I nodded and lowered my blade. I’d wounded Melusine which should slow her down. If Kaye’s information was correct, lamias can only regenerate the serpent portions of their bodies. Even with the rapid healing common to full blooded fae, she wouldn’t be using her right arm in this fight.
I had to trust that Ceff could handle his ex. I sent up a silent prayer and turned my attention to the children who were indeed in need of rescuing. Tiny feet stomped atop graves and gravel paths as the children’s bodies lurched to The Piper’s music.
The Danse Macabre had begun.
Chapter 23
I watched in horror as Jinx struggled to rescue children from the circle. She pulled and cajoled, but their tiny hands held firm. No matter how hard Jinx tried, the spell was too strong.
As she tugged at the hands of a young wood nymph, a bony hand burst from the ground and batted her away. Jinx stumbled, the earth roiling at her feet.
The dead were rising from their graves.
We needed to free the children from the dance. I searched recent memory and began to recite the prayer that Father Michael had given me. It was worth a shot.
“Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle; be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray. And do thou, oh prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God thrust into Hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world for the ruin of souls,” I roared. Nothing happened. I choked back my frustration and pulled my phone from a zippered pocket. Maybe the prayer had to be read in Latin. “Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in proelio, contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium. Imperet illi Deus, supplices deprecamur, tuque, Princeps militiae coelestis, satanam aliosque spiritus malignos, qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo, divina virtute, in infernum detrude. Amen.”
But the dead continued to rise. I grunted in frustration. I was too far away from The Piper and his demonic flute. I shifted the phone to my left hand, gripping a throwing knife in my right.
All around the circle, the earth burst upward in clumps of soil and sod. The dead clawed up through caskets and dirt, climbing out of their graves to scuttle like cockroaches toward the children. I kicked at the hands and heads of zombies as I made my way around the circle.
The fight between Ceff and Melusine blocked my approach on the left, so I skirted to the right. The rising dead and the horde of swarming rats slowed my progress. I kept an eye on Jinx, who was positioned between us, as she fought to free the children.
Jinx tried again to pull a small child from the circle, but it was no use. The children only parted long enough to clasp the hands of the dead, their feet never missing a beat as the zombies were welcomed into the circle.
The newly risen dead were in varying states of decay. Bony skeletons wearing nothing but shreds of rotting cloth hurried alongside the bloated corpses of the newly deceased to find their place in the dance.
Blinking away sweat and tears of frustration, Jinx grabbed the crossbow slung over her shoulder. She couldn’t fire at the dead that had joined the dance, since they were positioned so close to the children. So Jinx turned away from the circle and aimed at a female zombie crawling out of her grave.
The face of the corpse had decomposed so badly that exposed teeth flashed where her cheek had been and hair hung from her scalp in stringy clumps. The woman had been dead for months, but she moved with breakneck speed. The zombie pulled herself to her feet and rushed Jinx.
Jinx fired the crossbow, but the bolt sailed straight through the rotting flesh of her assailant. The zombie kept coming. The dead woman barreled into Jinx’s chest and knocked her flat on her butt.
Jinx landed with a strangled cry and I took a step toward her, prepared to lose ground if it meant saving my friend. The corpse ignored Jinx, leapt past her into the circle, and joined hands with two small fae children. The female zombie was no longer an immediate threat.
Jinx slung the crossbow back over her shoulder and stayed low, making herself a smaller target. The crossbow wasn’t an effective weapon in this fight, so she started using her hands and feet. Jinx kicked and punched at both the risen dead and the sea of rats.
The rats that got past her nipped at the children’s feet and ankles, drawing blood. The children cried out, but continued to dance. The sound of their cries rang out even in my earplug filled ears, making my stomach twist and churn. I turned away from Jinx and the children and focused on my target.
The spell was working. The Piper was feeding off the children’s life essence. Even at this distance I could see signs of his returning youth. The white streaks that had been in the faerie’s hair were gone and his face was filling in.
I had to get closer to The Piper and interrupt the spell before he sucked these children dry. I would not let a selfish, demon flute wielding faerie steal away the lives of so many children and sentence their souls to Hell.
I choked back hot, angry tears as I sprinted around the circle. My boots crunched and I tried not to think of the rats underfoot. I kept my eyes on the objective.
A figure stumbled into my path and I batted away the rotting corpse with the flat of my blade. The zombie lurched to the left and I jinked right, avoiding its grasping hands. The thing was dressed in a threadbare suit that hung from its body in tatters and smelled almost as bad as Stinky the ghoul. I breathed through my mouth and ran faster.
I was halfway around the circle when something moved in my peripheral vision. I twisted my torso toward the movement, knife at the ready. A pack of shadows, teeth, fur, and yellow eyes rushed low across the ground heading straight toward me. When they came within throwing range, the shadows parted to my left and right, heading toward the circle. The newcomers weren’t interested in me. They were here to battle The Piper’s pet rats.
Our backup had arrived.
I stared, eyes wide, as more cat sidhe melted out of the fog. The first wave of faerie cats, led by a cat with torn ears, placed themselves between the children and the attacking rats. The second wave of cat sidhe flanked the rodents, darting in to snatch up the weakest rats in their teeth and claws.
Sir Torn and his army had come to battle their natural enemy, the horde of city sewer rats, and help rescue the fae children. As I watched, one cat sidhe grabbed a rat by the neck and flung it away from the children while another began using its rear claws to disembowel a second rodent. I had seen enough.
I looked away and continued sprinting toward The Piper. I now had to skirt around the perimeter of the battle between the rats and cat sidhe. This added precious time to my run, but there was nothing I could do other than push my legs to move faster. I tightened my fingers around the knife in my hand and ran.
I leapt over an injured cat sidhe and landed on a patch of grass beside The Piper. The music seemed louder here and I struggled to remain focused. I scanned the area for any immediate threats, squinting through the growing fog.
Farther away, Ceff and Melusine fought their own game of cat and mouse. Their movements were too fast to follow, but the route of their battle could be discerned by toppled gravestones and demolished mausoleums. Ceff was drawing Melusine away from me and the children.