I wouldn’t let his efforts go to waste. A haunting melody buffeted my mind, but I shook my head and turned my attention to The Piper. The effects of the Danse Macabre were evident. His face was once again youthful, a thing of fae perfection.
I fumbled with my phone and prepared to read the prayer that Father Michael had sent me. I wasn’t wasting time on the English version. It was time to get old school.
“Hey, douchebag!” I yelled.
The Piper opened his eyes and I gasped. The faerie’s eyes glowed red—the eyes of a demon. Perhaps the demon flute exacted its own price, opening a conduit to Hell and changing the user into one of Hell’s minions. The force of those eyes bored into my skull and I cried out. I needed to recite the prayer from Father Michael’s text message, but I felt the phone slip from my hand.
I slid down to my knees beside the phone. I panted and shook my head, trying to fight the faerie’s compulsion. But the combination of demon and faerie magic was too overpowering. I looked up into the face of The Piper and for one moment, the red eyes and youthful face was a thing of beauty.
“Poison Ivy, duck!” Marvin yelled.
When did Marvin get here? My magic-addled brain couldn’t process the unexpected information.
Something large and spherical flew over my head and hit The Piper squarely in the chest. Still on my knees, my jaw dropped as a cloud of pixies enveloped The Piper’s head and torso. As The Piper fought off the pixies, my head began to clear.
Marvin had thrown an entire pixie nest at The Piper. The kid had told me once before that the evil little critters didn’t bother his thick troll hide, but it took guts to carry an entire nest of hibernating pixies across the city.
Pixies not only cause an itchy rash when they lick their victims, they are also equipped with a hypodermic sized stinger. Each stinger is filled with a toxin strong enough to paralyze an elephant. An entire hive of pixies was swarming The Piper, using their stingers to show their anger for the person who destroyed their nest.
Marvin had just hit The Piper with a paralyzing pixie grenade. The kid was a genius.
The Piper was playing the demon flute one-handed as he fought off the pixies, but his motions were sluggish. The faerie was quickly becoming incapacitated, but the Dance Macabre continued. The conduit to Hell was too strong.
It was time to recite the prayer.
“Saint Michael the Archangel defend us in battle!” I yelled. “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.”
A bright, ivory light poured down from the sky illuminating the flute in The Piper’s hand. As the light struck The Piper’s hand, the demon flute glowed red and fell from his grasp. I could immediately feel the power of the spell dissipating.
I struggled to pull myself to my feet, but kept my distance from The Piper who was still surrounded by a swarm of angry pixies. The pixies flew in a flurry of beautiful wings, jabbing at him with their stingers. The red glow went out of The Piper’s eyes and he fell to the ground paralyzed.
The beam of white light panned over the circle of children and the risen dead, continuing to break The Piper’s spell. Depending on their states of decay the dead either collapsed where they stood or returned to the earth, clawing their way into nearby graves.
The children stopped dancing, halting mid-step. Jinx was immediately there to offer comfort and pull each child away from the dead and back toward the cemetery gates. I smiled. I could trust my friend to get the children safely home.
I nodded and turned back to The Piper. I had to find a way to keep the faerie incapacitated and secure the demon flute, but a long-lived murderer and a Hell-forged instrument were two things I really didn’t want to come into contact with. I pocketed my phone and raked a hand through my hair. The angry pixies that continued to swarm over The Piper’s body added to my unease.
I was still trying to find a solution when a corpse lumbered over to the faerie’s immobile form. The zombie turned to face me and let out a hissing moan. I took a step back and bent low, retrieving the dagger from my boot. When facing an angry zombie, two knives are better than one. I held the dagger in my left hand and the throwing knife in my right.
I relaxed my stance and shifted my weight to the balls of my feet, ready to spring forward. The Piper may not be my favorite guy at the moment, but I wasn’t about to let him become zombie food. If the corpse looked like he was in the mood for brains, I’d have to send him back to his grave with an empty stomach. I wasn’t about to let the monster feed on someone with a bloodstream full of pixie toxin. That just wasn’t a fair fight.
The zombie lunged forward, grabbing at The Piper and the pixies flew up into the air. I sighed, so much for playing nice. I sprung forward, trying to reach The Piper, but lost my footing.
The ground beneath my feet shook and I went down to my knees. I winced as rocks dug into my jeans. The ground rolled and heaved like it was in the throes of an earthquake. I dug my gloved fingers into grass and soil and held on for the ride.
I kept my eyes on the zombie, ready to launch myself forward as soon as I could stand without falling on my butt. He continued to hold The Piper by his shirt like a rag doll. With a great crack, a chasm opened between us.
My stomach twisted. I had a bad feeling about where that chasm led.
The zombie slung The Piper into a fireman’s carry and jumped into the fissure. A red glow lit the faerie’s face. The Piper looked at me in supplication, but in a flash of light he was gone. I crawled forward, but in a puff of brimstone the chasm closed, the earth swallowing the two men whole.
I coughed and sat back on my heels. Well, that was one problem solved. I was pretty sure The Piper wouldn’t be stealing any more children. It seemed poetic that the man who made a deal with a demon to collect and condemn the souls of children to an eternity in Hell should now join those souls.
But The Piper’s trip to Hell didn’t mean the end of the devilry. I had to make sure the demon flute didn’t fall into the wrong hands. I crawled back and forth searching the ground for the demon flute, but to no avail. It was gone. All that was left was a patch of scorched earth where I’d last seen The Piper and his flute. Perhaps the instrument had also been carried to Hell, returned to the forge where it had been wrought.
I pulled myself to my feet, brushing clumps of grave dirt off my jeans, and gave myself a moment to catch my breath. I let my head fall back to look at the night sky, a slow smile forming on my lips. We’d done it. The Piper and his evil Danse Macabre had been stopped. The children were safe.
I turned an ecstatic smile to Marvin. His sudden appearance and ingenious use of a pixie nest had made The Piper’s defeat possible. If the kid was standing closer, I’d give him a high-five. Coming from me, that was high praise.
Marvin began to smile and wave, but his large hand halted in mid-motion. His eyes widened and the skin at my neck prickled.
“Ivy, look out!” Marvin screamed.
I spun in time to see the fight between Melusine and Ceff steamrollering toward me. I dove aside, out of their path. I continued rolling to my right, narrowly avoiding the lamia’s lashing tail. The two were locked in heated battle, and Ceff was losing.
I gasped and came up into a fighting crouch. Heart racing, I looked for an opportunity to join the fight. But Melusine and Ceff’s bodies were pressed close together and moving fast. If I threw my knife, I’d risk hitting Ceff.