Fionn felt sick. He hated feeling sick.
Well, no one really liked the feeling of nausea, pain, dizziness, etc., but Pyre had taught him that bitching about his situation made it a little more bearable. He had been skeptical, but it gave him something to focus on.
He was collapsed on the stone ground of the cavern surrounded by a ring of violet flame and held down by Malcolm's magic. Though the flames didn't hurt, the ring was like a magnet repelling its same charge - the closer he got, the harder it pushed back against him - and Fionn had no strength to push through. Malcolm, no matter how innocent and kind he could appear to the Blackthorns and even to his other immortal friends, was a powerful warlock. Fionn had already been using a great deal of magic recently, and it had been too long since he'd asked Veon for a potion to stabilize himself. Even if he'd been at full strength, Malcolm would be a stronger caster by far and Fionn would need to default to using his Io and the terrain to make up the difference. His Io was worthless so long as he was, and it also relied on his magic levels too. He had to face the fact that he was beat and didn't have a plan to escape.
The area was dim, giving the impression of immense space spreading away into darkness. The portholes from before were gone, and etched into the stone of the cave were the words of the poem that had become so familiar to him.
'I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee-
With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven
Coveted her and me.'
The wingèd seraphs of Heaven. Shadowhunters.
In front of him was a stone table, rising about chest high, the surface rough and pitted as if it had been carved out of black lava. A wide circle of white chalk, sketched on the floor, surrounded the table. On it lay Octavian Blackthorn. He seemed to be sleeping, his small face soft and slack, his eyes closed. His feet were bare, and his wrists and ankles were locked into chains that were attached by loops of iron on the table's stone legs. A metal bowl, splashed with ominous-looking stains, had been placed by his head - along with Fionn's cursed knife.
"You understand it, don't you? The overwhelming desire to protect that which you love." Malcolm ran his hand across the stone table with Tavvy as he spoke. "You killed many people - many innocents - even damned yourself to a fate worse than death - all for the sake of your brother. And yet you don't seem to understand me."
"I kill…not the…innocent…" Fionn couldn't get many words out. He wanted to shout how he only ever used his blade to absorb those who deserved it. There was only one innocent soul within that blade: his mother. The insane, the mad, the cruel and sadistic. He tried to use his weapon to rid the world of such people. And he condemned himself to a worse fate with each kill.
"You destroyed yourself, Fionn. Stubborn even to the end."
Fionn wanted to spit to Malcolm every insult that Pyre and Wolf had ever taught him. Instead, he simply spasmed from the pain coursing through his body.
"I gave you the chance to help me, Fionn. Perhaps if you had, you'd have made it back to your love as well. Perhaps I would have just told your father that you got away."
Fionn grit his teeth. His father? He was reminded that Malcolm had gotten that rhyme about reviving the dead from the Unseelie King, and with Malcolm working with Iarlath, it wasn't a surprise that he had some connections to the Court. If nothing else, Iarlath would've told Malcolm that he needed Fionn and Finnegan to be brought to the Court just in passing. At worst, his father had asked Malcolm directly and Malcolm had agreed willingly.
"I believe you're acquainted with Valaeyasha."
Fionn couldn't move his head of his own accord, but he saw the feet of a woman walk up to him through the darkness. Valaeyasha was the warlock, the memory one, he recalled. The one Malcolm had taken, controlled, put into a coma. If she was here, where was her family? The other Astrals? Were they even allowed to come here to help him?
"What…?" He tried to convey his message through a strained choke.
"If I want to control your weapon, all I need to do is harness your soul into a controllable state, Fionn. Now normally that's a difficult to near-impossible task, but Valaeyasha has shared with me many studies about being a memory-demon's child. A person's entire personality and history that shapes them into who they are is all contained within their memories. Valaeyasha mastered a method of storing memories within a physical sphere - which is necessary for powerful memory-wipes. That includes the equivalent of taming one's entire soul. Something like that is only possible for powerful demons, gods, and only the most skilled magic users. Luckily all I need to do is take the part of your soul that makes you 'Fionn.' You're familiar with this process, though you may not remember, obviously. Some don't come out intact, necessarily, but you've survived before, and you'll likely do so again."
Val knelt down and reached through the barrier around Fionn. She touched her hand to his forehead and he felt a sting of his memories being pulled forcefully to the surface.
Interrogating Iarlath. His brother holding the knife as he forges the promise to kill him. Malcolm taking him prisoner.
Riding with the faerie convoy behind Gwyn, Iarlath, and Kieran. Seeing Finnegan and being threatened with his true name. Whipping Emma Carstairs. One. Two. Three. Four….
The portholes flooded the convergence with water, sucking Fionn into the deep abyss, filled with pain and panic. Pulled to safety by Seline, reuniting with Finnegan only to have to flee from another Astral.
One of the Blackthorn children made a dessert. Fionn was proud of himself for a moment that he had managed to make one of them happy. He turned only to be attacked by what he could only assume was a dessert bomb. He wondered if this was what Shadowhunter children were taught - how to make a bomb out of even sweets. Finnegan's mixed shock and amusement shone through his eyes upon seeing Fionn, and Fionn could only say that he wasn't disappointed if getting ambushed by desert led to seeing that face.
"No!"
Fionn moved to shove Val away, but the memory was already fading. Maybe he would've been fine with being erased completely, but he didn't want to have to lose every beautiful moment he'd had with Finnegan. As though he'd just woken from a dream, Finnegan's face quickly faded to a blur, and the harder he reached for it, the faster it seemed to slip away.
"Now, now, don't struggle too much," Malcolm warned. "It'll only take longer and hurt more."
Selina came close to finding out about Dearil.
Fionn ran with the other Astrals, only to be saved by Finnegan riding upon Zoltan, merged with the Astral's strength.
Finnegan helping him dress in a human tux, explaining his cuff links and the ways music was stored and read in two clefs.
"I love you, my Hunter, and that will not be the last time I speak the words. I promise."
"I love you too. No matter what I'm supposed to call you."
Fionn smiled. "There are far from enough options to become confused, dear Finnegan."
The Shadowhunter shifted from behind him. "Stop flirting."
"Don't…! Please don't take him…!" Fionn's eyes watered with tears as he tried to hold onto the memories. They were coming to him faster and faster, and the only things that he cared about preserving were the memories with Finnegan - which flashed by, one after another, and each time the next appeared, he lost his grip on the last.
Finnegan hummed a tune as he drove and then began singing the words to 'Annabel Lee' as the lyrics, startled when he remembered Fionn was in the backseat listening.
Finnegan reciting the rhyme of the Shadowhunters and their color schemes.
Finnegan formally meeting Kieran, kissing Fionn right in front of his little brother to prove that he was devoted to him.
Finnegan nearly bursting out into laughter learning his real name.
Finnegan teaching him all the runes he knew.
Fionn began muttering a string of 'I love you's, trying to hold on to everything he knew about Finnegan.
The first time they had a conversation using their real names. Finnegan Scion. Meeting in the Sanctuary as they hid their former relations. Leaving when Iarlath of the Unseelie Court arrived, warning his friends that he would be under close watch. ScreamingatHunter; .ManipulatedtonearlybreakingFinnegan' .TrustingFinneganwithhistruenameSleepingwithhimforthefirsttimeandfightingSelinandMeridaupontheirfirstmeetingandgivingHunterhiself-boltandfirstmeetingFinneganinFaerieandhurtinghimandtheirfirstdateinthecityandtheirfirstkissandtheirfirstalmost-kissandFinnegan'sbeautifulsingingasFionnpulledhimoutofhisshellslowlyandtakinghimonZoltanforthefirsttimeloveconflictedhatredfearself-loathingconfusionwhatishefeelingwhathasthisNephilimgonethroughheiscrying…?
