Page 69 of Blackwicket (Dark Hall #1)

“Coppe?” I choked against the point of the knife. He must have been waiting in the shadows behind the bar.

Victor’s reaction was immediate, a red tide raging forth in response to the threat against my life.

I’d never witnessed the full transformation, the visceral sight of a skeleton reshaping itself beneath skin stretched too tight, the wreathing of muscle over its new shape, ultimately contorting into the gnarled, furrowed body of the Drudge.

It took mere seconds, but I could only imagine that each was a lifetime to Victor.

“Ah ah,” Coppe admonished, unfazed, pressing the point of his weapon deeper. “You stay right where you are. You’re powerful, sure, but do you think you can get to me before I slit her throat? Huh?”

I gripped the wrist of the hand holding the knife, my magic responding in fear.

“You hold on too, girl,” he snarled as he felt the rise of it, pushing the point until I heard a small pop of flesh, the nip of pain. “I’d planned to savor you, but I’ll spill you out in one go if you force my hand.”

Thea and Jack had stayed almost motionless on the stage, moving only when Thea wrapped her arms around Jack’s shoulders.

“Coppe, you know William’s just going to.. ”

“I’m not Coppe!” The ferocious proclamation was accompanied by spittle flying onto my chin. He calmed as quickly as he’d erupted, voice smoothing.

“To be fair, I guess I’m what’s left. You and Thea did a number on him, but he works in a pinch.

Being in his head is something else,” Coppe inhaled a sharp breath through his teeth, “He’s a dirty son of a bitch.

Had a genuine soft spot for Jack, though, reminded him of his little brother, dead, I’m afraid.

The unlucky boy had a bit too much natural magic for his own good.

But I enjoy that memory because it reminds me of you, Thomas. ”

Victor had been stalking back and forth, keeping a perimeter, looking for a weak spot, but upon hearing the name of his childhood, he paused.

“Yes, Thomas all grown up into a Drudge, just like father hoped for.”

“You’re not William,” was the phantasmic response.

“But it’s true, Tommy boy. I wanted to be strong like you, to walk again, to break the old man down, to prove he was nothing.

So I tested myself with curses, stretched my limits.

I watched father constantly fail, and then finally had an epiphany.

The only thing separating the Blackwickets from all the other Curse Eaters Grigori harvested was the fact that they’d cared about you.

Isn’t that just lovely? Bless you, Ellie. ”

He pressed a harsh, loud kiss against my temple, and I reacted with vocal repulsion.

“It appears the magic that binds us to power has to be given willingly, wholeheartedly. It’s so fucking sentimental, of course it never crossed Grigori’s mind.”

Fiona’s confession in the car now had context.

“You manipulated your own son. Tricked him into giving you magic.” I wheezed, trying to keep him talking while I built pressure, holding my guard with every ounce of strength I had .

There was turmoil in his next words, a wave of hurt, deep and sonorous.

“He wasn’t my son.”

Uncomfortable with his own pain, he increased mine, pressing the knife further into the small slit he’d already made. I nearly lost hold of the reservoir of power.

“With the support of the Authority gone, thanks ever so much to your lover,” he continued as though we’d never mentioned Roark, “The Veil will get a foothold, and I’m not interested in playing around with those fools. I need to get the portal open, find somewhere new.”

“The Fiend will eat you alive,” I managed, lightheaded from the effort I was making, concentrating on timing it right.

“Not if hell is empty and the devil is here. Between the two of us, I think the Fiend will find Victor the tastier option. I’m still working towards such an impressive caliber, and soon, I’ll have a much better vessel to guarantee it.

Another little fact I discovered - once a Drudge is melded to a soul, the soul goes where the Drudge goes. ”

“I’ll never let you touch Jack,” Victor’s Drudge had lowered to all fours, readying itself.

“It was my original idea,” William admitted, “But I’m not too keen on being a twelve-year-old boy again, so I’m bringing him along for later. In the meantime, I found a much better option. It didn’t quite work out, so how lucky we get to try again.”

I was released only enough so he could tilt my head, hover his face near mine.

“Now you’re going to open your pretty mouth and let me in. And don’t worry, you’ll still be you…somewhere in there.”

He laughed, the sound a light-minded tremolo as if his wits were only just barely there.

