Authors: Sara Walsh
The state of Rip’s teeth finally made sense. “Pure sugary goodness. You know, we have lots of tasty treats on the Other Side.”
“But Snickers have to be the best.”
The repellers cast a purple glow into the den. The demons were out there—I was certain of that—but there was no way they could get inside.
Sol lit a fire in the hearth as Delane and I brought blankets and rugs from around the house and prepared for a night on the floor. Sol’s fire soon warmed the den.
After eating our nutritious supper, Delane wandered to the window.
“Maybe the demons won’t find us here,” I said, though we’d created a huge purple beacon.
“No chance of that,” replied Delane. He motioned for me to join him.
Blackness hung heavy outside, an ominous curtain shrouding whatever lurked in the void. Through a gap in the lattice, something lurched by the barrier, larger than a shadow imp or visage demon.
“That looked like a tallon demon,” said Delane. “Very nasty.”
I sensed Sol come up behind me. His chest brushed my back as he too peered outside.
The demons had increased in number, but I saw only Sol’s reflection in the murky glass. Every time he breathed I felt his chest move against me. I was no squirt, but I always forgot how tall he was until he was right beside me. Did he have the faintest idea how I felt when I was around him?
I didn’t feel that way around Delane. Delane was cute, cute enough to spin heads at Crownsville High. But butterflies didn’t migrate through my gut when I saw him as they did when I was with Sol.
I caught Delane looking at me, then Sol. And though the expression was barely perceptible, I was sure he frowned.
Another shriek rang from right outside the house and the look on Delane’s face lifted. He leaned in to the window. “Looks like we have more company,” he said. “Here they come.”
P
icture a crowd on TV. A riot or a protest. Picture surging bodies, snarls, pumping fists. That’s how they came—a mass of demons, all different breeds, all drawn by the spell and the scent of what hid behind it. One by one, they launched at the purple web. One by one the web threw them back.
“They’re looking for weaknesses,” said Sol.
“But we’re safe, right?” I asked.
“For as long as the spell holds.”
“And how long’s that?”
“Long enough.”
Only the demons closest to the magic web were visible.
Several were winged, like gargantuan bats, and soared above the rabble, their ghastly faces tinged with purple light. They paid each other no heed. All they wanted was us.
“This can’t go on all night,” I said. “Surely, they’ll—”
A thud came from above. We all stared at the ceiling. Another thud. A wailing screech followed.
Sol dashed to the door. “There must be a gap. They’re on the roof!”
Delane snatched up the pack with the remaining spells and hurried after him. It was like the shadow imps in the forest all over again. “You’re not going out there,” I cried, trailing behind.
“Not me,” said Delane. He thrust the pack into Sol’s arms.
“But it’s crazy out there,” I said, trying to force Sol to look at me. He wouldn’t. “It’s suicide, Sol. I’m serious. Don’t do it.”
Another thud. And another. My heart just about hit the ceiling.
I grabbed Sol’s arm, tugged. Finally, he looked at me. “Sol, there were only a couple of them in the woods earlier. There’re a million out there now.”
“And they’re trying to find a way in.” He took my hand and gently removed it from his arm. “Keep the door shut. Don’t come out, for any reason.”
He left the den, closing the door behind him.
I turned on Delane. “You’re just going to let him do this?” I asked. “Delane?”
The banging took on rhythm. Fists pounding on wood, shaking the rafters above us.
“Delane!”
This wasn’t right. If it had been Willie, Kieran, or Seth, I would have tied them to the ground before letting this insanity take them. Or we would have stood at each other’s side, fighting to the death as one. After everything we’d been through together, I couldn’t leave Sol out there alone. Determined to intervene, I snatched my sword from the hearth and headed for the door.
Delane was already a step ahead. He slammed his back against the door. “You’re staying here,” he said, a touch of Sol’s tone in his voice.
I brandished the sword like a baseball bat, ready to swing at anything that threatened Sol’s life. “Get out of my way.”
“Mia, he’ll make it.”
“Delane, nothing, not that tattoo, not some spell is going to stop that many demons! Now get out of my way.”
“And what do you plan to do?” he asked, his back still bracing the door. “Take them on like the shadow imp?”
