Lucy
Lex barrels into the clocktower with Alistair, Eleanor and Cordelia.
The courtyard below us is heaving. There are Societas members everywhere.
Keeping them out is proving increasingly difficult.
The campus is crawling with them. It was bad before, but since the battle outside House Inferos, the group seems to have spawned dozens of new members.
Security are constantly having to break up spats of so-called peaceful protests that turn nasty.
The chanting and cheering has warped and melted into jeers and cries.
Alistair leans against the wall. “What’s the update?”
“We’ve been played,” I start.
He frowns, so do Lex, Cordelia and Eleanor.
“Architecti has been playing innocent. She taught me how to use my runes, not to help me…”
Lex’s mouth drops open. “She wanted you to control it so she could use you?”
I nod.
“She wants what Interitus wants, in a way. They both want to harness my power for their own benefit.”
That realisation settles over the room.
“So, now what?” Cordelia says. “What’s the plan to stop them?”
“I’ve got access to their memories. There’s an elder angel and between him and Interitus, they gave me the idea.”
“Which is?” Eleanor asks.
“We need to unmake them,” I say.
“Sorry, what?” Lex says.
So I explain what I’ve seen, how the elder said angels weren’t meant to be twins and that their magic should always be contained in one vessel. So that’s what I’m going to do.
Alistair rubs the lines in his brow. “Well, this changes things. One angel we may have stood a chance against. But we’re not going to be able to fight two on our own.
We’ve sustained too many losses. And there are too many professors and demons in the city trying to repair the damage and stop Ora from being swallowed by the underworld. ”
A conclusion I had already come to. I let out a heavy breath. “I’m aware. Especially if the Societas join in. They’re chanting about the end of fate and the end of times out there.”
Cordelia leans towards the window, peering down at the chaos. “And not if Interitus releases wraiths. There have been enough accidental cuts, and she’s determined enough that it’s likely she’ll use every resource in her arsenal.”
Eleanor presses her lips thin and nods. “I agree, we need reinforcements.”
“There aren’t any,” Midnight says.
“Not in this city, no,” Cordelia answers.
“Your daughter?” Alistair says, moving to join her by the window.
Cordelia nods. “All my children. They have friends, too, from another city. But I’m not sure we have time to gather them and the Imperium girls.”
“Anything will help,” I add.
“We have an entire army we could offer,” Eleanor says.
Cordelia slides her hand into Eleanor’s. “We are quite taken with this city. We don’t want to see it fall. But with the faculty losses and the growing number of Societas and general public members out there, this will become a blood bath unless we get it under control.”
“The only problem is that Sangui City is days away,” I say.
“Architecti and Interitus have been spotted a few miles out. I suspect we have maybe a day or two at most before they come looking for you,” Alistair says.
Cordelia nods. “I believe you can cut your way between realms, can you not?”
Midnight’s eyes narrow, Alistair catches her eye. “Yes, but it’s not the same as cutting your way through thousands of miles of space in the same realm.”
“But theoretically, it’s possible?” Eleanor asks.
Midnight’s eyes widen as she scratches her head. “I mean…”
Alistair steps away from the wall, his expression grave as he glances from a brooding Midnight to the professors. “Yes. It’s possible.”
“Then we have to try,” Cordelia says.
“I agree. The more reinforcements we have, the better,” I add.
For the next hour I feel utterly useless. All I can do is stand by and watch as Eleanor and Cordelia explain the layout of their city and where the Whisper Club is located.
After practicing holding a tear open to the outskirts of Sangui, we realise the cut between realms will take so much power they’re only going to be able to send one person through. Someone will have to stay to anchor it to allow Cordelia’s family back through.
We argue back and forth for at least ten minutes about who should walk through the tear.
In the end, despite Midnight’s level of exhaustion, we decide the most sensible person to go is her. Alistair will be responsible for keeping the rip open, and Midnight will bring everyone through.
When they’re here, we’ll seal the tear so there’s no ruptures puncturing through to Sangui.
Cordelia’s family can then travel back by train after the chaos is over.
Midnight looks exhausted as she and Alistair set about trying to harvest enough energy from the campus.
They work for an hour, their hands covered in thick black ropes of magic.
Again and again they rip magic from the walls until the clocktower floor is littered in shreds of black ribbons puffing and disintegrating.
A sheen of sweat covers both Alistair and Midnight’s foreheads.
Her eyes are dark and the bags plump beneath her eyes.
She needs a break. I stand in front of them. “This isn’t working. You don’t have enough power. And even if you can cut all the way through to the Whisper Club, you’re not going to have enough to keep it open.”
Eleanor rubs her jaw. “I suspect you’ll need the tear open for at least six hours, probably more. Sangui is enormous and to gather Cordelia’s family will be a task.”
Midnight’s eyes flash to mine. “Don’t even think about it,” she says.
But of course my skin is already flaring to life, the runes tingling as they glow and glisten. “Use me,” I say.
“Absolutely not,” Midnight says, throwing a hand out as if to cut the conversation off.
Alistair glances at me and then to Cordelia and Eleanor. He knows it’s the only solution.
He touches her hand and she softens at the gesture.
“Midnight, be reasonable. To keep the tear open and continually reinforce it while also ensuring the underworld doesn’t burst through, is going to require an unimaginable amount of power.
I don’t have access to that. I’m good. But I’m not an arch demon. I need Lucy as an anchor.”
Midnight’s jaw clenches. She yanks her hand out of his and paces up and down.
