by Shea, K. M.
Director Eastgate calmly outstretched his hand and clenched it in a fist. The decayor nearest to them—the one just clearing the stair banister—disintegrated into a cloud of dust.
It was gone before it had the chance to scream.
Raven’s mouth went dry as she stared at the director’s destructive magic. She had never in her life seen such savage natural magic. Her heart leaped into her throat and Raven raised her eyes to look at her boss.
The four decayors behind the first turned into dust one after another, causing a spread of panic among the front line
“That is a very nifty trick,” said a raspy male voice.
Raven and the director swung their gazes to set them on the speaker. It was the ember eyed guy—the Fox of Hades, as Gram had called him—who had attacked her family weeks ago. He was casually leaning against a support pillar, his arms folded across his chest.
“The important question, though, is how many can you destroy at once?” Fox said, snapping his fingers.
Black, tarry blobs dropped from the ceiling, oozing off the suffocating shadows. The blobs splattered open when they landed, spattering the black substance to reveal a decayor in each blob.
Director Eastgate eyed the decayors, and ten of them turned into swirls of dust at once.
“Not a bad amount, but you’ll have to do a lot better than that to survive,” Fox said with a smile that was too wide. His glowing eyes flickered to Raven. “A lot better than that,” he repeated, his smile going secretive.
The shadows started to spread down the walls of the building, teardrops of tar trickling from it, giving birth to more decayors.
Raven swallowed, gripping the book in her hand so hard the spine cracked.
“Who are you and what do you want?” Director Eastgate asked, lowering his arm, although he continued to stare at the rapidly multiplying decayors. There had to be over a hundred, and they were still piling out of the stairs.
“Raven already knows who I am and what I want, don’t you Raven?” Fox asked, pushing off the pillar.
Raven tempered her voice, making it cold and haughty. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Fox chuckled, a dark sound that made the hairs on Raven’s neck stand on end. “Trying to deny it? Come now, Raven. Your director will find out soon enough what a freak you are.”
Raven’s heart stopped, but Director Eastgate took a menacing step forward. “If you have nothing worthwhile to say, shut up. I do not wish to hear a melodramatic monologue. Where is page turner Tanner?”
Fox ignored him and instead took a few steps in their direction. “You know what I want, Raven. I want that cauldron. But I wouldn’t mind dragging you back with me as a consolation prize. Your magic is quite the intriguing puzzle.”
Raven recognized her chance to ferret out information and grabbed it. “What do you plan to do with the cauldron?”
Fox shrugged and sauntered in their direction. “I don’t know. My leader has asked for it, so I will seize it. But I wasn’t told I couldn’t take hostages,” he said, eyeing her. “Nor did anyone say I had to leave the library standing.”
Director Eastgate, who was staring at Fox’s feet, lurched into motion when Fox stood in the same marble section as them. “Get down,” Eastgate said, shoving Raven to the floor.
She hit the ground so hard she jarred her teeth. She was knocked against the cool marble again when a force exploded above her head.
It was like a silent, fireless bomb. There were no noises, only a massive amount of force, and everything alive that was standing within a thirty to forty foot radius of Raven and the director was gone, leaving behind a cloud of filament.
In a matter of seconds, the director had wiped out about forty decayors.
Another hundred or so dropped from the ceiling to replace them.
Fox whistled, having barely jumped to safety. “Nice try, you almost had me there. But that was a mistake. It took a lot out of you, didn’t it?” Fox said, peering at Director Eastgate, who slumped to his knees next to Raven.
Fox nodded when Eastgate didn’t reply, and started walking towards them again, this time moving swiftly.
Raven cracked her fingers and summoned her ice magic to her finger tips before planting her hand on the ground. “Frost,” she said, looking out at the sea of decayors.
The cleared circle around Raven and the director grew shiny and cold as inches of slippery, thick ice formed on the ground.
The ice hissed beneath Fox’s feet, hungrily gnawing at the treads of his boots. Fox cursed and almost fell, sliding around for a few precious, distracting moments.
