“Celia,” the cruel one said. He was surprised and pleased, like a cat that had found a mouse it thought dead suddenly caught in its trap.
He laughed and shoved a wall of poisoned metal spikes at her.
She shot a wall of water at the spikes. They flew through the waves.
She gasped and dropped to the ground. The spikes flew over her.
“I get to kill a Smith and a Bard tonight!” the cruel one yelled. “Your father promised my sister the heir. I must correct his oversight and make certain she gets him.”
The woman crawled across the concrete. She aimed toward the black mass. The musician was there. The boy was there. Had he shielded them in his darkness?
Where was the solange-eyed one? The larvae had formed a thick, sticky, oozing cocoon around him. Were they devouring him?
Boy? the wind called. Boy?
The horror expanded. The wind shuddered.
The woman’s knees bled as she hurriedly crawled toward the darkness. The puppy whimpered in her shirt.
“Celia!” the cruel one taunted. “Will you die on your knees? Fitting, for a woman like you.”
She gritted her teeth and threw a bladed whirlpool at the cruel one.
He laughed, and the horror ate the whirlpool, growing larger.
“Your anger feeds it,” the cruel one’s father called.
The woman’s face paled. Her pulse fluttered. She was bleeding. How had that happened? Blood was gushing from her side. The woman didn’t have blood to lose. She had to be careful. She always had to be careful.
Her breath came in a great gasp, and she swayed dizzily. She pressed her hand to the wound and conjured stitches to hold her skin together.
She twisted her hand, creating a water shield.
The cruel one grinned. “I must admit, I was sad when I thought your brother had killed you. I’d always wanted to do it myself. But now . . . this is better.”
He glanced at the cocoon of larvae. Where was the solange-eyed one?
“This is better,” he said. Then he twisted his hands and flung a mountain of writhing, devouring, venomous insects at the woman. They would sting her, then they would consume her.
The wind screamed weakly.
Where was the boy?
The woman conjured, strengthening her shield of water.
It wasn’t enough. The first insects leaked through. The black mass of them rushed at her bloody side. She screamed and swept them away with water.
The wind cried, Boy! Boy!
But it couldn’t touch the horror that surrounded him. The horror would consume it.
“Jacob,” the woman gasped. “Jacob!”
She reached up with a bloody hand and gripped the crystal necklace at her throat. “Jacob! Please!”
Suddenly, the darkness was filled with a brilliant white light.
It flashed and roared, blinding everyone.
