The safe room had its own generator and electrical supply separate from the castle, which meant Fox, Alex, and Robbins could depend on light and power for a time. Fox knew Alex was tired, but she couldn't get him to settle down and sleep on the cot. He kept trying to play, and one of his favorite games was moving and floating objects around, so anything that wasn't glued, welded, or screwed down was floating about the confines of the safe room. Because Robbins was blind, he didn't notice much of it, though he occasionally swatted at the air in front of his face after an object went zooming past.
It didn't feel like they had been there long, however, before the intercom on the door activated. Bronx lifted his head up weakly, but then laid back down.
"Fox?"
Hearing her name, Fox stood up and moved toward the door. The voice had sounded like Angela's, but she couldn't trust what she heard or saw. Not with a fae queen lurking about, potentially trying to lure her out. She looked at the camera feed that showed the other side of the door, and she saw the young female gargoyle with her partner, Broadway, standing outside.
"Xanatos told us to come for you and tell you that it's safe to come out now," Angela said.
Fox paused. Something wasn't right. Why would her husband send Angela instead of coming for them himself? She glanced at her child and Robbins before looking back at the security feed.
"What's the passcode?" she demanded through the comm.
Only David would know the word they used as a password for emergencies… and other more fun escapades. If he couldn't come for them himself, he would have sent them with the code.
"Queen's Gambit," Broadway replied.
Her concerns were eased somewhat by the correct answer, but something was off. Fox could feel it. There was even something about them. The way they stood seemed different, like they were uncomfortable in their own bodies, and their eyes had a glazed over quality to them. But they knew the code word. David wouldn't have told them unless something had happened and he couldn't get to them himself, and suddenly her concerns went to husband. Maybe she could go and help him while one of the gargoyles stayed with Alex in the safe room until she could be sure it was truly safe? She put in the code that released the electromagnetic lock and opened the door, but as soon as she did, Bronx let out a low, warning growl.
Something was definitely wrong.
Fox tried to shut the door, but Broadway leapt forward and grabbed her by the arm, his talons dug into the fabric of her dress and scored her skin, and she cried out at the unexpected attack and the searing pain of those heavy, sharp talons piercing her skin, but before she could react further, Broadway viciously threw her out of the safe room and across her husband's office. She slammed into the desk, sweeping the computer, phone, and lamp off the desktop as her body rolled unimpeded across it before landing on the ground.
"What is happening?" Robbins said, alarmed by the commotion.
Broadway and Angela strode unimpeded into the safe room where Alex was curled up on the cot. He clutched his gargoyle-like teddy bear and whimpered softly. His friends had just hurt his mom and he didn't know why they would do that. He'd never looked at them with fear before, but as Angela reached for him, his eyes grew wide with terror.
Angela paused momentarily. Her eyes cleared, and the hand that was outstretched trembled as it retracted as though fighting against something that was holding it back.
A bolt of fae green energy slammed into Broadway's back, throwing him savagely into the far wall. Fox stepped into the doorway of the safe room, the same green energy coursing around her as her hair whipped around wildly. She turned her sights on Angela and brought up her hand to blast the gargoyle female away from her child, when a cold-blue orb of light shot out of Broadway's unconscious body and reformed into the ghost of a male gargoyle that resembled Brooklyn, but with additional white facial hair resembling sideburns. He slammed into Fox before she could attack Angela, shoving her back roughly toward the door. Fox's head slammed against the doorframe, knocking her out cold.
Bronx weakly stood up and tried to leap forward at the ghost, but the Brooklyn-like ghost knocked him back against the wall where he crumpled and lay still.
"Mrs. Xanatos?" Jeffrey said as he tried to feel his way around the room. He wished he had Gilly with him.
Angela struggled in vain against her inner subjugator, but ultimately succumbed once more to the being that possessed her, and she scooped the little boy up off the cot.
Alex knew he could use his powers to defend himself, but he was afraid of hurting his friends. Angela was his friend. He knew that. She had always been kind to him and would play with him or read him stories. He didn't know what was going on, he didn't know why his mommy wouldn't move, but he could sense that something was wrong with his friends.
"Help!" he cried in his tiny toddler voice.