Raven stood and held her hand out, crafting a thick club of ice. She easily walked across the ice, not feeling the aching cold in spite of her bare feet.
Fox didn’t have time to right himself before Raven took a crack at his head with her ice bat. He howled and fell with a thump.
The roar propelled the decayors into motion, who were more easily able to cross the slick ice than their commander. Raven took a few swings at one with her ice bat—it dodged them—but screamed when a decayor snuck up behind her and got a hold of her skirt.
The material turned black and crumbled like burnt paper. Raven pulled away from it, only to smack into another.
It reached for her with its flesh searing hand, cackling madly. Before it could touch Raven it started screaming.
It turned around and ran off, its ratty robe smoldering as unnaturally green colored flames licked at the fabric.
A river of fire surged from behind two bookshelves, clearing the circle around Raven and Eastgate before flowing on, scattering decayors wherever it went.
“Making a sneak attack against our triplet?” someone said.
“Oh no, no, no. That isn’t allowed,” a second voice lectured.
Raven’s shoulders slumped with relief as Director Eastgate stood upright. “Montamos brothers one and two, for once you have arrived at the right moment,” he said as Asher and Aron strolled out, walking down the center of their fire river without so much as a singed piece of hair to show for it.
The twins eyed the decayor saturated room like lions eyeing wounded gazelle. “Of course, Director Eastgate, sir,” Aron said rolling a ball of fire back and forth across his palms as he managed to give off an aura of piety. “It is the duty of a page turner to stand his ground in times of crises, sir.”
“That,” Eastgate said, heaving his eyes to the ceiling. “Is a load of crap. You’re here for Rachel.”
“Yeah,” Asher nodded. “I mean yes. Sir. Director Eastgate,” he said as he and Aron stopped on either side of Raven, stepping into fire-free ground.
“How much longer can you keep up the fire?” the director quietly asked.
“Not much longer, sir,” Aron said.
“About fifteen seconds,” Asher said, eyeing Raven’s ice bat with a raised brow. “Sir,” he was quick to add as he moved to stand back to back to back with Aron and Raven. “Rachel, you need to tell us when you’re about to do something stupid.”
“Yeah, so we can keep you from doing even more stupid things,” Aron said. “We could have gotten out—You didn’t need to come back for us.”
Raven snorted. “If I hadn’t you two never would let me hear the end of it.”
“Now there’s real attachment for ya.”
“Sorry, let me try again,” Raven said, her ice bat starting to drip, melting from the heat of the twins’ fire. “I felt the call of our bond and I had to answer. How was that?”
Asher chuckled. “Much better. Fire going out in three, two, one.”
The river of fire slowly flickered out, but neither Fox nor a decayor dared to cross the open space just yet.
“Earlier you asked about a page turner. Allow me to read you into the situation,” Fox said from relative safety behind his hoard of creatures.
The army of decayors in the stairway moved, passing something weighty across their heads before throwing it at Raven, the twins, and t
he director.
It was a body—Jeremiah Tanner’s body. He hit the ground with a crack, making Raven wince. She hoped he was only unconscious, but his face was frightfully white.
“Come and get him,” Fox said, his lips twisted into a smirk.
The blond page turner landed just a pace or two away from the decayors, not quite in the empty space between the two sides.
The twins glanced at the director, but he ignored their gaze and Jeremiah’s carcass and stared at Fox with narrowed eyes.
Raven clenched her hands into fists, her manicured nails digging into the cover of her book.
The decayors started edging forward, growing bold in the lack of magical activity. “Sir, your orders?” Aron said, unease coloring his face as Asher also summoned a glob of fire to hold between his hands, mimicking his twin.
Eastgate was silent, but his eyes traced over the monsters.
The decayors were halfway to them when Raven said, “Director Eastgate, what do we do?” while shifting back and forth on her feet.
Her words pulled Director Eastgate from his thoughts. “We bide our time—the rest of the staff members are almost here.”
“They what?” Asher said before the director wiped a crowd of decayors out of existence.
