“Nobody said anything to me about that,” Sharmila huffs.
“We make our own plans,” Kealan says. “We don’t discuss them with civilians, not even Disciples. No offense meant.”
“None taken.”
Guns blare on the staircase.
“How much longer?” I shout.
Kealan checks his watch. “A minute. Maybe two.”
I dart back towards the stairs. “Bec!” Sharmila screams.
“Don’t worry,” I pant. “I’m not going to fight them.”
I didn’t absorb any of Beranabus’s magic when we touched, but I learned a lot of his spells. There are many I can’t use — there’s more to magic than knowing the right words — but some I can. Reaching the doors at the top of the stairs, I draw upon the ancient magician’s years of experience and prepare a holding spell.
Bullets are still being fired on the stairs. “Gabor! Bence!” I yell. “Come back!”
There’s no response. A few seconds later the guns stop. There’s the sound of scurrying footsteps — but not human feet. Grimacing, I unleash the spell and block the doorway with a shield of magical energy.
The first demon appears. It has a square, bloodstained head. Dozens of eyes. Three mouths. A tiny body. It leaps at me, wild with bloodlust, but crashes back off the shield. It snaps at the web of energy, trying to tear it apart with its teeth, but the barrier holds.
I back away from the doors, focusing my power. This is the first time I’ve tried this spell and the effort involved is greater than I thought. By tapping into the magic in the air, I can hold the shield in place, but I won’t be able to maintain it for long, especially not with demons snapping and clawing at it. But I don’t need much time, just a minute. It should be enough.
I’m halfway to the landing pad when I hear the whirring sound of helicopter blades and spot the craft humming towards us. I feel a sense of triumph like a hard ball in my gut. In their own universe, some demons are able to fly. But flight is difficult here. Strong demons might manage short bursts, but the beasts who crossed aren’t especially powerful. Once we’re in the air, we’ll be safe.
I don’t let thoughts of escape make me careless. I stay focused on the shield. I’m tiring fast — there’s so little magic in this world. I can hold it for another couple of minutes maybe, but that should be all the time we —
Something powerful slips through the window on the first floor. Not a demon, but not human either. A beast far more dangerous than any of the others. It snaps questions at the mage who’s been holding the window open, then howls at the top of its voice. The cry echoes up the stairs and corridors. The demons struggling with the shield pause to screech in response.
The new, mysterious monster throws itself through the shattered glass window of the room, digs its claws into the wall, and scurries upwards, scaling the building like a jet propelled spider. I start to yell a warning to Sharmila, but before the words have left my lips the creature hauls itself over the edge of the roof and leers at us maliciously.
The beast has the shape of a woman, but her skin is a mass of blisters and sores. Pus oozes from dozens of cracks and holes in her jellyish flesh. Her mouth is a ragged red slit, her eyes two green thimbles in a putrid, yellow mockery of a face. A few scraps of hair jut out of her head. She wears no clothes — the touch of any material would be agony on flesh so pustulant and tender.
The creature points at the helicopter, which has almost completed its descent, and barks a phrase of magic. The blades stutter, then stop. The helicopter shakes wildly, spins around a few times, then plummets several feet shy of the building. It makes a sharp, screaming sound as it drops. Then it hits the ground and there’s an explosion, louder and more brutal than any movie bang ever prepared me for. Glass explodes in all the nearby windows. A giant ball of flame belches up into the sky, turning the evening red. Meera and Kealan are thrown to the floor and the unconscious Dervish slides off his gurney.
Only the woman and I remain standing, using magic to shelter ourselves from the force of the explosion. I sense the shield give way behind me and demons spill onto the roof. But I don’t care about them now. I have a more dangerous foe to contend with.
The most frightening, bewildering thing is, I
know
her. It’s impossible — I saw her die — but I’m sure I’m right. Her voice when she cast the spell was familiar and, misshapen as she is, if I squint hard, I can make out the lines of her original face. I saw and heard her in the cave the night I returned to life. Even if I hadn’t, I’d know her from Beranabus’s memories. She was his assistant once — Nadia Moore. But now she serves a different master, our old foe Lord Loss. And she calls herself . . .
“Juni Swan,” the semi-human monster gurgles, bowing with cynical politeness. Her lips move into a jagged line as she straightens — I think it’s meant to be a smile. “Delighted to kill you.”
