Page 105 of The Midnight Knock

the things that encircle him and Hunter outside the old house. They stand on two long legs like a man. They have two long arms, with claws that end in bright black talons. Their limbs and chests are blanketed with black feathers, the same feathers that coat the enormous pair of wings sprouting from their backs. The things

“Oh my god,” Kyla said. Here in the cafe, she tried to crawl backward, tried to get away, but there was nowhere left to go.

The thing in the cafe studied them in the firelight. The Guardian of the mountain. Where its head should be, Ethan and Kyla saw scales and a long curving neck and the head of a great black serpent. Yellow eyes. White fangs.

It raised its wings wide. It opened its mouth. ItSHRIEKED.

And it rushed their way.

ENDGAME REDUXETHAN

2:45 a.m.

Should he be afraid? He was about to die, it was going to hurt for a second—hurt pretty bad if he had to guess—but then he was going to wake up tomorrow, same as ever, wasn’t he? He wouldn’t remember tonight. Wouldn’t remember all that he’d learned.

Wouldn’t be any closer to getting free of this place. But he’d be alive. Right?

The creature from the desert moved faster than anything on two legs should be able to move. The feathers of its wings hissed through the air. And as it came nearer, Ethan felt an unfamiliar emotion rising in his chest. It wasn’t fear.

It was rage.

Twenty-four years he’d been trapped in a shithole town, chained to a dying car shop. Twenty-four years he’d been beholden to a mother with brilliant technical skills and no business sense, always in the shadow of a useless brother who seemed determined to break all their hearts. Twenty-four years and Ethan had finally gotten a break, a chance to escape.

Twenty-four years, andthisis what it came to? Being trapped, yet again, in a hell of someone else’s making?

Ethan did something he’d never done before.

He opened his mouth. He screamed at the creature bearing down on him. He screamed in absolute, impotent fury.

And then the thing stopped.

The Guardian loomed above Ethan and Kyla, mere feet away, but it didn’t move any closer. Ethan’s first thought was that he’d startled the thing into submission, maybe stopped time itself with the sheer force of his anger. Hardly. The Guardian blinked, regarded himimpassively. Its feathered chest rose and fell. Its scaly head bobbed, softly, on its serpentine neck.

The creature let out a low hiss. It almost sounded like a question.

Ethan became aware of a pulse in his hand. He opened the fingers of his clenched fist and revealed the grooved stone egg he’d taken from his pocket a moment ago. The egg was trembling on his palm.

The Guardian peered at the stone and gave a soft bob of the head. It seemed satisfied.

Kyla realized what this meant. She didn’t waste time. She scrambled sideways, reaching under a nearby booth to pluck up the egg she’d dropped when they’d fallen to the floor. She thrust the stone in the creature’s direction, panting hard, and after a moment’s regard, the Guardian took a step back. Another. It closed its talons. It turned its scaly head to study the fire rapidly approaching them from the kitchen.

The creature held out one arm and one wing in the direction of the cafe’s broken window. It didn’t move, even as the fire crept closer.

Ethan rose to his feet, knees shaking with surplus adrenaline. He helped Kyla stand. Smoke was filling the room, choking them both, doingwondersfor his headache. His heart hammered. The human body wasn’t designed to stand this close to a creature this terrifying. He didn’t have the fortitude to look at it for more than a second at a time. He said to Kyla, “I think it’s waiting for us to leave.”

Kyla looked at the grooved stone still trembling in her hand. “I guess we figured out what these are for.”

Outside, a man screamed. The Guardian remained motionless as Ethan and Kyla picked their way through the cafe’s shattered window and out onto the porch. Ryan Phan was on the porch, pounding their way, a pair of GuardiansSHRIEKINGon his heels.

Ryan held a gun in one hand. In the other, Ethan saw something pale and white.

“The stone!” Ethan shouted. “Show them the stone!”

Ryan looked at him, clearly bewildered by the instruction, and his foot caught a loose board in the porch. He fell to his knees with a shout. He tried to tumble away from the approaching creatures—but they were on him already. There was no escape.

Except they hesitated, inches from his body. When Ryan rolled onto his back, he was holding up the egg.

With a low hiss, the Guardians registered this. They nodded. They stepped away.