Page 113 of Strange Familiars
I don’t get to ask, because just at that moment, Pudding leaps off her perch and latches onto my face. “Fuck!” Reflexively, I scrabble to get her off me. Has the influx of Void magic affected her, too? Or is she just scared?
To avoid my flailing scalpel blade, Pudding scrambles to the topof my head, her claws gouging scratches in my scalp. I’ve never seen her move so fast. “Pudding, stop!”
It’s Pen who manages to save me, darting forward, plucking Pudding off my head, and flinging her into the walk-in-wardrobe. They shut the door firmly. “That’ll help,” they say, then give a wobbly laugh.
“Thanks, Pen.” I rub at my tender head, then call out to Pudding. “I’m sorry, Pudding! I promise I’m trying to help Harrisford, not hurt him!”
The rip grows wider, and we all fall silent again. Percy turns his head, and when he speaks, his voice has taken on an unusual gravity.
Hairless One, he says, staring at me, his single eye wide and unblinking. He almost sounds…mournful?I want you to know that if anyone here dies, then I…I shall be sure to eat you last.
This is…oddly touching. Warmth flushes through my chest. Darting forward, I scoop him up, kiss him on top of his head—hard—then let him back down to the floor. He lands, looking undignified and bedraggled and very much the worse for wear.
The portal is several feet wide now, the power from it streaming out in gusts of wind that buffet us around. Percy struts forward, his head and tail held high, and right at the entrance to the other world…
He stops.
He looks left, then right, then left again, then stands staring straight into the Void. We all watch with bated breath, waiting for him to go through. But he just…doesn’t.
Ugh.I think.Cats.So typical. They scrabble and scratch to go through a door, and then when it finally opens, they just bloody well stand there.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I say, scooping Percy up in my arms and striding resolutely through the gateway. “Come on, everybody. We’re going in.”
47
Gwendolynne
We charge into the Void: me brandishing my scalpel, Conall and Heli close behind. Percy, who is tucked under my arm, squirms as we pass through the portal until I’m forced to let him go.
At first, everything is so gloomy, it takes my eyes a few seconds to adjust. We’re in a sort of cave, the walls, floor, and ceiling all made of rough-hewn gray rock. Mist swirls all around, obscuring our vision, and I creep forward cautiously, swiping at it with my free hand.
When a gap finally opens up in the thick, tenacious fog…I see him.
My stomach drops.
Harrisford is bound to a chair, ropes crisscrossing over his torso. His head is bowed. I cannot tell if he’s conscious.
Behind him, wielding a blade in one hand and a pair of forceps in the other, plunging the latter into a bloodied incision at the base of Harrisford’s skull—
Is…Danny?
He’s wearing a surgical mask that obscures the lower half of his face, but I can still tell it’s him.
Danny raises his head, but too late. When he sees me, I’ve already lunged at him, my teeth bared, and pressed my scalpel to his neck.
“Get. Away. From him,” I snarl through gritted teeth.
He raises both of his gloved hands, bloodstained instruments and all. “Chan,” he says evenly. “Put the scalpel down and I’ll explain.”
“Explain what? That you kidnapped Harrisford and are—” I grapple for the words, my eyes darting to Harrisford and back. “Exactly what the fuck are you doing, Wong?”
I’d already worked out that Harrisford had been implanted with a fragment of the Source. And if Danny is operating on him, then that must mean…
“I’m removing his implant,” Danny says. His next words come out as a hiss. “Nowput the scalpel down.”
I jerk my chin at him. “You first.”
Danny lets the scalpel and forceps clatter to the ground. I too drop my scalpel and take a couple of steps back.