She flicks a hand at me and the ground at my feet bellows upwards in a pillar of molten, burning tar.
I
NSTEAD
of trying to fight the black, scorching geyser, I ride it upwards, using the force of the blast to propel myself high off the roof and clear of the sizzling liquid. My lower legs are spattered and the tar burns through my flesh, but those are minor wounds. I can heal them easily once I’ve dealt with the more pressing dangers.
I land in a crouch, using magic to soften the blow. I don’t take my eyes off the mutated Juni Swan. She’s watching me with a wicked, twisted smirk. Her eyes blaze with a mad hatred. I don’t know how she cheated death — it shouldn’t be possible — but she hasn’t come back cleanly. She’s been reduced to a staggering, seeping carcass of cancerous cells. Her body looks like it’s been eating away at itself for the past six months. The pain of holding it together and clinging to her frail grasp on life must be unendurable. I’m not surprised she’s lost her grip on sanity.
“Little Bec,” she sneers, her words coming thick and syrupy through the wasted vocal cords of her throat. “My master killed you once, but you returned to life, like me. I wonder if you’ll come back again?”
“Who is she?” Sharmila screams, back on her feet, helping Kealan up.
“Juni Swan!” I shout.
“Juni . . . ? You mean
Nadia
?” Sharmila gasps, staring with horror at this mockery of a human form.
“Not anymore.” Juni gives a sick chuckle, taking a few tottering steps towards us. Fleshy smears from her feet stick to the rooftop. She winces every time she moves. Her body is fragile, but her power is great. She’s stronger than she was in the cave.
Kealan fires three times at Juni. The bullets stop in midair, inches from her scarred, glutinous face. “Pretty little butterflies,” she murmurs, turning two of the bullets into silvery swollen insects — but these butterflies have oversized mouths and sharp teeth. She flicks a finger at them and they fly back to their source. I try to deflect them, but I’m too slow. They latch on to Kealan’s eyes and dig in. He screams and collapses, blind within seconds. The butterflies continue chewing through to his brain.
I want to help Kealan, but I dare not turn my gaze away from Juni, even for an instant. She makes the third bullet rotate a few times, then sends it shooting at the middle of Sharmila’s forehead. The old Indian lady redirects it with a short flick of her wrist and the bullet buries itself in the roof.
The demons from the staircase have split to surround Sharmila and me. There are six around me, five around Sharmila. The twelfth — the square-headed demon —bounds over to Kealan and finishes off the unfortunate guard.
“You should have stayed dead,” Juni says, closing on me. The demons are keen to attack, but they’re holding back, wary of Juni Swan. They must be under orders not to strike before she does.
“How’s my broken-hearted boyfriend?” Juni asks, turning her head to study Dervish. She gasps with pain, a chunk of her neck ripping loose. Grimacing, she pushes the fleshy fillet back into place and uses magic to seal it. Part of me feels sorry for her. This is a terrible way for anyone to exist.
“Leave Dervish alone,” Sharmila growls.
“Or what?” Juni jeers.
Sharmila tenses her legs, then leaps over the demons around her. She lands between Juni and Dervish, grabs the gurney, jerks off a side bar, and hurls it at Juni, jagged end first. The tip strikes Juni’s gooey face and drives through the rotting flesh and bone. She shrieks, her head snapping back.
Sharmila rips another bar loose to use against the demons who are scurrying after her. She thinks she killed Juni, but she’s wrong. As Sharmila turns, Juni yanks out the bar. Bits of yellowy-pink flesh trickle from the hole it leaves behind.
“You’ll have to do better than that,” Juni giggles, launching the bar at Sharmila. It hits her right shoulder, lifts her off her feet, and sends her sailing across the roof. She smashes into one of the staircase doors. The bar thrusts through her flesh and deep into the wood, pinning her to the door. She screams in agony, blood pouring from her shoulder and mouth. She tries to wriggle free, but can’t, pinned in place like a captured moth.
I’m truly scared now. It took a lot of power to throw a steel bar that hard. I don’t have anywhere near that kind of strength, not in this world. In a one-on-one battle with Juni Swan, I won’t stand a chance.
Juni fixes her insane, bloodshot eyes on me again. There’s a tiny insect in the corner of one socket, chewing at the rotting flesh of her lower eyelid. “It’s a pity,” she mutters. “I hoped Grubbs would be here. I wanted to kill him at the same time as Dervish.”
