“Melodrama doesn’t suit you, Warden,” Aria replied. “We’re both pragmatists, you and I.”
“True, and you know this is the best-case scenario.”
“I don’t want to have to kill you, Grey. This isn’t a matter of if I can do it. Of course I can erase your ancient ass. I don’t want to.”
“I need to get the Tenebrous off the streets so I can focus on the Redrum X. This is the best way I can think of. If you have a better idea, I’m all ears.”
“For the record, I’m livid you destroyed a duster to use it as fuel for a beacon. Do you know how much work goes into one of those coats?”
“I do.”
I looked down at the empty grounds. Aria had had the Cloisters cleared out once I informed her my plan. We were going to bring Fluffy to us. In order to do that, we couldn’t have targets of opportunity roaming the property for Fluffy to use. I wanted him to come for me, and me alone.
Only Aria, Koda, Street, and me were on the property. The fewer potential targets, the better. All of us had dealt with entities of power before, even though only Aria and I were doing the bulk of the damage. Koda would safeguard Street from any rummers that got past the defenses.
There weren’t going to be many. We intended to open one side of the defenses and funnel them in. No matter how many rummers, rummogres, or other kinds of nastiness Fluffy created, the door into the Cloisters was going to be narrow. We’d create a kill-funnel. I would initially be outside the defenses, making my way back onto the property as Fluffy approached.
Being bait sucked.
With a little luck, Fluffy would follow me inside, where we could trap and end it. I looked around the serene property again, realizing that by nightfall this entire area would be crawling with rummers and other assorted monsters.
The Wordweavers had taken ownership of the property from the Metropolitan Museum several decades back. They had kept the museum open but sealed off one side and the top floors for themselves.
The Cloisters contained architectural elements from four French medieval abbeys. What wasn’t written in the tourism pamphlets was that these four abbeys were also ancient Wordweaver hubs of power. By combining these four elements, the site became a nexus of power.
Wordweavers have existed as long as magic. Some say they were the first magic-users. Haven was a medical facility with magical applications; The Cloisters were a magical facility with medical applications.
It also had one more function. With the right spells, the Cloisters served as a Wordweaver fortress. It had a sheer drop on one side, was situated on top of a mountain, and was next to the Hudson River. It was an ideal magical stronghold. Once closed, it was almost impossible to breach without being seen. Only the Night Warden’s Shadow Helm compared to it, before it was leveled.
Aria sighed. “I don’t have a better idea. Your plan is solid. We just haven’t dealt with a creature like this in ages.”
“I have the solution.”
“A soulblaze? Do you understand what you’re saying?”
“I do,” I said. “It’s one and done.”
“Don’t be glib,” she said. “You’re throwing your life away.”
“No, no, I’m not. I’ve made peace with this, long before tonight.”
“There has to be an alternative.”
“Sure, and while we come up with it, how many more mages have to die?”
“Damn you, Grey.”
“I care about you too, Aria. Thank you, for everything. I’d better go get ready.”
THIRTY-SIX
“What the fuck?” Koda yelled. “You’re going to do what? Hell no!”
We sat in the serene Cuxa Cloister at the heart of the property, the same way it would be in a monastery. Rose-pink marble columns, topped with carved capitals, surrounded the cloister garden with its central fountain and paths. The subtle thrum of power could be felt in every stone around us. It was an interesting contrast to Koda’s raised voice and cursing.
“I’ve made arrangements for you,” I said, trying to calm her down. “You’re not going back to Hades.”
“You think that’s what I’m worried about?”
“Aren’t you?”
“How dense can you possibly be? There are people who care about what happens to you…you…ass!”
So much for a calm conversation.
“You have a better idea?”
“Yes, any idea that doesn’t involve you dying tonight. How about we start there?”
“Would love to, lay it on me.”
“That’s not fair, what you’re doing. You think you’re being selfless, but really it’s selfish. You haven’t given any thought to how we feel. This is just the Night Warden’s famous last stand.”
“That’s not what this is at all, and you know it.”
“Do I? Have you exhausted every other option?”
“Yes, the only other way to deal with the Tenebrous is to erase whoever summoned it.”
“Let’s do that,” she said, agitated. “I’m all for finding that fucker and ending him with extreme prejudice.”
“In the meantime,” I said, with a sigh, “how many more have to die while we look for the summoner?”
“What about Frank, Cole, and The Dive? Did you discuss this with Aria and Roxanne?”
“All of you will be taken care of,” I said as gently as possible. “Aria and Cole are executors of my will.”
“You still don’t get it,” Koda said, staring at me with wet eyes. “We don’t want to be taken care of, you idiot. We don’t want you to die. I don’t want you to die.”
She stomped off, leaving me alone. Or so I thought.
“Hello, Grey.”
I turned to see Street sitting on the pink marble in between two columns. He was wearing a loose-fitting shirt and pants ensemble.
“Hello, Street.”
“Seems like your apprentice is scared of losing you.”
“I guess you could say that,” I said, looking in the direction Koda had stomped off in. “She doesn’t handle loss well.”
Street nodded. “No one enjoys loss, really. Not of the things or people they hold dear.”