As soon as he said it, I pulled back, stung—though, of course, he was right.
“Then show me what to do with this thing,” I begged. I pointed the sword, planted my feet, trying to make him see that we could help. “Delane, show me how to use it!”
Delane grabbed my wrists and placed my open hand around the fist that gripped the sword. “You hold it firm,” he said, and squeezed. His eyes narrowed. “And if anything comes through that door, you ram that blade through its gut so hard that it comes out the other side.”
My breath caught in the back of my throat. It wasn’t what I’d wanted to hear. “And what about Sol?”
Delane shook his head. “Mia, there are things out there worse than shadow imps and visage demons. There are creatures with claws like razors that can slit your throat with a touch. Demons that spit poison into your eyes, blinding you before they tear you apart. You, me, we wouldn’t last a second out there, but Solandun carries the Lunestral. You don’t know its strength.” He squeezed my hands once more before releasing his grip. “He’ll make it.”
A different sound came from above. Delane raised a hand for silence. He placed a finger to his lips.
Thud. Thud.
The sound rumbled through the house. A shriek that could shatter glass followed.
Delane did not move. “He’s on the roof,” he whispered.
“He’ll break his neck!” I cried.
Delane tracked the sounds overhead. “I don’t think so.”
Energized, he grabbed my arm, urging me to follow him to the window. I dropped the sword with a clang.
Mayhem continued outside. There was no sign of Sol.
One of the winged demons had surely swooped down and taken him, I knew it. I waited for his body, broken, yet beautiful, to plunge to the ground. Sol had taken one risk too many. It would be his last.
How much longer could it go on? I wanted to dive into the nearest chair, to scrunch my eyes closed, and stick my fingers in my ears like the big baby I really was. But I couldn’t. I had to know. I had to see.
Then a flash lit up outside like a nuclear blast. A boom, louder than thunder, shook the house. The explosion filled the air with limbs. The horses brayed in the kitchen, their stomps adding to the confusion. We braced for a second wave. It didn’t come. Something landed outside the window.
“You wanted to know what the yellow spell did,” said Delane. “You just saw it.”
I’d been dazzled by the flash, so all I saw were purple streaks and the afterglow of white light burning in the back of my eyes. But I made out a blurred silhouette close to the window. A second later, the door off the porch opened and there was movement in the kitchen.
“It’s him,” said Delane, gesturing me to stay back as he darted through the door.
Sol’s voice carried. “It’s holding,” I heard him say, between deep breaths. “Mia?”
“She’s fine,” replied Delane. “Solandun . . .”
Their words faded into whispers and I hurried to join them. I got no more than a couple of steps before Delane reappeared, alone. He closed the door behind him. “He’s okay,” he said, beaming.
Then why was Sol hiding in the kitchen? I knew I should trust Delane, but I had a feeling in my gut that something was wrong. “He’s hurt, isn’t he?” I asked, dreading the answer.
“He’s checking upstairs,” Delane replied, like it was no big deal. “Mia, don’t worry.”
Only, I was worried. I’d heard Sol on the roof. I’d seen the explosion. “How can I not worry with you two around?”
Delane hurried to the fire and gave it a poke. He looked like a guy trying to be busy.
Sol’s steps sounded overhead, but my anxiety didn’t lift. I couldn’t explain the feeling, but I had to see Sol for myself. “I should check if he needs a hand,” I said.
“Mia, he’s just securing upstairs. How could he be doing that if he was hurt?”
It was a very good question. How
could
he do that if he’d been sliced open by a razor-sharp claw and was bleeding to death, or had been blinded by a poison-spitting demon. What the hell was the matter with me?
I groaned. “You two drive me nuts,” I said. “I can tell when
you’re up to something. You’d happily tell me about Bromasta, but you won’t tell me what’s going on here.”
Delane put his arm around me. “Nothing is,” he said.
Five, then ten minutes passed. Sol did not reappear. The demons had already returned in numbers, the explosion only a temporary deterrent. Now they’d regrouped. They looked pissed.
“They really don’t give up, do they?” I said.
“Not when they’re hungry.”
“But they’re all so different. How many kinds are there?”