"Leave the child alone!" Robbins ordered in the direction he had heard Alex call for aid. He wielded his cane like a sword in defense, but Angela grabbed his cane and yanked it away roughly, then she backhanded him, and he fell backwards near Broadway's unconscious form. He struggled to get back up, unsure of his footing or where he was lying now. The male ghost reentered the aquamarine gargoyle's body, taking possession of it once more, and he rose from the ground and stumbled after Angela who carried the inconsolably crying child in her arms, leaving everyone else behind.
...
...
As Brooklyn, Katana, and Lexington followed Demona out of the Great Hall, they ran past Nashville and Fu-Dog. Refusing to be left behind this time, Nashville followed the foursome. Not wanting to leave their gargoyle beast unattended, Brooklyn gathered him up and carried him down to the kitchen with them. Once there, Demona explained her plan.
"The ghosts can be contained in a ring of salt. If we can lure them away from Mab, we can potentially trap them, and keep them away until Samhain ends at the stroke of midnight," she explained. "I need two of you to pour a half circle of salt on the ground out in the courtyard. The rest of you will lure them into the circle, and once they're in, close the circle behind them."
"Do you think the salt will actually work?" Lexington asked, skeptical that something as simple as a kitchen staple could contain the spirits.
"It will work," Demona said firmly.
Brooklyn eyed her balefully.
"Why are you helping us?" he asked, saying aloud what everyone else had been thinking.
"Whether I like it or not, this is my daughter's home, and right now, it is a danger to her. Since I cannot convince her to quit this place or this clan, the castle must be cleansed. I will do whatever it takes to keep her safe. I do not care what happens to the rest of you," Demona said flatly.
Brooklyn stroked his muzzle thoughtfully, but nodded.
"How do we plan to lure the ghosts away from Mab?" Nashville asked.
Demona eyed a bag of flour that was sitting on the counter. The way it was slumped over, like someone napping, gave her an idea.
"With a little spell I memorized from the Grimorum," she said.
Lexington and Brooklyn exchanged a skeptical glance, but when she explained, they readily agreed.
"Alright, we've got thirty minutes to midnight. Let's get to it," Brooklyn declared, and they got to work putting Demona's plan into motion.
...
...
Xanatos groaned, and opened his eyes as he started to come to. Everything was blurry for a few moments, but when his vision cleared he could see the ghosts bearing down on him and the others. They had gotten so close that he could feel the icy chill of death coming off of them. The shaker of salt was empty, and he no longer had his sword. He looked around quickly for something to use against them and spotted Demona's discarded shotgun, but the ghosts separated him from it, and there was nothing else nearby.
"Hey, Mab. You want the kid?"
Xanatos whipped his head toward the sound of Brookyn's voice and saw him standing in the doorway off the Great Hall nearest the elevators carrying a sleeping toddler in his arms.
He felt like his heart stopped.
"No," he groaned.
Mab snapped her head toward Brooklyn, zeroing in on the child he carried. Her face lit up with avarice as the object of her plotting and goals, and all the violence she had orchestrated to get to him, was finally within her grasp.
Xanatos forced himself to stand. He didn't care if this was part of some greater plan, but using his son as bait was beyond the pale.
But then he noticed something off about his son. Why wasn't he moving or speaking? Alex was animated and talkative from when he woke up in the morning until the moment he exhausted himself and finally passed out at night.
And there was also something leaking from the bottom of his pajamas where one of Brooklyn's talons pressed into him. Something white and powdery was beginning to pool on the ground at the gargoyle's feet.
He knew in his gut the gargoyles would never endanger his son, and he had to trust that they knew what they were doing, so he kept up the pretense that he thought Brooklyn had his son before Mab noticed the same things he did.
"Let my son go!" he shouted angrily at Brooklyn.
"You want him? Come and get him!" the Timedancer taunted, and then he turned and ran back down the hall.
"Get the child!" Mab shrieked out the order to the spirits, and they quickly drifted off after Brooklyn, leaving Mab in the Great Hall with Xanatos, Goliath, Elisa, and Hudson.
Without the ghosts, the room became darker, with only the safety lights and the light pollution from the city below filtering in through the windows, but Goliath and the others knew they could finally take a stand against Mab and they all slowly advanced upon her. Mab had spent the last several months ensuring they were all weaponless and as divided as possible, thereby rendering them more vulnerable, especially against a fae queen wielding a blaster, but Goliath and Elisa briefly glanced at each other, and shared a look.
She couldn't take them all out at once.
