30. Midnight
Midnight
Something is wrong.
I’m curled against Lucy. Our bodies satiated from devouring each other. Darkness long since wrapped around House Inferos, but I couldn’t sleep. The weariness eating my soul kept me churning everything over.
And over the last hour a wrongness has snuck in and clung to my bones like ligaments.
I scratch my face, smearing something against my cheek. Moth debris.
Ignatius is imprisoned, he’s not calling me to reap. So what the hell?
Lucy’s reanimated moths are all dead-dead. I peel myself away from Lucy and roll onto my back.
Something flickers in the corner of the room.
Goosebumps track down my spine. I reach over and flick the bedside lamp on, slip and hit the main bedroom light at the same time.
The room should be showered in light. Instead, a dim glow emanates from both the lamp and the ceiling and my blood runs colder than ice.
I slam my hand over my mouth and stifle a scream.
Moths.
There are thousands of the bastards swarming in the room. They surge towards the ceiling light, drowning us in darkness again.
My skin slicks with sweat, my body rigid, breathing rapid.
“L—Lucy…” I hiss.
“What?” she moans and rolls over. My fingers grip her arm so tight I must cut her skin.
There are very few things that inspire fear in me, but being trapped in a room with a million swarming moths is definitely up there.
The thick cloak of fluttering wings undulates and pulses, the thrum of their beat makes the air vibrate. I want to be sick.
“Lucy,” I whisper-shout.
She sits up, rubbing her eyes and then goes still.
“What the fuck?” She hurls herself back in bed as the moths surge for her.
I scream and chaos erupts.
Bastien slams open the bedroom door.
I scramble off the bed and grab my scythe and start slashing through the air, cutting as many of the moths as I can. But it’s only slightly above useless. They surge and dart out of my swing path.
“There’s too many of them,” I bark at Bastien.
Lucy is lifted off the bed, thrashing and kicking out at the moths as they surround her and levitate her out of the room.
Bastien lunges into action, drawing short ribbons of magic from House Inferos’s walls. He uses them like a whip, slashing this way and that as I yank my trousers and a top on and run after them.
Lex is already in the middle of the apartment frozen in horror as the moths consume the front door, disintegrating it.
“Midnight?” she squeaks.
“Yeah, fuck knows, I’m as clueless as you.”
But as Lucy floats past us, buried deep in the swarm, I see a growing glow.
Bastien barrels in behind me, his hands looped around dark ribbons of magic he swings this way and that, thrashing at the moths.
“They’re siphoning her, look,” he says.
I glance at the moths closest to the patches of skin I can see and he’s right. All their proboscises are jammed into her skin and pulsing with a light that flows from her and then settles in their bellies.
I run to the kitchen window and peer into the courtyard.
“It’s Interitus,” I say as Lucy is dragged out of the apartment. “GO! We can’t let Interitus take her.”
I run after her body as she’s flown faster and faster through the house. I leap down the last half a dozen steps, yanking magic from the walls as I go. My hands twist and flex, pulling threads of magic together until they form a mesh to scoop the moths away.
I manage to catch a huge swathe. But it only seems to encourage the remaining moths to swarm tighter around Lucy.
She’s roaring in the middle of the swarm. The glow throbbing as she fights to take control back.
Some of the moths break off and start devouring the front door. I know Lex said these bastards will eat anything, but I never realised how literally she meant it. A rumbled howl emanates from the door.
“Vetch,” Lex shrieks as she bounds towards the door. He vanishes as the door crumbles.
“Which door did he go to?” I say.
“No time, find him later,” Lex says.
Lucy is carried outside. And there in the courtyard is the source of the invasion.
“Interitus,” I spit as I step over the crumbs of the door. Lex and Bastien follow behind, all three of us covered in black threads of magic, ready to fight.
Interitus stands in the middle of the courtyard, her black-tipped wings outstretched, a snarl on her lips.
She doesn’t have her moth, Architecti has it.
Instead, she’s stolen campus magic. Her arms and limbs and even her torso are smothered in threads of pulsing magic.
“Tonight, I end fate and set the system straight and give us all the free will we deserve.”
“Not at the expense of Lucy, you don’t,” I bellow.
At once, the threads of magic lunge for the moths swarming Lucy. They make contact. Tiny capillary-like threads peel off and connect to the moth’s bellies. Each one siphoning Lucy’s light and power directly to Interitus.
The ground rumbles. A high-pitched keen rents the air and then the world splits apart.
Lex tumbles into me as a dozen Veil tears slash open. Holes cutting deep into the underworld and the Celestial Realm spill into Finis Academy.
