Serafina and the Black Cloak - Robert Beatty Page 0,33

terrible stench that followed. Every leaf on every tree around them suddenly fell to the ground, drenched with blood, and the ground itself became a stinking, horrific mud.

Expanded in size and now seemingly more powerful than ever, the Man in the Black Cloak advanced, heading straight for Braeden once more.

Braeden needed to fight or flee, but he stood frozen in shock by what he’d just seen happen to Nolan. He stared at the Man in the Black Cloak, unable to move.

Without thinking, Serafina charged forward and pounced on the man’s back. She caterwauled a wild and crazed screech of anger. Her hands and feet clawed at the man with snarling ferocity.

The Man in the Black Cloak had no choice but to turn and fight her. He tried to pull her off his back and wrap her in his voluminous black cloak like he had the others, but Braeden pulled back a mighty swing and slammed the man’s head with a large branch. Gidean lunged forward and bit the attacker repeatedly. Serafina tore herself free, rolled to the ground, spun, and leapt back into the battle. All three of them pressed the attack.

The Man in the Black Cloak, his eyes still glowing with power, levitated upward. Three against one now, he had lost the element of surprise. He snapped the billowing folds of the Black Cloak with his arm, and a great explosion of air knocked Serafina off her feet. She went tumbling backward as the Man in the Black Cloak withdrew into the forest and then was gone.

Gasping to catch her breath, Serafina scrambled to her feet and readied herself for the next attack, but it never came.

The battle was over.

She looked at her hands. Her fingers were slippery with blood and her fingernails had torn at the Man in the Black Cloak’s rotting skin, but it was more than just the remnants of the battle. It was like the skin in the glove. He was disintegrating.

Through the darkness, she saw Braeden lying on the ground. Frightened that he’d been wounded, she ran over to him. “Are you hurt?” she sputtered.

“I’m all right.” He gasped as she helped him onto his feet. “What about you? Did he hurt you?”

“I’m all right,” she said.

“I…I…I don’t understand, Serafina. What was that thing? What happened to Nolan?”

“I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head in frustration.

“I mean, where did he go? Is he…is he…is he dead?”

She didn’t know the answer to Braeden’s questions. Thinking about poor little Nolan made her sick to her stomach, angry, frightened. He was just gone. How could she help him? It was the second time she’d battled the Man in the Black Cloak, and the second time she’d lost a friend.

“Come on. We gotta go before it comes back,” she said, touching his shoulder.

“What happened to Crankshod?” Braeden asked as he and Gidean followed her back toward the carriage and horses.

“I never saw him,” she answered.

“Do you think it got him, too?” She could hear the fear and confusion in his voice.

“No, there’s a rattling noise when it does it, and there was only one rattle.”

“You know what it is,” he said, grabbing her arm and bringing her to a stop. “Tell me, Serafina.”

“I saw it last night,” she said. “It took Clara Brahms the same way.”

“What? What do you mean? Where? Does this mean that Clara’s dead? I don’t understand what’s going on.”

“Neither do I,” she said. “But we’ve gotta go.”

Braeden picked up a stick from the ground and looked out into the forest. “Whatever it is, it’s still out there…”

She knew he was right. They had fought it off, but it was definitely still out there. She couldn’t forget the image of Nolan leaping forward to save his master. She could still see the terror-stricken look on the boy’s face right before he disappeared. As she looked at Braeden, she couldn’t help the terrible sinking feeling that crept into her mind.

“Whatever it is,” she said, “it didn’t come for Nolan. It came for you…”

“The ax is gone,” Serafina said as she and Braeden searched the area around the carriage. Without the ax or anyone to help them move the trees, they couldn’t clear the road in front of them or behind them. They were trapped.

“We can ride the horses,” Braeden suggested. But the trees grew so closely together in this part of the forest that the horses couldn’t pass between them, which was almost a relief to Serafina, because she couldn’t imagine clawing her way up