Page 41 of A Sanctuary from Shadow
But I was alive, shaken more than injured. And Briar—he was more than alive and scuffling with a nightmare—a flying hobgoblin with pallid, membranous wings. Jabbing a freakingswordat it like a video game paladin.
“Protect the princess!” Briar roared above the din.
What princess?I thought, wondering when reality was sucked into the chasm of delusion. I glanced about to find this princess but saw no one until a group of other Danann men in black emerged from the shadows.
Clicking like the spokes onWheel of Fortune, the mammoth creature Briar battled leapt in my direction—to my gut-clenching fright. The group of Dananns swarmed it. They somehow hedged it back, the ground vibrating as it stomped.
Blood sprayed like rain on the road. Another Danann, Mica Polkweed, went down, gullet skewered by a talon.
Recoiling from the sight—from the bedlam happening around me—I clamped my ears and curled into a ball, wishing myself away, anywhere but there. Then I heard it—a ragged outcry from the upstairs of my house. It jarred time back into movement.
Daddy!
I crawled out from under Sy’s corpse and snatched the short sword from Mica’s limp hand. “Sorry,” I croaked, hoping he’d hear me in heaven. Somehow, I’d repay his sacrifice to Poppy and her unborn child.
Tears pooling in my eyes, I scrambled past the wrought iron gating my house and up the front stoop.
“Amy, stop!” Briar bellowed, but I didn’t look back as I barreled into my house.
My shoes crunched on glass in the foyer. I stopped, holding my breath.
The family room was ransacked. A massive hole now stood in place of the double French doors—where the bats had busted in, I guessed. And the dining room door hung off its track, parts of it splintered into toothpicks. Aunt Aylie’s priceless hot chocolate set lay scattered in pieces in her battered hutch.
Gouges in the staircase led my eyes to the second floor. Talon marks. They’d gone right through the plaster into the studs.
Upstairs, something clattered. Something clicked. And my instincts told me to hide from the beasts making those noises. But Daddy was up there, alone with them. Andnothing, not even winged creatures from hell, would keep me from reaching him.
Shaky yet determined, I took the first step toward the stairs. And my sword lit like a freaking lightsaber.
I blinked at it, its glow as warm as sunlight, then tiptoed on.
Our electricity flickered to pitch blackness halfway through my journey upstairs. I stopped, gripped the banister.Of course!I bit back a rumble.Why wouldn’t the power go out right now?
My lightsaber illuminated the rest of my path up, thankfully.
On the landing, I stumbled over something small, fleshy, and fluffy. And I knew before I saw him—Kell lay in a pulpy heap at my feet. The bats had eviscerated him, bit his great swishy tail clean off. I clamped my mouth on a howl, bursting with tears.
They’d killed him. A harmless housecat, who’d posed no threat whatsoever to their gruesome quest.
Click, click, click. Click, click.
The noises echoed from the hallway murk—Ace’s room, maybe. It was too dark to tell. But I held my breath, heart hammering, and slinked to Daddy’s bedroom.
His door lay on the floor, ripped off its hinges. I stared at it, afraid of what I’d find beyond.
Please let Daddy be okay!Please!
The ruin I found when I stepped through the doorway frightened me. Jagged scratches grooved the wall where Daddy’s dresser stood. It had taken a hit and was now bowtie shaped. Some of its drawers hung open, clothes littering the floor. Daddy’s rocker lay scattered like mulch, and his bed rested, overturned, on its side. Daddy himself was nowhere in sight.
Damnit! Whereishe?
I hoped he wasn’t already swimming in some bogeybat’s digestive fluids.
My ears perked at a wet, thin wisp of breath from the other side of the bed.
Daddy was still alive!
I rushed over to make sure I was right. I was—but barely.
