CoS39

## Chapter 39

**Chapter 39** of **City of Spells** follows **Karam**.

## **Full Version**

KARAM COULD NOT SEE the Kingpin’s face, but she could sense his growing fear as he looked from the mirror doll to Tavia to Wesley. To the two crooks that his legacy had created, who were now ready to undo him.

Tavia had managed to blood the doll after all.

And they had Zekia to thank.

Karam had been so sure the vision was real and she had been so sure Tavia’s death was final, and all of it had been an illusion.

If they lived through this, Karam planned to have strong words with the Indescribable God on how to be a bit clearer with its plans for the future.

“Your mirror doll won’t destroy me,” Ashwood said. “I cannot be killed.”

“Then I guess that I’ll have fun trying,” Tavia said. “I’ve always loved a good fight.”

“Be careful what you wish for,” Ashwood sneered.

His smile basically hissed.

*“Wekne ohg vjs.”*

The words howled like a storm as they slid out of his mouth.

Karam recognized the words. It was a summoning, all too familiar.

*Awaken and feast.*

On cue, a bang as loud as the Star Eggs sounded from underneath the bridge.

“Here is the fight you wished for,” Ashwood said. “If I can’t kill you, then they will.”

The water below rippled and then parted ever so slightly, giving breath to the cruel life that hid beneath. There was a screech, like the sound the night made before the sun tore it down, and then from the depths of the Creijen waters, six ungodly creatures scurried out.

*Shadow demons.*

These were the things Karam had fought alongside Arjun and, even before that, in the rings of the underrealm. She had seen them clawing at men’s necks and faces, drinking their blood like *fimpir* bats.

“In the name of spirits,” Karam said, staring in horror.

And the demons, like they had heard her gasp, turned their shadow heads from the waters that birthed them and growled up at her. It took only seconds for them to leap up onto the bridge.

Karam swallowed and the demons barked back.

Spit stretched like string between their teeth and their bones bulged from their half-shadowed bodies. One dug its claws into the bridge and scraped a line through the ground like it was a throat.

“Cast a light,” Karam called out, to Saxony or Wesley or whoever could manage it first. “It will make them cower.”

But Saxony was at her sister’s side, tending to Zekia, who was still curled on the ground, sobbing in pain from whatever it was the Kingpin had tried to do to her.

Tavia was beside them, clutching on to the mirror doll to keep Ashwood at bay.

And Wesley just stared.

He blinked, staring at the demons in total horror.

“Wesley,” Tavia said. “Cast a light!”

Zekia winced up at her brother. “It’s my fault,” she croaked. “Please don’t be afraid.”

Saxony’s jaw tensed and it was then that Karam knew Wesley was scared, perhaps for the first time in his life.

These demons had tortured him under Zekia’s control. They had ripped into him and not only torn the flesh from his bones, but it seemed they had gotten their claws into something else.

Something deeper.

Something far inside his mind.

And the creature could sense it as much as Karam could, because five of the six galloped toward Wesley and the others.

“Use your shield to keep them away!” Karam yelled to Saxony.

But she didn’t need to, for her love was already casting a protection over the four of them as all of the demons tried their attack.

They bit and clawed and scraped at the barrier, trying desperately to get in and feast on their flesh.

All except for one.

A single shadow demon kept its focus on Karam, circling her.

It seemed to smile when it saw she was not planning on running under the protection of the shield.

Karam had taken these creatures on before, in the fighting rings and on the Kingpin’s isle.

She could do it again.

Karam grabbed a blade and ran at the demon, sliding along the ground and slicing across its belly.

The creature howled, thick blood like ink spraying across her face.

But the wound wasn’t as big as it should have been, and Karam had only caught half flesh, while the rest was all shadow.

The demon turned to hiss at her.

Karam flipped back to her feet and struck out with her knife again, but she was met with only claws. The shadow demon raised its talons in the air and swiped out, scratching across her chest. She jumped back and the creature pounced, knocking her over.

It was on top of her, its spit and blood coating her face.

Quickly, Karam brought the hilt of her blade up through its neck and into its skull. The demon’s head trembled uncertainly, as though it was trying to shake the blade.

And then Karam reached up through its shadow body and took ahold of its spine.

