through the blindness of my location, the rats had thought ahead, forming a wall before us. A wall of black and leather, a wall of fangs and claws. Vilỳs that were so intertwined it was nothing more than a web to catch us.
It was a good plan.
Unfortunately for them, I was stronger.
The shield around us dropped with only a flick of my magic, the tiny creatures screaming louder at our sudden appearance, only to have their hungry calls silenced by the ball of fire I sent at them. The fire magic travelled on the back of my powerful ability, the destructive force speeding towards them.
It flared from my palm in an orb of red and black, growing to the size of a small car in mere seconds before I released it into the air toward the monsters, burning a hole in the web in a ring of flame that quickly moved through the rest of them, weaving its way through the creatures like a burning wick.
The smell of singed flesh assaulted me as we flew through the carnage, my feet hitting asphalt as I ran away from them, sure they were following me, but not really carrying at that point.
I was kind of enjoying burning the little things.
Bring it on.
We turned a sharp corner into one of the many courtyards that rattled the city, the stone square one I had visited many times throughout my life. It had always been beautiful, full of life, full of laughing lovers and tourists.
Now, it was red and black, the sound of pain and fear so strong it rippled through me in a tangible wall that turned my blood to ice.
People screamed as they ran through the open space, frantic to reach the buildings that stood around them and the supposed safety they offered, only to end up pounding on doors that were already barred against them. While some ran, so many more had already fallen, curled into themselves as they writhed, as they screamed, as the tiny things ripped into them, awakening their magic, turning them into another of Edmund’s pawns.
The large statue of Jan Hus stood on the other end of the square, the green copper of her face streaked with the blood of those who had tried to escape, her body covered with the tiny creatures.
As one, they caught sight of me, of my sagging shoulders and the tangle of hair that fell over my face. Their joy echoed around me in a screech that drowned out the pain they had caused.
I looked at them for only a moment, my magic flaring aggressively in a wanton desire to attack, to flare, to rip the world with fire and destroy the beasts, but not here. Not now.
I didn’t know if Thom had made it to the clock yet, and there were too many innocents. I wanted to help them, not kill them.
I could still fight.
With one burst, a wall flew away from me, rumbling over the old cobbles as it flew toward the Vilỳs that would attack us, toward their distorted faces and the fangs that dripped with blood.
I looked at the powerful attack for only a moment before I began to run toward the side street and the corner where the clock stood only a few steps ahead, a few precious paces until safety.
I passed the humans as they screamed, as they writhed, my magic ripping the creatures away from them as I went, knowing there was nothing else I could do. Uncertain if I should put them out of their misery.
It was only screams.
Only fire.
Only blood and the sound of my shoes against the cobbles, Ryland beginning to writhe in the air beside me as he woke.
Within mere steps, the door came into view. The old wooden slab covered with claw marks, a few dead creatures huddled to the side.
Almost as if someone had already made it inside, as if someone else was safe.
Hope of their safety flared inside of me like a beacon, bright and powerful as the door swung open, and I flung Ryland into its depths without a second look.
“Wyn?” The voice came from somewhere above, and I calmed. Even though Sain’s was not the voice I wanted to hear, it would do for now.
I didn’t stop to see if Ryland was safe, if he was waking up. I didn’t stop to see if Sain was coming to help the boy. I only turned on my heels, framing the door as I faced the wall of creatures that had followed us, faced the blood and carnage I had left behind. Now, it didn’t matter if they followed the flame.
Let them come.