This was just the kind of trouble only her stupid brother could get into.
“Please come with us,” Fiona asked Mr. Dells.
“My duties do not permit me to leave the campus.” Mr. Dells looked into the sun without blinking. “You need to hurry. . before their light goes out altogether.”
Fiona wasn’t sure what he meant, because the sun was nowhere near setting, but it chilled her blood.
She and Mitch ran out into the alley where Mr. Dell had stared.
There was Xybek’s Jewelry and an Apple computer store for Paxington students-but no place where Eliot could have turned.
“How can you turn on a straight line?” she whispered.
Mitch cocked his head as if listening. “You add another line-another dimension.” He moved to the brick wall and touched it.
Fiona followed, hearing something, too: a violin, distant dull explosions, thundering horse hooves, the crash of metal, and screams.
Fiona swallowed. She understood now.
Eliot had taken a “wrong turn” as they had that first day when they found this alley. Normally, you weren’t supposed to be able to see the entrance, because it was hidden “sideways” from the perspective of normal three dimensions.
But there was no reason strange extradimensional passages couldn’t be hidden anywhere. .
Maybe even ones you could’ve stumbled upon
She ran her fingers over the wall, searching.
She brushed over Mitch’s fingers and felt an electric thrill. Embarrassed, she almost jerked her hand away, but the sensation had been real. . and not just because she’d touched Mitch. There was something there, underneath.
Fiona pressed harder, feeling a bump in the fabric of existence.
She let her vision drift out of focus; she felt a loose thread and pulled it out.
Fiona’s ears popped. She fumbled for Mitch’s hand and grabbed it.
She felt as if she were descending fast in an elevator.
Behind her, a long brick-lined passage stretched back toward the alley-and stretched farther as she watched, curving out of sight. Overhead buildings leaned closer.
Shadows were everywhere.
Fiona couldn’t see a thing. She felt like she was suffocating.
Mitch held his free hand up. A ball of light appeared in his palm-as brilliant as an arc welder. He gritted his teeth in pain.
The shadows retreated about them. . screaming.
Mitch’s light revealed hundreds of creatures climbing over one another to retreat from the brilliance.
There were more of them, pushing and oozing to a point a quarter block ahead.
That’s where Fiona spied Jezebel and her brother.
The darkness crowded about them and obscured her view. She heard Eliot, though, playing Lady Dawn. . something muffled by the smothering layers of shadow.
She and Mitch shuffled carefully forward.
The shadow creatures looked like man-sized bats (specifically the pug-nosed
One rushed Fiona, despite Mitch’s light, claws reaching.
Fiona lashed forward-finding her father’s gift, the bracelet about her wrist, once more transformed into a full length of real chain.
She cut the creature in half.
It hit the pavement with a wet splat. . apparently more than mere shadow, reeking of hot gasoline and ozone.
Fiona gazed at the partially rusted chain and vowed to thank Louis if she ever saw him again.
She turned to Eliot. They had to get out before they got lost in the encroaching darkness.
Next to her, Mitch stared openmouthed at the severed monstrosity that oozed black blood at her feet. . then to the chain she held. The color drained from his face.
She nodded to his upheld hand and the ball of intense light. “Can you make it brighter?”
“I can try,” he whispered. He licked his lips and concentrated.
The light blazed like a tiny sun. He grunted in pain and his hand blistered.
The shadows about them backed away, their edges sizzling in the intense illumination. . clearing a path to Jezebel and Eliot.
Fiona now clearly heard Eliot’s music. It was the song he’d played at their first gym match. Only then, he had cautiously plunked out the song. Now he bowed with vibrato, and Fiona felt the music resonate in her bones; it made her want to march forward.
She resisted, though, because she didn’t understand what she saw.
Eliot and Jezebel stood in the center of a hundred shadow creatures that wheeled about them, circling closer.
Jezebel’s hands had finger-length needle claws that dripped venom. Where it spattered on the ground, the asphalt dissolved. Her arms were still slender and porcelain white, but her veins stood out, vinelike and pulsing. Her face was drawn, mouth filled with serrated teeth. But her eyes-they were wild and solid green, glimmered as if faceted emeralds. . and reminded Fiona of the emotionless gaze of a praying mantis.
A shadow rushed Jezebel, its mouth extended in a gruesome smile.
Jezebel struck-so fast, Fiona barely saw the motion.
The creature fell screaming, withering, clutching at the holes that once contained its eyes, and then it died.
Only then did Fiona see dozens of liquefying corpses about the Infernal Jezebel, dribbling away to the drain in the center of the alley.
An overpowering scent of vanilla reached Fiona’s nostrils. She almost gagged.
Fiona had seen Infernals more disgusting at the Ultima Thule battle, even faced horrific Beelzebub in combat, but she hadn’t seen one part transformed, half human and half nightmare. . and definitely not someone who sat next to her in class.
Maybe as Louis had said “the fires of Hell” burned in Fiona’s blood as well-but if being Infernal meant unleashing the monster within, then Fiona never wanted to let that side of her take control.
But more than Jezebel. . it was Eliot that
Eliot’s hands were blurs as he played. His eyes were unblinking, staring off into space. About him fog swirled, and Fiona glimpsed a battlefield beyond and hundreds of red-coated soldiers stepping into the alley, bayonets fixed upon rifles, firing in time with the music, and marching forward to battle the shadows. The soldiers fought blade to claw. They died, dozens of them-and still they materialized from the music, never broke ranks, never cried out or showed any emotion. . like windup toys.
And they sang:
Eliot bowed faster, his head bobbing. Horses rode from the fog into the alley. Their headless riders were armored, holding shield and lance. They charged into the fray, scattered the shadow monsters, impaling some, then slowed as they faced overwhelming numbers, switching to sword, horse rearing. . but all falling in the darkness.
