Page 56 of The Iron Vow

I trust you,I thought to Ash, to Puck, to all of them. I know you’ll be fine. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of this as quickly as I can, and then we’ll finish this Nightmare for good.

“Let’s go,” I told Keirran, and we went deeper into the castle, leaving the others to distract the Elder Nightmare for as long as they could.

21

THE TOWER

Hordes of mouthless horrors waited for us through every door and down every hallway, dropping from the ceilings and skittering down walls. They clawed at us with brittle fingers and slashed at us with cleavers and knives, all the while making no sound. Keirran and I cut our way through the masses, dust and rags swirling around us, fighting our way toward the highest tower that loomed ever in the distance. I could see glimpses of it, through windows and the many holes, tantalizingly close, yet just out of reach.

“This way,” Keirran said, pointing to a crumbling spiral stone staircase that looped into the dark. “We have to keep going higher.”

The horrors followed, climbing the stairs after us. About halfway up, Keirran grimaced, and I raised my sword. “More incoming,” he warned, as another group of Nightmares came down the steps, trapping us in the center. I ducked as one swiped at my head with a carving knife, swept its legs out from under it, and plunged my blade through its center as it fell.

“We’re trapped,” Keirran muttered at my back. “There are more coming from above us.”

“We stand here, then,” I told him. “You take the ones coming down. I’ve got the ones coming up.”

He nodded. Putting my back to Keirran’s, I raised my sword as the mob of horrors came at us from both sides. For a few moments, we stood in the center of chaos, and it was nothing but claws and limbs and flashing blades. I braced myself against the horde coming up the steps, determined that none would get past me to Keirran. Thankfully, there were so many that the Nightmares got in each other’s way, bumping into one another as they crowded forward. They reached for us, and I cut them down, putting all thoughts of weakness or mercy aside. I did not worry about the horde at my back. Keirran was there, and I trusted him as much as I did the one who’d taught us both.

“The ones above us are cleared out,” Keirran panted.

I slashed through a reaching claw and kicked the Nightmare in the chest, sending it crashing back into the others. But more crowded into the stairwell from below, an unending flood. “Keep moving,” I told him. “I’ll be right behind you.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes! Go!”

He went, his presence vanishing up the stairs, and the Nightmares pressed forward. I ducked, cutting the legs from the pair in front of me, and leaped back as they went down. The ones behind them stumbled, tripping over their fellows, and I quickly turned and sprinted up the stairs after Keirran.

Wind blasted me as I reached the top and stepped onto the castle roof. Towers and battlements surrounded us, though the turrets and parapets had fallen away, leaving enormous holes in the walls. One tower had collapsed completely and now rested against the side of the roof, jutting up at a steep angle. It pointed like a finger toward our final destination: the narrow, spindly tower that rose above all the others. There was no obvious path to it, however; the battlements that must have once connected the tower to the rest of the castle had fallen. It stood alone, pouring water down its sides like a waterfall. So close, and yet...

“Where to now?” Keirran panted.

A pair of mouthless Nightmares suddenly clawed their way up the side of the wall and grabbed at my legs. I plunged my blade through the back of a neck, and Keirran swiftly kicked the other off the ledge, sending it tumbling back into space.

“There,” I said, pointing out our path. “If we cross the roof, that fallen tower is very close to where we need to go. We’ll have to jump at the end, but I think we can make it.”

Keirran blew out a breath. “That’s a lot of heights,” he said. “Good thing I had tons of practice creeping across the rooftops with Razor when I wanted to get out of the Iron Palace.”

I turned to him with a frown. “That’show you snuck out all those times?”

He gave me a brief, sheepish grin that I hadn’t seen in ages. “The gliders and I were very well acquainted.”

There was a thump behind us. The mouthless horrors had begun crawling up from the stairwell, and I grimaced. “I want that entire story later, but right now, let’s go.”

We leaped onto the roof and began the treacherous path toward the fallen tower. The roof, unsurprisingly, was full of holes, and the remaining tiles rocked and slid underfoot. Lesser Nightmares skittered after us, moving like spiders over the exposed beams. More crawled up and over the edges of the wall, and a few even slithered out of the holes in the roof beneath us. The screams of the Wailing One drifted up from below, and I hoped that Ash and the others were doing all right.

Ahead of me, Keirran cut down a Nightmare leaping for him, and the monster crashed into the roof before exploding into dust. The tiles beneath it shivered, then disappeared with a roar as an entire section of roof collapsed, taking my son and a pair of Nightmares with it.

“Keirran!”

I raced to the edge of the yawning hole, relief spiking as I saw Keirran clinging to a beam with one hand, the other still gripping his sword. The Nightmares clung to him, hanging off his back and legs, clawing wildly as all three dangled over the sheer drop to the stone below.

“Hang on, Keirran!”

Hurrying to the other side, I lay on my stomach to reach for him. Keirran clung doggedly to the beam, but his head was bowed, shoulders hunched against the Nightmare clawing at his face. Rage flickered. Pulling my sword back, I aimed carefully, then stabbed down at the monster assaulting my son. The point of the blade struck the creature in the forehead, flinging it back. It shivered into dust and rags before spiraling away into empty space.

Freed from the monster on his shoulders, Keirran raised his sword and plunged it into the horror still trying to climb his leg. It reeled back, tearing wildly at his clothes, then tumbled into the darkness without a sound.

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