Midnight
Everyone has been assigned their roles. Night fell hours ago, long before the vampires arrived. The vampire soldiers are keeping the Societas protestors and the mortals in line—well, for as long as it takes for the angels to turn up anyway, and then they’ll let them go and swarm the angels.
For now, the soldiers have forced everyone outside the campus walls. Their chants and protests, though, can be heard no matter where you are on site. Even in the depths of Finis Tower itself. It’s like they’re summoning the angels themselves.
Red is prepped as healer; we gave her a crash course in accessing campus magic. She’s not great at it, but anything that helps her heal people faster is a win.
Octavia and Xavier are primed on what wraiths look like and which demonic creatures to prioritise exterminating.
Gabriel seemed far more interested in the books and encyclopaedias I was using to bring everyone up to speed with than on the actual job he’s here to do, but hopefully he’ll be of use when the time comes.
Cordelia and Eleanor are to keep the soldiers in line and be ready for strategic defence once Interitus arrives. Alistair is recovering in the medical ward. He tried to protest but passed out in my arms. So we slung him in medical and locked the door.
Which leaves Lucy and me.
We pace around and around Finis Tower’s moat. My thumb brushes the back of her hand where they’re laced together. There’s so much we could say that neither of us know where to start and as has been the way in my life, time is running out.
“Tell me the plan one more time,” I say as she leads me inside the tower.
She sighs. “Going through it again isn’t going to change anything.”
“Just tell me,” I say as we move through the foyer and up the stairs.
She glares at me but relents. “I will create a beam of power and fire it into the sky and hope that it lures both angels to campus.”
“Good. And then?”
“When they arrive, I will lure them to me. You’ll pull the mesh over campus. Cordelia will unleash the Societas and they’ll hopefully swarm and corner the angels.”
“Excellent, and finally?” I ask, just hearing the plan again is reassuring. It’s like if we go through it enough times, the plan will have to go right.
“I’ll use every ounce of power I have, and cell by cell, thread by thread, I’ll undo them.”
I squeeze her hand. “It’s not just undoing. You have to remake them as one.”
“Midnight, it’s going to be okay.”
“You don’t know that,” I huff. “If we get through this…”
“Just stop it, we are going to get through this.”
But as she says it, the earth rumbles and the cheers reach a fever pitch. We glance at each other and reverse direction, running back down the tower stairs and outside, back across the circular courtyard and into the main campus area.
“They’re already here,” I say. The thrum of their wings beating over us is loud enough that I can hear it above the hysterical screaming of the crowd.
Lucy grips my chin and pulls me to her. “It changes nothing. The plan still stands.”
She plunges her lips over mine, and I pray to all the devils that will listen that it’s not the last kiss she gives me.
“Now go, they’re dropping fast, you need to pull the mesh out.”
“But—” I start.
“GO, MIDNIGHT.”
My fists ball, I don’t want to leave. Leaving her with two homicidal angels on campus makes my stomach clench and bile lick the back of my throat. But if we don’t trap them, they’ll fly away and all of this will have been for nothing.
It takes every ounce of strength I have to tear myself away from her. My eyes sting but I push all the thoughts of how this could go wrong away, and I run to Obidiah, who agreed to anchor the mesh roof.
The campus writhes with people. I have to shove and push my way through the crowds to reach the goyle.
“Shut the gates,” I bellow when I’m in hearing distance.
They creak and groan, straining against the press of people. But the soldiers bare their fangs and hiss, and the crowds move rather more quickly out of their way.
The gates slam shut as the angels land in the cloisters behind me.
“Ready?” I ask.
Obidiah nods, a devious glint in his eye. “You always were rather tasty.”
I choose to ignore that comment, though the memory of the gates biting me more than a year ago flickers to life.
“Let’s just get this over with.” I hold my hand up to his mouth and fling my other in the direction of the cloisters. Two dozen ribbons of magic burst from the walls and hurtle through the air towards the gate.
Obidiah licks his lips and then sinks his stony teeth into my palm. I bite down a scream as my vision whites out.
The gate rumbles behind me, and then a veil of dark mesh erupts from the gate and walls. It flies through the air, soaring to the wall on the other side of campus.
I’m at the mercy of Obidiah, unable to see the other side of campus, but I swear he bites down harder and draws more blood than necessary.
“I’m warning you,” I hiss.
He relinquishes me, a blood-tainted smirk nestled in the corner of his mouth. I glare at him and rub my rapidly bruising hand. I’ll ask Red to handle it when this is over with.
“Is it done?”
He wriggles his head in a nod-like fashion. As much as his stoney fixture will allow anyway. “They’re not getting out.”
A thunderous boom rips through campus. The earth trembles a violent quake.
And then the screaming starts.
The swell of Societas members surging into the cloisters rapidly overwhelms the angels, who soar up into the air, only to smash against the mesh.
The roar of fury that erupts from both of them is so shrill I have to throw my hands over my ears. They tumble down, clattering onto the roof of the cloisters.
Atop Finis Tower, Lucy ignites herself.
“Dammit, Lucy,” I hiss and break into a run, but I can’t push through the surging crowd. They’re too densely packed and clawing at each other to allow me to reach the angels.
Interitus is up first, her wings stretching as she lifts off the cloister roof.
That’s when the crowds break into hysterics.
She stops, hovering mid-air, and then sweeps her hands in downward motions. The earth rumbles.
“Oh fuck,” I bellow and pray that Octavia is ready.
The atmosphere crackles and then rips. More and more tears appear in the fabric. The ground trembles so violently several sections of the crowd topple, causing a crush.
Mortals and Societas members alike shriek in pain as bones break.
And then the wraiths appear.
Swarms of black sinuous creatures all arms and legs and vicious gaping maws pour through the tears. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I am never getting through these crowds.
Architecti takes flight in the direction of Lucy’s beam of light. Several Societas members in robes start ascending the cloister walls to get to the angels. They have the right idea.
I flash back to the night we broke into the Celestial Library. If I can’t go through, I’ll have to go over.
I rip a handful of threads from the cloister wall, wrap them around my body, bounce, pull them tight and fling myself up and over the building. I have to suppress a shriek as the wind ruffles my hair and makes my eyes water.
Two of the threads snap mid-air. That does earn a shriek as I plummet to the ground, landing awkwardly on my ankle. Blistering pain lances through my foot, but I don’t have time to stop. I hobble, wincing with each step towards Finis.
I tug threads from the walls of the Great Library and use them to ascend the external wall and step on to the roof. By the time I reach the top, I’m sweating and riddled with the cold tingle of panic. Both angels are atop the tower and Lucy has stopped blasting power into the sky.
I’m too far away to help.
I call on the campus, and once again it gives me a dozen threads of magic. They fly through the air from the parapet atop Finis Tower.
“Gods, I hope these hold,” I breathe as I wrap them around my waist and thighs and bunch them together in my fist.
“If the gods are listening…”
But the gods forgot us, I know better than to pray to them.
As I crouch to launch, the ground rumbles.
I glance down as several more Veil tears slice through campus and wraiths pour onto Finis’s grounds.
I wobble, lose my footing, slip off the roof and soar through the air with only one hand gripping the ribbons.
“Fuuuuuuuuuuck,” I shriek as I smash into the side of the tower, my torso crunching against a turret.
I howl as my ribs crack and splinter and the magic slides through my fingers.