I glanced at Derek. The vision I had must have been sent by Jenus somehow, perhaps using the power of the entity to mind-meld with me at such a distance. If Jenus was still ‘alive’ despite the entity residing within him, then it would explain the barrier that Hazel and I had created—why we had felt that there had been another form of energy there aside from our own. Had it been my brother all along, providing what help he could?
“You are sure of this? You are sure that it is Jenus and not the entity playing tricks?” I asked, wondering if the same thought had occurred to my brother.
“No.” Zerus shook his head. “I am not sure. I am not sure at all—before all this our brother was cruel, a darkness inside him that blossomed with the lavish attentions of our father. It could all be a trick, but I cannot ignore the earnestness of his voice—the cries that haunt me, begging for me to free him.”
I nodded, feeling pity for Zerus. It must have been difficult, alone in the forest with the pleas of Jenus haunting him. I wondered why I had not heard the same, why our brother had not tried to reach me through his own voice as he’d done with Zerus. Did he think that I would turn my back on him, ignore his cries for help?
“Why did you not tell us this sooner?” I asked eventually.
Zerus clasped his hands even tighter, the knuckles turning white with the pressure.
“I vowed I would not return to Hellswan,” he murmured. “The end was coming—the end of our time on this land, and I wanted to spend my last days alone with the stars and the silence. Forgive me, brother.”
I stared at him, not knowing how to react. In the past, I would have dismissed him as a coward. I was angry at his reticence—receiving this news earlier would have perhaps enabled us to use it to our advantage—but I understood his reasons. I could not hate him for his attempts at self-preservation; our selfishness was a family trait, clearly, and I couldn’t blame him for a fault that was so alive in me.
“Get some rest,” I bit out.
Zerus nodded, and Field escorted him to a quiet spot away from the waiting armies, before leaving to return to his brothers. The sentries, particularly those who had resided at Hellswan, whispered to one another as he passed, but they did not speak to him.
I turned my attentions to the matter at hand.
“More proof that the visions are genuine,” I observed to Derek. “This is good news.”
“Indeed,” the vampire replied, his blue eyes following my brother as he sat down on a rock, his cloak pulled tightly around him. “If Jenus has been trying to communicate with the two of you it must mean he’s semi-conscious, or has moments of lucidity. Which leads me to believe that the entity is not as powerful as we first thought, or that it is spreading its power too thin.”
I agreed with the latter. If the entity was maintaining the energy of the shadow army and manipulating the body of Jenus, then its powers would be unfocused. No wonder it had only appeared in battle at certain times—it was holding back, allowing its armies to do the work.
“So really, it’s similar to what it did with Benedict—just a stronger form of possession?” Hazel asked.
“I think so.”
“Then let’s hunt it down,” she replied. “Let’s find a way to expose that weakness.”
Derek smiled at his granddaughter. “I couldn’t have put it better myself. Let’s move out.”
He gave the order; the sentries and the GASP members divided into their assigned teams, and we all moved toward the portal.
It was time to hunt down my brother.
Derek
Corrine led us down into the portal. We followed the tunnel of blueish-gray swirling mists, strong air suction pulling us along the portal till we saw the uncharacteristically blue, sunshine skies that covered the North Sea. I followed after Corrine, clasping Sofia’s hand; Rose, Caleb, Tejus, Hazel, Ashley and Landis followed behind us, and behind them, twenty sentry guards and ministers who would be fighting alongside us. Once we reached the ocean, Corrine held us suspended in the air. She muttered a few words under her breath, and a moment later we were standing on a wide road that faced the six columns of the Brandenburg Gate.
Tejus and the rest of the sentries looked around them in amazement—I’d forgotten that their kind had little experience with witches, and the powers they possessed. Tejus glanced over at Corrine, half impressed, half mistrusting. Corrine smiled warmly back at him while Hazel hid a small smirk.
Either side of us, completely obscuring the lush greenery of the park on both sides of the road, were hundreds of tourist buses, each with a capacity nearing seventy. The crowds that had gathered at the base of the gates were huge, and no doubt there would be more of them in the huge courtyard on the other side of the structure.
“It’s swamped,” Sofia murmured, her forehead creasing into a frown.
“I don’t see anything yet,” I muttered. “Maybe there’s time to clear the area.”
“Maybe I can do something,” Corrine added. “I can probably invoke a spell that would make them think of leaving, something that would repel them…but it would take a little time.”
I thought about the witch’s suggestion. I wasn’t sure if we had time for a spell that subtle—we needed something that would make them move immediately.
“Corrine, can you do something to get their attention? Maybe bust the alarms on these vehicles?” I gestured to the rows of tourist coaches.
“Certainly,” she replied. A moment later we were all deafened by the sounds of high-pitched alarms erupting from each of the coaches.
“Let’s get moving,” I yelled over the noise, pointing toward the gate.
A couple of overweight men with wrap-around shades were running toward the coaches, but it hadn’t had the impact I’d wanted. We kept moving toward the gate—the tourists were dispersing too slowly.
“What else can we do?” Ashley asked.
