Boudicca flew to me and squeaked desperately, gesturing away from the cemetery.
“Lorelei’s bones aren’t here?” I asked, feinting out of the way of an incoming Wisp.
She shook her head.
“Do you know where they are?”
She hopped up and down, nodding eagerly.
I gripped the sack of bones tighter. “I don’t think they’re here, Charlotte. The pixies can take us to them.”
Charlotte groaned and squeezed the captured Wisp until it exploded into a shower of pink sparks. “Give me one second, and don’t tell a soul about this. I promise you, neither of us will live it down. Oh, and try not to pull my mane too hard, or I’ll kick you off.”
While the pixies held the Wisps back, Charlotte toppled onto all fours and transformed into a recognizable shape: a long, rounded snout, flicking ears, and the mane that she’d warned me about, flowing in the breeze.
A… horse? Well, this wasn’t going to be fun. If she thought my running was bad, she’d clearly never seen me try to ride a horse. But, with time trickling away, I didn’t have a choice. I just had to get over the weirdness of climbing onto the back of someone who’d been human a few seconds ago.
“Here goes nothing.” Clutching the sack, I scrambled onto Charlotte’s back and held onto her mane as gently as possible. She reared up and kicked out at an encroaching Wisp, sending it spinning backward and almost making me fall off. It wasn’t as though she had a saddle and a bridle to make this easier.
“Pixies! Show us the way!” I called, eager to be away from the Wisps and off this carousel before I got thrown off.
The pixies obeyed, and Charlotte followed, breaking into a terrifying gallop. As weird nights went, this one had just taken the top spot.
Thirty-Two
Persie
Charlotte’s hooves pounded along the dirt track, leading away from the church. The wind lashed at my face, stinging my eyes, and my legs ached from squeezing with all my might. If I loosened up for a second, I’d fall off, and I didn’t like the idea of having a broken leg in the middle of nowhere. Who knew if this island even had a hospital nearby? And, as much as I hated it, this had to be the fastest way to get to wherever we were going.
Why won’t you just buzz off? I glowered at the Wisps, who’d given chase. The pixies flanked us on all sides, forming a protective wall to keep the Wisps away. But those irritating orbs of light appeared to be getting more violent with each failed assault, coming back with a vengeance for their next attack.
Powering down the hillside, Charlotte came to a sharp stop beside the curve of a road, nearly throwing me over the top of her horsey head. I gripped tighter to her mane, gulping breaths of panicked air.
“What the heck, Charlotte?” I gasped.
She turned her head and, with her human eyes, cast me an apologetic look. I found out what she was sorry for shortly after, when she began Morphing back into her normal form. I realized just in time and jumped off, clutching the sack of bones to my chest. Shedding her horse skin, she stooped to catch her breath. Even in the darkness, I could see she looked pale, sweat beading on her brow.
“That’s why I don’t do that,” she croaked. “I can never hold it for long. I just wanted to get us to the road, ahead of the Wisps.”
Speaking of which, the Wisps were rushing down the slope of the hill, burning brightly. The pixies twisted around and hurtled back toward the oncoming Wisps in a phalanx of sorts—a square of rows, the frontline clasping hands to expel a massive blast of energy. The second line echoed the action as the front line moved to the back, throwing out a pulse that shook the ground beneath my feet. By the time it got to the third line, the Wisps were well and truly peeved. Rallying their forces, they combined into what could only be described as an uber-Wisp, the blaze of its light so intense that I could feel it from where I stood, a safe distance away.
As the two tribes collided, my heart wrenched. The two front lines of pixies howled in pain as the Wisps scorched them, while the back two lines fought valiantly with their own light, sending out a unified explosion of jarring energy that managed to send the uber-Wisp careening backward. But it was too late for those who’d gotten too close to the Wisps’ pumped-up flame. Thin bodies tumbled from the air and landed in the damp grass, their vivid colors fading to a deathly white that made me scream.
“NO!” I yelled, but there was no Fergus to stop the Wisps this time. I whirled to face Charlotte. Her breaths had evened out, and she didn’t look so pale anymore. “You have to help them, Charlotte. They’ll die if you don’t.”
Charlotte straightened up. “I guess I owe them that much, for saving me earlier.”
Lifting her palms, she stormed into the fray. The uber-Wisp had returned, pummeling my pixies with a breathtaking fury. The two remaining lines linked up their power, strands of bronzed fire throbbing between them all. They chanted, building up the inferno of their attack, and launched a fireball—twice as large as the Wisp—right at it. To my horror, the uber-Wisp dodged the projectile and swung forward, easily incinerating another row of pixies. They crumbled to dust, and my knees gave way.
“Don’t kill them. Please, don’t…”
My begging fell on deaf ears. The Wisps didn’t care if it pained me; I wasn’t the one giving the orders. And yet, I couldn’t understand why they were trying to stand in our way. Surely this was what Fergus wanted, to reunite with Lorelei? Did he not understand what we were attempting to do for him? If it hadn’t been for the fact that