She grabbed, squeezed, and then snapped it violently in half.

The demon screeched and fell back in a quiver.

Karam knew she hadn’t killed it—not even she was capable of such a feat—and sooner or later the pieces of darkness that made up the creature would merge back together.

But for now it was gone.

For now, she was alive.

One down, five to go.

She turned back to her friends to see the five remaining shadow demons were still clawing against Saxony’s shield and it was barely keeping them at bay.

Karam ran for her friends and the demons that surrounded them, catching Saxony’s wince as her shield began to dwindle.

The shadow demons hungered for flesh.

One of them ripped its hand through Saxony’s magic and grabbed ahold of Wesley’s ankle, pulling half of his body from Saxony’s protection.

It tore at Wesley’s leg, teeth showing no signs of letting up.

He yelled out in pain, while the others tried desperately to pull him back inside the barrier.

Karam felt a burning in her chest.

No, not in her chest. *On* her chest.

She looked down and her father’s pendant was aglow against her heart, burning into her just like it had done that day on the shores of Tisvgen.

Then, it had warned her of the danger they were in. Now, it felt like something different entirely.

It felt like faith.

Like her father’s spirit whispering to her.

*My daughter,*it said. *Do not lose hope.*

Karam touched a hand to the pendant and felt her father’s light.

She felt the force of the Rekhi d’Rihsni.

This was her family’s legacy: to protect the Crafters and bring peace to the realms. Her grandparents had died for it. And Karam would see to it that their dream for the future was fulfilled.

For the first time, Wesley truly needed her help and she wouldn’t let him down, like she had almost let Tavia down.

“The light!” Karam yelled out to Saxony. “Cast a light.”

Saxony held out her other hand and a small yellow orb began to glow in her palm.

It was dimmer than Karam would have liked, but juggling to keep the shield up alongside this new magic must have been draining her.

Still, it was bright enough for the demons to recoil. They flinched back as the light burned their bodies, barking and growling like they were screaming at Saxony to stop.

But the demon with the hold on Wesley’s leg didn’t move away or tear its teeth from its new meal. It persisted, gnawing at the space below Wesley’s knee like Saxony’s light meant nothing to it. Even as her magic burned the bones of its ankle to ash, it refused to let go.

Ashwood, still kneeling on the floor as Tavia continued to squeeze the mirror doll as hard as she could, was yelling.

Yelling at the demon.

“Don’t stop!” he screamed. “Make them pay!”

*He’s controlling them,*Karam thought.

The creature would risk being burned by the light of Saxony’s magic if it meant obeying its master. It was up to Karam to save Wesley. She was supposed to be his bodyguard after all.

Karam reached for the pouch on her belt. Trick bags weren’t her weapon of choice, but Tavia had taught her how to read charms for a purpose and Karam was not about to waste those lessons.

The small marble felt like melting glass in her hands.

*Splinter charm*, she thought.

Karam threw the marble and it hit the shadow demon square in the tallest spike of its spine.

It went still and then it shattered into smoky pieces by Wesley’s feet.

“Are you okay?” Karam asked.

Tavia pressed her hands on his wound, keeping the blood in, and Wesley leaned against her shoulder, like he found relief from the pain in her touch.

“Nice work,” Wesley said to Karam. “We might make a busker of you yet.”

She grimaced at the insult. She would have punched him for suggesting it if she didn’t think he had been hurt enough.

“I was doing my job,” she said.

Wesley clutched at his leg. “Remind me to give you a raise.”

She checked the others for injuries, but they seemed fine, except for Zekia, who still squeezed her eyes shut in agony.

Whatever the Kingpin had done to her, it was too painful for her to even move now.

“I can’t keep this light going by myself forever,” Saxony said.

Wesley clenched his teeth together and held his hand out, trying to conjure a light of his own to keep the remaining demons at bay, but it was as dim as Saxony’s and Karam could still see the fear in his eyes.

“It’s okay,” Tavia said, like she could see it too.

She folded her hand into Wesley’s, like together they might just be unstoppable.

To Karam’s surprise, his light grew a little brighter.

Karam smiled.

They could do this.

She kept hold of her blade and the four of them faced the four demons just like they had faced every enemy they had: together.