WhoisthisShadowhunter? Fionn had no idea why he was muttering about love.
"Once the wipe is complete, the most painful part will probably be reversing your demonic spell to return Dearil so that I can give you to the Unseelie King. I might as well give him a boon for all he's done for me, and while I'm taking your soul as Fionn away, there's no reason not to give him the leftover Dearil while I'm at it. I've prepared a spell using the Black Volume of the Dead-" He frowned and paused, as though listening to an invisible voice. "I'll be right back. I have to make a quick trip. Valaeyasha, by the time I'm back you should have finished the memory wipe so that I can transform him and then revive my Annabel."
Valaeyasha didn't say anything, but she reached out and continued as Malcolm exited the convergence.
"Concentrate!"
"I'm trying! Stop shouting at me!"
'If you don't hurry it up, I'm going to electrocute you!'
"You shut up too!"
Finnegan focused as best he could while on horseback with Selina holding onto him from behind. Without a bridle, Zoltan was mostly self-sufficient when it came to controls, and Finnegan had once managed to connect to him, but now he wasn't able to figure out how to do that. As far as Finnegan was aware, Zoltan was the only one who could activate their connection. Though Finnegan could connect with Astrals, Zoltan had initiated their former connection back at the Midnight Theater, and Finnegan had no idea how to do the same in reverse - he was told that he was dangerous because he could force Astrals to bend to his will, but at the moment he didn't even know how to start. Yet his friends were trying to get him to test out the skill while they were in a low-stakes battle.
Kieran and Mark were riding on the back of the gorgeous white stallion that was Windspear. The sky was bare of clouds, and the moonlight was sharp and silver as a knife. It outlined Mark and Kieran, turned then into the brilliantly illuminated outlines of faerie knights. Neither of them looked human. Selina's hair shimmered from her icy blonde to glowing white under the glow of the moonlight. The crescent birthmark on her shoulder glowed with a light blue-lavender shimmer - exposed because she'd removed her jacket in the battle.
The defenses around the convergence had been upped after Fionn had eliminated the Mantid demons that one time. Now, along with Mantids, there were dozens of other species as well. Luckily Selina had a boost because of the night time and the exposed moonlight and they were by the sea. She worked with Zoltan better than Finn did, who was pretty much just riding the steed and holding on for dear life while occasionally slicing a seraph blade at anything that came near. He couldn't exactly play an instrument with Zoltan zipping around at high speeds making him dizzy.
The two of them weren't the only Astrals on the battlefield. Andraeus wasn't at his strongest at night, but he was still a warlock underneath the Helian within and he could fight well enough. Ace/Aaron had traveled to the convergence on his own without needing the steeds - only giving the excuse for the Blackthorns' sake. He didn't do a lot of moving, just teleporting with his card Portals and throwing cards with varying effects - from just straight up slicing through a demon to having tactical effects like putting them to sleep, blinding them, blowing them up, burning, freezing, making them attack other demons or just running away in terror. Sometimes his cards summoned things like monsters or weapons for a single attack before they disappeared.
Maxine wasn't an Astral, but her telekinetic powers were nothing to scoff at. She was ripping demons apart and keeping track of everyone on the battlefield if she needed help or to help. For the most part, she was standing at the entrance to the convergence - which for some reason was closed despite it being night. Malcolm must have closed it now that he'd gotten the final keys for his spell. Max was focusing her efforts on the stone wall blocking the entrance with Laura covering her from behind, stomping and smashing with thunderous blows at anything that came near. She was projecting a simple battle rhythm around her, keeping herself focused and destroying any demons that came close to a catchy beat.
Finnegan was trying to connect to Seline's power, which they said should be easiest because they had been raised together and had become parabatai - he should be adjusted to Seline's energy signature. On top of that, Seline's power was increased because of the night and the moon shining down unimpeded.
That theory didn't do anything to help him now.
"It's not working!"
She sighed. "Let's just try me giving you a connection so you can maybe tug on it."
She put her hand on his shoulder and gripped him tightly. He felt a spark of energy that made his muscles twitch, but he didn't exactly feel a catch or anything to tug on. He tried to prevent himself from spasming out and keeping control of his muscles, and he managed to hold his hand up and command the energy to eject in the direction he aimed. He actually hadn't expected it to do anything, and so he ended up nearly hitting Andraeus by accident.
"Hey, watch it!" Andy shouted.
"Well, you blasted a light moonbeam," Selina noted. "We'll work on it."
By the time the battlefield had cleared out, covered in ichor and demon guts that Andy was burning away, the L.A. Institute's Toyota pulled in and came to a stop. The field that reached to the bluff lay deceptively peaceful under the moonlight now that the battle had stalled. The wide space of sea grass and sage bushes moved with soft rustles and the granite hill rose above it all.
"The convergence - it's closed," Emma exclaimed.
"Almost got it," Max assured them. She pulled at the wall and tugged the large rock out of the doorway, throwing it to the side. "Tada! Let's hurry. Val's down there."
Laura sighed. "Breaking so many rules. Whelp, while we're on a role! The Fates are already out for our heads, so let's at least go out with a bang!"
"We'll clear a path down there, disable the wards and traps," Andy said.
"Is Veon with you?" Selina asked.
Max pursed her lips. "He was guarding over Val when Malcolm took control of her again…"
"And we've tracked Val here," Laura continued. "Not sure if Malcolm is also here at the moment, but the convergence has certainly shifted. He has more defenses, no doubt, and maybe some of his Followers. But we need to take this chance while Malcolm's out."
"Arm up and meet us down there," Ace ordered.
He, Max, Andy, and Laura hurried down the dark space in the wall.
"We killed many demons," Mark said. "Cleared the way."
Kieran sat glowering, his face half-hidden by dark hair. Mark had his hands on Kieran's belt, steadying himself. As if suddenly recollecting this, Mark let go and slid to the ground.
"We'd better go in," Mark said, tipping his face up to Kieran's. "You and Windspear stand guard."
"But I-"
"This is Blackthorn family business," Mark snapped in a tone that brooked no argument. Kieran looked towards Cristina, Diego, and Finnegan, opened his mouth as if to voice a protest, and then closed it again.
Selina glanced over her shoulder as shadows began to warp in the distance. "We've got more company," she announced. "Malcolm's forces are likely to continue at least until he's gotten back to revive Annabel. Zoltan and I will stay out here to help you, Kieran. We will cover the rest of you."
Finnegan slid off the horse and glanced towards Kieran. The fey shot him a hard look which Finn didn't need to be an expert on to know that Kieran was warning him to get his brother back safely or he'd bust down the convergence with Windspear himself.
"Weapons check, everyone," Julian said. "Then we head in."
Everyone obediently checked their belts and gear. Ty fished an extra seraph blade out of the car trunk while Mark looked over Dru's gear, reminding her again that her job was to stay behind them and to stick close to the others.
Emma unbuckled her arm guard and rolled up her sleeve, requesting an Endurance rune from Julian. She was already marked with runes for courage and accuracy, runes for precision and healing. The Angel had never really given the Shadowhunters runes for emotional pain, though - there were no runes to mend grief or a broken heart. Mourning runes were mostly symbolic, and that was probably the closest thing to handling grief that the runes got. It made sense, perhaps - it was emotion that made them human, made them different from regular angels themselves who could so rarely intervene in the mortal world. She should feel honored, some stuck-up Shadowhunter might say, to have the stinging bite of emotional pain prove she was human.
The idea that Emma's parents' death had been a failed experiment, a pointless throwaway, hurt more than Emma could've imagined. She had thought all these years they had died for some reason, but it was no reason at all. They had simply been the only Shadowhunter available. Endurance. She would have to endure this, this knowledge, fight past and through it. Do it for Tavvy, she thought. For Julian. For all of them. And maybe at the end of it, she would have her revenge.