“How are you?”
“Surprisingly lucid,” he answered. “I’m guessing sitting in a nexus of power, like this one, has beneficial effects for someone like me.”
“Someone like you?”
“You know, slightly off, unstable, deranged, insane.”
“Street—”
“Oh, no need to apologize,” he said. “I’m well aware of my mental state when I’m this lucid, and therein lies the problem.”
“What problem?”
“I’m losing what little mind I have left, Grey. The lapses are getting longer. I wake up in the middle of the park, not knowing how I got there. I’m wearing clothes I don’t remember purchasing.”
“We can get you—”
“Help?” Street laughed bitterly. “I’m a mage, Grey. I used to be part of a sect, accomplished and respected. Look at me. Do you know what a mage prizes above all else?”
I knew. “Yes.”
“His mind,” Street answered anyway, pointing to his temple. “A mage’s mind is his greatest possession, and I’m losing mine.”
He held his hands out in front of him, and I could see the tremors. He grabbed one hand with the other, lowering them and resting them on his lap.
“Maybe you can stay here? I’m sure Aria can make arrangements to keep you here.”
Street shook his head slowly. “You know me. I’ll be here a few weeks, and then the wanderlust sets in. I’ll leave the property and my sanity behind. Then that thing will find me. I don’t want to end things like that, as some creature’s plaything, slowly dying. What if it makes me hurt someone? Kill someone?”
“We won’t…it won’t…it doesn’t have to end at all,” I stumbled. “We’re going to stop it, tonight.”
“I’m going out on my own terms, Grey.”
“What are you talking ab
out? You’re not going out on any terms. I’ll speak to Aria.”
“Thank you, Grey, for everything,” Street said, with a sad smile, “especially the shoes and the food. I won’t ever forget that.”
He started walking away, heading to the interior.
“You have plenty of shoes and food in your future, Street,” I called out after him. “You make sure you stay inside with Koda when it begins. Understand?”
He nodded, waved a hand, and turned a corner as the sun dropped behind the horizon, ending the day.
“I should just change my name to Grey Stryder, Morale Booster,” I muttered to myself. I was about to get Koda to stick to Street, when Aria’s voice came over my comms.
“Grey, we have incoming,” she said. “I’ll get Street covered, and you initiate the plan. We rendezvous in the garden.”
“You heard that…Koda?”
“I’m on it,” Koda said, in her clipped voice. “I’ll meet with her and take Street to the secure location.”
I ran to the entrance.
THIRTY-SEVEN
My carefully well-thought-out plan lasted exactly twenty seconds of contact with the enemy. To be fair, I never counted on the trollgres.
“What do you mean we have incoming?” I asked as I ran to the pre-planned breach. “I didn’t light the beacon.”
“What part of that statement is unclear? Rummers are advancing on the property in organized phalanxes. This is like a scene out of a Peter Jackson movie. Except we are not standing opposite Mordor. I’ve never seen rummers act in a coordinated manner, ever.”
“Fluffy is controlling them.”
“What the fresh hell is that?”
I heard the crash, the foghorn of death, and tasted bitter lemon in my mouth all at once.
“Shit, what was that?” I said. “Aria, status?”
“I don’t know what I’m looking at, and I’ve seen some strange creatures in my time,” she said. “This looks like someone mashed together a troll with an ogre. Both ugly creatures producing an uglier combination. This is not a pretty mix.”
“A Trollgre? Fluffy isn’t fooling around.”
Another crash and a roar.
“There’s another one of those troll-ogre things on the south wall,” she said, and I heard gunfire. “At this rate, they’ll break through the defenses, Grey. I do hope you have a Plan B.”
“I do,” I said, moving back to the center of the Cloisters. “Koda, you keep Street safe. Aria, you and I erase everything else.”
“That sounds very similar to Plan A,” Aria shot back. “You’d better attract the Tenebrous to your position. I have more than my fair share of rummers to deal with.”
I formed Darkspirit and unleashed the darkness.
Black tendrils of power raced around my arm and Darkspirit.
I smelled chlorine and heard the thunderclap. This wasn’t the usual Frank thunderclap. A bolt of energy struck the ground nearby, nearly blinding me, followed by several more striking all around the property.
“Grey? What are you doing, trying to destroy the building?”
“It’s backup,” I said, looking down with a smile at the bright, glowing pink thorny dragon. “Frank brought friends.”
“One word about the color and I feed you to those monsters on the walls.”
“What color?” I said, bringing a hand to my ear. “I think I’m hearing the voice of that rare species—the Fuchsia Dragon.”
“Hilarious,” Frank snapped. “I could feed you to the creatures redecorating the walls.”
“By the way, who are all these people?”
“Mages, most of them from the street. Somehow they’ve heard that you and the Night Wardens might need help tonight.”
“There’s so many of them,” I said, looking at the mages attacking the rummers and then I realized how bad this had just become. “Frank! They need to keep away from Fluffy. He’ll use their fears against them and us. Tell them!”
Frank disappeared in a flash of light as I dodged an orb of red energy. I sliced through rummers, converting them to dust as they raced at me. In the distance, I saw what I was looking for: A lone figure standing back from the fighting, surrounded by three trollgres.