Mab rounded on each of them in turn, aiming her blaster randomly at Goliath, then Elisa, then on to Xanatos, and finally to Hudson, and then back and forth, and back and forth again.
"Don't even try it," she warned.
While Mab had her back turned, Demona snuck in through the door of the west corridor. Goliath kept his eyes off her, not wanting to give her movements away as she raised her blaster, readying to fire.
But then Angela emerged through the door near the elevators, carrying Alex. The real Alex. Not one conjured out of flour and made to look like a child, but rather a genuine child who was overtired, confused, and crying out of fear. Mab whirled toward the sound of the child's cries, and saw not only Angela and Alex, but Demona as well, causing her to freeze in her tracks.
"Angela?" Goliath said, alarmed.
"The child…" Mab said, momentarily confused. "Quick! Bring him to me!"
"What are you doing? Get him away from her!" Xanatos belowed at Angela.
Why did Angela have his son? And where was Fox? There was no way she would let him out of her sight, unless something had happened to her, and he felt terror rise in his throat.
Angela ignored all of their shouts and protests to leave, to take Alex away. She continued to walk toward the center of the Great Hall with the child. Broadway stumbled through the doorway behind her, the same odd expression on his face.
Demona saw the glazed-over look in her daughter's eyes and knew immediately that she was not in control of her body. The thought that someone would control her daughter against her will enraged her. Her eyes lit up like crimson fire, and she pulled the blaster from her back and aimed it at Mab.
"What have you done to my daughter!" Demona roared with fury,
"I only need the child," Mab warned, aiming her blaster at Angela.
"No!" Goliath roared.
"Don't you dare!" Demona hissed at Mab.
Alex noticed his father and his wails grew stronger as he strained against Angela and reached out toward him, fat tears rolling down his cheeks.
"Daddy!" he cried.
"Alex," Xanatos groaned in despair. He moved toward his son, to save him. He didn't care if Mab took him out in the process, he had to save his son. And then he realized that his feet were no longer touching the ground but he was still moving across the Great Hall. The look of concentration on his son's face was all he needed to know that Alex was using magic to pull him toward him out of sheer will and desperation.
Mab swiftly turned and fired, clipping Xanatos in the shoulder, and knocking him back to the floor. Demona took the opening and fired at Mab, but at the same moment her talon squeezed the trigger, her daughter's mate plowed into her from behind, tackling her like a linebacker. Her shot went wild and over Mab's head, striking the enormous, tiered chandelier suspended over the dais where the banquet tables had stood earlier in the evening.
A wave of horror crashed through Goliath as he realized the huge sparkling mass of lights and crystals hung directly over Angela and Alex.
He had no time to warn his daughter as he saw the chandelier snap free of the mount holding it to the ceiling, nor did he think she would listen if he tried. He dropped to all fours and leapt across the room to protect her and Alex. He caught the pair in his arms, rolling and twisting in midair so that he landed on his back, taking the brunt of the impact against the stone floor, knocking the wind out of him momentarily.
The chandelier hit the floor a hair's breadth after Goliath cleared the space directly beneath it. It shattered into hundreds of thousands of lead-cut crystal shards that sprayed across the immediate vicinity like shrapnel from a landmine. Goliath managed to pull his thick leathery wings up around himself, his daughter, and Alex, shielding them from the worst of it, but he felt each and every one of those shards as they pierced his flesh.
Demona struggled against her "son-in-law", who turned out to be much stronger than she'd previously assumed. She tried to fight him off with the blaster, using it like a club against him, knowing Angela would never forgive her if she outright murdered her daugher's mate, even in self-defense. But her approach proved inadequate as Broadway grabbed the end of the weapon, wrenched it free from Demona's grasp, and crushed it between his talons, utterly pulverizing it. Demona growled in frustration, and kicked him savagely away from her.
Goliath slowly rose to his feet, his great, hulking arms still wrapped tightly around Angela and Alex, and then shook his wings out to clear them of the vicious shards that were embedded in his skin. A second later, hundreds of tiny pinprick-sized beads of blood welled up all over the surface of his wings where the crystals had sliced into him. He could not dwell on the damage or the pain, however. His larger concern was protecting Angela and the child.