Julian lowered his hand. His eyes were wide. The Mark blazed against her skin, infused with a brightness she had never seen before, as if the edges of it were burning. She drew her sleeve down quickly, not wanting anyone else to notice, but Finn caught Selina eyeing Emma suspiciously. He'd have to ask her about what that was all about when he got the chance.
At the edge of the bluff, Kieran's white horse reared up against the moon. Zoltan whined and stomped, turning towards the forming demons that were rebuilding their numbers.
"Go," Selina ordered. "We will cover you."
The sea crashed in the distance and the moon shimmered against Selina's hair, turning it into rays of moonlight itself.
As the two riders charged towards the approaching demons, the Shadowhunters marched towards the opening in the rock.
Emma and Julian led the way into the cavern, with Finnegan and Mark bringing up the rear, sandwiching the others between them. As before, the tunnel was narrow at first, the ground tumbled with uneven pebbles. The rocks were disturbed now, many of them kicked aside. Even in the dimness, none of them reached for their witchlights - they could see where the moss growing along the cave wall had been clawed at by human fingers.
"People came through here earlier," Emma murmured.
"Didn't those other guys come through to clear the way for us?" Livvy asked.
"Yes, but this was a lot more people," Finnegan said. He lined his hand up with some of the moss and moved it around to line up with different heights and hand sizes. "Dozens."
"Followers?" Julian's voice was low.
"Most likely."
Finnegan was cold, the good sort of cold, the battle cold that came from your stomach and spread outwards. The cold that sharpened your eyes and seemed to slow time around you, so that you had infinite hours to correct the sweep of a seraph blade, the angle of a sword.
"Almost got it," someone said lightly up ahead.
Emma and Julian carefully crept forward, but upon seeing Finnegan's friends who had gone ahead of them, they…well, they didn't relax, but they didn't attack anyway.
"Malcolm's got a lot of warding," Laura reported. "Luckily the three of us can get past his magic alone."
"No promises that Malcolm won't feel when we take down his defenses," Max added.
"This is the final barrier," Andraeus reported. "Ready yourselves."
The energy wall before him flashed and then dissipated. They continued down the short corridor before coming out into the high-ceilinged cavern. Everyone crowded into the room.
"Val!" Max exclaimed.
"Where?" Finnegan glanced around the dark room. He could barely see anything. He took out his witchlight and illuminated the area.
In front of them was a stone table with Tavvy chained upon it, a metal bowl and Fionn's knife beside the young boy. But Finnegan didn't see any sign of Valaeyasha - and no sign of Fionn either.
"Max-" But when Finnegan glanced over to where Maxine had been, the warlock was gone. In fact, Andy and Laura were missing too. Dread pooled in the pit of his stomach, but a moment later, he forgot what he had been thinking about. "What the…?"
Something was wrong, but Finnegan couldn't remember what it was.
"Tavvy!" Livvy cried out her brother's name and lunged forward. Julian caught hold of her, hauling her back. She struggled incredulously against his grip. "We need to save him," she hissed. "We have to go to him-"
"There's a protection circle," Julian hissed back. "Drawn around him on the floor. If you step through it, it could kill you."
Finnegan walked up and knelt before the circle's edge. He hadn't paid much attention whenever Veon had gone on rants about how certain potions and spells worked, but Veon had managed to teach him some things. While Shadowhunter training taught the basics about spells and mixtures, Finnegan knew some special cases with Veon's help.
"Special Diamond Dust," he recognized. It was some of the rare items that Veon had bragged about once - obtained only from surviving an encounter with the Faerie gods, just like Hellfire but made from the Glacian's power rather than the Infernian's. "Will freeze you to death easily, potent enough to overwhelm most basic magics. Only Hellfire can get past it. It must be being used to keep Fionn from escaping. Malcolm must've stolen this stuff from Veon - it's extremely rare, and I've only ever seen Veon have some. But where is Fionn?"
In the back of his mind, Finnegan had a feeling that they'd come with a plan for strong magical warding, but he couldn't recall what it was.
As Finn was wracking his brain, someone murmuring softly. Cristina, whispering a prayer.
Mark had stiffened. "Be quiet," he said. "Someone's coming."
Finnegan quickly made his way back as he joined the Blackthorns in melting back into the shadows - even Livvy, who had not stopped struggling. Finn's witchlight winked out.
A figure had appeared out of the darkness. Someone in a long black robe, a hood hiding their face. A tall someone with hands sheathed in black gloves. Malcolm?
The figure approached the table, and the protection circle opened like a lock, runes and the glittering Diamond Dust vanishing and fading with a small wave of flame until there was a gap to step through. As the gap opened, Finnegan saw the hint of purple flames peek through, as if the barrier opening was releasing a glamour around the stone table. Head down, the figure came closer to Tavvy. And closer. Finnegan could feel the Blackthorns around him, their fear like a living thing. He knew how badly they wanted to throw themselves forward, risk the circle, grab Tavvy and run.
Finnegan burst forward and slid through the break in the protection circle, feeling a wave of cold around him as he passed but making it safely. He prepared to confront the hooded figure in a fight, but then Livvy broke away from Julian and burst into the cavern.
"No! Step away from my brother, or I'll kill you, I'll kill you-!"
The figure froze. Finn hid at the base of the stone table and crept around its edge. He felt bad for making Livvy a distraction, but once he was inside the protection circle he could see the violet flames of Malcolm's magic in full. It was a ring of fire behind the altar with Tavvy and as Finnegan crept around the other side, he finally spotted the faerie within - along with the battle that was ensuing between Valaeyasha, Andraeus, and Maxine beyond the barrier. Lying defeated were Veon and Laura - the latter of which was clutching her head and kicking her feet causing small tremors and sparking with electricity.
Finn hadn't been able to see it outside the circle, but that was probably because of Val's memory powers causing them to disappear. Finnegan was amazed that Max and Andy were holding out as long as they were with Val literally able to make them forget their entire reason for being there, but perhaps it was because they were Val's family that they had come with preparations.
Finnegan didn't dwell on it, instead opting to rush to the ring of fire that surrounded Fionn, collapsed within. Finnegan had thought he was fire-proof, but he wouldn't be surprised if Malcolm had specifically enchanted the flames against Fionn. Ignoring how all of that made only half sense, Finnegan held his hand up and felt a barrier.
"Fionn," he whispered. "Fionn!"
The faerie didn't stir.
He glanced up at Val's battle where she was being driven back. Max shoved Val back against the cavern wall, but she kicked her foot and sent a wave of energy at them. Andy caught and absorbed it, running to his wife while Max strained to hold her back. Finnegan recalled that Seline had heard Val was over 2000 years old, so if she got anything close to more powerful as she aged, he realized just how dangerous a threat she probably was - which was why Malcolm was quick to manipulate her onto his side when she started to get involved with his case.
Finn turned back towards the hooded figure. Slowly, it raised its head. Its hood fell back, and long, curling black hair spilled out. A familiar koi tattoo glimmered against brown skin. "Livvy?"
"Diana?" Ty spoke, voicing his sister's disbelief. Livvy was stricken silent.
Diana jerked away from the table, staring. "By the Angel," she breathed. "How many of you are here?"
It was Julian who spoke. His voice was level, though Finn could feel the effort it took to keep it that way. Diego was leaning forward, his eyes narrow. Jace Herondale and the Lightwoods were betrayed by their own tutor. "All of us," Julian said.
"Even Dru? You don't understand how dangerous this is - Julian, you have to get everyone out of here."
"Not without Tavvy," Emma snapped. "Diana, what the hell are you doing? You told us you were in Thailand."
