Vini had started pacing, looking bored by the discussion. He circled his brothers in wide loops, patrolling the perimeter. When he turned in their direction, Rima realized she’d lifted her head too high. She tried to duck down out of sight, but she wasn’t fast enough.
Vini’s face lit up. “She’s here!” he yelled, breaking into a run towards Rima.
They didn’t have time to flee. All they could do was stand their ground and fight.
Burying her panic, Rima dived forward towards the Tricksters, transforming into a bear. As Felix tackled Vini, she jumped onto Norma’s back, sinking her teeth into her hair. She felt the strands catch on her teeth, and pulled back, hoping that one would snag and come free.
Cody was biting at her calves, copying Rima. Norma let out a furious yell, grabbing at her as Kasper took Rufus down.
“Stop it! Go to sleep!” Felix shouted at Vini as he tried to hypnotize him.
For one small second, it seemed like they might have a chance. They had the three Tricksters on the ground, writhing and tugging at each other. Then Vini pressed his hand to Felix’s chest, reflecting the command back at him. Felix’s knees crumpled beneath him.
Rufus let out a deafening roar and then there was a sudden thunder of feet from the floor below. The Tricksters’ army surged onto the roof. A ghost with worms writhing in the sockets of her eyeballs dragged Kasper away from Rufus by his feet. Another, whose teeth were coated in blood, kicked Felix in the flat of his back.
Kasper lashed out at his captor, who fell backwards off the roof, disintegrating into dust as she passed through the boundary of the building.
Rima tore at the ghosts who were trying to drag her off Norma. She fixed her bear jaws around limbs and pulled until she heard the bones snap and crack. However many she fought, the wave of attackers kept coming. There was so much energy bursting free from all of them that it filled the air and stung her eyes.
This was it. She knew that the battle was lost. They couldn’t fight against hundreds. Rima kept tearing off chunks of Norma’s skin anyway, pushing them into her cheeks to store them. She clamped her huge molars around Norma’s skull until it creaked. At the very least, she could weaken her.
Norma gripped her paw to suck energy out of her. Rima twisted into a snake and plunged her fangs into Norma’s shoulder, injecting venom. Norma tore her away, flesh clinging to the snake’s fangs.
Rima prepared for the end. Then there was a roar from below – the stomp of feet and cries and smacks of flesh against flesh. Rima reared up, peering over Norma’s shoulder. More ghosts were surging up onto the roof – the students who usually kept to themselves, or spent most of their time sleeping to conserve their low energy levels. They were fighting, too, attacking the Tricksters’ army to defend their building.
Hope surged through Rima. It wasn’t just the four of them! If the other ghosts could keep the army distracted while they dealt with the Tricksters, then they might still have a chance.
With renewed determination, Rima began to transform in rapid succession. First a poisonous frog, covering Norma’s skin in toxic goo; then a skunk, spraying her face with musk; then a fox, like Cody. Cody and Rima tag-teamed Norma, hopping close to bite her, then away. Rima even got close enough to tear an eye out.
They could do this. The fight wasn’t over yet.
FELIX
Felix hacked away at the clawed fingers gouging into his forearms, fighting off an injured ghost whose jaw hung loose and unhinged. Vini was struggling to get free, but Felix managed to slow him down with his hypnotism.
White lightning crackled around them; thunderclouds rolled around the rooftop, covering everyone in ice-cold water. As power crashed into power, a tidal wave of reactions spread across the roof.
Felix could barely see through the frost forming on his eyelashes. A ghost burst into flames in his arms, then disintegrated into dust, coils of smoke spiralling away in the wind.
Someone tried to bite off his nose. He headbutted her until she backed off, flared nostrils dripping blood. The air was full of dust now, as the wind scattered energy from disintegrating ghosts. There were enormous shapeshifting beasts everywhere, crashing through the fight and searching for easy prey.
Felix couldn’t tell which side anyone was on, so he focused on Rufus, Vini and Norma. The rest could wait.
Rima was keeping Norma at bay as a fox, alongside Cody. Norma grabbed Cody’s tail, sucking out her energy. She yipped, skittering back, but Norma had a grip on her soul.
Rima let out a guttural, horrified growl, twisting back into a human. “No!”
Rima tried to pull Cody away, but it was too late. The fox tumbled over onto her side, whining.
Norma didn’t stop to finish the job. She raced for Leah.
“Cody, no!” Rima desperately pushed her own energy into the fox, trying to stop her disintegrating.
Watching this, Felix was so distracted that he lost control of Vini, who broke free of the hypnotism and ran after Norma. All three Tricksters converged on Leah and Claudia.
Felix tried to hypnotize them enough to give Leah a chance to escape. He visualized a huge chasm appearing in the roof, and threw the vision towards the Tricksters to make them see it too. They stopped at the edge, staring down into the canyon that had opened up.
Norma took a step back, then narrowed her gaze at Felix. “It’s not real. Get him.”
Rufus and Vini ran at Felix. Before he could turn and flee, his blood suddenly ran cold with fear. They were doing something to his emotions, amplifying his terror until it was bigger and stronger, incapacitating.
Felix’s knees gave in, his eyes rolling back in his head. He could feel himself frothing at the mouth as waves of fear swelled through him. Rufus and Vini
