"If such a… Look out!" Killian cried.
A black shape with claws outstretched flew over Ella's head. Ducking, she felt the whistle of its passage a hair's breadth away. The shadow rose into the air again with an unearthly shriek, and Ella caught her first look at a wraith.
Where the winged beings in the pictures had been erect and somehow noble, this was a creature from nightmare. Its back was bent as if broken, while its wings were jagged and trailed lengths of black hair. It turned to look at them, and malevolent black eyes glared from a triangular head. There were claws on its bony legs as well as at the end of its wings. When it opened its mouth and shrieked again, Ella saw its jaw open impossibly wide, displaying rows of dagger-like back teeth and four huge incisors at the front.
The wraith was all claws and teeth, speed and hate. Its body was twice the size of a man, while its veined outstretched wings made it larger still.
"Look out. It's coming back!" Killian cried.
Ella reached for her wand, and then watched in awe as Killian pointed his fingers and muttered some words under his breath.
Twisted bolts of lightning shot from his fingers, cutting through the air as he brought the wild blue energy to where the wraith careened in the sky.
Killian hit the creature with twin blasts, outlining it in a wave of electrical discharge. It screamed with a sound of pure agony that sent chills down Ella's spine. The shadow shot up into the air, higher than Killian could follow, and sped away, receding into the distance.
Killian lowered his hands. "It will be back, and it will bring more of them. Come on."
They both started a wary jog, Ella looking ahead while Killian kept watch behind. Ella finally saw the fallen city, close to the path on the right-hand side. "If there are too many of them, can we shelter there?"
Killian smiled without humour. "They may not have sensed you, but they will sense me. That's one of the places they'll come from."
With a sinking feeling of dread, Ella saw a cloud of bird-like shapes rise into the air above the cluster of shattered buildings. "Here they come," she said, pointing.
"Look, there are more of them." Killian pointed to a second cloud, falling down from the sky above.
With several spoken words, Ella activated her wand, feeling the hazel wood warm in her hands and seeing the prism on its tip light up with yellow.
"The larger group is yours," she said.
Killian and Ella stood back to back as each faced a flock of shrieking wraiths. Ella aimed her wand and called forth a bolt of energy, sending it tearing through the air at the clustered creatures. Behind her she heard Killian chanting.
Grouped together as they were, Ella couldn't miss, and the crash of her bolt striking a wraith was answered by a nightmare scream. The wraiths dispersed, and one turned and flew back the way it came. They wouldn't be so easy to strike a second time.
They were now close enough that Ella could see the foremost wraith's triangular head, teeth bared as it screamed to attack the intruders who had devastated its homeland.
"Tula!" Ella pointed the wand, tracking the movement of the wraith.
A yellow beam of light shot from the wand, but the wraith rose higher, and the bolt passed beneath it.
Ella could now count them. There were eight of the wraiths attacking her, and striking them didn't seem to kill them, only to scare them away. She hoped there wouldn't be any more.
Killian grunted behind her, and Ella wondered how many he faced. Ella still didn't know the limit of his powers, but she knew it was him the wraiths were after.
Ella sent three bolts from her wand in quick succession, striking two wraiths but missing a third. The twisted black creature she'd missed shrieked as it came down at her, claws outstretched as it swooped.
Ella pulled the hood of her dress over her head and chanted quickly.
The wraith hit the dress as the silk hardened to steel. Killian was standing too close for Ella to activate the lightning effect, and the wraith rose back into the air with a howl of disappointment.
Ella pointed her wand and three more yellow beams launched from the prism. She sent one wraith screaming away, but there were still five remaining.
All five came at Ella together. She took one out with a final shout, but the four winged shadows would hit her with the strength of their teeth and claws.
Then Ella felt Killian move behind her. His hands clapped together and a wave of concussive air rolled out from his hands in a circle. Where the solidified air hit the wraiths they screamed and were tossed backwards. They fell to the ground, before rising up again and flying away, shrieking and wailing in defeat.
"Thank you." Ella turned to Killian.
"We need to keep moving," he said.
They continued the ground-eating jog, watching the sky, taking turns to look ahead and behind. Ella saw the distant structures she'd first seen when she arrived, and realised they would soon be at the stone archway.