"If she was, no one at the Bangkok Institute knew about it," Diego said. "I checked."
"You lied to us." Emma remembered Iarlath saying: 'Foolish Shadowhunters, too naïve to even know who you can trust.' Had he meant Malcolm or Diana? "And you've barely been here, this whole investigation, like you were hiding something from us-"
Diana recoiled. "Emma, no, it's not like that."
"Then what is it like? Because I can't imagine what possible reason you could have for being here-"
There was a noise. Approaching footsteps, from the shadows. Diana flung out a hand. "Get back - get away-"
Julian grabbed for Livvy, hauling his sister back into the shadows just as Malcolm appeared. Finnegan hid behind the stone table, staring up at the battle as Val knocked Max back. While Val was released from Max's hold, Andy straight up tackled her.
"Valaeyasha have you-?"
Malcolm looked as he always did. A bit scruffy in jeans and a white linen jacket that matched his hair. In his hand he carried a large black book, tied with a leather strap.
"It is you," Diana whispered.
Malcolm glanced up at the scuffle with Val, clearly able to see it, and then looked at Diana calmly. "Diana Wrayburn. Now, now. I didn't expect to see you here. I rather thought you'd run away."
Diana faced him. "I don't run."
He seemed to look at her again, to see how close she was to Tavvy. He frowned. "Step away from the boy."
Diana didn't move.
"Do it," he demanded, tucking the Black Volume into his jacket. "He's nothing to you, anyway. You're not a Blackthorn."
"I'm his tutor. He has grown up in my care."
"Oh, come now. If you'd cared about those children, you'd have taken the post as head of the Institute years ago. But I suppose we all know why you didn't do that."
Malcolm grinned. It transformed his whole face. If there were any lingering doubts about his guilt, about the story Kieran had told, they vanished in that moment. His mobile, amusing features seemed to harden. There was cruelty in that smile, framed against a backdrop of echoing, depthless loss.
A flare went up from the table, a burst of fire. Diana cried out and stumbled back, out of the circle of protection. Finnegan flinched and held up his arms in a defensive motion, but he was thrown not from heat but from a simple hard shove. He was thrown into the fiery barrier around Fionn, and to his surprise he was let inside. He hit the other side of the circle and hit a hard barrier - and on top of that the flames burnt his back. He had a Fire Elemental Resistance rune on, but that still didn't stop him from feeling the heat as he collapsed beside Fionn. The circle of protection sealed itself up behind Diana as she was thrown out, the Diamond Dust line returning. She hurled herself to her feet and threw herself towards Tavvy, but this time the circle held fast; she bounced off it as if off a glass wall, the force sending her staggering back.
"No human thing can cross that barrier," Malcolm said. "I'm guessing you had a charm to get you through the first time, but it won't work again. You should have stayed away." He held up his hand and Finnegan was bound by invisible restraints. "And I suppose it was inevitable that taking Phoenix would draw the attention of the gods. I had expected a bigger force, I admit. I'd assumed you'd at least have been strong enough to defeat the forces outside."
Selina. Had she and Zoltan failed? Or were they still holding the line? Malcolm had to have passed them at least…
Finnegan took the opportunity to shuffle over to Fionn and tried to shake him by throwing his body against him. "Fionn. Fionn! Fionn Flann!"
He still didn't respond, but his nose crinkled ever so slightly as he lightly stirred.
Malcolm waved his hand and Veon's scales flashed. He stood, his pupils slit lit a lizard's and his scales spreading across his body.
"Zytaveon…?"
The scaled warlock launched at the struggling Val and Andy, tearing them apart and throwing Andraeus to the ground, holding him down. Andy flailed and kicked at Veon, grabbing the warlock's wrists and summoning an orange glow to his hands. Veon recoiled as his hands were burnt, but Val launched to grab Andy's temples and summon a glow to her fingertips. Andy fought for a few seconds, but was quickly overpowered and went limp. When Val finally released her hands from Andy, the glow on her fingertips coalesced into a glowing sphere that Finnegan realized was familiar - a memory sphere. Fionn had used the technique once before to remove a small memory when he'd accidentally learned Finnegan's name while they were trying to be anonymous. Rather than swirling red wisps within the orb, these were glowing orange-yellow like the glow of the sun.
Veon turned his attention from them to the struggling Laura while Val went over to Max and simply knocked her out the old fashioned way. Val and Veon repeated the same technique with Laura, holding her down and then extracting a pale silver sphere this time. Finnegan had a fleeting concern about where Ace had gone, but he was glad that he wasn't here at the moment. Now Finnegan understood that Val was an extremely powerful defense against Astrals - maybe she couldn't kill them, but she could certainly debilitate them beyond effectiveness.
"Stop it, you bastard!" Finnegan snapped.
"Valaeyasha, do you have Fionn's sphere?" Malcolm asked instead.
Val stood from Laura and nodded, holding up a shimmering red sphere. Veon was simply sitting at her side, eyes darting around like a twitchy lizard. His scales were slowly beginning to overtake his skin.
That explained why Fionn wasn't responsive - he'd probably been wiped clean by Val.
"You can't possibly hope for success, Malcolm," Diana gasped. She was clutching her left arm with her right; the skin looked burned. "If you kill a Shadowhunter, the Nephilim will hunt you down for the rest of your days."
"They hunted me two hundred years ago. They killed her." The throb of emotion in his voice was something they'd never heard before. "And we had done nothing. Nothing. I do not fear them, their unjust justice or unlawful laws."
Finnegan sucked in a deep breath, trying to keep himself calm. "Malcolm, your pain is real. No one's saying it isn't; no one here is saying that it's wrong to feel enraged at what happened. I'm enraged by it, I'm enraged by a lot of things about the Shadowhunters and the Clave. But why do others have to be dragged into this - your friends Malcolm!"
"My friends? My friends? You don't know anything if you dare to call them my friends!"
"We understand your pain, Malcolm," Diana said carefully. "But-"
"Do you? Do you understand, Diana Wrayburn?" he snarled - but then his voice softened. "Maybe you do. You both have known the injustice and intolerance of the Clave. If only you hadn't come here - it's the Blackthorns I despise, not the Wrayburns, not the Scions. I always rather liked you, Diana."
"You liked me because you thought I was too frightened of the Clave to look closely at you," Diana said, turning away from him. "To suspect you."
For a moment, she faced Emma and the others. She mouthed RUN at them silently, before turning back to Malcolm. Emma didn't budge, but she did hear a movement behind her. It was quiet; if she hadn't been wearing a rune that sharpened her hearing, it would have been inaudible. To her surprise, the movement was Julian, disappearing from her side. Mark was next to him. Silently, they slipped back into the tunnel. Emma wanted to call after Julian - what was he doing? - but she couldn't, not without alerting Malcolm. Malcolm was still moving towards Diana; in a moment he'd be where he could see them. She put a hand to the hilt of Cortana. Ty was gripping a knife, white-knuckled; Livvy held her saber, her face set and determined.
"Why Fionn?!" Finnegan snapped. "His knife couldn't have possibly been in play hundreds of years ago - he's not even a century old!"
Malcolm paused and turned back towards the protection circle. "You wish to know the truth? It wasn't me who wanted your precious Seelie. It was Iarlath who informed me of his weapon and its properties, how it would bolster the effectiveness of my spell. In return for Iarlath and the Unseelie King's mutual assistance, I agreed to return someone called Dearil to the Court. It took some investigating to figure out that Fionn was the key to returning Dearil into play, and it wasn't long after that Iarlath updated that you, Finnegan, were also needed. It was a sudden development, but it wasn't anything difficult in the long run. Not after all I've had to go through to revive my Annabel. Using Valaeyasha was the key to preventing the pesky Astrals that I was warned about from intervention."