“Oh gods,” Bastien breathes as I spot what he sees.
Wraiths.
So. Many. Wraiths.
The campus alarm shrieks to life as professors and students flood the courtyard.
Alistair Ironheart moves first, coiling dozens of loops of magic together to make a far better net than I made. Several students watch his hand movements and mimic them, all making nets.
“They’ll take care of the moths,” Lex says. “We need to get to the wraiths.”
“Move,” I shout and shove both of them off the porch steps as a wraith lunges for us.
We swing into action, my scythe chopping through blackened flesh and bone.
I’m yanked backwards as Bastien grips my collar and hauls me out of the way of a surging wraith.
I stumble to the ground while Lex and Bastien dance around each other. They move with a grace and deftness I’ll never hope to achieve. Dark loops and ribbons fly through the air from professors and students alike. The courtyard swarms with people.
But I don’t care about any of them. My focus is on Lucy and Interitus.
I’m up and smashing my fists into wraith jaws and cutting ashspawn into pieces while above us the sky darkens as huge wings slide over the sun.
Screams rip through the campus. Bodies crash to the ground. Two of the Veil tears are sealed already, but there’s so many and more pop up. Each one seems more unstable than the last, the edges of the fabric fraying and unravelling, ripping and slicing deeper and deeper.
We’re never going to win this. The more moths we trap, the more Interitus produces and the more cuts appear.
“It’s not working,” I say.
“Hold fast,” Professor Ironheart bellows back.
Both his hands move in separate motions, one stitching tears, the other weaving meshes together and flinging them at the ever rapidly reproducing moths.
I grind to a halt as Architecti lands in the courtyard.
Thank fuck. I figure we might actually survive this, until I spot a wraith staggering out of the closest Veil tear and lunging for Bastien.
The shape of it is so familiar.
“Calyx,” I whisper.
Bastien sees her and stiffens.
Architecti launches herself at her sister. Their wings smash against each other with such force, the entire courtyard trembles, knocking several students over.
Bastien is frozen, staring at the wraith staring back at him. It shifts and morphs, his sister’s face coming into view and vanishing as she fights the wraith eating her shade soul.
I swing up, cutting right through the centre of an ashspawn, its insides spraying over my face and clothes.
Architecti sends several enormous threads of white magic at the swarm of moths holding Lucy prisoner.
Lucy manages to break free for the first time. Her body is covered in pock marks where the moths have drained her.
She staggers away until Interitus darts in front of her and conjures another swarm of moths.
“Fuck,” I head in her direction, only to get knocked off my feet by a wraith. I roll out the way as its foot plunges towards me and slices through what I assume was its kneecap. It wails in agony as I hurl myself off the floor and sink my scythe into its chest.
Architecti lifts off the cobbles and flies over the surging moths to smash into her sister.
The angels battle against each other, crashing into buildings and people. Stone chips fly through the air, ribbons of magic loop and swirl around us as those left fight the wraiths.
Alistair has taken control of the Veil tears and sealed most of them, but the deepest ones are still fraying.
They’re literally unravelling as I stare at them.
We’re winning.
But as I clock eyes on Bastien, my heart sinks. He is frozen. Locked in a staring competition with the wraith devouring his sister.
“Bastien…” I say, but he can’t hear me. He could barely keep himself together last time he saw her. My gut sinks. Bile claws up my throat.
“We need to separate them. But I don’t want to leave Lucy, what if the moths—”
“Go,” Lex says, “get her inside. We’ll take her to medical once the Veil is closed.”
Air rushes past me, the lightest feather touch brushing my cheek. A body smashes into House Inferos’s entrance, blocking my way.
“Architecti,” I say, glancing around.
Interitus is laughing, her head thrown back, her eyes dropping to Lucy. She opens her arms, a new swarm of moths bursting to life. And this time, the threads surrounding Interitus peel off and fly towards Lucy, who is charging across the courtyard towards us.
“Shit, shit, shit,” I breathe and sprint the last stretch. I pull Lucy behind my body as Lex reaches us. We create a barrier blocking her from Interitus and the flying parasites.
“The moths,” a strange gravelly voice says.
Lex and I snap around to look in the direction of the voice. It’s Calyx, Bastien’s sister. Interitus rounds on us, the moths surging ahead of her.
Lex and I lock arms, pressing Lucy back behind us. They’re not getting to her. I slam my eyes shut and brace for impact. But it never comes.
Instead, in my ear, Lex is screaming, screaming, screaming. Calyx stands in front of us, shouting and battling both the moths and her inner wraith.