His contaminated essence surfaced, and it was time at last. I released the jolt of magic I’d been building like boiler pressure, force enough to jar the knife-wielding hand away, allowing me to lower my head and bite whatever part of him I could find.

My teeth sank into the meaty hank of flesh, just below Coppe’s thumb.

The hot taste of iron filled my mouth, and the knife clattered to the ground, giving Victor the window he needed.

He struck with precision, magic piercing the disembodied Drudge as it advanced to its new chalice. A screech rang in my ears, and the Drudge abandoned me in its efforts to pull Coppe’s body back on like a discarded coat.

In the time it took me to sprint for the stage, William’s Drudge had reconfigured Coppe into its monstrous shape, smaller than Victor’s by a significant margin, crippled in the legs with knees that bent the wrong direction, a barreled chest, and impossibly long arms, thick as railroad ties.

This body composition should have made him slow and easy to outmaneuver, but he moved with a berserk determination, a juggernaut.

He stormed toward me, smashing tables out of his way as he went, jolting corpses from their positions where they fell onto the floor and against each other. Victor caught the thing by one backward leg, dragging it away.

When I reached Thea and Jack, I found Thea dazed, as though she’d had too much alcohol. Fortunately, the boy seemed none the worse for wear.

“He made her do too much magic,” Jack said.

The mighty din of the battle continued as I helped Thea to her feet.

“Everything’s sealed,” she muttered drunkenly.

“We go through the portal,” I said to them, buzzing slightly. “The Fiend may be there, but you two are safe. No curses. If something happens to me, you keep going. Thea, you know which Narthex it is. ”

It wasn’t the optimal time to ask how I’d discovered that, so she only nodded.

We took off; me supporting Thea with one arm, and her holding Jack’s hand in a vice grip.

Victor and William’s monstrous forms were still locked in conflict, each a leviathan.

As they clashed, William somehow gained the advantage, taking hold of Victor’s face with a hand the size of a bear trap before its mouth opened into a wide cavern, attempting to devour Victor’s magic.

“Keep going!” I shouted, and Thea and Jack complied, vanishing down the back corridor.

I quickly rounded the bar, grabbing the first heavy bottle I came to, slamming it forcefully onto the counter.

It took me two swings before it shattered, spilling a wave of acrid-smelling liquor onto the floor where it seeped along the black tile, the grout stained with red. Cora’s blood.

My plan was slapdash, unlikely to work. I’d only shaped magic with this intention as a girl, in a much smaller way, when I’d given my pill bug just enough speed to win a race.

I lamented never learning what my magic could really do.

I’d used it only for tricks and amusements in Dark Hall before repressing it, pretending it didn’t exist. My lack of practice had abandoned me with unstructured energy, formless and confused, capable only of being swallowed by Victor’s ravenous needs, or released in violent, formless bursts like a scream—exactly what I was going to do now.

I sprinted toward the dueling Drudge, gathering momentum.

Drudge were harder to injure, but a distraction was better than nothing.

I came upon them in a flurry of furious power, and with a thrust of my arm, I expelled the magic, which acted as a hammer to a firing pin.

I stabbed William’s Drudge just below its distended ribs with the thick, shattered end of my improvised weapon.

My strategy worked, and William thrashed, letting Victor go even as I was knocked off my feet, falling across the lap of a corpse before tumbling to the floor, the body on top of me, a thick black bile dribbling from its mouth onto my neck.

A dry retch twisted my insides and I struggled from beneath the weight of the horrid cadaver as Victor kicked Williams’ knock-kneed form over.

It had been busy trying to remove the glass and careened sideways.

Understanding the odds, Victor sped towards me on all fours, grabbing me up in one arm as he passed, Drudge form tremoring as it struggled to maintain itself.

We reached the dressing room just as Victor shuddered back into his human body, releasing me.

We stumbled to where the portal still wavered from Thea’s use of it, her magic not yet completely withdrawn.

The awful sound of William’s Drudge clawing its way down the hall, scrabbling to get to us, propelled Victor to shove me into the Narthex.

For an agonizing second, I thought he was staying behind.

But as Dark Hall materialized around me, he appeared at my shoulder.

“Go!” he bellowed, and I obeyed, frantically attempting to drag the remnants of Thea’s magic along to close the Narthex. But William, Coppe—whoever the monster was—erupted through right behind us as the portal solidified.