He nodded towards Val, her eyes glassy and blank.
"Valaeyasha and Zytaveon were my greatest threats, and so I've had to take caution with them for many years now. I've been fully prepared for this day for far longer than you can comprehend. It's nothing personal against you, Finnegan. I actually appreciate you. By coincidence or fate, you fell in love with the faerie that the Unseelie King happened to need. You might have made an ally, had things been different. Fionn's fate was already doomed, his tragedies brought upon himself, burden after burden. If nothing else, I'm saving him from the curses he enacted."
"What…? What do you…?"
"The demonic spell that transformed Fionn sucks away at his life force constantly at an accelerated rate. He required Veon to make him potions that would help him at regular intervals. If he were to run out of magic and energy levels, he is supposed to die. But with the curse of his weapon in play, he will be kept alive - barely, in a state of eternal agony until he is properly killed. By using Valaeyasha to extract Fionn's personality into a sphere, I can wield his weapon and I can strip him of the demonic ritual that transformed him. I'm saving him from a far worse fate, believe me."
"Only to hand him over to the Unseelie King?"
"The Unseelie King only wants Fionn's blessings. He likely won't treat you badly. I knew that you'd come here for Fionn with the help of those Astrals you associate with; believe me, I had no intention of harming you or angering the gods. Valaeyasha is the key to making all of this as painless as possible, and Veon was just a backup if things got violent. If only Diana hadn't come too. She hadn't been working with you, I was sure." Malcolm returned his attention to Diana. "Who told you? Was it Rook? I didn't think he'd guessed." He tipped his head to the side. "No. You weren't sure when you got here. You suspected…" His mouth turned down at the corners. "It was Catarina, wasn't it?"
Diana stood with her feet apart, her head back. A warrior stance. "When the second line of the poem was deciphered and I heard the phrase 'Blackthorn blood,' I realized that we weren't searching for a killer of mundanes and faeries. That this was about the Blackthorn family. And there is no one more likely to know about a grudge that goes back years than Catarina. I went to her."
"And you couldn't tell the Blackthorns where you went because of the reason you know Catarina. She's a nurse - a nurse to mundanes. Safer than Fionn's methods, at least. How do you think I found out-?"
"She didn't tell you about me, Malcolm," Diana snapped. "She keeps secrets. What she told me about you was simply what she knew - that you'd loved a Nephilim girl and that she'd become an Iron Sister. She never questioned the story because as far as she knew, you'd never questioned the story either. But once she told me that, I was able to check with the Iron Sisters. No Nephilim girl with that story had become one of them. And once I realized that was a lie, the rest began to come together. I remembered what Emma had told us about what she'd found here, the clothes, the candelabra. Catarina told me that Veon was said to know the whole story - the rest of the story, the truth about it - but he had thought that you'd tried to become a better person and move past this. But he was the one most likely to put the pieces together that you hadn't, that you were doing something like this, which lined up with why he was the first one you worked to corrupt and silence. Catarina went to the Spiral Labyrinth and I came here-"
"So Catarina gave you the charm to get you through the protection circle - even with the special ingredients I took from Zytaveon," Malcolm concluded. "Unfortunate that you wasted it. Did you have a plan or did you rush here in a panic?"
Diana said nothing. Her face looked carved out of stone.
"Always have a plan. I, for one, have been crafting my current plan for years. And now here you are, the proverbial fly in the ointment. I suppose there's nothing to do but kill you, though I hadn't planned to, and exposing you to the Clave would have been so much more fun-"
Something silver bloomed from Diana's hand. A sharp-pointed throwing star. It whipped towards Malcolm; one moment he was in its path, the next he was across the room. The throwing star hit the wall of the cave and tumbled to the ground, where it lay glimmering.
Malcolm made a hissing noise, like an angry cat. Sparks flew from his fingers.
"Diana!" Finnegan thrashed with his invisible magic restraints.
Diana was lifted up into the air and flung back against the wall, then to the floor, her arms clamping themselves to her sides. She rolled into a sitting position, but when she tried to stand, her knees crumbled under her. She thrashed at her invisible bonds.
"You won't be able to move," Malcolm said in a bored voice. "You're paralyzed. Even if you managed to break free, I've still got Zytaveon and Valaeyasha under my control. They managed to take down people blessed with the power of the gods, so I wouldn't call you a threat. I could have killed you instantly, of course, but well, this is quite a trick I'm about to perform and every trick needs an audience." He smiled suddenly. "I suppose I shouldn't forget the audience I have. It's just that they aren't very lively."
Suddenly the cavern was alive with light. The thick shadows behind the stone table dissolved, and now it could be seen that the cavern reached back and back - there were long rows of seats set up, like church pews, neat and orderly, and the seats were filled with people.
"Followers," Finnegan muttered. It was strange to know that Malcolm had led all these people, that he had had such power over them that they did anything for him - Malcolm, who they'd all thought of as a foolish figure, someone who tied his own shoelaces together.
'Never trust an immortal,' Veon had once warned Finn. 'You'd be surprised at how good we get at acting over the years - acting like everything's okay after so many centuries of loss. Every immortal has lost or will lose. The happier we look, the more we're trying to cover up.'
The Followers sat very still, their eyes wide open, their hands in their laps, like rows of dolls. Finnegan recognized Belinda and some of the others who had come to retrieve Sterling. Their heads were tilted to the side - a gesture of interest, Finn thought, until he realized how awkward the angle was and knew that it wasn't fascination that kept them so still. It was that their necks were broken.
Malcolm strode into the circle. He was standing close to Tavvy's feet, which looked bare and vulnerable in the light. He reached out to the draped object standing at the foot of the table and twitched the cloth off it. It was the candelabra that Emma had mentioned when she'd come here the first time and nearly drowned, the brass one that had been bare of candles. It had become a far more macabre thing. Onto each spiked point was jammed a severed hand, wrist down. Rigid, dead fingers reached for the ceiling. One hand bore a ring with a flashy pink stone - Sterling's hand.
"You sick fucker," Finn snapped.
"Do you know what this is?" Malcolm asked, a gloating note in his voice. "Do you, Diana?"
Diana looked up. Her face was swollen and bloody. She spoke in a croaking whisper. "Hands of Glory."
Malcolm looked pleased. "It took me quite a long time to figure out that this was what I needed. This is why my attempt with the Carstairs family didn't work. The spell called for mandrake, and it was a long time before I realized that the word 'mandrake' was meant to stand in for main de gloire - a Hand of Glory." He smiled with keen pleasure. "The darkest of dark magic."
"Because of the way they're made," Diana said. "They're murderers' hands. The hands of killers. Only a hand that has taken a human life can become a Hand of Glory."
In the chaos that had been Selina figuring out everything with the rest of the Astrals, Finnegan should've seen it coming. The murder victims were a mix of humans and faeries with no key traits shared between them - it was because the victims never mattered. Malcolm didn't want victims, he wanted murderers. It was why the Followers needed Sterling back - and why Belinda cut off his hands and left with them. And why Malcolm had let her when he had shown up at the Institute to 'protect' them from the Followers. He needed the murderer's hands, the hands they'd killed with, so he could do this. Belinda took both of the hands that day because she didn't know which one he'd killed with - and she couldn't ask.
"This is wrong, Malcolm." Diana's voice was choked but steady. "I've spent days talking to those who've known you for years. Catarina Loss. Magnus Bane. Even Zytaveon Bane, he believed in you even knowing what you figured out about Annabel - he believed you'd become good even knowing the truth, that you'd used your pain to become better. They all said you were a good, likable man. That can't all be lies."
