I crawled out of my hiding space, yanking the syringe’s protective top off with my teeth. Gussalen had positioned herself like a guard in front of Augustine. His eyes were closed, and he seemed to be concentrating on something. The gargoyle’s eyes were on the sky, looking in the direction Sebastian had disappeared. I took my chance and jabbed the syringe into the back of the gargoyle’s leg.
Gussalen hissed in surprise and whipped around. She started to lift me off the ground, and then, her arms began to shake and petrify. I scrambled out of her grasp and watched in horror as the stone coating streaked across the rest of her body, and she petrified into statue.
Tamzen suddenly ripped the axe from her shoulder with a wild snarl. She wielded it as Hugo struggled to his feet. The gargoyle rushed straight at him. I didn’t have time to scream. The axe struck home.
Someone fell to the ground. But it wasn’t Hugo. I blinked, only half-believing what I saw. Somehow, Ezzie was there in his place. The axe was wedged in her chest. Her body sprawled lifeless.
A mace smashed into the side of the gargoyle’s head. Tamzen went down on her knees. Nadya dropped the mace, whipped out a syringe and plunged it into Tamzen’s neck. The gargoyle shuddered into a statue, just like the other.
‘Enough,’ shouted Augustine.
He dragged me to my feet with a grip that was stronger than iron. Badrick swooped in between Zindelo and Nadya. Hugo dropped to the ground and scooped Ezzie into his arms. His face had gone white.
Augustine studied the older Corsis. ‘I see that I am not the only Sobrasi on this roof. I must admit, I didn’t anticipate your arrival this soon.’
Nadya spat. ‘Because you cannot see past your own arrogance.’
Zindelo touched his wife’s shoulder and then approached slowly. ‘You have no idea what you’re dealing with, Adolár. The forces you are attempting to awaken in Sebastian are not controllable.’
Augustine only laughed. ‘Your attempts to hide the monster from me have failed.’
‘He’s not a monster,’ I said, struggling in his grasp.
Augustine pulled me towards him. The laugher died on his lips. ‘You are holding him back.’ His cool demeanor was gone now, and I saw the light of insanity flickering behind his eyes. ‘Always you, my dear niece. I should have made sure you were dead before I left you.’ He snatched my pendant and yanked it from my neck. He flung it against the stone parapet. The glass shattered on impact. ‘I’ve changed my mind. You will be his first Gypsy kill.’
He raised his arm.
There was a loud rush of wings. Sebastian seemed to materialize out of the darkness. He landed in front of us with an inhuman grace, dropping to all fours. There was black blood on his chest and bits of chimera ooze on his arm. I shuddered to think what their battle must’ve looked like.
Sebastian’s body trembled. The spidery veins along his skin spread. He gritted his sharp teeth as Augustine communicated to him, and his silver orbs focused on me. The internal war worked its way across his face. He took a slow step forward.
‘Sebastian, don’t!’
My voice seemed to catch him off guard. He hesitated, tilting his head to the side. He was still fighting – just like he’d been fighting with himself since the day he woke up in the Corsi clan. Fighting from the moment he’d transformed into a guardian. And now, fighting to hold back the very essence of the monster that had brought the shadow world to life.
‘Please,’ I said softly.
Augustine shoved me to the ground.
‘That’s enough,’ he spat. ‘Kill her!’
Sebastian shook himself off, under Augustine’s control once more. He approached me with menacing steps, wings out and teeth bared. Cold fear clutched at me, but I refused to let it end this way. I clambered to my feet to meet him head on. I shouted his name in my head.
Sebastian!
He stumbled back as though he’d been slapped. I didn’t waste the chance.
Listen to me.
Sebastian growled sharply, but this time I saw the dead look in his eyes fade away. My heart flew up my throat. He heard me! His mouth worked silently, his body shaking all over. And then,
‘Josephine …’
My name was barely a whisper on his lips, but with it came so much raw emotion that I struggled to stand underneath it.
He gasped for breath. ‘Can’t … fight …’
My heart pounded so hard I thought it would come through my chest. As I watched him struggle, a wild thought entered my mind. Sebastian couldn’t fight Augustine like this. He didn’t have the strength. But there was something inside him that might.
