The lord fell backward.
A clutch of lords rushed at X. He lashed out in every direction, but even the slightest of them was many times more powerful than he was. For every lord he struck, another five seemed to materialize from nowhere, as if reinforcements were pouring in from the Lowlands. X was kicked and buffeted and pushed to the ground. Someone had his hand over his face—it was impossible to breathe. X’s chest heaved. Regent stood motionless just a few feet away, still glaring at the snow.
X tore the hand from his face, bending the fingers back till the bones popped and their owner cursed. He gulped in air. But more lords kept coming. He couldn’t stand. The weight on top of him grew greater and greater. He felt as if he was not just being held down but actually pushed into the earth.
Behind him, he could hear the house screeching, bursting, imploding. He could hear Ripper—she was still shouting for Jonah. Hadn’t she found him yet? How long could he last? Through the tangle of limbs above him, X could see shards of the moon. It was like a cold eye staring down—reminding him that he had failed. He heard the lords cursing at him in a dozen languages.
But he also heard a new sound now: a sort of dark purring. It rose up from the base of the mountain. It grew louder, grew closer. In the craziness of the moment, it took X a long time to realize what it was.
The car came up the drive like a bullet.
X was still pinned to the ground, his body so broken that some of the lords had grown bored with beating him and drifted away. He managed to turn his head. He saw Zoe’s mother drive toward them. At the sight of her, he felt a wave of shame that eclipsed even the pain. She had told him to stay away from her family. Then he felt a second wave—a wave of fear for her. The lords would not scatter now simply because a mortal had appeared. The tragedy was in motion. It could not be halted.
X knew what would happen next: Zoe’s mother would stop the car. She’d come rushing out of it. She would scream at the lords. When that failed, she would plead. The lords would descend on her. They’d push her back and forth, spin her around. They’d laugh at her uselessness. If they were feeling merciful, they would kill her quickly. If they weren’t, they’d sit her next to X and Ripper, and make the three of them watch Jonah die. Either way, the tragedy would swallow everyone it could.
But Zoe’s mother didn’t stop the car. She didn’t even slow down. She came roaring toward the lords. Some of them had never seen a car before—and all of them were startled by the woman’s audacity—so for a moment she had the advantage.
X watched as she slammed into one of the lords and flattened him against the house. He watched as she backed up—her tires spinning madly, blackening the snow—and knocked a second down. He listened as the car thump-thumped over the body.
The lords left X where he lay, and swarmed the car. He stood, feeling useless and ashamed. He looked toward the house. The fa?ade had been torn away. It looked like a dollhouse now. He could see furniture, toys, dresses, boots, and picture frames—all of it sliding and crashing into crazy heaps.
He could see Ripper, too. She’d been captured by the lords. They forced her to the edge of the house and flung her off. Her golden dress was torn, her arms and legs bloodied. But she landed like a cat.
“I could not find the boy,” she told X.
Tears began to spill down her face. X had never seen her cry, and the sight of it made his own eyes sting.
“Either he was too frightened to answer when I called out,” Ripper said, “or his little lungs have already been crushed.”
They turned toward the car. A lord had immobilized it with just the palm of his hand. A half dozen others circled it now, their robes billowing. They shattered the windows with their fists. They reached for Zoe’s mother, their arms like the tentacles of a beast. Still, she would not surrender. She gunned the engine, hammered on the horn, even set the windshield wipers flapping crazily.
Ripper dried her eyes.
“Oh, I like her,” she said.
X stumbled to Zoe’s mother. He knew the fight was lost. He begged her to come out of the car. He begged the lords not to harm her. Dervish was back on his feet now, a dark bruise spreading on his throat. When he saw X debasing himself, his rage dissipated and the glow returned to his face. He nodded for the other lords to unhand Zoe’s mother.
She opened the car door. Like Regent, she would not even look at X. She pushed past the lords, and darted toward the house, screaming Jonah’s name. But the house was in its death throes. Every wall, every joint, every nail was aching to give way. It screamed back even louder.