"Lies?" Malcolm's voice rose. "You want to talk about lies? They lied to me about Annabel. They said she had become an Iron Sister. All of them told me the same lie: Magnus, Catarina, Zytaveon, Tessa. It was from a faerie I found out that they had lied. From a faerie I learned what really happened to Annabel. By then she was long dead. The Blackthorns, murdering their own!"
"That was generations back," Finnegan pleaded. "The boy you have chained to that table never knew Annabel. These are not the people who hurt you, Malcolm. These are not the people who took Annabel from you. They're innocent."
"No one is innocent!" Malcolm shouted. "She was a Blackthorn! Annabel Blackthorn! She loved me, and they took her - they took her and walled her up and she died there in the tomb. They did that to me and I do not forgive! I will never forgive!" He took a deep breath, clearly forcing himself to be calm. "Thirteen Hands of Glory. And Blackthorn blood. That will bring her back, and she will be with me again."
He turned away from Diana, towards Tavvy, and held his hand out to Val. She tossed him the sphere with Fionn's memories, and upon touching it, the red wisps of energy flared within. Malcolm picked up the cursed knife with the black blade and it flared and responded.
The tension in the tunnel was sudden and silent and explosive. Hands reached for weapons, grips tightened on hilts, Diego raised his ax. Five pairs of eyes turned on Emma for the command.
"She will never forgive you for this Malcolm!" Finnegan shouted, struggling against his restraints as Malcolm raised the knife. It shimmered, strangely luminescent and beautiful. "Reviving the dead is unnatural - she'll hate you for putting her in so much pain bringing her back!" It was a desperate move that he didn't even completely know what he was talking about. Maybe it was his dreams about dying with Phoenix so many times that made him speak with conviction. "At best she'll be traumatized forever! At least in death she was at peace, but you're torturing her by reviving her from eternal slumber!"
Malcolm paused only a fraction of a second from Finnegan's outburst. He wasn't stopping. Finn tried to wake Fionn - maybe he could stop the knife somehow!
They exploded out of the tunnel: Ty and Livvy and Emma and Cristina, all of them, Diego rushing straight for Malcolm.
For a split second, Malcolm looked surprised. Fionn's blade, held high, suddenly exploded from his hand as though he had been shot. It clanged against the stone floor, and Malcolm looked towards Val, who was holding her hand up towards him. The sphere of Fionn's memories was flaring in Malcolm's hand, Val having used it to throw the blade it controlled away. Val's eyes were blown wide, her eyes watering as her hand trembled. The glowing orange sphere of her husband's memories was clutched tightly in her other hand.
"Andy…" A tear escaped from her left eye. The sphere in her hand pulsed with her husband's memories.
Malcolm stared down at the fallen weapon, then back up at the Blackthorns and their friends - and began laughing. He stood, laughing, in the center of the protection circle, as they rushed at him - and one by one were slammed backwards by the force of the invisible protective wall. Diego swung his battle-ax. The ax glanced off the air as if it had struck steel and recoiled backwards, a layer of ice crawling up the weapon.
"Surround Malcolm!" Emma shouted. "He can't stay in that protective area forever! Circle him!"
They spread out, surrounding the protective runes on the floor. Even now, Malcolm's betrayal was incomprehensible to most of them, and they'd had a clear view of just what kind of betrayal people were capable of when they'd watched the Clave exile Helen and abandon Mark.
Val threw her hand forward and Veon's half-lizard state turned its eyes onto Malcolm. He dived for the barrier and landed on the dome, frost brimming to life against his skin as he pushed to tear through the enchanted protection.
"Turning my powers against me," Val whimpered, "making me hurt my friends, family, my husband…" She reared her hand back and shoved it forward again, causing Veon's scales to flare as he burst into green flames to melt the frost threatening to consume him from the Diamond Dust barrier. "When I get in there, I'll make sure you remember nothing about Annabel Blackthorn! I will show you the pain of losing the memories of your love - I will end this, Malcolm!"
"You'll be forced out of there eventually," Emma growled. "And when you are-"
Malcolm bent and seized the knife from the floor. When he straightened up, his eyes were the color of bruises. "When I am, you'll be dead," he spat, and whirled to reach out a hand towards the rows of the dead. "Rise!" he called. "My Followers, rise!"
There was a series of groans and creaks. Throughout the cave the dead Followers began to stand. They moved neither unusually slowly nor unusually quickly, but they moved with steady determination. They did not seem to be armed, but as they neared the main chamber, Belinda - her eyes blank and empty, her head cocked to the side - flung herself at Cristina. Her fingers were bent into claws, and before Cristina could react, Belinda had torn bloody gashes down the side of her face.
With a cry of disgust, Cristina shoved the corpse away from her, slashing her butterfly knife across Belinda's throat. It made no difference. Belinda stood up again, the wound in her throat bloodless and flapping, and swung towards Cristina. Before she could take more than a single step there was a flash of silver. Diego's ax sang out, whipping forward, severing Belinda's head from her neck. The headless body sank to the ground. The wound still wasn't bleeding; it looked cauterized.
"Behind you!" Cristina shouted.
Diego whirled. Behind him two other Followers were reaching to grab and claw at them. He spun in a swift arc, his ax taking both their heads with it.
There was a noise behind Emma. Instantly she calculated where the Follower behind her was; she leaped, spun, kicked, and knocked him back. It was the clarinetist with the curly hair. She stabbed downwards with Cortana, severing his head from his body. She thought of him winking at her in the Midnight Theater. "I never knew his name," she thought, and then whirled back around.
Val thrust her one hand out towards the approaching Followers, but in doing so Veon went limp fighting against the barrier. She had only one hand, gripping tightly to the memories - the soul - of her husband. It was probably the only thing keeping her in control of herself. She managed to blast away the Followers coming towards her, but all she did was knock them back with an explosion before she refocused her efforts on making Veon break through the barrier and pulling at Fionn's soul to prevent Malcolm from finishing the job against Tavvy. Malcolm actively fought against the blade moving on its own, but with Val's attention split between bringing down the barrier, preventing Tavvy's death, and avoiding the attacking Followers, Malcolm was coming too close for comfort to getting what he wanted.
The room was in chaos. Just as Malcolm must have wanted, the Shadowhunters had abandoned the perimeter of the protection circle to ward off the Followers.
"Protect Valaeyasha!" Emma shouted. "Buy her the time to break through the barrier! She's the only one keeping Tavvy alive!"
Malcolm seized up the candelabra with the Hands of Glory on it and carried it to the head of the table. He set it down beside Tavvy, who slept on, a rosy flush on his cheeks. Malcolm easily figured out that so long as Val's attention was split, he wasn't far from getting what he needed, and so he didn't seem too worried about what was going on around him.
Dru had run to Diana and was struggling to help her get to her feet. As a Follower approached them, Dru whipped around and ran the woman through with her blade. Emma saw her swallow as the body crumpled and realized it was the first time Dru had killed someone in battle - even if that someone was already dead.
Malcolm pulled out a second blade, a copper knife that was entirely under his control. He placed the tip of it against Tavvy's throat and sliced downwards, slitting open the little boy's Batman T-shirt. The worn cotton curled open, revealing his thin, vulnerable chest. Val kicked a Follower away from her and then tugged on Fionn's knife as hard as she could, causing Malcolm to stagger back as the weapon pulled him along.
Malcolm grunted and threw his hand out towards Val herself, who was knocked back by an invisible blast. She held fast to the sphere belonging to her husband, but it nearly fell from her hand and she diverted her attention to grab it before it rolled away. Val strained as she fought her own body, and Veon completely stopped fighting to break down the barrier. Val was forced to aim him towards the Followers that were descending upon her, and while Veon was staggeringly efficient at ripping the Followers to shreds, Val couldn't move from her location and turning Veon back to the barrier was becoming more of a struggle from her new vulnerable position.
