Eliot tapped his bow upon the strings.
Black iron cannon mounted on wagon-wheel bases maneuvered to the front-and fired!
Six flashes of thunder and smoke filled the alley. Blasts that blew shadow and flesh and claw to bits, battered brick walls down. . and revealed more darkness beyond. . a thousand shark-tooth grins. . and an endless starless night.
Fiona had never seen her brother like this before. He’d been stupidly brave, sure. But not the center of a battle and conducting troops like some general. It was like one of his daydream fantasies come to life.
But it was strategically stupid to fight here.
It wasn’t just the shadow monsters-although their numbers seemed endless, and certainly any one of them looked like they could tear them to pieces.
It was this alley. It was a sideways passage through nothing. A void in space that, if they weren’t careful, they’d get lost in and never find the way out.
Already Fiona felt her sense of direction swimming.
“Eliot!” she shouted.
Eliot jerked away from the reloading cannon crews, squinted as he finally noticed Mitch’s light, nodded, but kept playing.
“This way,” Fiona called.
The shadows about them pushed in.
Fiona wouldn’t let them stop her-not when she was so close.
She turned to Mitch and told him: “Duck.”
Confusion washed over his face-but only for a moment-then he understood. He crouched and held the ball of light before his body.
Fiona spun her chain overhead and let out the full length.
Where whirling metal touched shadow and flesh, there was smoke and blood and shrills of pain. . and the enemy moved back.
Fiona and Mitch crept forward past outstretched talons and hissing maws.
Jezebel moved to the other side of Eliot, her pale arms reddening as if severely sunburned by Mitch’s white- magic light.
“You can’t keep fighting,” Fiona told Eliot. “We’ve got to get out-while we still can.”
Rather than be delighted at his rescue, Eliot looked annoyed.
“She is right,” Jezebel said, blinking in the strong light. “The Shadow Legions are endless in their realms. . which are near. I can feel them, and I can feel us getting pulled deeper into the darkness.”
Eliot looked around them. “Okay. But which way is out?”
Fiona turned and couldn’t see the exit.
She had, however, left a trail of fallen monsters. Connect any two points, and you had a straight line. In theory, anyway. . in normal space. She wasn’t sure if the geometry she knew applied here.
“Back this way.”
Fiona led them-Mitch next to her, his light brighter than ever; Eliot next, who continued to play (although his music changed, sounding like a retreat now); and Jezebel last, walking backward so she faced the tide of creatures that followed.
Eliot left his cannon crews behind.
They fired together once more-a storm of smoke and screams and shouts-then shadows covered them, coinciding with the end of Eliot’s song.
Fiona saw a sliver of light overhead, and the buildings tilted back to their proper standing positions. Then the passage straightened and she spied the Paxington alley.
She broke into a trot and they followed, emerging in the warm afternoon.
Jezebel looked as she had in class: no claws, her praying mantis eyes back to normal.
Fiona, though, would never forget the monster inside the girl.
Mitch closed his hand and his light winked out. “Apologies,” he said to Jezebel.
“No need. Your white magic was necessary to keep the Droogan-dors at bay,” Jezebel replied, unperturbed. “I am in your debt, Stephenson.”
“Those creatures were from the Shadow Legions,” Mitch told her. “Beelzebub’s operatives, right?”
“Your intelligence on Infernal affairs is outdated,” Jezebel replied. “Urakabarameel and Beelzebub are dead”- she paused to make eye contact with Fiona-“and with these forces leaderless,
“But why attack you and Eliot at all?” Fiona asked.
“I was their target,” Jezebel said. “I tried to explain to Eliot that my Queen is at war with Mephistopheles. It is not wise to be near me-save on the Paxington campus, where the school’s magics keep all but students and instructors out.”
Eliot set Lady Dawn back in her case and shut it. His eyes were ringed with dark circles. “None of that matters,” he said. “We’re all safe.” He turned to the side passage-or rather where the side passage had been-and touched the solid brick wall.
“Thanks,” he said to Fiona. “Another few minutes. . I don’t know what would’ve happened.”
He looked like Eliot again, her little brother, normal and nerdy.
But in battle, he’d reminded Fiona of how the Immortals had been as they faced overwhelming power of the Infernals at Ultima Thule, and she felt a surge of admiration for his courage-however stupid he’d acted.
“I must take my leave,” Jezebel said. “Again, my thanks.” She nodded to Fiona and Mitch. To Eliot she said, “This incident should prove how much of a fool you are. Stay away from me.”
With that, she turned and marched out of the alley.
“What’s her problem?” Fiona asked.
Eliot shook his head. “A lot’s happened,” he whispered. “A lot I need to tell you.”
“Sounds like you two need to talk,” Mitch said, and his easy smile returned, like nothing had ever happened. “How about a rain check on our date?”
That caught Fiona off guard. They were going to have a date? It was not an unwelcome surprise. . it just complicated everything.
“S-sure, that would be nice,” Fiona managed.
“Let me walk you to the street,” Mitch said, glancing over at the still-solid brick wall. “Just in case.”
“Thanks,” Fiona said, feeling a blush color her face. Then she turned and whispered so only Eliot could hear: “Whatever is going on-whatever you need to talk about-it’d better be
Eliot explained everything to Fiona as they walked home: how Jezebel had been Julie Marks in Del Sombra; how the Infernal Queen, Sealiah, had used her to try to get to him-but instead Julie had saved Eliot. . got dragged back to Hell and punished for it, too.
He went on telling how Sealiah was probably trying
It felt good to share this with someone. Fiona would, of course, believe him. And she had to sympathize with Jezebel; see that she was as much victim as they were in the Infernals’ schemes.
Fiona listened, looking shocked, angry, and incredulous by turns.
As they rounded the corner to their street, Fiona said, “I think Jezebel. . Julie-whatever you’re calling her-was right.”
“Jezebel,” Eliot told her. “Right about what?”
“That you’re an idiot, and you should stay away from her.”
Eliot halted and crossed his arms.
He detected no lie in Fiona’s statements-which really irritated him-but Eliot didn’t think his half-blooded Infernal lie detector covered insults from a sibling (which would have been
