Page 55 of The Iron Vow

Behind us, Nyx drew in a slow breath. “Don’t be so sure, Puck,” she whispered. Turning, I saw her staring with narrowed eyes at the vaulted ceiling overhead. “You might be right, after all.”

Everyone looked up.

There were probably a hundred of them, crawling like huge pale spiders along the ceiling. Withered arms and long, thin legs moved as the horde shuffled lazily overhead. Gaunt faces with no mouths twisted, almost as one, to peer down at us.

Puck groaned. “I hate being right,” he sighed, as the bundles of rags and withered bodies began dropping from the ceiling. They landed with barely audible thumps against the floor, then slowly rose to their feet and staggered forward.

“Everyone, move,” Ash called, pointing his blade out the door. “This isn’t a good place to fight—we’ll be surrounded if we stay here. Keep going!”

A ragged body dropped beside me with a muffled thud, a dagger clutched in one hand as it straightened. I lashed out, shearing through the middle of its torso, and both halves exploded into dust as they fell away.

We sprinted from the room, avoiding creatures that continued to fall from the ceiling, dodging or cutting our way through the ones on the ground. We made our way through the castle, not knowing where we were headed, just trying to stay ahead of the Nightmares.

A blast of icy wind hit me as I followed Ash and the others through an arched doorway, and suddenly, we found ourselves outside in some kind of inner courtyard, surrounded by broken walls and rising towers. Piles of stone and rubble were scattered throughout the open space, as if parts of the surrounding towers had crashed into the courtyard below. One of the walls had been flattened completely, showing a gap that plunged straight down the side of the mountain. An enormous tree, gnarled and bare of leaves, rose up from the courtyard’s center, scraping the sky with twisted branches.

“Oh,” Puck remarked, looking around as we moved across the open space. The mouthless horrors followed us, but at least they weren’t dropping onto our heads from above. “Well, this is a lovely boss arena. What a perfect place for an epic battle, don’t you think, ice-boy? Now all we need is—”

“No.” Ash turned and glared at him. “Puck, I swear, do not say it—”

A wail rose into the air. Sudden and ear-splitting, it swept through the courtyard like an icy wind, causing my stomach to curl and my skin to crawl.

Keirran staggered, turning toward the spot where the wall had fallen away, the blood draining from his face. “She’s coming.”

I took a deep breath and raised my sword, seeing Ash and the others do the same.All right, Wailing One,I thought.We’re ready for you. Show yourself.

The shriek rang out again, making my ears throb. And then, a massive, dark shape rose from beyond the shattered wall. Horns, scales, and beating, leathery wings appeared, as an all-too-familiar creature landed at the edge of the courtyard and let out a scream that made the ground tremble.

My breath caught. Out of all the frightening, terrible things we had seen, I was not expecting the Wailing One to be an actualdragon. Though, as I stared up at it, heart pounding and stomach twisting, I immediately realized my perceptions were wrong. The dragon had two heads, but they were not reptilian, lizard-like, or bestial in any way. Horns sprouted from the skull of a beautiful elven woman, her face twisted into a mask of anguish and despair. The other was a male face whose eyes blazed with fury. The great leathery wings unfurled, and within the folds, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of faces could be seen, melting in and out of the membranes. Hundreds of mouths opened, and a torrent of screaming anguish and despair slammed into me like a tidal wave, making me stagger back.

Keirran fell to his knees, clutching his head. Images flickered around him, shadowy figures that were there one moment, gone the next. The Wailing One screamed again, a piercing shaft of pain through my head, and lunged into the courtyard.

The male head swept down, jaws opening, and a column of fire erupted from its gaping mouth. Ash grabbed Keirran, hauled him to his feet, and yanked him out of the way as the inferno roared across the courtyard. I ducked behind a broken pillar and watched it set the tree ablaze, several mouthless Nightmares bursting into flame as the fire passed over them. Writhing and flailing, they scattered like birds or rolled about on the stones, before turning to dust and blowing away on the wind.

