He shakes his head, that bewilderment still written all over his face.
“I … I–” he starts, but before he can go on any further, we hear the dragon roar back down the tunnel. It’s not his usual roar – it’s one of distress – and I’m running back down the tunnel as quickly as I came, the other two hot on my heels.
When we emerge into the strange cave where we found Fox, it’s once again swarming with demons. The dragon spits fire their way, but these ones seem more determined, and they come closer to him, several managing to claw at his scaly skin.
“Okay,” I say, shooting my magic back up into the throngs of demons as the other two follow my example, “now we really do need to get the hell out of here.”
“Do you think the dragon could make it through the demons?” Fox asks.
I don’t want to make him try. He’s still only a baby. He shouldn’t be out here fighting these creatures with us. He should be back at the academy chasing squirrels and slurping Clare’s cheeks.
“I don’t know,” I say, “but I can’t see any other way out.”
I groan. I’m worn out from all this fighting, my magic waning and the assault by these demons seems even stronger than before.
“I can’t hold them back and–”
“I know,” Fox says, also struggling with his magic, Beaufort not faring much better – his mind clearly somewhere else entirely. “Me neither. So on the count of three, we break off the magic and we run for Blaze.”
I grit my teeth and, with everything I have, push back against the demons as the professor counts down.
“Now,” he booms.
With a scream, I send one final pulse of my light magic towards the demons, sending them scuttling upwards. And then the three of us snap away our hands, and run towards Blaze. The dragon is still firebombing the demons above us, preventing them from reaching us.
I jump up onto the dragon’s back first and Fox and Beaufort climb on too. And then almost immediately, and with a little bit of a struggle due to the extra weight on his back, Blaze is lifting from the ground.
The demons screech in delight, clearly thrilled that we’re stupid enough to be flying towards them. Soon they’re mere feet away from our heads, and Beaufort begins to swing his magical sword through the air, swiping at any that come too close. Every time he hits one, they disintegrate into ash, their remains falling like snow around us.
There are so many of them, though. It’s like being trapped in a swarm of bats. Everywhere I look: their shining eyes, their leathery wings, their sharp claws.
Soon the air is so thick with them that I can’t even see the cave below us.
The demons swipe and claw at us. We swipe and claw back at them using our magic. Blaze snaps his jaws at them, slices them with his own talons, burns them alive with his flames. My light magic sizzles against their forms, and Beaufort and Fox’s shadows drown them in darkness.
And yet they still come at us. One slices my arm, another plucks at my hair. One sinks its jaws into Blaze’s tail, and another thwacks its leathery wing against Beaufort’s side.
Somehow, though, the great dragon drags us upwards, higher and higher and, finally, we break through, and glide up over the lip of the gorge and back towards Dray and Thorne, the demons swarming after us.
As soon as they spot us, the two shadow weavers on the ground blast their own magic our way, scattering the demons that were chasing us until soon they are retreating – some soaring back down into the chasm, others speeding towards the tornado that sucks them into its mighty grip.
I take a deep breath of relief as the dragon bumps down onto the ground in front of Thorne and Dray.
My relief is temporary, though, because out there in the gloom, right by the edge of the forest of destroyed trees, waiting with arms crossed and that smile, is the Madame.
“Now, my darlings,” she calls over the noise of the demons and our magic. “You didn’t truly believe it would be that easy, did you?”
Chapter Forty-Three
Beaufort
“Fuck,” I mutter, because if truth be told, yes, I did think it would be that easy.
The five of us, plus the dragon, are far more powerful than I could ever have imagined. And though I’m bleeding, though Briony is too, and the dragon is injured, I still thought we could do this.
Yes, I am naïve. Yes, my own self-confidence and self-belief have always been my biggest weakness. And once again, I’m wrong. Bardin is more cunning and more powerful than I realized.
“Let’s leave her,” Briony hisses to me. “Let’s take the others and get the hell out of here.”
