“Russell,” Reed calls out, “let me out!”
Russell hesitates in indecision, watching the sky as it darkens. The gray overcast day changes. Black clouds move, roiling like waves. “Y’all, I’m not makin’ the sky do that! Can you smell the magic, Red?” Russell goes to Anya, getting in front of her; his wings extend to shield her. Anya turns away from him, her black wings serrate to full extension, as she makes ready to protect his back.
“Russell!” Reed’s hands press against the stout field of energy holding him at bay.
Zephyr pulls knives from holsters strapped to his thighs. “Buns, take Brownie inside.”
Buns shakes her head. “We have our sticks. We’ll be fine.” Zephyr growls a warning at her, which she chooses to ignore.
When I glance back at Xavier, his face is turned toward the sky beyond his car. He moves to me so fast he becomes a blur. His arm slips around my waist. He pulls me close to him, whispering in my ear, “Run on now, honey, back behind your wall before the devils see you go.” He nudges me in the direction of where I came through to meet him. His macabre words chill me, leaving me frozen in place. I can’t leave him here.
Eerie whistling sounds from the sky surround Reed’s manor house. The wild calls come from all sides—in stereo; they carry with them a sickening lullaby that raises goose bumps on my arms. The sun is gone like an unwanted guest. Its absence makes my feet heavy with fear.
“Where’s my ring, Evie?” Xavier demands. His lips brush the shell of my ear. “Tell me quickly, and then slip back in and I’ll lead them away from you.”
I quake as I grab his hand, tugging it. I try to make him move with me back toward the barrier. “You’re not staying out here alone. I’ll protect you—”
But all at once, the freak show begins. The wicked black-winged shapes of reconno?tres, demon scouts from Sheol, pour out of the shadows of the clouds. Hundreds of them fly like migrating birds, following swirling wind patterns and shifting in geometric formations until they dive en masse. Black leathery wings puncture the air with moaning soughs that disturb the gravity of snowflakes. A group of these creatures break formation from the rest to circle Xavier and me; wings blur by with the reek of brimstone trailing them in a rancid haze.
Next to me Xavier rips from my grasp. Nearly obscured from my sight by black monsters, his wings are forced wide by sharp talons. The reconno?tres lift him into the air. He fights back with his spade-shaped blades, slicing limbs and wings from the ones in front of him. Yellow-colored pus blood spews out of them while shrill screams hurl from the reconno?tre’s ghoulish, taffy-puller mouths.
A dark flurry of reconno?tres snatch Xavier into mid-air. He kicks like a mule, sending a few of them tumbling away from him. As they go, they claw feathers from his wings that swirl in the air and compete with snowflakes for supremacy.
A slash to my ribcage makes me suck in my breath as a reconno?tre’s long, silvery talons dig under my skin. They’re not faceless like I had thought. The space above this one’s jagged mouth is covered with a dozen camouflaged eyes. Pools of black barely contrast against his skin as they blink at staggered intervals so that he never lacks a moment of sight. The scent of sulfur wafts from his gaping maw as he leans forward, presumably to eat me. His forked tongue hisses out as saliva drips from several rows of bared teeth. Suppressing the urge to scream, I hold up my hands, expelling bursts of light from them. Blood-curdling shrieks fly from him as overripe-tomato eyes pop and yellow blood mists the air. His skin runs like melted wax before he drops to the ground, writhing from pain.
“Evie,” Reed’s rough voice makes me glance his way. He uses his forearms to push against the magic keeping him protected. “LET. ME. OUT!” The ring on Reed’s hand begins to glow with blue fire; the center of which becomes a beacon. Light cuts through the film of magic in front of Reed, allowing him to plunge through the barrier. Seeing him emerge on my side of the wall, my mouth hangs open in shock.
At a run, Reed kicks into the air. Using the same kind of blades that Xavier has, he slices through reconno?tres, sending pieces of them to the ground. Smoke rises from the carnage he creates; severed limbs turn to ash, dirtying the pristine white of the new-fallen snow.