Page 49 of Reap & Sow

The gatehouse screeched open. A flurry of Blades spilled onto the street behind Eda in two neat lines, Martine Tenelle at their head. The commander wielded a beautiful sword that glinted dangerously in the light.

She stopped dead at the sight of the bloody display at the other end off the street and barked orders to her men, sending them out in both directions.

Eda hissed between her teeth. She clutched at the mantle in clammy hands and turned back around.

Running nearly headfirst into the fiend.

Horror sent her skidding to a halt, wobbling on the stones. The creature had crawled down the wall of the Botanic Gardens on the street corner, leaping directly across her path as though to cut her off. Its black gaze was unwavering as it stared at her, seemingly unaffected by the mantle’s magic. It slunk closer. Shoulder blades undulated like a jungle cat preparing to pounce.

Eda’s every muscle locked in animal fright. Certainty of her own death fell over her like winter’s rain, her mind blank. She could not breathe.

Then, stiffly, the fiend lowered itself into a bow.

Eda stared.

…What?

When the fiend did not abandon its malformed bow of supplication, a dim sense of urgency finally broke through the fear. Eda found it within herself to backpedal—only to hit a hard chest.

An arm snaked around her middle. “You make friends everywhere,” Kit said against her ear. He swung her behind him. Telltale magic rippled over his skin, preluding the dismissal of his human guise. He planted his feet and rolled his neck, preparing for a fight.

But the fiend merely bared its teeth.

“Over there!”

Even halfway down the street, Tenelle’s eyes were distinct in their fury as they met Eda’s. If the mantle had been hiding her, Kit now guarding her front and the creature prostrate before her singled Eda out like a North Star.

Astonishment dissolved into mortification. All at once, she saw what Tenelle did: a monster bowing in supplication at Eda’s feet, as if awaiting her command.

Well, she thought numbly, shit.

“It’s the Shaw girl! Apprehend her, and bring down the beast!”

A great whoosh of air was the only warning Eda got—her hair stirred as the fiend leaped past them, charged headlong into the Blades. They scattered. Cries of alarm chased silver vials as they sailed toward the oncoming terror.

A stray vial overshot, smashing by Kit’s feet. Eda gasped. Kit’s snarl was pained as he hauled her out of range. “Now might we get out of here?”

The fiend was fierce, but Tenelle was relentless. The commander’s swings were swift and decisive. Her sword cut through the air with such force it was a mere blur, her footwork steady as she kept the creature at bay. Tenelle brought her sword down onto the fiend’s hindquarters. It snarled and spun on her, but the Blades swarmed it. Surrounded, it still managed to pull a man down and rip into his side before another powerful strike sliced it across the neck. The fiend screamed—a terribly human sound. Black blood ran down its chest.

“Yes,” Eda said, “let’s go. Please.”

They abandoned the fight while they had the chance, losing themselves among the city’s serpentine streets quick and quiet as shadows. But Eda could not outrun the memory of that hateful creature, bowing like a sycophant before its sovereign.

Fourteen

It was sunset before either of them spoke.

They found temporary refuge on the roof of a tenement building. It was the tallest on the street, offering an excellent view of blackened building tops and rising chimney smoke.

They sat side by side on the roof edge. The demon rolled up his trouser leg, hissing.

“Does it hurt?”

“No, darling. It’s actually giving me a pleasant tingle.”

“You can walk up walls and turn into animals. A high pain tolerance would hardly be surprising.” But looking at the state of his bare skin, it was impossible to imagine that he couldn’t feel it. Colloidal silver would do little more than stain a mortal’s skin bluish gray. To Kit, it had eaten away at his calf, leaving bloody tracks where his flesh had melted like hot glue.

“Silver is…different.” He grimaced. “It will scar. But it will heal.”