They both appeared unharmed, but Angela was fighting hard against him, struggling to pull herself free of his hold so she could deliver the squirming child to Mab. Alex, over the surprise of the fall, was crying and flailing his limbs in earnest again, reaching for his father who was struggling to get up off the floor. Goliath forcefully pulled the wailing child from Angela, and held each of his charges in a separate arm, hellbent on shielding them from Mab and from each other.
Mab had managed to sidestep the crush of the chandelier and continued to aim her blaster at anything that dared move or breathe in the room.
"Give me the child!" she shrieked again, her voice almost pleading this time.
The beseeching tone in her command had a jarring effect, and for the first time, Goliath wondered why Mab needed them to give the child to her directly. After all her time lurking in the castle, why hadn't she silently stolen away with him at some opportune moment when no one was aware of her presence?
"You can't take him yourself, can you?" he said. "You need us to actually give him to you willingly. Because of Oberon's law of interference, or because of some enchantment upon you, is that it?"
Mab growled and ground her jaw. "Hand over the child, or I will destroy you all, one by one," she ordered, as she lifted the blaster up and peered at him through the weapon's sights.
Goliath refused, standing resolute and clutching Alex to his chest, thinking she would shoot him if she must, but he would not waiver.
But Mab only smiled devilishly at him, as if she knew something he didn't, and in the space of a heartbeat, she turned her gaze and the blaster on Elisa who stood too far away for him to do anything to save her.
"NO!" Goliath roared.
Mab ruthlessly pulled the trigger, and a line of heat and light hit Elisa directly in the chest knocking her back.
"ELISA!" Goliath cried out in dismay as he helplessly watched her fall, torn between his injured mate and the endangered child still cradled in his arm. "Hudson!" he cried out in anguish to his mentor who stood nearest to his fallen mate.
"I have her, lad," Hudson hollered as he crouched down over her prone body and gently checked for a pulse.
Though she was out cold, her heartbeat was strong and steady. Hudson made eye contact with Goliath and gave him a subtle, but reassuring nod. The lavender gargoyle's stance relaxed ever so slightly, but he didn't let that wave of relief show for fear that Mab would attempt to finish off his mate if she knew Elisa lived.
"Give me the child, or the aged one's next," Mab said as she lifted the blaster once more and aimed it directly at Hudson.
Shielding Elisa with his body, Hudson stood up straight in defiance against the fae queen. He glanced around, taking quick stock of the situation, as a seasoned warrior would. He noted that the room was quite dim given the emergency lights were still the only illumination. Hudson didn't know how well the fae could see in the dark, but he knew no one appreciated a sudden bright light in their eyes. In a moment of inspiration, he quickly reached for the flashlight that he'd tucked into his belt earlier at Fox's insistence. He swung it forward in an arc-like motion, instantly turning it on and flashing the light directly in Mab's eyes as she pulled down on the trigger. Mab hissed and recoiled from the sudden blinding light, and her shot missed.
Before Mad could collect herself and re-engage her foes, another beam of blinding green light shot across the room and slammed into her. It lifted her bodily up off the ground, knocking the blaster from her hands, and hurling her across the room. At its source came Fox, bursting into the Great Hall in a blaze of swirling red hair and viridescent power, with Robbins and a limping Bronx following close behind. Mab shrieked in agony and anger, teeth bared and eyes wild as she stared down her assailant.
Tendrils of emerald energy continued to undulate around Fox, running up and down her arms and legs, coiling around her torso, and pouring out of her eyes like a vaporous green haze. Her figure-skimming dress was torn and soiled, while blood from a hairline gash poured down half her face. She was a shock to behold. A terrifying fairytale made real.
"Get the fuck out of my home!" Fox roared, her fists crackling with energy, while her burning red locks whipped about her head and shoulders as the acid-green glow of power intensified around her.
Xanatos, still down from Mab's shot, pressed himself up off the ground with a groan to better see his wife, his wounded shoulder protesting at the movement.
"Green always did suit her," he said proudly to himself, as he gazed over at her coruscating radiance.
...
...
Brooklyn ran down the hall, an army of gargoyle ghosts gliding behind him.
"Hey Lex! Catch!" He shouted at his brother, and then he chucked the sack of flour in the guise of Alex, down the hall. Lexington caught it like a football and scrambled ahead, taking a different corridor to meet him outside. Brooklyn ducked into a different passage as the ghosts at his back gained on him. They passed him by, continuing after Lexington who had the "child" they were after.