Asher and Aron stared at the dust clouds that filled the air after the director’s magic activated. “That is really creepy,” Aron whispered.
“I heard that page turner Montamos two,” Director Eastgate said with the softness of a boulder.
Raven wiped her wet hand off on her skirt—her bat was still dripping with water—before gripping it in her right hand and winding her arm up, carefully juggling her book. She chucked it at a decayor that was prodding Jeremiah with a bony finger. It winged the monster in the shoulder, but hit it with enough force that the creature was sent crashing backwards.
“Good hit,” Asher said.
Another decayor scurried over to Jeremiah and raised its hand. It freakishly giggled before lowering its stretched hand towards Jeremiah’s face. If it wanted to it could burn Jeremiah’s face to the bone.
Raven broke from her protective triangle with the twins. “Someone—,” she started, but was interrupted when the decayor was smothered in a sphere of sand.
Seconds later the marble floor peeled back like old paint, and brown stone shot through the opening, nearly impaling Fox from his perch behind the stairs.
Raven spun around to see Daire, Royce, Brannon, and Mrs. Conners step out of the bookshelves.
Raven balked, the book pulling on her arm like a lead weight. Never before was she so grateful to see Daire. With the violent prefect around, Jeremiah could be saved without her help.
“Ah, and so the cavalry has come,” Fox laughed, sliding away from the spiked ground just in time. “But a few page turners and librarians are hardly strong enough to defeat swarming decayors,” he said, tipping his head back in arrogance as the new members of the drama walked towards Raven.
“Alison?” Director Eastgate asked Mrs. Conners as the older woman tottered towards them, not breathing heavily in spite of all the exertion.
“She’s gone to get help. A group of decayors found their way into the escape tunnel. I set off the tunnel self destruct trap to keep them in the library. Alison got through before the tunnel sealed itself,” the elderly reference librarian said.
Fox scowled and edged around his monster army when he observed Director Eastgate and Mrs. Conners muttered conversation.
“Royce,” Director Eastgate said.
“Yes sir,” Royce said, fixing his hat before stepping forward, his mint eyes fastened on the young magic abuser.
Fox spoke as he drew closer to them, once again toeing the line that separated the page turners from the monsters. “Discussing escape plans? It won’t work. Help won’t arrive soon enou—,” he didn’t finish his sentence and instead barely reacted fast enough to bring up a dagger to fend off Royce’s advance.
Somewhere between fixing his hat and stepping forward, Royce had obtained an ornate sword. It looked like something read out of a fantasy story. It gleamed in the light, and Royce held it with the familiarity of a swordsman.
As Fox talked Royce stalked towards him before lunging with his weapon. Fox barely reacted in time to whip out his dagger.
It was odd. Raven knew for a fact page turner required classes did not include fencing.
Royce pulled back before pressing forward again, feinting left and right, parrying and attacking with ease. His skill was so overwhelming he pushed Fox back on his heels, rapidly closing in on him.
The decayors watched the fight with interest—as did Raven and her coworkers. It was Mrs. Conners who took advantage of the distraction, and she brought down two enormous bookshelves on a group of decayors, crushing them beneath the weight of wood and books.
Metal plaques that described what each bookshelf held ripped off the shelves like living creatures before hurtling through the air, cutting and clipping the decayors with persistence.
The twins snapped out of it next, sending another river of fire at the hoard of decayors that ran towards them. Daire backed them up, creating a field of sand that smothered the decayors.
“Brannon,” Director Eastgate said, watching Royce and Fox fight.
“Yes sir,” Brannon said before he bravely ran forward, reaching Jeremiah.
He knocked several decayors backwards by shaking the ground with his earth magic before he picked Jeremiah up and slung him over his shoulder. He ran back to Raven and the page turners, who opened up their unorganized circle to let him in the center. He set Jeremiah down and felt for a pulse, kneeling down to better inspect the blond. After a few moments his hands began to glow, and he set about using his magic to heal the high schooler.