Livvy was fighting gloriously, feinting and parrying with her saber, driving Followers towards Ty. He was carrying a seraph blade, one that blazed brightly in his grip. As a blond Follower lurched into him, he drove the blade into the back of the dead man's neck. There was a searing, crackling noise as the seraph blade met flesh and the Follower began to burn. He staggered away, clawing at his burning flesh, before tumbling to the ground.
"Seraph blades!" Emma called. "Everyone! Use your seraph blades! Val get back to work!"
Lights blazed up through the cavern and Emma heard the murmur of voices calling the names of angels. Jophiel, Rameil, Duma. The Shadowhunters dashed to hold the line and push back the Followers away from Val.
The Shadowhunters descended on Val's location as the warlock turned Veon back to the protection circle.
"Too late, Valaeyasha," Malcolm muttered. He had control of Fionn's blade and swung down to strike Octavian Blackthorn.
Thunderous hooves. A sound pierced the room, something between a howl and the crash of an enormous bell. It bounced off the walls, a brutal echo, and even Malcolm looked up. Windspear and Zoltan exploded from the mouth of the tunnel.
Selina sat on Zoltan, eyes glowing with the power of the moon. Kieran sat behind her, hair shimmering blue-green as he swung a blade that was the same sea color. Kieran held up his hand towards Malcolm as though he was Thor trying to summon Mjölnir. Julian sat astride Windspear, his hands buried in the horse's mane. Mark was behind him, gripping his brother's belt. They seemed to blur almost into one person as Windspear leaped.
Fionn's blade ripped from Malcolm's grasp, the tip of the knife flying up towards the barrier of the protection circle and surging with energy as it began to cut through the warding. "I took an oath to slay my brother should the time come for this curse to be dismissed!" Kieran announced. "Unfortunately for you, Malcolm Fade, that means that even my brother's soul will not be enough to overpower my will - I am the owner of this blade now, and it will not take an innocent life this night!"
Malcolm gaped as the horses hurtled through the air, smashing their hooves on the protective barrier. Striking on either side of the cursed dagger that was already slicing through the protection, the barrier shattered. As Windspear sailed over the table, Julian flung himself from the horse's back, falling heavily onto the flat stone surface beside Tavvy. Emma felt the bone-jarring shock of his pain go through her own body.
Mark kept his seat on Windspear as he swept over the table and landed on the other side of the outer circle. The circle itself, now pierced, began to writhe like an illuminated serpent, the runes flaring up one by one and then going out.
Kieran caught Fionn's weapon as it sailed into his hand at his bidding once the barrier snapped. Selina and Zoltan aimed for the ring of fire where Finnegan and Fionn were trapped and Kieran sliced through the barrier with a final kick from Zoltan to cause protection to shatter.
Selina hopped from Zoltan's back and knelt beside her parabatai, helping him pull to his feet. "You okay?"
Finn nodded. Beyond having a bit of bruising from the tight restraints, he just flexed his arms and legs before grabbing his seraph violin. "Ready."
Julian was pulling himself up onto his knees. Malcolm snarled and reached for Tavvy - just as Kieran launched himself from Zoltan and knocked him to the ground. He raised his sea-colored blade that shimmered with his hair and plunged down towards Malcolm's chest, but Malcolm threw his hands up. Dark purple light exploded from his palms, hurling Kieran back. Malcolm rose to his feet, his face twisted in a snarl of hate. He flung out a hand to crush Kieran into dust. Windspear gave a scream. Zoltan charged up electricity and stomped his hoof to blast Malcolm, effectively paralyzing him for enough time so that Windspear could whirl around, hooves raised, and punch them into Malcolm's back; somehow Mark kept his seat. The warlock went flying.
"By the angel, that was amazing and terrifying," Finnegan muttered. Windspear, red eyes wide, reared and snorted.
"Just get Fionn onto Zoltan's back, now!" Selina snapped.
The two parabatai worked in tandem to lift Fionn up onto the horse, who knelt to help make the job a bit easier. Finn scanned the area. When Malcolm had been sent flying by the horse, he'd dropped Fionn's memory sphere.
Mark, grabbing a fistful of Windspear's mane, leaned down, his other hand outstretched towards Kieran. "Take it. Kieran, take my hand."
Kieran reached up, and Mark pulled him upright, hauling him onto Windspear's back. They swung around and charged at a knot of Followers, the horse scattering them, Mark and Kieran reaching down to finish off the living dead with the strokes of their swords.
Selina ran to Val, striking down Followers as she went. Veon was now devoting his full attention to protecting Val since the protection circle had been broken. She first hauled Maxine onto her shoulder and then grabbed Laura beside her, snatching up Laura's memory sphere and shoving it into her bag. Dumping the two at Val's feet while Veon held the line, Selina dived back into the fray to retrieve Andraeus.
Finnegan mounted Zoltan, steadying Fionn in front of him, draped limp over the horse's back. He started playing a violent tune as Zoltan dashed around and joined in the destruction of the Followers as quickly as possible.
'Their numbers are multiplying.'
"What?! How?!"
'Malcolm had many Followers, yes, but upon their death, a Necromian spell could summon many more dead with only a few sacrifices. In fact, I'd wager that every time we kill them, we're merely summoning more. The convergence is being used to power a perpetual reanimation spell. It's why the demons outside continued to regenerate, and why the Followers will continue to do so as well.'
"Then we aim for Malcolm! Go!"
Malcolm was dragging himself to his feet. His once-white jacket was liberally stained now with dirt and blood. He began to move towards the table, where Julian was kneeling over Tavvy, tugging at the chains that bound him. Emma leaped through the broke protection circle, crouched, and flung herself upwards. She landed on the table in a kneeling position, beside Julian.
"Move away!" was all she had time to gasp. "Julian, move!"
He rolled away from his brother, though she knew that letting go of Tavvy was the last thing he wanted to do. He slid to the edge of the table and rose to his knees, leaning back. Trusting Emma. Giving her space. A blade made by Wayland the Smith can cut anything. She swung down with Cortana, a few inches from Tavvy's wrist. The edge of the blade sliced through the chain and it fell away, rattling. Malcolm screamed, and a flash of violet fire split the room.
"Tides!" Selina shouted. Her seraph blades - one in each hand - began shimmering with the light lavender of her moonlight before they shot out streams of sea water, dousing some of Malcolm's flames and clearing a path. "Go! Come on!"
Being enhanced, Selina was able to carry both Max and Laura (who were relatively light anyway), while Val supported her husband, still keeping hold of his memory sphere in order to remain in control of herself. With Veon covering them under Val's control, they began to fight their way to the exit. Zoltan dashed towards their defense and helped clear a path through the Followers, shouting some things about Val needing to wake up Laura and Max at the very least because they could use the damn help!
"I'll have to drop Zytaveon!" Val warned.
"Then we'll cover you!" Finn shouted. "Just get them up and running!"
Emma slashed down again with Cortana, severing the other chains holding Tavvy to the table. "Go! Get him out of here!"
Julian caught up his little brother in his arms. Octavian hung limp, his eyes rolled back. Julian leaped down from the table and vanished into the tunnel. Mark and Kieran were trapped at one end of the room by a group of Followers, Diego and Cristina at another. Malcolm was advancing on Ty and Livvy. He raised his hand again - and a small figure flew towards him, holding up a blazing seraph blade. Dru.
"Stay away from them!" she shrieked, her blade shining between them. "Stay away from my brother and sister!"