And at that moment, I knew what I had to do. I devoted all my being to the voice in my head and to whatever connection Sebastian and I still shared, wherever it was. And I spoke.
Don’t fight anymore, Sebastian. Just let go.
At my telepathic words, his eyes widened, and the expression on his face deteriorated into a mixture of shock and pain. Sebastian turned away, shaking his head frantically. But I kept speaking.
I trust you.
He went completely still, eyes rotating back to fix on me.
I trust you, Sebastian. And it’s okay. Just let go.
He hesitated. My gaze fell to his wrist. Underneath the bloody spike wounds, I could still see his dandelion tattoo. I shifted my eyes to meet his, and I smiled.
Trust us, Sebastian.
His eyes cleared. I saw acceptance in those silver orbs. And relief – relief that flooded through the fierce battle inside him. Suddenly, everything around him seemed to still, hushed and uncertain. Waiting. I steadied myself for one last thought.
Sebastian. Let go.
I felt him leave. Something in my heart ripped.
Oily mist appeared and surrounded Sebastian’s body, clinging to him like a cloak. He spread his wings, and the mist tightened and swirled into the center of his chest, piercing through him. His body turned black, like char. Fissures of silver crackled over his entire form sprouting out through his horns, obscuring his face from view.
Augustine released me and held his tattooed arm in front of him like a shield. His dark face grew ashen as he stared up at Sebastian with wide eyes. But it wasn’t Sebastian at all. The creature looming before us stared down with flaming eyes. He opened his mouth, and sparks of fire lashed between his teeth as he spoke.
‘You have awakened La Gargouille.’
The voice wasn’t Sebastian’s anymore than the body.
‘Yes,’ said Augustine, in a tone unlike I’d ever heard him use.
It was the sound of fear.
The creature sniffed the air with distain. ‘I know your blood. I have smelt the stench before. You are of the same stock as that vile Roma, the one who helped to destroy me.’
Augustine tried to smile, but it became a grimace. ‘My ancestor, yes. But I have no intentions of repeating his mistake. Rather, I wish to free you from this prison in which you are caged.’ He gestured to what remained of Sebastian’s form. ‘This weak gargoyle isn’t enough to hold you.’
La Gargouille hissed irritably. ‘No, he is not.’
‘Then allow me to free you,’ Augustine continued. ‘Together, we can return to the Old Clans, and you can have your revenge on the Roma who have profited so long from your demise.’
La Gargouille laughed. The sound of it was fierce and terrible. ‘What care I for revenge? I care only for blood. You have meddled in powers that you have no right to bend to your will. I am beyond you, Gypsy. You are dust under my feet.’
The creature grabbed Augustine’s arm. Smoke rose from underneath his taloned hand. Augustine cried out in pain as a nasty burn spread over his skin, obliterating every tattoo. La Gargouille released him and he fell to his knees, clutching his charred arm.
‘Your blood is mine.’
‘No,’ I said, moving in front of Augustine.
La Gargouille glanced at me, like someone might look at a mosquito before squashing it. ‘I require it.’
; ‘No,’ I said again, trembling inside. ‘Sebastian wouldn’t want this.’
‘Sebastian.’ La Gargouille said it slowly. ‘I know this name.’
I hesitated, unsure of how to proceed. Augustine gasped for breath on the ground behind me. At any moment, the creature might throw me aside and continue on.
‘He’s my guardian,’ I said, as I’d said so many times before to everyone around me. ‘His name is Sebastian Grey, and he’s promised to protect me. And I promised the same thing to him.’
‘Josephine,’ said the creature.
I nodded cautiously. ‘Yes.’
La Gargouille turned away. His form created an ominous silhouette against the clear night sky. When he looked back, his face was twisted into a look of strange, bewildered curiosity.
‘He cares for you, this part of me that I do not understand. He is not me, yet, I am what he is.’
‘Sebastian,’ I repeated. ‘Yes, he cares for me, and I care for him.’
His eyes blazed with fiery light. ‘What do you wish to ask of me, daughter of the Roma?’
I took a breath. ‘Please, give him back.’