“I think we’re too late,” I replied slowly. I’d stopped dead in the street, watching a dark formation creep up on the skyline, suddenly darkening the statue of the chariot rider perched atop the iconic gate.
The hopeless feeling that always accompanied the shadow started to crawl up my spine. I heard children crying—they were probably most susceptible to the feelings that the shadow projected, perhaps thinking that their parents had abandoned them, or suddenly consumed with the most basic instinct of fear.
We ran up to the columns. The shadow was growing in size, blocking out the sun completely. The screaming started, men and women running from the tourist spot in fear, not knowing what they were afraid of, just that they were.
“Corrine?” I asked.
“On it,” she replied.
Our core group started to float upward, moving through the air, gaining on the shadow. She dropped us down on top of the columns of the gate, four of us either side of the chariot. Corrine remained below with the rest of the sentries. She must have been putting a spell on the tourists—they kept running, but their screaming and horrific cries of fear were starting to fade.
“What are you waiting for?” Caleb growled, his arms open and ready to receive the shadow. It worked. The form stopped spreading out toward the gardens, and focused on us.
“Hold your weapons,” I called, waiting for the shadow to get close enough that we could do some damage. The black mist approached, its cloying wisps like tentacles as it reached out toward us.
“NOW!”
Tejus’s sword sliced through the mass, the first soldier roaring with rage as it burst into a million ash-like pieces. After that, the shadow didn’t let up. We fought furiously—each of us tearing the mists with our teeth, claws ripping at its shapeless form.
Each time the mists tried to creep around the sides and surround us from behind, furious gusts of wind, created by Corrine, pushed them back, ensuring that we were only facing the enemy head-on. It meant that the ministers and guards were useless for now—they waited below, ready to pick up the slack should one of us be wounded.
&nbs
p; I fought with two immortal water-infused swords for better reach, and it was only Caleb who refused any man-made weapons, destroying only with his natural abilities. I noticed with pride how expertly Sofia wielded a razor-sharp whip that she’d brought with us from The Shade, slashing the shadow with perfect aim, taking out three or four of the entity’s soldiers with each flick of her wrist.
Finally, I felt that we were battling our enemy with some degree of success. I knew that the shadow would keep coming until we found and destroyed the entity, but we would have to remain defending the city until it was located. I just hoped it was sooner rather than later. As I fought, I kept my eye out for Jenus and I could see Tejus doing the same thing, but he was nowhere to be seen.
“Derek!” Corrine shouted at me from down below.
I dodged the outstretched arm of a soldier, narrowly avoiding getting my face ripped to shreds.
The witch belatedly realized that her shout had been a mistake, a distraction, and appeared next to me, her own sword unsheathed and moving swiftly as she joined me in battle.
“Ibrahim just appeared. Jenus has been spotted in the In-Between. We need to go there—now. He’s moving off to tell the others.”
“Good,” I replied, slashing through the mist with renewed vigor. “But some of us are going to need to stay here and keep the shadow at bay. Ashley, Landis!” I called. “We’ve found Jenus in the In-Between. I need you to stay with the sentries and keep fighting. Whatever you do, don’t let the shadow leave the immediate area. If we’re successful, you’ll know—I’m hoping the shadow will vanish completely or weaken enough that it stops expanding.”
“Got it,” Landis yelled back. “Give him hell!”
I grimaced darkly. We will, I vowed. The entity would be sent back from whence it came.
“Are you ready?” Corrine asked.
“We’re ready,” I confirmed. We all linked ourselves to one another.
A split second later we were standing in the snowy peaks of Mount Logan, some of us still swinging our weapons in the direction of the vanished enemy.
“What in Nevertide?” Tejus burst out, looking around, stunned at the abrupt change in surroundings.
“Welcome to GASP.” Sofia smiled at him. “Don’t worry—you’ll get used to it.”
Grace
Shayla looked around the Champ de Mars, squinting her large eyes in the bright sunlight.
“We need shade,” Vivienne reminded the witch as she and Xavier moved beneath the natural shade of a nearby tree.
It was very peaceful here. Far off in the distance, I could hear the sound of traffic and the bustling streets of Paris, but where we were, surrounded by elegant gardens and beautifully graveled pathways, only a few people ambled past, glancing at us in surprise as they took in the tall sentry guards and ministers who had accompanied us, along with our strange outfits and heavy weaponry. Most of the sentries were muttering among themselves, looking over at Shayla with varying degrees of alarm and surprise.
Once the shade was cast over those who needed it, we moved forward, heading in the direction of the Eiffel Tower, its iconic steel structure awe-inspiring.
“Wish we were here under different circumstances…” I smiled at my husband.
“Don’t worry,” Lawrence said, “if we defeat the entity before dinner, I’ll take you out.”
I laughed, taking his hand. I couldn’t imagine the shadow appearing here—it was just too much of a perfect day. I started to wonder if we had the right place, and I sensed Shayla and Lucas were thinking the same.
Before they could question Vivienne, the gravel on the path started to tremble. It was only slight at first, but it quickly increased, the ground shaking violently, causing traffic horns to blast out and loud cursing in French to erupt throughout the garden. The day didn’t seem so peaceful anymore.