Malcolm snarled, curling his finger towards her. A rope of purple light coiled around Dru's legs, jerking her off her feet. The seraph blade rolled away, sputtering against the stone. "I still need Blackthorn blood," Malcolm said, reaching down for her. "And yours will do as well as your little brother's would have. In fact, you look like you'd have a lot more of it-"
"Stop!" Emma shouted.
Malcolm looked up at her - and froze. Emma was standing upright on the stone table. One hand clutched Cortana. The other held the candelabra of Hands of Glory.
"It took you a long time to collect these, didn't it?" she said in a cold voice. "The hands of thirteen murderers. Not so easy. And now that your precious cult is gone, you won't be able to make more, huh?"
Malcolm released Dru and she scuttled away towards the far side of the room, scrabbling at her belt for another weapon. Malcolm's face contorted. "Give it back."
"Call them off," Emma demanded instead. "Call off your Followers, and I'll give you back your Hands of Glory."
"Deprive me of my chance to regain Annabel, and you will pay with agony!" he snarled.
"Can't be worse than the agony of hearing you talk."
"Get down!"
Finnegan had just enough time to recognize Ace's voice before dozens of card Portals opened across the area and out of them shot enormous living vines. They snatched up the Followers like giant octopus tentacles. Diego and Cristina were pinned in the corner of the room, weapons raised, only to be stunned as the Followers were dragged away, sizzling at the touch of the greenery gripping them and pulling them back through the card Portals. Mark and Kieran were astride Windspear, both laying about themselves with blades. The horse's hooves were stained red-brown with blood. Kieran was wielding both his regular blade as well as throwing Fionn's knife and recalling it - seemingly using its disruptive properties to break the spells on the Followers instantly.
Finnegan was riding atop Zoltan with Selina on the ground helping defend the line and prevent Malcolm's fire from closing in on them. The vines swept the Followers before them away as they were sucked into the card Portals. Zoltan reared, nearly hit by the vines, but he seemed more perturbed than actually threatened. By the time the large vines within the card Portals disappeared, a single card Portal opened and Ace walked through - along with a tall person with a mane of curly blond hair that stretched down their back and to their knees.
"I did it!" they squealed. "Boom, I am awesome, aren't I?"
"Missed a few." Ace flicked his hand and shot a Follower that was still standing in the head, causing it instantly to collapse.
Diego and Cristina dashed over to Dru; Kieran trotted over to Zoltan and brought Windspear to a halt. The faerie steeds knickered and then stood still as the dead fell dead once again.
Malcolm charged towards the table. Emma ran the length of it, sprang off the end, and landed lightly on the floor. Then she kept running. She ran towards the rows of chairs that had been set up for the Followers, down the aisle between them, and into the shadows. The faint glow of Cortana gave enough light that she could see a dark corridor between the rocks, snaking away into the hill. She plunged into it with Malcolm giving chase.
"She needs help-"
"Get the others out of here," Ace snapped. "Get them far from the convergence and its power - which is under Malcolm's control. He still has-"
Laughter. It sounded like young children, their voices whispering in the wind, swirling around the area. When they spoke, it was clearly multiple voices, though the genders weren't very easy to discern with the mutual high pitch of the young voices.
"You ruined our fun~"
"We're not done yet~"
"Play with us some more~!"
"Malcolm promised us new toys ~ So many toys~"
"You are ours now ~ Malcolm gave you to us, and you are ours~"
"What are they saying?" Livvy snapped.
"Necromians that Malcolm made deals with!" Ace explained. "They're the reason the demons and the Followers kept multiplying! Summoned and strengthened by spells from the Black Volume, no doubt."
"We need to get everyone away from the convergence and its power!" Selina shouted. "Out of their range!"
The air became heavy with rage as the area began to pick up with dark winds.
"You can't leave! You are OURS!"
"You have to PLAY WITH US!"
The stone floor trembled as boney hands began to break the surface. Skeletons, ghouls, ghosts emerged from the ground and some even from the walls. Cristina was shouting Spanish expletives while the Blackthorns quickly jumped into action to cut the undead zombies down. At first, they only seemed to wander about aimlessly, making them easy to dispatch with the glowing seraph blades, but soon, the creatures were coming out armed like ancient Roman warriors.
"Get out of here!" Ace ordered. "We'll cover you! Shu?"
The blonde beside him blinked in surprise as though asking 'Me?' but then they nodded and threw their hands out. Spreading their feet, a wave of fire spread from them at the epicenter, forming a circle of what resembled a wildfire burning away shrubbery to leave only the soil. They raised their arms up and the giant vines that had attacked the Followers from before burst free within the soil, outlined by a thin veil of fiery heat. The vines waved like tentacles and shot out to grab the zombies and pull them out of the way.
The Blackthorns and their friends rushed to the cave exit.
Max and Laura helped Selina escort Val, Andy, and Veon away as well. Max helped get Diana, with Kieran using Fionn's knife to free her from her bonds. Finnegan let Zoltan trot out with Windspear as they made their way up and out, moving away from the convergence with the Astrals running support.
"That was…unusually easy." The Blackthorns all looked uneasy from their experience down in the convergence.
"Easy? That was scary~!" The blond Astral with all the plants squirmed like they'd had a lemon in their mouth.
"Emma distracted Malcolm," Finnegan pointed out. "Malcolm had a lot of defenses, but he wasn't prepared for…whatever that was. And with Emma drawing him away, he couldn't properly stop the rest of us."
"Shu, you're not telling me you're afraid of Necromian magic?" Ace asked. He raised a skeptical eyebrow. "You haven't forgotten who you're married to, right?"
Shu resembled a child being scolded for not brushing their teeth. "No…but those ones were scary!"
"Ugh…" Finn could almost see the tick mark forming on Ace's forehead. "And I called you powerful…"
Shu wrung their hands impatiently, twirling their finger into their hair. A childish personality and ambiguously gendered features carefully hid a dangerous, powerful beast. They slipped next to Fionn and helped Kieran settle the faerie into the grass.
"In any case, thanks for the assistance, but Emma's still down there!" Dru exclaimed. "With Malcolm!"
"We can get her," Laura volunteered. "With Val out here and out of Malcolm's range, we'll be able to actually fight Malcolm. Besides, we'll be able to fight those ghouls and navigate the tunnels under the convergence. Finnegan?"
He nodded. "Right."
"Water under the convergence," Selina pointed out. "I'm in."
"I'm coming too," Julian announced. "Emma's my parabatai. I'm not leaving her."
"Then we better hurry. The rest of you, stay out here and don't do anything stupid. Malcolm needs Blackthorn blood. We'll watch over Julian, but the rest of you need to stay safe in case Malcolm pulls something. Can't be too careful."
"We'll watch over them," Ace promised.
"Finnegan!" Val called. "I wasn't able to grab Fionn's sphere. What about the rest of you?"
The collective Astrals all shared an odd look, but one that meant nothing but trouble.
"We'll get it back," Selina promised. There was urgency laced in her voice.
"Take Shu," Val advised. "An Infernian will be useful in retrieving the sphere. And Shu has experience with Necromian magic. Might be able to shut down Malcolm's plan entirely and keep those kid Necromians at bay."
"Me?" Shu moved like a cartoon, emotive with every part of their body. Even their hair seemed to reel in surprise and then deflate like it had been dunked into water. "Aw…"
"Just do it," Ace snapped. "You're not that weak."
Finnegan didn't need to speak to his parabatai as they dashed away together. Julian rushed ahead, worry for his own parabatai gripping his heart. Now that his siblings were safe, he had one more part of his family he needed to rescue - a part of his heart that felt like everything to him.
Laura quickly kissed Max on the cheek and muttered a quick, "Be back in a few," before she hurried to join the others.
Shu sighed and threw their arms up. "Death children here I cooooome~!"
Chapter title: 'King of the Clouds' by Panic! At the Disco