The creature’s expression shifted like a storm cloud. ‘No. At last, I am whole again. I will harness this body and use it. I will have the blood of the Roma who ripped me asunder. I will have his blood, or I will not rest.’
‘Then take mine,’ I said quickly. ‘I am Josephine Romany, daughter of Nicolas Romany and descendant of Keveco Romany.’
41. Josephine
‘Josephine, no!’
I glanced back at Hugo as he held Ezzie in his arms. Her eyes rolled frantically towards me, her face was deathly pale. But I didn’t falter. I stared up at La Gargouille with my chin high.
‘You want payment,’ I said, ‘I’m offering it to you right now. But then, you must set Sebastian free.’
La Gargouille flapped his wings lazily. I refused to break my stare with him, no matter how sick I felt inside. He looked at Augustine’s crumpled body and then looked back at me. Fire sparked from his lips as he smiled.
‘Very well. I accept.’
The creature placed his hands on either side of my head. I felt the heat from his palms. I felt the skin on my neck begin to singe. La Gargouille opened his mouth, his fangs dripping with lava-like spittle. I closed my eyes.
Please, make it quick, I prayed.
A moment passed. Then another. I held my breath. Another moment. My skin cooled. I opened my eyes. La Gargouille stepped back, and a vicious, animal fury twisted his face.
‘No!’ he roared. ‘She is mine!’
The creature thrashed wildly. His charred body seemed to cave in on itself in torture. The monster and Sebastian were engaged in war within the smoke and flame, and I could only watch in horror, unable to help.
La Gargouille roared again. ‘You … will … not!’
He clutched his head and screeched like something out of a nightmare. His body flailed back and forth, like prey caught in the mouth of a predator. I felt a stirring in my heart. And then, the creature’s flaming eyes melted back into silver orbs. And refocused on me.
‘Josephine, I can’t let this go on.’ The voice wasn’t La Gargouille, but it wasn’t Sebastian either. It was something in between. ‘I have to stop it all. Please … please understand.’
He launched into the air, straight overhead. Fire and smoke brimmed around him, lighting up the rooftop. He thrust out his chest and roared in a way I’d never heard before. The sky was suddenly filled with shadowen. They streaked through the air, flocking to him from inside the cathedral and all around the cemetery, more than I could name or count.
I stared up in horrified awe. So many hideous forms. So much hatred and malice. They swirled around him like a tornado. I covered my ears against their screeching cries. La Gargouille spread his arms wide. A bolt of white energy burst from his body like a streak of lightning. It ricocheted through the mass of grotesques and chimeras around him.
The vile creatures convulsed with ghastly screams as the bolt of light ripped through them. Instantly, they turned to stone. Shadowen bodies fell like meteors to the ground below. The statues shattered on impact, sending clouds of dust hurtling over the cathedral. The wind carried the particles away, and everything went suddenly still. Only La Gargouille remained.
I didn’t see Augustine in my peripheral until it was too late. My feet went out from under me. My head cracked against the stone. There was a snarling in my ears. A plume of smoke. La Gargouille and Augustine plummeted over the ledge of the cathedral. I heard a cry and a sickening thud. By the time I pulled myself up, I was staring into the creature’s fiery eyes.
‘The blood is accounted for,’ he said.
I chose not to look over the edge. I knew Augustine was dead.
The sound of Ezzie crying out sent me whirling around. Zindelo and Nadya had joined Hugo on either side. Hugo held Esmeralda in his arms, and tears glistened against his rough face. ‘You listen to me,’ he said to her, his gruff voice cracking. ‘You don’t jump in and save my life and then just check out of here. It’s not happening.’ He shook her gently. ‘You’re not leaving me.’
Ezzie’s eyes lolled towards him. They were clouded and dull. ‘I could not save Markus Corsi,’ she said hoarsely, ‘but I have saved you. That is enough.’
Markus!
The name hit me like slap. I yanked my skirts aside and retrieved the tiny book from the inside of my boot. The green leather was battered and damp with sweat. I rushed forward, falling to my knees in front of her.
‘Ezzie, there has to be something in here that could help.’
Zindelo’s brows lifted. ‘What is this?’
‘It belonged to Markus, her charge.’
‘Of the first Sobrasi,’ Nadya said reverently.
