roar, drenched in his own blood and theirs, holding one by its massive jaw. He stretched it wider until he broke the whole head apart with a nauseating crack and a shower of black blood.
Cora had done the same in Mount Alborz, that day I’d had to reconsider my belief in demigods. She’d fought a ghoul off us, then had broken its neck with her bare hands. She’d left that cave swinging its head like a purse she’d just acquired, intending to embalm it as a trophy.
That memory swamped me with revulsion again as Little Jon threw the broken ghoul at the rest so hard, he knocked them all down.
As he ran to join us, he yelled for Alan to lead the way out, with Will and Robin flanking us, and with him holding the rear. Alan regained his way at the front in the same spectacular fashion, and jumped on his enormous reindeer.
The ghouls we left unscathed were joined by dozens more. But they finally slowed each other down. With their prey in a unified front, and only one path to reach us, their blood-thirst turned towards taking out the competition. They slaughtered one another, rupturing limbs and tearing throats, their screeching rising to a nerve-shredding crescendo.
“It worked like you said! They’re turning on each other!” Robin’s voice was elated as his hooded head turned back towards me. “Where did you even stumble on these things before?”
“Not now, we’re almost out!” I pointed where a circle of light grew at the end of the tunnel.
“Speed up,” Meira shrieked over her shoulder. “Before they shift their attack strategies.”
Will urged her horse ahead as he shouted, “They’re not smart enough for that, like Briar said.”
“They don’t need brains, when there’s so many of them,” Meira snapped back.
She was right. Sheer numbers could overwhelm anyone. And those we’d been fighting only seemed to have been the advance wave. The tunnel at our back was now swarming with ghouls. We couldn’t risk slowing down.
We didn’t. The opening grew as we retreated as fast as we could, brightness revealing details of what lay on the other side—the groves and trees of a palatial garden. Soon, we’d be with the Summer King. And if we played our cards right, he could fix all our problems—
A clawed hand tore through my middle, grazing my ghostly insides.
As I cried out in agony, I realized I wasn’t the only one in danger. A few ghouls had distracted Jon, and this one had reached through me to grab at Agnë.
Before I could whimper a warning, it caught a handful of her cloak and ripped her off Amabel’s back.
“NO!” I reached for her in mindless horror, forgetting that I had no power, no grip. She literally slipped through my fingers.
Agnë fell back with a scream, disappearing in a blink into the darkness of the tunnel as Amabel thundered to the exit. No amount of frantic yelling could make her turn back.
As we burst out of the tunnel, the transition to the sunny palace grounds almost blinded me. I still saw Robin jumping off his horse and running up to me, hood miraculously still fastened on, unscathed by the attacks.
“It took her!” I wailed, feeling as if that ghoul’s clawed hand was still lodged in my insides, disintegrating me. “I couldn’t do anything, couldn’t… They’ll eat her, leave nothing but bones and hair…” Like those skeletons I’d seen in that other cave.
Without a word, Robin bypassed me, and shot back towards the tunnel.
Little Jon, who was the last to exit, bloody and battered, gaped at him in confusion. Before he understood what was going on, Robin zoomed past him, and disappeared back inside.
We all stared after him in shock, as the sounds of rabid struggle and feasting echoed from within.
Will was the first one to recover, bolting to follow Robin. Jon staggered after him, pulled him back at the very mouth of the cave.
“We can’t leave him to fight alone!” Will yelled at him.
“I hate it more than you, Will,” Jon said, deep voice a strident rasp as he looked back at me, noting Agnë’s absence with a pained grimace. “But I barely made it out, and if we go back inside, and don’t come out again—Marian will be lost, too.”
Will still didn’t stop struggling against Jon’s restraining grasp, until Agnë suddenly staggered out, drenched in black blood.
As she threw herself at Little Jon, he growled at Will not to go after Robin, then picked her up. She latched onto him,