Chapter Thirty-Three
Briony
At first, I think the Empress’s elite guards have come to arrest us, assuming Odessa is much cleverer than I ever gave her credit for and has reported us to the authorities. Then I hear the screeches and cawing, the crack of wings and the evil hissing. I would know those sounds anywhere. They are sounds seared into my very soul.
Demons.
Demons here in the capital of Slate Quarter. Deep within the realm, they’ve infiltrated this far.
I peer across the crowd, a crowd that’s now panicking. People pushing and charging, screaming and shouting, clinging to children and pulling loved ones in all directions. The sky is already dark with dusk, but I see them in the air, swarms and swarms of demons. So many I can’t even count them.
Blaze sees them too, tossing back his head and roaring, breathing streams of fire up towards the heavens.
The sound only throws the crowd into more of a frenzy. People fall. Some stumble. People trample over each other or barge them out of the way.
And the demons seem delighted by the chaos, swooping down to attack the people below them, scraping at them with their claws, biting at them, tearing their flesh with their talons, carrying a small child up into the air.
“No!” I scream, shooting my magic toward the demon that has the child in its grasp, vaporizing it into dust and then catching the falling child in the embrace of my magic.
My mates race to join me on the platform, all of them funneling their shadow magic toward the attacking demons.
“Demons!” I say. “How is it even possible?”
Beaufort shakes his head, as mystified as me.
The Professor says, “There’s no protective barrier anymore, Briony. It was only a matter of time.”
This is our fault. All our fault. The demons are attacking the people from Slate, from my home, because of us and our foolish actions. The guilt pangs in my stomach as I continue to fire my magic toward the attacking demons.
It’s mayhem down there in the crowd, and that’s my fault too. These people gathered to listen to me and created the perfect opportunity for a demon attack. All of us caged into this market square, easy pickings for the demons circling in the dark sky above us.
“We need to get people out of the square!” I yell. “Away from here and into their homes!”
I swing my head from side to side until I spot Fly and Clare watching aghast from behind me.
“Clare! Fly!” I snap. “Get the people to safety! Get them away from here!”
When they don’t move, I shout louder. “The children! Fly! Clare! Help them!”
Immediately, my friends race toward the crowd while together, the five of us fight off the demon attack as best we can. They’re not even interested in us this time, more obsessed with the easy pickings below them.
From the corner of my eye, I see Clare and Fly reach the edge of the crowd, beckoning people toward the streets, pulling them away, helping an old man to his feet when he stumbles.
Thank the stars for my friends. Thank the stars for their clear thinking and steady heads.
I continue to fight, and I can see we’re starting to make a dent in the attack. I try to focus on that and not the bodies on the ground, the blood running through the cobbled stones. There’ll be time for healing in a moment. We need to stop them first.
“This isn’t working,” I shout, as a demon slips past my light, swooping down to swipe at a man sheltering his wife and children in his embrace. “We need to combine our magic. It’s stronger that way.”
The others murmur their agreement.
I take a step forward, ready to blast the hell out of these demons.
And that’s when it happens.
Like slow motion. Like time has deliberately altered so there’s no way I can miss the awful events in front of me. Like a horror story unfolding before my eyes. And I’m too slow to stop it.
Clare’s deep in the crowd now. She reaches out to grab someone’s arm, someone frozen in terror.