Screams came from the direction of the tower, but I was sure they weren’t human. My instinct was proven correct a second later, when a flood of ghouls shot through the air toward us.
“No shadow?” Lucas growled as he unsheathed a sword.
“Clearly not,” I replied, searching the skies for the approach of its dark mists.
Tourists started running toward us—they’d obviously been at the tower, or on their way there, and chose the Champ de Mars as their escape route. Many of them were crying and screaming, their faces panic-stricken as the ghouls zipped after them. The creatures matched the high-pitched notes of the human screams, but theirs were ones of joy—their bony clawed fingers outstretched, rows of shark-like teeth bared while saliva fell from their lips in anticipation.
“Spread out!” Vivienne cried. “Keep looking for the shadow—it can’t be far behind.”
I crashed my sword into the first ghoul, my blade hitting its skull and splitting the creature’s head in two. I needed a full decapitation or dismemberment to kill the creature, so while it was struggling to remove itself from the end of my sword, I cut its neck with a smaller dagger. Its bony body fell to the floor.
Lawrence and I started working together, one of us jabbing the nearest ghoul like a shish-kebab while the other lopped off one of its body parts. We were getting into quite a good routine when Lucas shouted out.
“What the hell?” he yelled. Still keeping my main focus on the ghouls that kept swarming toward us, I quickly glanced to where Lucas was looking. His gaze was fixed on the tower.
I heard a horrific noise, the sound of steel groaning and creaking, so loud it seemed to ricochet off the buildings in the distance and bounce back to my eardrums.
“What is that?”
“The ghoul queen,” Lucas shouted at us, “she’s, uh… grown since I last saw her.”
What?
Finally catching a break with the ghoul onslaught, I looked up at the tower. A ginormous, overweight ghoul was lumbering past the tower, its structure groaning where she’d pushed it aside to reach her prey: us.
“You never mentioned her size!” Vivienne yelled, having not heard Lucas.
“She wasn’t this big before!” he cried back.
What the… How did she even do that?
She stomped toward us—apparently too heavy to float—her feet shaking the ground with every step. She looked like she was capable of crushing entire buildings, let alone us.
“We need to keep her contained!” I cried. If the ghoul queen got out of the park, Paris would be completely destroyed in a matter of hours. We were talking a Godzilla-like catastrophe.
“I’ll do what I can…I’ll see if I can shrink her, if not – I might need the sentries for this one,” Shayla replied, beckoning to the ministers and ordering them to get barrier-building. We were going to need something sharpish—the ghoul queen was gaining on us, and with the weight and height she was carrying, anything flimsy would be torn apart in a matter of seconds.
Barriers popped up trying to block her way, but she just brushed them aside, roaring down at us in fury.
“It’s not working!” Shayla cried. “She’s not getting any smaller – everything I’m sending her way just seems to bounce off!”
“Anyone got any other ideas?” Vivienne yelled.
I racked my brains, trying to think of a weak spot or something that we could use as leverage. The deadliest thing about her was her size. Our weapons were useless when faced with such a huge mass—we’d practically need a battering ram to slow her down…
“Wait! We’re standing in front of the French military school!” I yelled, spinning around. Sure enough, the vast complex lay in the distance, its grand building hopefully containing thousands of well-trained French soldiers and an arsenal of effective weapons—less medieval joust, more sniper rifles and missile launchers.
“You’re a genius!” Shayla burst out.
“Good plan,” agreed Vivienne. “Shayla? Can you get us there?”
The ghoul queen was now racing toward us, the ground feeling like it was going to split under her weight.
“I’m all for it—
but we’re going to need a distraction!” Lucas roared, swiping low to hack off the lower appendages of an approaching ghoul.
“The sentries are going to need to take over,” Vivienne replied calmly. She called over to one of the guards nearest to her. The ghoul queen leaned down, her fleshy hands about the same size as a small car, and tried to pick us up from the ground. We narrowly dodged them, my sword almost completely ineffectual. It probably felt like a splinter to her.
The guard and Vivienne battled side by side as she laid out the plan. The guard smiled, looking impressed, and then nodded, backing up to relay the information to the rest of the army. So far we were in luck; the ghoul queen seemed completely preoccupied with us, and less interested in storming through the streets of Paris.
“Now, Shayla!” Vivienne called.
A second later, we were all standing in front of the military building, its large columns and elegant classical architecture making it look more like a palace than anything associated with the military.
“So what’s the plan?” Lucas asked. “We just storm in and demand weapons?”
Vivienne looked behind us at the mass of ghouls and the irritated-looking queen.
“Yep, I think we do.”
We entered through the main doors, already open, with glamorously-attired officers flooding into the courtyard, all staring in amazement at the nightmare vision of the queen ghoul.
“Mon Dieu,” the officer closest to me whispered, “c’est hideux!” The blood drained from his face and he tried to loosen his starched white collar in agitation.
Vivienne quickly took charge. She approached the most decorated officer, a man who must have been in his seventies, and reeled off impeccable French. The man looked flustered, but ushered us all inside. He quickly led us through the huge galleries and rooms, yelling out instructions to the younger-looking officers who hurried by. Some of them couldn’t have been older than eighteen.
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