Through the screams of the mob and the roar of the earth, Connor’s wail cut through. I peered under the pews, but I couldn’t see anything.
“Someone get to Connor!” I yelled, just as another long rumble slammed me into the pew.
“That’s going to be difficult,” Flynn called from somewhere behind me.
I glanced over my shoulder. A fissure opened up in the marble – an enormous dark crack spreading out across the floor, buckling the pews. The church groaned as the crack warped the walls and pushed up the floor.
It’s the fae. But what are they doing?They shouldn’t be able to just create a portal like this from another multiverse. The amount of power that would take?—
Black fog swirled up from inside the crack, reaching long, ghost-like fingers through the air that snaked toward me.
What is that? It’s not carbon…
I tried to focus on the fog, to figure out what it was, but my eyes stung and my vision wobbled. So deep and dark was the blackness inside the crack that my retinas gave up trying to fathom it. The darkness hung weighty in front of me, as though it was a solid wall that rose from the ground, a great weighty mass of pure night.
I staggered back, slamming into someone else. Our limbs tangled up as we both tried to scramble away.
The blackness reached toward my throat.
I ducked, slamming myself into the marble as a tremendous pressure swelled beneath the ground – as though the crack itself held back something larger and darker than I could ever imagine.
“Maeve!” Flynn and Rowan called to me from the other side of the fissure. I blinked, focusing on the areas around the blackness where my vision wasn’t swallowed up. I could just make them out on the other side of the fissure, crawling backward as the crack widened between us. Chunks of the marble floor toppled into its depths.
I didn’t know what the blackness was, but every fibre in my body screamed that if it consumed me, I would be utterly gone.
It’s going to devour the whole church, and then what? How can we ever hope to fight it?
“This is but a taste,” a voice boomed from inside the crack. “If you do not give back our daughter Maeve and the lands that rightfully belong to the fae by the next full moon, we shall take them by force and scour them clean of the human stain.”
Long, green fingers clawed at the edge of the crack. I choked back a scream, my limbs frozen in place. A host of Far Darrigs dragged themselves from the depths and raced across the church, black tendrils cascading behind them like speed lines. The shaking earth didn’t seem to affect them. The four-foot high fur-covered fae vaulted over the pews and crashed into the cowering crowd.
Their whirling shillelagh – heavy blackthorn sticks used like batons – made horrible THWACK THWACK THWACK sounds as they slammed into human flesh. I watched, paralyzed with fear, as a Far Darrig whacked an old woman over the head. Her eyes rolled back and she went down. Her head cracked against the marble, sending a splatter of blood across the floor. The fae swarmed over her, their furry paws and rat-like snouts rolling her toward the crack. The tendrils reached out and wrapped around her, pulling her under.
“No!” I surged forward, pushing past whoever had been in my way. But I was too late. The blackness surrounded her completely and she disappeared into its depths.
Another Far Darrig grabbed Dora, his claws digging into her shoulders. She swung her handbag and whacked him in the face.
He staggered back, his grip loosening, and a stream of water hit him full-on in the face.
“Go, Flynn!” I whirled around to look at my boy. Flynn’s face twisted in concentration as he increased the stream of water, trying to push the fae back.
But the water didn’t slow down the fae. The streambentaround its face, spraying off to the sides and knocking over several of Dora’s mob. The Far Darrig threw its head back and laughed, a horrid barking sound that filled my chest with fear.
“It’s not working,” Flynn yelled, lowering his hand. The stream dried up.
A fireball sailed toward the fae, but at the last moment, it veered to the side and crashed into a pew, sending the lacquered wood up in flames. My heart sank into my toes.
“Our magic isn’t working!” Arthur dragged a long dagger from his belt.
The Far Darrigs chortled as they closed ranks around us.
Arthur leapt at the nearest creature just as it lunged for me. He slammed his dagger through its chest. The fae collapsed in a pile of green blood. Arthur yanked his blade free and turned to grab another. This time, he thrust the blade straight through the fae’s nose and up into its brain, killing it instantly. Arthur left the blade inside the Far Darrig, where it smoked and smoldered, and drew his sword.
“Guess we’re doing this the old-fashioned way,” he yelled, rushing at another fae. “Metal still hurts them!”
Meanwhile, up by the altar, Corbin wrestled with another Far Darrig, pinning it to the marble and trying to roll it back into the dark fissure. He bellowed in pain as his shoulder touched one of the black tendrils, and the collar and sleeve of his shirt melted away.
My heart leapt in my chest. The magic inside me simmered like a pot ready to boil over.My coven.Without their magic, this battle would turn against us at any moment. I needed to save them, and all these people.I need to get rid of the fae?—