Hideous didn’t begin to describe them. They weren’t as large as actual trolls, but they easily outclassed the rummogres. Judging from the blasts that hit them and yet did no damage, they were immune to most magic. They were fast, and they used their massive fists and legs with frightening precision.
Nothing and no one was getting past them. If I was going to take down Fluffy, I needed to get past the bodyguards to use the soulblaze effectively.
I ran at the figure who was currently facing away from me. As I stepped closer, I realized Fluffy had chosen a female host this time.
When she turned, I looked into the face of my old partner, the woman I loved, the woman I killed.
It was Jade.
THIRTY-EIGHT
I never saw the fist coming.
Frank blasted me and tried to shove me sideways out of its path. He was partially successful. The fist caught me in a glancing blow and bounced me off a wall. Everywhere around me, the Cloisters were a battleground. I was disoriented as the trollgre came in for the killing blow. Another mage, someone I never knew, shoved me out of the way and took a bone-shattering kick to the back.
I saw the life leave his eyes as he crumpled to the ground, and I woke up.
Blackness exploded around me as the anger flared in my chest. The tendrils consumed the rummers that were brave or stupid enough to get close. Trollgre One, who had kicked the life out of the mage, grinned at me, outstretching his arms, daring me to approach. I took his invitation and sprinted. In half a second, I had buried Darkspirit in his eye. A roar filled the garden.
I removed the sword from his face and slashed horizontally, separating head from body, before it burst into dust. The sudden silence was deafening. More rummers leaped at me. I unleashed dozens of orbs, obliterating rummers where they stood.
Dark energy flowed through me as I approached Trollgre Two.
This one was smarter and stayed away from Darkspirit. It circled around as I focused on it.
I dropped to the ground, avoiding a haymaker from Trollgre Three, who had tried to flank me. I rolled to the side and away from a life-stopping stomp from Trollgre Two. Trollgre Three launched a handful of rummers at me. I stood my ground and sliced through them, realizing my mistake too late. As soon as I finished my slash, Trollgre Two introduced me to his massive fist.
This time I caught the full impact on my side and felt something break, probably a rib or two. My duster dissipated most of the blow as I sailed across the garden. I landed on my back and slid into one of the marble walls. I felt the tremors as the trollgre closed in on me.
I slid to the side and jumped through a pair of columns as a bolt of energy sliced through the air, incinerating Trollgre Two.
“A little warning next time?”
“You’re welcome,” Frank yelled. “Watch it!”
I turned and parried several orbs that exploded on contact, wrenching Darkspirit from my grip. The sword sailed across the garden and over a wall. I extended an arm, but nothing. The runic defenses must have interrupted my absorption ability.
I drew Fatebringer and dropped several rummers, but their numbers seemed endless. I ran to where I thought Darkspirit had landed and felt a tug on my duster. Trollgre Three yanked me back by my coat, nearly giving me whiplash. The fact that the duster didn’t tear or rip was a testament to the craftsmanship of the Wordweavers. It also meant I was heading into the waiting arms of an angry Trollgre who was going to hug me in
to oblivion.
I fired Fatebringer two more times. The rounds were a distraction, but they bought me enough time to cast. I whispered the spell and unleashed death, as pain grabbed me by the temples. One of my eyes stopped working as the excruciating pain blinded me. I stumbled back just in time to see Trollgre Three be consumed by black eldritch flame. It screamed and tore at itself as the flames burned.
More rummers advanced, and I realized, in that moment, we were probably all going to die. I had come to terms with it, I just wanted to make sure I ghosted Fluffy first.
“Grey!” Koda yelled in the comms. “Street is gone.”
THIRTY-NINE
Out of the corner of my one functioning eye, I saw Street.
He had found Darkspirit, and he was advancing on Fluffy. It was exactly what the Tenebrous wanted. If Street got close enough, it could take over his body and use him as the perfect host.
“Street! No!” I yelled. “Stay away from it!”
Street closed the distance and thrust forward. Fluffy opened its arms and let him impale the body it was using. Street removed Darkspirit and was about to attempt a second thrust, when Fluffy grabbed him and spun Street around to face me, preventing a second thrust.
“Shit.” I ran over to them and realized I was too late. “Street, what have you done?”
Fluffy howled with laughter as he merged with Street. I saw the tendrils of energy envelop the both of them. In moments, Street would be gone, and the Tenebrous would have the perfect host.
Street lifted the sword and threw it at me. I caught Darkspirit, and power surged in my body.
“Do it, Grey,” Street rasped. “Use me for the soulblaze.”
Fluffy’s eyes opened wide when he realized what Street had said.
“Street, no,” I said. “It will kill you.”
“You idiot! What do you think is going to happen if you let this finish? Let me go out my way. Cast the soulblaze.”
“Grey, no,” pleaded Fluffy in Jade’s voice. “Please, we can be together now. Please don’t kill me. We can have the life you’ve always wanted, away from the patrols. You can stop being a Warden, and we can live a life of peace. Please, Grey.”
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