Page 35

The remaining creatures closed in once more on the unconscious sorcerer, but in a flash of sparks, Aldrich roused, holding a stone above him while sneering in triumph, and they retreated in terror, fleeing.

“Temporarily taking away my magic will do nothing ,” he growled .

“What’s happeni—” Reed fell silent as an otherworldly howl pierced the night. He stared, dread gripping his heart, when the sky above them glowed red as blood, akin to a distorted sun rising from the north.

There the blood is… This can’t be good.

Marguerite was on her feet, her eyes wild with fear.

“No!” she screamed, rushing to Aldrich, dropping to her knees, and clinging to his robes. “Don’t do this! Please!”

With a harsh kick of his boot to her chest, the sorcerer sent Marguerite sliding across the stone in a heap.

Reed didn’t need to wonder for too long what she protested, because the next instant something crept out of the shadows.

A monster stepped into the light. It was the most grotesque thing Reed had ever seen, and he’d once watched the Leper eat a Paralithodes camtschaticus.

Standing tall as two men, covered in matted hair and scales, the thing lumbered into the garden, its gleaming eyes wild above a cavernous hole for a nose and a mouth impossibly full of shard-like teeth.

Numerous horns atop its scalp shone in the gathering light.

The monster opened its mouth, and it was as though death surrounded Reed when its jaw opened wide enough to split its hideous head nearly in two. Its knees a tangle of bones, it spread its arms wide, fingers like shining blades, and screeched, the sound sending a jolt of pain through Reed’s head.

“Leave Percy alone!” Marguerite no longer lay on the stone but stood tall, focused solely on Aldrich. Reed had to admire her concentration as the monster leapt to its gruesome feet, the tentacles squirming like snakes along its middle, making Reed regret eating anything at all.

The witch held blades in her hands, each one magically replaced by another as she threw them at the sorcerer, who dodged them with easy grace. It seemed magic was not his only gift.

“Run, Reed,” Dulce urged. “Go, while they don’t notice you.”

“Under the circumstances.” Reed gathered one of the many blades falling at Marguerite’s feet. “And because an actual horned beast is stenching up the place, I’ll forgive you for saying that, Majesty.”

“You’re as stubborn as me.” Dulce grasped the vial of dark purple liquid that she’d shown him once before. The vial he knew held the last resort against the woman who they had all once believed to be their enemy. The spell that would kill La Bisou Morte.

The piece of magic that was now their only chance at defeating the sorcerer.

The monster screeched, and they turned to face it, Reed’s hope faltering while he watched it tremble as if against unseen bonds.

Aldrich’s magic was coming back—it was plain to see. Knives slowed before him, easily caught, his smile growing. Reed never knew he could dislike someone as much as he disliked this fobbing codpiece.

And then, grinning lasciviously at Marguerite, Aldrich unleashed the monster on Dulce, a blur of fur and teeth surging toward her. Reed lunged forward, shielding Dulce in his arms as he shut his eyes, expecting to feel talons rip open his back.

But nothing happened.

Marguerite stood before Dulce, prepared to die in her stead. For the daughter of her only friend.

The monster hesitated, trembling against its master’s will, as some tiny spark of awareness shone in its gleaming eyes.

“Percy,” Marguerite begged. “It’s not your fault. You don’t have to do his bidding…”

The monster shook its hideous head, inching back with a rumbling growl.

“Kill them!” the sorcerer bellowed. “ Now !”

Reed watched in utter disbelief as, in spite of the pain the sorcerer’s magic was clearly causing it, the monster still refused to obey, instead taking a further step back.

“You defy me?” Aldrich raged. “You defy me ? Fine! I’ll kill your precious mother myself!”

He flung a volley of knives at Marguerite as she continued to stand unmoving, a shield before Dulce and Reed, a shower of metal hurling toward her chest.

But there was the monster, moving so fast Reed hardly knew how it was possible. The sorcerer’s knives pierced its grotesque chest even as its mother screamed louder than ever, collapsing to the stone ground to enfold the monster in her arms.

Reed didn’t wait. While Aldrich still surveyed his handiwork with pride, Reed left Dulce’s side and barreled forward to plunge his own blade into the sorcerer’s heart.

He wasn’t surprised when it didn’t kill the magic-infested pignut.

But Aldrich failed to notice Dulce, serene as an avenging warrior while she performed her spell.

The vial she held emitted dark shadows that slithered across the stone like smoky serpents, finding their way to the sorcerer, disappearing beneath his robes.

“You again,” Aldrich ground out, his breath as rotten as the centuries he’d stolen when he brought his face within inches of Reed’s. “I will enjoy slowly peeling the skin from your—”

His eyes widened, Dulce’s spell taking effect, and the sorcerer screamed in utter agony as his life leeched from his body, indigo light flowing from his pores, his veins imitating lightning, his bones glowing in strobes while he stood rigid like the stone trees around him.

“How did you…?” he asked Reed, his eyes filling with blackish, rotted blood, his skin paling, sagging from his bones in deepening wrinkles until it flaked away to ashes, and he slumped to the ground, aged centuries. Dead.

“Ha!” Reed whirled to face Dulce with a wide grin. “The poxy giglet thought I killed him.”

She smiled, tears filling her eyes, and Reed caught her as she stumbled forward.

A heart-wrenching wail filled the night.

Marguerite trembled with sobs as her son died in her arms, his monstrous form slowly melting away into that of a small child. A mother rocking her son in her embrace, kissing his glossy red hair while tears streamed down her cheeks.