In fact, he didn’t even realise how right he was, because this was when I was the first to notice something wasn’t quite right. I began to notice just what dangers had been lurking in the shadows in wait. It made me wonder why no one else had noticed but then again, I was the only one that had been fascinated with the dark just beyond the windows.
A darkness I hadn't seen for days.
That same darkness that an enemy had been lying in wait for, waiting for darkness to fall.
Because this was when two things happened at once, and it started with me grabbing on to Lucius in a desperate way and telling him,
“You're right, now is not the time… now is the time to fight! Look out!” I screamed the moment glass exploded around us.
Just as…
Chaos erupted!
29
Wrong Dagger
After I screamed this warning, everything else that followed happened so fast it was a blur of motion. The glass shattered and became lost to the sound of my own screaming, one that echoed in my ears and a sound that was swiftly followed by the demonic roar of Lucius. I was picked up suddenly in his arms as he turned me away from the danger. Then his demon side erupted, starting with his wings. They expanded to their full length and protected us both as he dropped to one knee. But by creating that barrier between us and whoever it was attacking, the evidence of his protection came in the form of the distinct sound of blades hitting the floor behind us.
“Get out of here, to the door, Amelia, and don't look back!” Lucius told me firmly and I nodded without hesitation, knowing that I was going to do whatever he asked me to do. He let me go, placing me on the floor and then he stood, I watched as the rest of his demon form rippled over him, consuming every inch of him back into his demonic armour. Then he turned that Hellish wrath onto the oncoming assassins that started to flood the room.
As for Carn’reau and his brother, they had already pulled their own weapons from the sheaths that hung at their sides and had started fighting the new enemy. A new deadly foe to face, one that looked like some dark phantom that once held the soul of a fighter. Every single inch of them was draped in an ominous black cloth that seemed to float around them like some deathly essence was following their movements. Each was dressed like some ghost of a warrior assassin, with dark armour over layer upon layer of this floating material. But that wasn’t what made them so frightening, for we were now facing an unknown enemy. Each of them wore long arcane hoods that covered nothing but darkness, for there was nothing there where faces should be.
I counted at least fifteen of them, surely an easy number to fight for the sheer combined power of the Kings in this room. But unfortunately, that age old saying that I had grown up hearing from my father came to haunt me now.
That assumption was the mother from where all mistakes were born, and I had assumed too quickly that this would be an easy enemy to defeat. I knew this the moment I saw Lucius lash out at one of these phantom-like creatures, and it passed straight through him as if there was nothing there but its dark soul. As for their own weapons, these, unfortunately, were more real than they were, as the threat of their blades continued to clash against the Kings’ weapons.
It was as if they were fighting ghosts!
It took me a second to take all of this in, but it was long enough that Lucius could still feel my presence in the room. He looked over his shoulder at me and ordered,
“GO!” I didn't need to be told twice. I got to my feet and ran towards the door, just as it was bursting open and the three McBain brothers were running inside to join in the fight. As soon as Lucius heard it too, he was shouting out a new order,
“TAKE HER!” But unfortunately, this was too late, as there was no one left to take me, because the reason the brothers had burst through the doors was because they themselves had been attacked from their end and were now fighting the same enemy from the other side.