“Why are you interested in the library, fiend?” Director Eastgate asked as he walked towards Royce and Fox. His gait was calm and measured even though he walked through magic and chaos to get there.
Fox frowned and replied serenely as he moved at lightning speed to parry Royce’s attacks. “I am not interested in any of you, with the exception of Raven. It’s the cauldron I am looking for. Are you willing to tell me where it is?”
Director Eastgate stopped and slaughtered twelve decayors with his magic. His face was impassive.
“No? If that’s the case I’ll just have to wipe you out,” Fox said, ducking beneath Royce’s sword before hitting the page turner in the gut with the pommel of his dagger. Royce went down and Fox stood, retreating to his army.
Raven hadn’t noticed it—none of the library employees had actually. They were so encouraged by their rebuttal that they hadn’t noticed the decayors had never stopped coming. There were more decayors present in Saint Cloud now than before they started their counter attack.
The monsters laughed, giggled, and hummed, stretching out behind Fox like a writhing blanket of rats.
Fox signaled, and they broke their ranks, scurrying on their hands and feet.
Raven took a step backwards, but Daire narrowed his eyes and extended his hand. Sand rained down on the decayors, covering the first wave of vermin in a dune.
The director and Royce retreated to the library staff’s circle before the twins did a fist bump and crafted a giant wall of fire that encircled everyone, protecting them from a second wave of decayors.
Raven swallowed thickly. She could already see decayors clawing their way out of Daire’s sand dune through the flickering, fiery wall.
“Brannon, try to keep damages to a minimum,” Director Eastgate coldly noted when the tall football player stood, having mended Jeremiah to the best of his abilities.
“Yes sir,” Brannon said, hunkering down before slamming his fists on the marble tiled floor. The ground grumbled and shook, pushing Raven off balance. The rest of the fiction area churned. Shelves shook, books toppled out of their place, and decayors fell to the ground.
The page turners were the epicenter of the mini earthquake. Raven gaped at Brannon,
shocked at his power, when Asher interrupted her thoughts.
“Hey guys, heads up,” Asher said, pointing to the ceiling. Globs of black were falling off the walls, spattering on the floor before curling up to form more decayors.
“We’ll have to hold them off until help arrives,” Mrs. Conners said, tipping over several bookshelves, partially blocking off the stairs from the first floor.
“Um, yeah. That’s gonna be really easy,” Aron sarcastically said, flinging his hands at the twins’ fire wall to strengthen the flames. The decayors ran into it like bugs to a bug zapper.
“Try waking blondie up to see if he can help,” Asher suggested, nudging Jeremiah with his foot as he copied his twin’s movements.
Daire scowled at the twins. “Are you kidding? He’s injured.”
“Use whatever magic you have, unless we make our stand here we’re not going to survive,” Mrs. Conners advised.
Raven clutched her book to her chest before releasing her ice magic. Ice completely encased two decayors beyond the fire wall before snow started to float down from the ceiling.
Raven cursed her unpredictable hold on her magic and screamed when two decayors managed to break through the fire wall.
Director Eastgate glanced at the monsters with indifference, and they twisted into dust.
Raven clenched her teeth, freezing another two decayors. Two out of what felt like two thousand.
Daire spread his sand, choking dozens of decayors. Brannon continued to affect the ground, spreading riptides through the marble. Asher and Aron held the defensive line, their shoulders set, chins held high. Mrs. Conners toppled bookshelf after bookshelf, using pieces of the library to fight back.
But it did no good.
Dark gobs fell from the tar covered ceiling and walls. When they fell, spattering open, out rolled a new decayor. Raven couldn’t guess how many there were, their number was too great. Their chanting and laughing drilled into her brain.
“More decayors are coming from the south, strengthen the defenses,” Director Eastgate said.
“Too late,” Royce said as a dozen decayors broke through the fire. He stepped forward, sword extended, and took care of five of them. Raven managed to freeze one decayor solid, the director snuffed out the remaining survivors. Asher and Aron redoubled their efforts. Their wall of fire stood taller and stronger, but the decayors still swarmed.