Another growl, this time followed by a high, nightmarish howl, one I’m now very familiar with.
Hellhound.
13
WHILE EVERYONE SPRINGS into action, I’m frozen, trembling. I thought they were rare. Thought, for some reason, that I wouldn’t see another one. Not when I was with the Legendborn like this. Not while just looking for information. I thought this was a ritual. Initiation. Hazing, at best, not—
Davis fires off orders in rapid succession, and it’s like a bomb goes off in the crowd. “Awakened Scions and Squires to the front! The rest in formation behind them. Pages, back to the Lodge!” Stillness explodes into action, and bodies scatter in several directions at once. Soldiers rushing to battle positions.
The next moments seem to pass in slow motion.
The Legendborn toss their robes off without hesitation and move with practiced, military precision into two defensive rows. Five stand at the back, pulling out weapons from harnesses, scabbards, and hidden straps: daggers, extendable quarterstaffs, and swords. Sarah and Tor string identical bows. Only three unarmed kids move to the front: the gentle-faced boy who saluted Nick in the foyer; Fitz; and a tall boy with red hair. I squint, trying to make out the red-haired boy’s face, because something about him is familiar. When he turns his head, I realize it’s because I know him. He’s Evan Cooper, Charlotte’s boyfriend.
The primitive part of my brain pleads with me to run to the Lodge with the others as fast as I can, but I can’t look away from the three Legendborn boldly facing the darkness, empty hands thrust out at their sides. What are they thinking? Where are their weapons?
With the whooshing sound of a backdraft, mage flame appears in each of the three boys’ palms. It circles in a smoky whirlpool, then climbs up their arms like iridescent snakes. In between one second and the next, the aether solidifies into weapons in their hands. Fitz and Evan hold identical shining swords. The gentle-faced boy holds two glowing daggers the length of my forearms. But the mage flame climbing their bodies isn’t done. I watch, breathless, as it flows over their shoulders and legs, solidifying into gleaming plates of silver. Aether crawls up their throats and falls across their sternums until it becomes chainmail. On their arms, the smoke hardens into terrifying gauntlets.
Armor. Aether armor.
From the opposite direction, another howl rises. My blood runs cold. Not just one hellhound, but two?
“Split formation!” Davis yells. The boy with the daggers dashes to the other side of the Chapel, calling for three other Legendborn to follow.
“Bree!” Nick steps into my vision, blocking the armored boys from sight. “What are you still doing here? Get back to the Lodge! Now!” I pivot away from the clearing, but the other Pages have disappeared into the woods. I should have followed them. I have no idea how to get back. No idea which direction to run. Nick realizes this at the same time that I do and points his sword behind me. “That way. Run. Don’t stop.”
I sprint full speed into the forest, adrenaline shooting through my veins. I can barely see, but I keep going. I crash through brush. Briars scrape at my face and arms. I stumble.
Shouts echo behind me as the Legendborn take on the hounds.
Another howl.
Silence.
I turn. Did they kill the demons? Is it over?
Suddenly, the stench of mold and warm, stagnant water overtakes me. It clings to the back of my throat. The smell of rotten wood and dying things. Things that haven’t seen light in a long, long time. I cover my mouth.
A sound comes from my left, like a log breaking.
When I turn, two bottomless red orbs appear in the darkness a foot from my face. Glowing lanterns made of blood. One blinks, then the other.
Not lanterns.
Eyes.
I scream and stumble backward. Then, a voice. The nauseating sound of bones cracking, deep and sharp.
“You will help us.”
Terror condenses to a sharp point. I pivot, but the eyes appear in front of me. A ten-foot-tall, hulking shape steps through the trees.
At first I think the shape is an enormous human, but the movements are all wrong. Their joints bend in the wrong places. In the sliver of light from above, I see a broad chest and thick limbs covered with moss. An iridescent, shiny green liquid pours out of open gashes on mottled skin. A face stretches across a bulbous, swollen head. Two long strips of rotting flesh connect gaping jaws. Their tongue lashes back and forth like a snake tasting the air. The demon hums in satisfaction. “Yes. You will help us.”
I lunge to the side, but the demon moves too. Faster than I can track, so that they face me from the new angle, their held tilted to the side as if waiting for my response.
I think fast, heart hammering inside my chest. I can’t outrun this demon, that much is clear. Which way would I go if I could? Wherever I am, I’m closer to the Legendborn than I am the Lodge. This demon doesn’t seem to want to eat me like the hellhound did—yet.
I take a sliding step in the direction of the clearing but keep my eyes on the creature. “Help you? Are you—you sure I’m the best person for that?”
Lips pull back in a hungry smile, exposing two rows of black teeth that curl backward like scythes.
“Yes,” they state, and lunge before I can make a sound.
The demon slings me over their shoulder like a sack of yams, jerking my body around so much my head spins. A squishy, hot arm wraps around the back of my knees, holding me in place. A scream builds in my throat, but I gag on the putrid stench steaming from their body.
There’s a blur, then an abrupt stop that sends my chin crashing into the demon’s wet spine. I gag again. Mildewed slop clings to my face.
Before I can orient myself, the demon pulls me down and around until I’m hanging like a doll, feet swinging off the ground. I struggle, but they only pull tighter, cutting off my breath in one sharp motion. I can’t get enough air.
We’re back at the Chapel, where the eight Legendborn and Lord Davis have cornered the second hellhound. Fitz and Nick have just speared it through when the demon holding me emits a hellish scream. “Pendragon!”
Everyone turns at once.
Nick’s father shoots his son a silencing glare, and steps forward. Davis fingers the grip of a longsword in a scabbard at his side, a weapon that he’d hidden beneath his robe. “Why have you come, uchel?”
“Which of you is the Pendragon?”
Davis keeps his voice easy, calm. A Southern gentleman simply greeting a newcomer. “I am who you seek.” His eyes flick to me. “You have one of our Pages. Let the girl go and we’ll talk. Just you and me.”
The demon’s teeth clack against one another in a chittering pattern, like they are displeased. Clackclackclack. “She will be easy to take apart, deceiver.” Razor-sharp nails drag a burning path down my cheek, slicing my skin open. I scream.
“Stop!” Nick shouts, already moving forward.
The hand at Davis’s side clenches into a fist. It must be a signal, because the other Legendborn move in tight around Nick, locking him into place. Guarding him. Rage blooms across his face.
The demon points at Nick with one dripping claw. “He is who we seek.”
“We?” Davis says, curious concern crossing his expression.
“Give him to us, Legendborn.” The demon’s hand tightens slowly around my chest, and black pain threatens to take over my vision. One of my ribs is bending, bending…