Fights had broken out among the demons. There were creatures of green, blue, red. Pale ones, as nasty as the shadow imps, of which I was certain I caught a couple in the crowd. And the winged ones, scaled harpies, with claws like the ones Delane had described.
“There are thousands of types,” said Delane. “Demons interbreed and get nastier with each incarnation. When Elias opened the Warnon Mines, he took many of the demons there and bred them himself, creating his own monsters.”
“Like the visage demons?”
A gangly demon hurled the body of a smaller, rotund creature at the barrier. I heard the thud when it fell to the ground.
“Visage demons are different,” said Delane. “Some were once men, some were demons of other breeds until Elias got his hands on them.”
“Men?”
“From all of the five families. It’s a long story. Not all demons are like this,” he added, gesturing outside. “And not all demons came from the Warnon Mines. There have always been demons in our world, but they were separate, rarefied.”
With an ear trained for a sound of Sol, I listened to Delane’s tale. “Rarefied?” I asked.
“It means they’re like me.”
“You’re a
demon
?”
“No,” he laughed. “I’m Samu—one of the five original families—but rarefied, pure. I have no other blood but Samu. There aren’t many of us left.”
I’d been curious about Sol’s and Delane’s roots ever since Old Man Crowley had told me about the families in Bordertown. I wasn’t sure if it was polite to ask them about their bloodlines, but Delane had brought it up himself, and I was itching to know more.
“You have no blood from the other families?”
“Not a drop,” Delane replied. “It makes it difficult to find a girl. My family is determined that we keep the line pure.”
“You can’t see whoever you want?”
“Not if you want to get your hands on the family silver.”
I’d never considered that. Crowley had just said that Brakaland was a melting pot of families and breeds. I couldn’t imagine
what it meant for Delane. He was the nicest guy ever. He could take his pick of girls. I was pretty sure Willie would take him in a heartbeat. But an arranged marriage? He deserved to be with someone he loved, regardless of what his parents planned to do with their money.
“So what’s special about the Samu?” I asked, wondering why it was so important that Delane’s family remain pure.
“We’re tough.” He took my hand and placed it against his chest. “Can you feel that?”
I wasn’t sure what I was expected to find. “Just your heart.”
“Now here.”
He moved my hand to his right side, just above his hip. And there it was. Another beat, as strong as the first.
“You have two!”
“To cleanly kill a Samu requires two accurate shots,” said Delane. “Our hearts rejuvenate. If one is hurt, the second still beats while the other heals. Only time and age slows a Samu heart. And we live a long time.”
“Longer than humans?”
“Much. Our bones are tougher, too. Not a single Samu bone has ever broken since the five families appeared in our world.”
This was pretty cool. I was becoming friends with a guy who had two hearts and indestructible bones. “Impressive. And what about Sol?”
Delane paused. “Solandun’s not rarefied,” he said. “But that’s different.”
“How so?”
He watched the demons continue their rampage. “That’s up to him to explain.”
But when Sol returned, I was more concerned about checking that he was okay than asking about families and bloodlines. His hair was wild. His shirt was disheveled. Sweat glistened on his brow.
“You’re pale,” I said, hurrying to his side. “You okay?”
He lingered in the doorway, massaging his back at the waist, twisting as if something had pulled. “I’m fine. You?” he asked, checking me all over as if
I’d
been the one fighting demons.
“All in one piece,” I replied, confused. “Thanks to Delane.”
“She wanted to go out and fight,” added Delane. “I told her it was a bad idea.”
“Very bad,” said Sol. He looked from me to Delane, and the shadow I’d caught on his face after the imp attack returned. “The spell’s holding,” he muttered.
“Thanks to you,” I replied. I nudged his arm, trying to jolt him out of the mood with a joke. “But you have to stop with the crazy action stuff, Sol. You don’t have to be the big hero to impress me.”
“I wish you’d told me that before,” he said, with a half smile
that interrupted my heartbeat more than any shadow imp or visage demon ever could.
I smiled back. “So what now?”
“We rest,” said Delane.
He said it as if it was the easiest thing in the world, despite the circus going on outside. Delane hunkered down in the corner close to the window. I pitched a spot by the fire. I’d barely gotten comfy, when Sol laid his rug beside me. It was only when he sat that I noticed a small red stain on the back of his shirt.