“If anything happens to you—” she says, pointing at me as if I’m the problem.
I hold my hand up. “I’ll be okay.”
“But if—”
Cordelia steps in front of Midnight so suddenly it makes her halt. “Midnight! Stop. We either give this a try or we lie down and quit now. We don’t have time to argue about who can donate what.”
Midnight’s nostrils flare, her neck pulses in a way that tells me she’s biting her tongue but really wants to rip Cordelia’s head off.
“Fine,” she says through gritted teeth.
“Good. Now, my daughter is a sceptical one. You’ll need to convince her. Tell her I need her help, that I want her to consult on an issue, she’ll like that.”
“Eleanor, can you source a couple of chairs? We’re going to be stuck in here for a few hours.”
She nods and leaves.
“You can access your power on command?” Alistair says to me.
“More or less now, yes. There are ways that make it easier,” my eyes slide to Midnight as my mind floods with images of her cunt on my face and me grinding on her fingers, “but nothing that I can do in here. I have gained enough control of it for this.”
“Good, then there’s nothing more we can do but try. Midnight, you ready?” he asks.
She nods but flashes Cordelia a less than pleasant grimace.
Alistair takes a deep breath in as Eleanor deposits the first chair.
She gestures for Cordelia to help her, and they disappear out the door.
Alistair sweeps his arms across the room and yanks fresh threads from the wall.
They fly across the space between us at light speed and wrap around his wrist and then aim for me, suckering onto my wrist too.
My head kicks back as the power tears through me. My whole body lights up like the dawn, hundreds of runes flashing across my arms and legs. My neck cords, shoulders stiffen as the throb of power surging through me vibrates my entire skeleton.
Midnight lurches towards me, but she can’t stop this, not now. “I’m fine,” I force out.
Her shoulders rise and fall with her rapid breathing.
“Now, Midnight!” Alistair says and whips his hands across the air in a series of shapes, creating mess and threads and knots and black ribbon-like structures.
Midnight steps into the gap between us and closes her eyes. She centres herself, then opens them and focuses on the air in front of us.
Dozens of threads of power splinter off from where Alistair and I are joined and coil around Midnight’s body when she raises her arms.
She moves with grace and elegance, drawing her arms together before splitting them apart. The room trembles and a thunderous crack rings out so loud the window shatters and glass sprays the ground.
She stumbles, blood splatters the floor but she stays upright, pushing her arms further apart, ensuring the cut is big enough for her to step through. Alistair’s hands move at a frenetic pace, stitching and threading and reinforcing Midnight’s cut so nothing frays.
“GO,” he shouts.
Midnight turns to give me a final glance.
“I’ll be fine,” I say, and I really believe it. I’m strong, the drain isn’t too much. It’s like the more I understand and access the runes, the more power I’m able to channel.
She forces her gaze away and steps into a new city.
The first two hours are fine. By the fourth, Alistair’s nose is running blood and I’m talking to myself to stay present. By the sixth, we’ve both stopped talking. When I finally hear Midnight’s footsteps on the other side, neither of us is fully upright anymore.
When I think Alistair’s seconds from passing out, Midnight finally steps through the Veil with dozens and dozens of vampires.
“Holy shit.” I’ve never seen so many drainers in all my life. Sure the odd one who came to campus to do a visiting lecture. But they keep coming. Flooding the clock tower with vampire soldiers and then a rather dapper-looking vampire with a mop of dark hair dressed in an elegant red suit.
He’s followed by another slightly taller vampire looking equally as handsome with his chiselled jaw and long trench coat.
Next through is a female vampire with curves for days and long dark hair and right after comes a short masc-presenting vampire?
No, I don’t think she’s a vampire, but she’s also not human.
She has an undercut and blonde shaggy hair on top.
The soldiers all stand to attention when they see Eleanor and her entire demeanour shifts.
“Follow me,” she commands and they file out of the tower and into the dark courtyard, immediately getting to work corralling the Societas members and mortals on campus.
They continue to file out for what feels like at least half an hour. Dozens of soldiers all in uniform with stern expressions and sharp white fangs.
“I can’t hold on,” Alistair says, blood flecking his mouth.
“Cut it off there,” Cordelia says.
One of the vampires nods, halting the line of soldiers.
“Thank you, you can return to base,” he says, his voice like creamy gravel.
Alistair yanks his hands back, ripping the reinforcements on the tear away and promptly collapses, unconscious.
Midnight lurches into action, whipping threads from the clocktower walls and stitching as fast as she can. Her hands move with such deft grace and speed. She ties off the final knot, and the cut vanishes, leaving nothing but empty air.
“Cooool,” the short masc woman says.
I shut my runes down and lean on my knees panting, relief surging through me. Midnight rubs my back as the blond woman holds out her hand.
“I’m Red.”
Midnight shakes her hand, followed by me.
“That was impressive,” she says and then gestures to the tall vampire next to her. “This is Octavia.”
“My pleasure,” Octavia says. “These are my brothers, Gabriel and Xavier.”
She points to the man in the red suit followed by the taller one.
“Lucy Corvine. Alistair is a professor here, and Midnight you’ve already met.”
Eleanor helps Alistair into the armchair, he’s conscious now, but woozy. I think he’ll be okay. I could sense his magic through the connection and where he was drawing from me. As far as I could tell it was just magical exhaustion.
Octavia and her brothers kiss Cordelia and Eleanor in turn, and then she faces me and inclines her head.
“So, how can we help?”