Peering out at the Wailing One, the named Elder Nightmare, I set my jaw. This was what we were here for, but we couldn’t slay the Nightmare without destroying its essence. Heart pounding, I watched our Nyx spring over a wall, vault atop a broken pillar, and launch herself at the Nightmare. Her crescent blades flashed, striking the Wailing One in its long, coiling neck, an instantly lethal blow to anything else. A gash appeared in the Nightmare’s flesh, and both heads screamed, twin voices rising in a unified wail of anger and pain. But almost immediately, the wound closed, sealing itself, and the male head roared as it spun on the Evenfaery. The dark wings flared open, faces pressing forward as they howled, only now they weren’t random strangers but dozens of Varyns, all crying out in pain and rage. More faces appeared, members of her Order, silver-haired and golden-eyed, crowding Varyn as they stared at Nyx, screaming until the noise was deafening.

Nyx stumbled back, wincing. The Wailing One took a booming step toward her, wings still spread wide, and Puck dropped between them with his daggers unsheathed, smiling dangerously as the Nightmare loomed overhead.

“Man, you are not the scariest dragon I’ve ever faced, but you surearethe loudest!” I could barely hear the words over the cacophony of the Wailing One. Even though Puck was very good at making himself heard, the screams of the Nightmare nearly drowned out even his voice. “How are you not completely hoarse by now?”

The Nightmare screamed even louder in reply. Flaring its wings, it turned on Puck, the faces shifting from Varyn and the Order to some familiar and some less recognizable visages. I caught a glimpse of my own face within the folds, twisted into a horrible mask of pain and rage. I shivered, and Puck flinched back, still keeping his body between the monster and Nyx.

“Yeah, that’s fine—show me my past traumas. I get it. That’s not gonna stop us from taking you down right here. Meghan!” he suddenly shouted, making me jerk up. “Do you see the tower?”

I glanced at the towers rising over the courtyard, my gaze landing on the familiar crooked one. Water poured from the very top of the ruins, shimmering like curtains as it fell. “I see it.”

“Go!” Puck called. “We’ll keep this noisy thing busy.”

Beneath the tree, the Wailing One screamed, the male head bellowing a challenge. Its jaws opened again, blasting a stream of fire down at Puck and Nyx. They leaped away, scattering in different directions, and Ash and Varyn darted in from behind. Ice blade and crescent daggers flashed, cutting deep into the Nightmare’s flanks. There was no blood, though the blows did draw an enraged bellow from the Wailing One. Rearing up, wings snapping, it came down with a boom that shook the courtyard, and a ring of flame erupted around it.

I gripped my sword, feeling the edges dig into my palm. I desperately wanted to help, to join my allies and family in taking down the Nightmare. But that would be useless until we destroyed the essence. As much as I wanted to stand with my family, I had to get to the core at the top of the tower to kill this thing for good.

There was no sound beyond the terrible screams of the Wailing One, no warning except the faint prickle against my skin that alerted me to danger from behind. I spun to see a mouthless horror reaching for me with arms outstretched, but before I could react, a steel blade swept through the air, slicing into the lesser Nightmare and cutting it in two.

Keirran staggered forward, his jaw set and his eyes hard. “I’m coming with you,” he told me. “I’ll be of no use against the Wailing One. Every time it cries out, I can’t see anything but shades pressing forward. The closer I get, the harder it is to even breathe.” He shot a quick glance at the distant spire, narrowing his gaze. “I’ll be more useful helping you reach the tower,” he said. “At least the enemies we’ll be facing there won’t scream at me.”

I nodded at my son. “All right,” I said. “Let’s get to that tower.”

I spared one more glance at my friends and allies, fighting the Nightmare in the center of the courtyard. Nyx and the other two assassins were darting in and out, dodging flames and blows to strike where they could. Ash and Puck were fighting side by side, as they had hundreds of times before.

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