Lexington wasn't as fast as his brother, and he ran better on all fours, but he couldn't with his arms full. He tried his best, but he could feel the cold creeping up behind him and the occasional brush of outstretched ghostly talons on his back. The sensation set in his panic, and he found the burst of speed he needed to stay just out of reach. He dashed out of the castle into the courtyard where Katana and Gnash were waiting on either side of a half circle of salt they had drawn on the ground.
"Lex! Duck!" Gnash shouted at him, and Lex did, moving into a slide like a baseball player reaching for home base. Gnash tossed a handful of salt into the air that pelted the ghosts that had nearly got their hands on Lex. A few of them dispersed momentarily, giving Lex a chance to get ahead. The green gargoyle's slide came to a stop just before he reached the circle.
Brooklyn sprinted out of a different passage on the other side of the courtyard and the circle.
"Brooklyn!" Lex shouted for his brother and tossed the Alex-flour sack at him. The russet gargoyle caught the sack, but his talons accidentally punctured the paper bag. Flour erupted around him in a white, powdery cloud. The ghosts floated rapidly past Lexington, Katana, and Gnash, ignoring them and going for Brooklyn, but they slammed to a halt, one by one as they hit the barrier of the salt line between him and them.
"Close it!" Brooklyn shouted.
Katana and Nashville worked quickly, pouring salt onto the ground from the edges of the half-circle and then meeting in the middle. A few of the spirits tried to test the barrier behind them, but they recoiled each time they got close to the line. They roared in anger, and their ethereal wings and tails thrashed in defiance against their containment.
"Phew," Brooklyn said slumping. He tossed the bespelled sack of flour that looked disturbingly like Alex was deflating, high into the air—mostly to celebrate their triumph, but perhaps to taunt the ghosts a little as well. More flour rained down on him. Pretty soon he looked less like a gargoyle and more like a powdered jelly donut.
"I can't believe that worked," Lexington said from where he lay on the ground, trying to catch his breath. Nashville walked over to his uncle and held out his hand. Lex took it with a smile, and let him help him up.
"Thanks for your help back there," Lex said.
Nashville smiled and nodded in return.
"I know you would have done the same," he replied.
"Now what do we do with them?" Katana asked as they gathered together and watched as their clan moved agitatedly about the inside of the salt circle.
"I don't know," Brooklyn said. "I hope when midnight rolls around they just… disappear, or leave, go back to where they came from, I guess. I haven't got a clue."
"I hate the thought that they're here," Lexington said morosely. "That they haven't moved on. Maybe that means we don't move on… maybe we're all doomed to linger and aimlessly drift about forever."
"Wow, way to bring the mood down," Brooklyn said to his brother with a laugh.
The wind picked up, blowing a few leaves across the courtyard. They paid it no mind as it was often windy that high above the city.
Until Nashville spotted a problem.
"The wind's destroying the circle!" he shouted.
"Shit!" Brooklyn cursed as he saw the line drag slightly in the wind. If it moved any more, the line would be broken, and the spirits could break free. "We have to fix it!"
They grabbed the boxes of salt, but the wind kicked up again, breaking the circle and blowing the salt away. Unleashed once more, a ghostly roar rose up amongst them, and then they charged.
...
...
Mab recovered fast from Fox's attack, pressing herself up off the floor with her multiple arms. She stared in shock at Fox momentarily. She'd observed the woman for months, and she'd never displayed this much power before. Even the blast she gave her in the bathroom paled in comparison to this.
"You dare attack me?" Mab growled. But she was weaponless, and otherwise defenseless now. Even the ghosts had abandoned her.
Xanatos reached for the blaster she'd dropped from where it lay on the ground, but just then the emergency exit door burst open, and a blond woman dressed in a tight, form-fitting catsuit marched in.
"Yale?" Xanatos said, confused.
The assistant district attorney held up her hand and shouted, "Ventus!" A strong blast of wind immediately knocked the blaster away from Xanatos and across the floor where it landed uselessly at Robbins's feet.
"Desine omnes motus!" Margot Yale uttered sharply as she made a sweeping gesture with her arms.
Everyone was already shocked into immobility by the surprise entrance of the Assistant District Attorney, but the spell ensured that no one could actually move. Aside from their eyes and the slight movement of their chests with each breath, they were completely immobilized.
Everyone, that is, except for Robbins.
