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I drive my fist towards the hole where Juni’s nose used to be. My plan is to jam a few fingers in the gap, widen it, then claw out her brain, scoop by gloopy scoop. But Juni’s faster. She ducks, then lashes at my stomach with a leg. I wasn’t expecting a bloody kung fu move! I’m sent hurtling backwards and slam hard into the wall. My head cracks and my neck almost snaps.
She’s on me before I hit the floor, hands a blur, jabbing incessantly. I try to roar, but all that comes out is a startled croak. I get a glimpse of her throat and lunge for it. Juni shimmies and rams a forearm into my mouth, gagging me. As I choke, she sends what feels like a million volts of magic sizzling through my body. I scream mutedly and go limp. Juni hits me with another burst of energy. Another.
Blood’s pumping from my nose, mouth, and ears. Even from my eyes. I’m seeing events through a red mist. I reach deep within myself, looking for the power to strike back, but I’m in disarray.
Forgetting about magic, I lash out at Juni. She laughs, removes the arm from my mouth, and wraps it around me. Squeezes tight, like a boa constrictor.
“Poor Grubbs,” she coos, wiping blood from my eyes. “You don’t have the hang of magic, do you? You’re strong, but experience is everything. My master told me to be wary, but I knew I had the beating of you. When the soldiers and werewolves failed, I decided to finish you off myself.”
I spit blood at her. She stops it midair, letting the pearly drops float in front of my eyes. Then she leans forward, extends her tongue and delicately slurps the red pearls from the air, as though tasting an exquisite wine.
“Now it’s time to die,” she says. Her face is blank. The madness and hatred in her eyes have been replaced by a cold businesslike look.
I struggle feebly. This can’t be happening. I’m the pack leader, a magician, part of the Kah-Gash. I’ve fought and defeated stronger demons than this servant of Lord Loss. I should be dancing on her corpse, not fighting for breath, locked within her suffocating embrace.
“A kiss,” Juni hums, pressing her face to mine. “I’ll suck your last breath from your body along with your part of the Kah-Gash. I’ll take everything and own you completely. You might think it’s the end, but your agonies are just beginning. I have the power of death. I’ll pluck at the strings of your soul until the end of time, and every strum will draw a thousand screams.”
She covers my mouth and inhales, drawing the last of my oxygen from my lungs. I go limp, senses crumpling. It’s like she’s sucking me down a tunnel into herself. I can’t fight. I’m helpless. I’m doomed.
Then, for no apparent reason, she breaks the contact and blinks, staring at me as if stabbed in the back. My heart leaps hopefully. Someone must have found a way past the barrier, snuck up behind her and struck while she was gloating over me. I glance over her shoulder in search of my savior but I can’t see anyone.
Juni releases me and takes a step back. Her expression clears and she smiles. Then she laughs, and the laughter strikes me harder than any of her blows. She screams with crazy delight, jumping up and down on the spot, bits of her diseased flesh dropping off like bloated tics.
“Oh Grubbs!” she cries. “You absolute darling. How delicious. How ironic. The savior of the world… protector of mankind… Hah!”
I slump to the floor, take a painful, rasping breath, and stare at Juni. Has she lost herself entirely to madness? Have I been saved by a mental breakdown?
“I just had a vision, darling Grubbs,” Juni says, backing up to the window. “I had them all the time when I was Beranabus’s assistant. I catch glimpses of the future. That’s why he valued my services so highly. I served Lord Loss in the same way when I joined him. That’s how we knew the cave in Carcery Vale was going to be reopened, why we acted when we did.
“But this vision was the most vivid ever. You were in it, the star of the show. It was the near future… very near. You were at your most powerful, tapping into the sort of power that would allow you to crush me like a bug.”
Juni sticks a hand through the window. It’s pulsing at the edges. It will close soon, but not before she fires off her parting shot.
“I saw the world destroyed,” she whispers. “It was blown to pieces. The seas bubbled away, lava erupted, the land split and crumbled. Everyone died, young and old, good and bad. Then a ball of fire burst from the heart of the planet, incinerated the globe and blasted the ashes off into space, before spreading to consume the universe — worlds, suns, galaxies, all.
“You were there,” she sobs, crying with happiness. “But you weren’t trying to stop it. You made no attempt to save the world. You couldn’t… you didn’t want to… because you were controlling the mayhem. The Demonata won’t destroy your universe, Grubbs Grady — you will!”
With that she skips through the window, giggling girlishly. Moaning wildly, I drag myself after her, but before I’m even halfway the window disintegrates, and all I can do is lower my face to the cold, hard, blood-drenched floor and weep.
THE DEVIL’S IN THE DETAILS
AS magic drains from the air, the barrier blocking the doorway gives way. Meera, Prae, and the werewolves stumble into the room. Timas enters via the hole that Pip blew in one of the side walls earlier. He must have circled around while I was fighting Juni. A dangerous maneuver — he could have been attacked by a rogue werewolf ?
?? but he got away with it. Not that it mattered. Juni had blocked that entrance too.
“Grubbs,” Meera cries, rushing over. “Are you OK?”
I moan pitifully, reaching for a window that is no longer there, Juni’s prediction echoing in my ears. It can’t be true. She was mocking me. It’s part of some horrible game.
But she had me at her mercy. I was helpless. It would have been a simple matter to finish me off. She spared me because she saw me destroy the world in the future. Nothing else makes sense. I’m more valuable to her alive than dead. I can do what she, Lord Loss, and the Shadow can’t.
“You’re wounded,” Meera says, fussing over me. “You have to heal yourself.”
“Leave me alone,” I cry, hammering the floor and cursing.
“The magic’s fading,” Meera hisses. “Use it to heal yourself or you’ll die.”
“Good,” I mutter. Better if I die. I can’t wreck the world if I’m dead.