“She’s trying to protect us,” I breathe.
“Oh no… no, no, no,” Lex says.
I catch up to what she’s seeing a moment too late. He’s already made the decision.
“DON’T,” I shout.
But it’s too late. Bastien throws himself into the fray to help his sister.
The siblings have created a barrier, protecting us. “GET LUCY OUT OF HERE,” he yells.
But Lucy is fighting me now, desperate to reach our friend. Lex and I hold her back.
Bastien’s hand slides into his sister’s shadowy one and the strangest thing happens.
Instead of coming for Lucy, the moths surge around him and Calyx, smacking into the pair of them.
They plume and swarm, making what would be a beautiful murmuration of moths if it weren’t so horrifying witnessing the disgusting fluttering parasites swallowing chunks of my friend’s sister.
Bastien roars. The moths have covered his sister. They’re consuming huge portions of her dark, sinuous wraith body.
“We have to get to Bastien,” Lucy shrieks.
“He risked his life for you, we can’t,” I say as she pushes and shoves at me to let her through.
Some of the moths have already latched on to him even as he stands and fights and makes mesh after mesh. Nets and barriers, using all the magic he can draw from the campus.
The three of us watch in horror as the last pieces of Calyx’s wraith form dissolves, and she’s left standing as a shade once more.
“You saved me,” Calyx says.
“Oh gods,” I breathe as the moths realise there’s nothing left to eat of the wraith and they turn on Bastien.
“RUN, BASTIEN,” Lex shouts.
But he shakes his head. “Get Lucy to safety. I’ve got this,” he says.
But he’s almost entirely covered in moths. Lex is screaming at me and screaming at him and the professors and… I don’t think she knows what she’s saying.
Lucy is begging me to do something. Pleading with Bastien to save himself.
It’s chaos. Bodies are slashed. Magic ripped, torn, shredded. Everything is numb.
I can’t hear anything. My fingers are tingling.
My heart is slamming against my ribs.
The moths surround Bastien. This isn’t happening.
Every part of me wants to go to Bastien. To drag him free of the swarm. But if I go, they’ll attack me, too. And across the courtyard, Architecti is losing to Interitus. She’s stolen too much of Lucy’s power. She’s too strong.
We need to help Architecti. But I’m drawn back to Bastien. The last thing I see of my friend is his eyes.
So blue, so bright, so beautiful.
They plead with Lex, Lucy and I to run.
And I think my heart shatters.
“Bastien,” I whisper, it’s a plea to the gods that have abandoned us. And like all my prayers, it goes unanswered.
He’s swallowed.
I only know he’s there because of the bellow coming from the heart of the moth swarm.
I snap to attention. “GO!” I shriek at Lex.
“We have to help him,” she begs.
“LEX, RUN.”
But Interitus crosses our path, Architecti landing in front of her.
“Do you really think you can stop me?” Interitus says, sneering at her sister.
Interitus’s arm shoots out; it’s so fast none of us see the magic until it’s punched through Lex and I and wrapped around Lucy.
Lex and I are flung across the courtyard where we clatter to the floor. I land awkwardly on my hip and shit, it’s going to hurt when the adrenaline wears off.
I force myself up, but I can’t get to Lucy. She’s surrounded again and battling with the threads of dark campus magic Interitus is throwing at her. They coil around her arms and legs, the other end connected to Interitus as she siphons off more of Lucy’s power.
She’s growing weaker. The runes glow, flickering over her skin as the power is siphoned out. Stolen.
Architecti throws a fist at her sister, but Interitus kicks out at her knee and Architecti topples to the floor.
I run for Lucy but it’s too late.
Architecti screams and throws her hand out in Lucy’s direction. A stream of glistening pale white threads shoots across the courtyard, wrap around Lucy and pull her to Architecti. Lucy’s face crumples as she fights to free herself from yet another set of magic.
“Architecti, STOP,” I bellow.
But she’s not listening. Her hand stretches out, flicking in a sharp movement and Lucy stumbles to the floor next to the angel.
Architecti grips Lucy’s wrist. Lucy’s mouth drops open and she lets out a shriek. Her expression crumbles in agony and a surge of the brightest light I’ve ever seen bursts from her chest.
Interitus is lifted into the air. The threads connecting Lucy and Interitus bulge and swell. They throb and pulse, the flow thickening. A piece rips from Interitus and slams into Lucy as an explosion of light fills the courtyard.
I’m tossed back away from them. Interitus is thrown through one of the Veil tears and Lucy is ripped from Architecti’s grip and flung against the wall.