“Which door did he go to?”I say.
“No time, find him later,” Lex says.
Lucy is carried outside.And there in the courtyard is the source of the invasion.
“Interitus,” I spit as I step over the crumbs of the door.Lex and Bastien follow behind, all three of us covered in black threads of magic, ready to fight.
Interitus stands in the middle of the courtyard, her black-tipped wings outstretched, a snarl on her lips.She doesn’t have her moth, Architecti has it.Instead, she’s stolen campus magic.Her arms and limbs and even her torso are smothered in threads of pulsing magic.“Tonight, I end fate and set the system straight and give us all the free will we deserve.”
“Not at the expense of Lucy, you don’t,” I bellow.
At once, the threads of magic lunge for the moths swarming Lucy.They make contact.Tiny capillary-like threads peel off and connect to the moth’s bellies.Each one siphoning Lucy’s light and power directly to Interitus.
The ground rumbles.A high-pitched keen rents the air and then the world splits apart.
Lex tumbles into me as a dozen Veil tears slash open.Holes cutting deep into the underworld and the Celestial Realm spill into Finis Academy.
“Oh gods,” Bastien breathes as I spot what he sees.
Wraiths.
So.Many.Wraiths.
The campus alarm shrieks to life as professors and students flood the courtyard.
Alistair Ironheart moves first, coiling dozens of loops of magic together to make a far better net than I made.Several students watch his hand movements and mimic them, all making nets.
“They’ll take care of the moths,” Lex says.“We need to get to the wraiths.”
“Move,” I shout and shove both of them off the porch steps as a wraith lunges for us.
We swing into action, my scythe chopping through blackened flesh and bone.
I’m yanked backwards as Bastien grips my collar and hauls me out of the way of a surging wraith.
I stumble to the ground while Lex and Bastien dance around each other.They move with a grace and deftness I’ll never hope to achieve.Dark loops and ribbons fly through the air from professors and students alike.The courtyard swarms with people.
But I don’t care about any of them.My focus is on Lucy and Interitus.
I’m up and smashing my fists into wraith jaws and cutting ashspawn into pieces while above us the sky darkens as huge wings slide over the sun.
Screams rip through the campus.Bodies crash to the ground.Two of the Veil tears are sealed already, but there’s so many and more pop up.Each one seems more unstable than the last, the edges of the fabric fraying and unravelling, ripping and slicing deeper and deeper.
We’re never going to win this.The more moths we trap, the more Interitus produces and the more cuts appear.
“It’s not working,” I say.
“Hold fast,” Professor Ironheart bellows back.
Both his hands move in separate motions, one stitching tears, the other weaving meshes together and flinging them at the ever rapidly reproducing moths.
I grind to a halt as Architecti lands in the courtyard.
Thank fuck.I figure we might actually survive this, until I spot a wraith staggering out of the closest Veil tear and lunging for Bastien.
The shape of it is so familiar.
“Calyx,” I whisper.