“He’ll be here soon,” I lie, trying to keep the tremble out of my voice. “Kernel too. And Beranabus.” Her expression twitches when I mention the name of her old master. “You’d better get out of here before —”
“Billy Spleen was a bad liar,” she cuts me off, “but you’re worse. I wonder if you’ll squeal like he did when I kill you.”
“Bill-E didn’t squeal. I know. I was there.”
“So you were. I forgot.”
A crab-shaped demon with a cat’s face jabbers something and shuffles towards me.
“Not yet,” Juni snarls. “I want to torture her first.”
The crab snaps at her and Juni scowls. “I don’t care what he said. I . . .” A look of disgust crosses her face. “No. You’re right. We’ll kill them and get out of here. But not before we’ve had some sport.” She waves at Sharmila. “The Disciple is yours, along with the humans below. Leave the girl and Dervish to me.”
The demons peel away. Three of them — the fastest — converge on Sharmila and set to work on her legs, gobbling the flesh of her feet and shins, pausing only to dance diabolically to the rhythm of her tormented screams. The square-headed demon is still feasting on the remains of Kealan. The rest barrel down the stairs, back into the bowels of the hospital.
Juni smiles horribly. “Alone at last,” she wheezes.
I say nothing, backing away slowly, trying to think of a way out of this. Down the wall and through the window on the first floor? But Lord Loss is probably waiting on the other side. I’m surprised he didn’t cross with Juni. Maybe he wasn’t sure whom he’d find and didn’t like the prospect of a run-in with Beranabus.
“I won’t kill you immediately,” Juni says, edging after me, leaving a trail of slimelike, bubbling flesh, blood, and pus behind. “I’ll keep you alive awhile, like Sharmila.” She points at the wailing woman. The monsters have stripped the flesh from her bones beneath the knees and are slowly moving up her thighs. Sharmila should have fainted by now. They must be keeping her conscious with magic.
“I’ll kill you,” I sob.
“I think not,” she chuckles. “You’re the one who’ll perish tonight. But I’ll kill Dervish first. I’ll wake him and make sure he knows what’s happening. Can’t let him sleep through his death. I’ll bring him round, no matter what shape his brain is in. Slaughter him nice and gruesomely. Then finish you off.”
The square-headed demon finishes with Kealan and heads down the stairs to find more pickings below. I set my gaze on it, bark a quick spell, and send it flying at Juni’s head. She deflects it upwards. It squeals as it shoots into the air.
“You’ll have to do better than that, little —”
I yank my walkie-talkie out and toss it at the demon. When it hits, I make it explode. The demon explodes too and its blood rains down on Juni. Before it splatters, I transform it into acid. It hits with a burning hiss. Juni shrieks and tries to brush away the acidic blood. A drop splashes over her left eye and it sizzles like an egg frying in a pan, washing the insect loose. She howls with rage, hate, and pain.
I race towards the staircase. I’ll grab Sharmila if I can and flee. A window between universes can’t last more than a few minutes, even with a mage working to keep it open. If I can evade capture for that long, Juni and the demons will have to return to their own —
The door next to Sharmila tears free of its hinges and smashes into me, knocking me down. I saw it coming at the last second and erected a partial shield, otherwise I’d be dead. But it cracks a few ribs and bones and almost punctures my lungs.
As I struggle to my feet, the door rises into the air, hovers a moment, then explodes in a hail of splinters. Again I manage to construct a weak barrier around me, which stops most of the splinters from penetrating. But dozens hit home and pierce me, a few just missing my eyes, a long, thick shard almost staking me through the heart like a vampire.
“Look at the pitiful hedgehog,” Juni gurgles as I writhe on the roof, trying to make the splinters pop out of my flesh. She’s cleansed herself of the acidic blood, looking no worse than she did before. “All pink, bloody, and spiky. I’m going to slice your stomach open and keep you alive while I fish your guts out. How do you like the thought of feeding on your own intestines before —”
A ball of crackling energy strikes Juni hard. She shrieks with shock as she’s blown through the air, coming to a stunned stop a few feet from the edge of the roof. As she staggers to her feet, she looks for her assailant. I look too and find him standing near the gurney, leaning on it for support, exhausted and the color of death, but fired up for action —
Dervish!