Page 111 of Summer of Sacrifice

Time was not on their side, so she sat next to him and cut to the chase. “We did have the incorrect location. The constellation we discerned from the map’s symbols was inverted and upside down. Chresedia is headed for Helsvar.”

Emile’s face contorted in thought. “That’s unexpected, but it’s a fair bit more poetic, I’d say. Have we let everyone know?”

Seleste nodded. “We’ve done what we can to inform everyone, yes.”

“Good.”

“What is it you need to discuss?”

“Ah, well, I received a lengthy letter from Agatha this morning. It would seem she and Grimm have a great deal to tell us. I do hope they make it here in time to see some of the fair.”

Seleste murmured her agreement as they both soaked up the sun, the hint of Autumn on the breeze turning her thoughts dark. Summer’s End would always be a difficult time for her.

“Did you hear that?”

Emile turned toward her alarmed face. “Hear what?”

Screams broke out across the green, beginning where the field met the forest and bleeding in toward the crowd. Seleste stood, locking eyes with Sorscha across the gaggle of children.

Gaius was already on his feet, paint spilling in his wake as he began shouting at the children to run inside the castle. “Guards!” he roared above the panic. “Guards! Get the children barricaded inside!”

Something was coming. And Seleste feared she knew precisely what.

Sorscha jumped over a fallen chair, dodging the mad rush of people. “Ready?”

“We have to be, now don’t we?”

Emile fell into step just behind them as they fought upstream, the crowd wild. He shouted his own set of orders, clear the area, stay calm, go home, lock your doors. Winnie and Eleanor ran from the large tent in the centre of the green, dress skirts in one hand and daggers in the other.

“What’s happened?” Winnie yelled over the noise, Tomás and Lydia skidding to a stop behind them.

But no one needed to answer. At once, they all saw it. A wall of at least fifteen snarling, undead beasts, and Laurent already beating them back with sparks of flying magic and an axe.

“A little fucking help here!” he shouted over his shoulder.

As one, they all took off at a sprint, Sorscha’s magic raining down fire at the same time Winnie’s shot spears of ice.

“Remove their heads!” Winnie screamed, jumping atop a creature as it clawed at her, hollow eyes terrifying in the revealing light of the sun. Eleanor let out a war cry Seleste never would have imagined she had in her, fearlessly slicing at any beast she neared. Emile grabbed Seleste’s arm and wordlessly pulled her around to the side of the wall of beasts. They went back-to-back, shooting out magic to wound the creatures long enough for Winnie and Laurent to cut off their heads.

“Behind them!” a voice shouted somewhere off to Seleste’s left. Arielle, up in a tree. “Seleste! Behind the monsters!”

“Oh, gods,” Emile cursed. Robed Order Acolytes funnelled onto the green, stepping over their fallen beasts.

Sorscha went feral. Dodging the undead, she headed straight for the Acolytes, attacking them with the ferocity of a rabid animal, clawing and scratching as much as she rained her magic down on them.

“Stay here,” Seleste commanded Emile before rushing in. A stray shot of magic sliced Seleste’s arm as she went straight for the throat with her own magic, cutting off the heads of beasts and Acolytes alike, without pausing to consider how terrible it made her.

Her only thought was for her Sister Spring, surrounded.

Sorscha cried out, a blade of magic slicing her thigh. Still, she fought, Seleste cutting through and coming up beside her. Together they sliced down three Acolytes, with too much of their own blood spilt. Sorscha had a nasty gash on her thigh and one on her cheek, but Seleste’s adrenaline was pumping too hard for her to register where her own wounds were.

The green finally went eerily quiet, and Winnie came up behind them, panting. “Sit down,” she gasped out. “I need to heal you both.”

Sorscha collapsed to the grass, Seleste close to doing the same, but she looked to the side where Emile had been standing. And he was gone.

She took off at a hobbled run, Winnie near to tackling her as she hauled her to a stop.

“Emile!” Seleste cried. “Where is he!”

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