"What's going on? What's happening?" he said, turning his head to listen in different directions.
"Grab the child and come with me!" Margot ordered Mab.
The former fae queen momentarily stared at Yale stunned, and then she seized upon the moment and moved toward Alex, who was frozen by the spell in Goliath's arms.
Robbins took the chance to pick up the blaster from the ground. He wasn't sure what it was, but it felt gun shaped, and he thought perhaps he could use it to intimidate them.
"Don't touch the kid!" he yelled, as he aimed the blaster in what he hoped was their direction, and prayed to God that neither of them realized he was blind.
Mab and Yale looked at Robbins stunned.
"How is he unaffected by your magic?" Mab said.
"I don't know... unless…" she paused as she noticed the dark tinted glasses Robbins wore. "He's blind! He's immune since one must see and hear magic to be touched by it. But I bet he couldn't hit the broadside of a barn with that gun. Now grab the child!"
Mab reached out for Alex, and Margot put her hand on Mab.
Robbins was dismayed that they'd seen through his bluff. Yale was right, he couldn't see where he was aiming, and there was a child that could be hit. But… if he didn't do something, the child would be taken, and he knew in his gut that if they were successful in their efforts, he would never be seen again.
He put his finger on the trigger… but he couldn't do it. He couldn't risk hitting Alex.
But then he felt his hand involuntarily depress the trigger, like someone else was squeezing it.
"Lanuae domum!" Margot shouted.
The shot went high, missing everyone, but the blaster in Robbins's hand shifted just slightly, just enough, that it clipped Mab's outstretched arm. She cried out and immediately pulled her hand away, failing to make contact with the child before the words of the spell had left Margot's lips. A split second later, there was a jarring pop sound, and both Margot and Mab were gone, leaving Alex safely behind.
Fox never moved a muscle, but the green light in her eyes slowly faded away.
...
...
Katana and Nashville threw handful after handful of salt out in front of them as the ghosts surrounded the four of them, but it wasn't enough, and the souls of their departed continued to advance.
"What do we do?" Lexington cried.
"We're out of salt!" Nashville shouted as he shook out the last grains into his hand.
The four of them pulled closer to each other, holding each other as the ghosts closed in on them. Brooklyn pulled the three of them into his arms and wings, shielding them all with his own body, awaiting their attack and possibly the end.
And then suddenly the souls stopped.
As the quiet stretched on and Brooklyn realized they hadn't been attacked yet, he opened his only eye, and looked cautiously around. Katana, Nashville, and Lexington also peered out from under Brooklyn's wings as he tentatively pulled them back.
The ghosts stood around them, hovering but not moving otherwise. They seemed confused. Lost. The ghost of a young blue-skinned female with a pair of horns that curved up toward the sky peered at them curiously. Lexington and Brooklyn recognized her as the rookery sister who occasionally joined them in their mischief when they were all hatchlings.
"Brothers?" she said, and her voice was hollow, like a whisper in the wind.
"Sister?" Brooklyn said softly, cautiously.
He'd once had a crush on her. To be fair, he'd had crushes on most of his sisters at one point or another, though he always had a soft spot for a beautiful blue complexion. He had actually considered courting her, if not for the massacre that changed their lives forever… and ended hers.
"What is happening?" a small young male around Nashville's age asked.
"Is she gone?" a tall female from Goliath's generation inquired timidly, the same one who had confronted their leader so harshly in the Great Hall. In life, she had often disagreed with Goliath's leadership, unafraid to stand up to him, and for good reason; even as a shade, she was an intimidating height.
"Who? Do you mean Mab?" Lexington asked. As he spoke, he realized more light was passing through the spirits' forms, and he recalled it had been close to midnight when they left the kitchen.
The shape and outline of the castle became more and more defined behind the apparitions.
They were fading.
"Yes. We don't have much time," Goliath's rookery sister said, but her voice was getting harder to hear. "Mab was influencing us, controlling us…"
She bowed her head and clutched it with her talons.
"My brother… I said things—did things—that I did not mean," she said mournfully. "I was so… confused."
"We believe you," Brooklyn said in a kind voice. "We'll take Mab down. I promise you."
The tall female seemed to recall something, and her face grew drawn with worry.
"There is more you need to know, Mab is—"
But then a distant church bell tolled the midnight hour and marked the end of Samhain. A gust of wind kicked up, and they were gone.