“She is right,” Axel said. “The vampire princess likes you.”
“Shut up, Axel,” Loki snapped. “I can’t help myself, let alone ‘save’ someone else.”
“I don’t know why you keep saying that,” Fable said. “It’s like you refuse to open your eyes to the world around you, hanging onto a silly dream of going back to whatever place you think you come from. You saved Axel from the Bullyvards, saved me from Big Bad—I saved you later, but you did try to save me. Why can’t you see that you can help other people and that you care about other people? Aren’t you supposed to be one of the greatest Dreamhunters in the world? Do you think great Dreamhunters don’t help people? Do you think your father didn’t help other people?”
“I was banned for helping, or loving, a girl who turned out to be a demon, Fable. I need to know what happened. I need to go back. I need to know.”
Suddenly, something crashed through the window behind Loki.
“Loki!” Fable shouted as she ducked down.
“Holy Moly!” Axel snapped as that something grabbed Loki by the back of his shirt. It was something with huge claws.
“It’s the Crow—“Axel pointed out in horror, “the one that flew out of the room in the castle.”
Loki had no time to look. The crow was already clawing at him from behind and dragging him across the sofa.
“Do something!” Loki yelled, unable to free himself.
“Like what?” Axel yelled.
“Don’t yell at me!” Loki screamed, feeling the pain in the back of his neck. “It you’re going to yell at someone, yell at the crow.”
“It’s huge,” Axel said. “I don’t want it to get mad.”
“It’s already pissed off,” Loki said.
“Do something, Axel!” Fable screamed.
“Why don’t you do something, Ms. Good witch,” Axel bounded back at Fable. “Where is your magic recipe book? Or did you only learn how to trap us inside but neglect learning the spell that prevents anything nasty from getting inside?” Axel said, wrapping his arms around Loki’s legs, trying to pull him back.
“Blah, Blah, Blah,” Fable said with her hands on her waist.
Loki kicked his feet in the air as the crow dragged him over the couch. They had seconds to do something before it kidnapped him.
Axel pulled one of Loki’s shoes off and somersaulted back onto the couch. Fable picked up a baseball bat, darted behind Loki and started hitting the enormous crow. The creature only lost its sense of direction and flapped a couple of strides away deeper into the house. It circled like a black fan near the ceiling, not giving up on Loki who circled like a merry go round horse at an amusement park.
Afraid he’d be taken, Loki wrapped both legs around Axel’s neck to add more weight to the crow. The bird struggled with the new weight while Axel’s eyes almost popped out, unable to breathe. He tried pulling Loki’s feet apart to save his own life. Loki didn’t let him. Axel was his only hope. If he just stayed strong, they could get through this.
“Fire!” an idea appeared like a light bulb hovering over Loki’s head. “Can you create fire, Fable?”
“I don’t know a spell to make fire,” she shouted, swinging away.
Fable hit the crow harder and it snapped, angrier now, dragging Loki across the living room looking for another way out. Loki was still dragging blue-faced Axel along.
“Shouldn’t your spell prevent it from dragging me outside?” Loki yelled from the ceiling.
“That’s it, it can’t get out,” Fable explained breathlessly. “If you look behind you, the window it crashed through has sealed itself again with the spider webs. That’s why it can’t get out. That’s why it’s so angry and mad. And that’s the problem. We have to kill it before it kills us.”
The crow was lost in the room, moving haphazardly away from the window. The house was mad as well, turning into a horror house again. The spell began to work again as the crow tried to escape from the spider-web-covered windows. Whenever it tried, it bounced back, and so did Loki and Axel. The house was playing Ping-Pong with them, and it didn’t look like Fable knew how to reverse the spell.
Small spiders began emerging from the spider webs, crawling on the walls. The house was turning into a horror zoo.
The crow knocked Fable to the floor and she dropped the bat. Her head smacked the table where Loki’s Zippo lay. She looked at them and shrieked.
“Fire!” she yelled, as if it was her idea, and Loki hadn’t been screaming it for a while. She lit up several cigarettes, coughed and cursed smokers, stood up, and began poking the crow with the cigarettes, punishing it with small but effective cigarette burns. So cruel.
The crow let out a crazy high-pitched squawk from the pain.
“I’m hurting it, but it still won’t let go of you,” Fable said.