I opened the book and thumbed frantically through the pages. I didn’t even know what I was looking for. The strange letters and script gave me nothing. ‘I see the words, but it doesn’t make sense. I can’t read it.’
Ezzie’s eyelids suddenly fluttered open. Her eyes were full of pain, but crystal clear as she focused on me. ‘Yes, you can. You are a Romany. A direct descendant of Keveco himself. If anyone has the ability, it would be you.’
I looked into the book and willed everything I had into the words. They blurred and swirled on the page, and then, suddenly, they became words I could understand. Without understanding why, I turned to the very center of the book and read.
‘Ezzie,’ I breathed. ‘Somehow, he must’ve known what was going to happen to you.’
‘How do you know?’ asked Hugo.
‘Because it tells how to restore a banished gargoyle.’
Ezzie reached out and grasped the edge of Zindelo’s coat. ‘Please, I beg of you, do this for me. If I’m to die, then let me die as I was born.’
Zindelo nodded. ‘You have done more than is required of any guardian. As the last of the Sobrasi, we restore your honor to you.’ He held out his hand to me, and I gave him the book.
Zindelo began reading the words out loud. The language was familiar and foreign, all at once. We watched him, with Ezzie’s gasping breaths the only sound, apart from his voice. When he finished, Zindelo placed his thumb into the center of the book and pressed it lightly to the page.
‘Where is the brand?’ he asked.
Hugo smoothed Ezzie’s hair away from her neck, revealing the faded tattoo. As we watched, it began to darken into a detailed shape. I saw what it was clearly now – a single dandelion petal. Zindelo touched it with the pad of his thumb.
When he removed his hand, the tattoo had disappeared, like an ink imprint lifted off a sheet of paper. Zindelo repeated the same action onto the book, and the tattoo appeared in the middle of the page. He closed the leather cover.
Gray mist spread over her skin. It shifted through her red-tipped dark hair, turning it pewter. Her skin became gray, and her features changed. Hugo shoved himself out of the way as wings sprouted from underneath her body
and expanded, ripping out the back of her Marksman jacket. She was a gargoyle again. A soft, painful smile crossed her dark lips.
‘Thank you,’ she whispered.
Zindelo bowed his head. ‘Go in peace.’
Hugo grabbed hold of her again, desperation in his face. He stared down at her gargoyle form. ‘Ezzie …’
She looked up at him with a silver gaze. ‘I am sorry, Hugo.’
Her eyelids closed.
‘No,’ said a voice from behind us.
La Gargouille stood, watching the scene before him. The voice had been Sebastian’s this time, but it wasn’t quite his own. It was tinged with something ancient and powerful. He approached on clawed feet, his black wings expanding in the breeze. His face was silver and fire, his eyes flamed as they looked at Ezzie’s dying body.
‘It is time to truly live,’ he said.
La Gargouille held out his right hand, palm facing the sky. He closed his wicked talons into a fist. A silvery glow filtered through his fingers. The veins along the inside of his arm pulsed, and his hand shook as the strain of whatever he was doing became evident in his clenched jaw and gritted teeth. Then, he opened his hand. A small mound of purple-black dust rested in his palm. It glimmered with sparks of silver.
‘Josephine,’ said the creature in the voice that was and wasn’t Sebastian’s. I took a tentative step towards him. He regarded me with that same expression of strange curiosity. His head tilted slightly, and his eyes sparked. ‘He wants you to have this.’ As the words left his fiery mouth, he seemed confused, as though he hadn’t meant to say them at all. La Gargouille deposited the dust into my hands and backed away.
I cradled the purple powder to my chest and hurried quickly back to Ezzie. Nadya studied the contents of the gift.
‘We need human blood,’ she said.
She pulled a knife from her belt. Hugo placed his hand over his mother’s. She looked up at him as he gently took the knife from her hands.
‘I’ve got this,’ he said.
He ran the thin blade across the inside of his palm. Blood welled up. Nadya brought out the small bowl she’d used for mixing herbs from her bag. She held it out to both of us. I brushed the prah into the bowl. Hugo held his hand over the bowl, and his blood dripped into the purple dust. Nadya mixed them together with her fingers.
Midnight Page 34