Craven Manor(67)

Black blood dribbled from the wolflike skull where she’d impacted the stone. She turned towards Daniel, but before she could move more than a step towards him, Annalise dashed in front of her.

“Be careful!” Daniel ran forward. A swipe from the immense claws grazed the tips of Annalise’s hair. The girl was fast and light on her feet but too reckless. She twirled to face the monster as she darted through another sculpture.

Eliza had learned from her first mistake. Instead of chasing blindly, she swiped at the statue. Stone fragments sliced through nearby vegetation as she obliterated the dancing fawn.

Daniel tossed another handful of salt behind himself, finishing a poor barrier around one half of the circle. Then he ran forward, keeping his steps as light as he could and weaving behind the fountain to avoid drawing too much attention. The black creature prowled around the basin’s other side. Its eyes were fixed on Annalise, and it didn’t react to Daniel as he approached from behind.

Annalise toyed with the beast, dancing forward and then leaping back. Her movements kept Eliza’s attention fixed on her, but it also brought her dangerously close to the snapping jaws. Daniel took a breath to steel himself then pulled the bag off his shoulder and lunged forward. He threw the sack into the air, launching its salt across the congealed shadows. At the same time, he threw himself onto the monster’s back.

Eliza reacted as soon as the salt touched her. She arched, eyes blazing, and a sound somewhere between a roar and a human’s scream ripped out of her. The shadows thrashed as plumes of smoke billowed off them. Daniel hit her back and dug his hand and legs in. It was one of the most bizarre sensations he’d ever experienced, like clutching air that refused to give under his fingers. She was colder than the arctic, and tremors ran through his skin as though he’d landed on a live wire.

It was working, though. The salt had distracted her enough that his presence wasn’t her priority. She bucked and thrashed, but the motions weren’t intended for him, and no claws dug into his side. Daniel clung on with all of his strength and reached one hand into his shirt for the talisman.

His fingers touched skin. Daniel’s heart lurched as he fumbled for the leather straps and silver-wrapped vial. He came up empty.

No! He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. Did I drop it? Where?

Eliza’s scream boiled down into a rumbling growl. The plumes of smoke thinned as the salt ceased to burn her. She twisted her head, and one of the electric-cold eyes latched on to Daniel. He could feel its intensity like poison in his blood.

Daniel pushed away from the creature and grunted as he hit the ground. The impact jarred his head, still sore from the fight in the foyer, and a spark of understanding hit Daniel. He wanted to scream. Kyle must have taken the talisman. He would have seen the vial while Daniel lay unconscious in Craven Manor’s foyer. Kyle wasn’t the kind to ignore a trinket that might be valuable, especially not when its owner wasn’t in a position to guard it. He would have snapped the cord off Daniel’s neck and carried it away. Where? Deeper into the house, which is now being consumed by flames? Or into the garden and towards the town?

Both options carried it far beyond Daniel’s reach. The monster twisted towards him. It had grown impossibly large. As its jaws widened, the stench of rot and evil flowed out of them.

A glint of light appeared beside Daniel. Annalise’s open palm smacked the monster’s head as she leapt past it in a desperate effort to distract it. The attempt worked a little too well. The monster twisted after her, and the maw snagged her hair.

Annalise tumbled to the ground. Her mouth opened in a scream that no one heard. She tried to crawl backwards, away from the beast, but it kept its jaw locked on her hair. A flick of its head dragged the girl forward, and Annalise’s face crumpled in pain.

“No!” Daniel beat at the wolflike head, but his fists seemed to cause it no more pain than a gnat. The closest glowing eye locked on to him. It seemed to be laughing. Eliza knew she had won. A massive claw-tipped hand rose and pressed into Annalise’s back.

A high-pitched shriek came from the sky. Daniel, trapped in a whirlwind of horror and fear, couldn’t identify the sound. Then the cry was joined by a flurry of beating wings, and he was buffeted back.

Daniel lifted his arms to shield his face, but he didn’t need to. The crows paid no more attention to him than they did to Annalise. They were focussed on one object alone: the beast made of shadows. The birds—at least two dozen of them—swooped at it in waves. Each time they descended, they pecked. Some came away carrying threads of shadow. One fluttered out of reach with something round and moist glistening in its beak. Daniel gagged as he recognised the object as an eye.

Eliza’s scream was loud enough to make Daniel’s ears ache. Her head whipped as she tried to fix her jaws around the birds. Gore oozed from the plucked eye, and when she jerked, globs flew out and splattered across the mud.

Daniel scrambled back. It took a moment to find Annalise amongst the motion; the girl was cowering behind the empty fountain. She held both hands above her head and pressed her face into the ground. Daniel called to her, but she didn’t respond.

One of the pecking, flapping birds was larger than the others. It was struggling to stay in the air, each beat laboured, and its wings were missing plumage. It seemed to be leading the flock and ventured closer to the frothing teeth than the others dared.

“Bran!” Daniel’s voice was hoarse. He scrambled closer, hand stretched out. “I don’t have the talisman! Be careful!”