Reapers -- The First Familiar (Reapers Chronicles Book II)

7 - Found

Seconds ticked. The claws didn’t reach me.

Above us, the wraiths crashed onto the barrier, each one convulsing with a crackling sound as they hit the faint bluish surface. Then, like electrified insects, they dropped to the ground smoking, their emaciated bodies twisted in tricky angles. Some of them who managed to escape the wrath of Vincent’s barriers were taken care of by Millie’s spear.

Even with her petite stature, she had managed to snatch and stab many of them. Her speed wasn’t comparable to Mei’s but there was something about the way she moved; dangerous, precise, powerful.

The swarm slowly thinned, the dark moving cloud of lost souls becoming no more than specks of black on the perfectly lit night sky. Some of them darted back into the woods, some back to Centralia’s direction, some still lingering, watching for our next move. The least clever kept hurling themselves to us. To our luck, the barrier seemed to draw them in to its crackling surface, zapping the creatures in the process. By the time they realized that we were virtually untouchable, there were already more corpses than I could possibly count, scattered about the now unkempt lawn.

Now that we had miraculously got rid of the wraiths, the only problem left was Vincent’s barriers. Why I couldn’t pass through it freely was still a mystery to me. Perhaps, it was the Bind. At this point, like Millie, I was no better than an outsider.

“I... I thought we’re going to be toast.” I sucked in a few quavering breaths, staring at the mansion through the barrier. “Now, if we could just get in there.”

Wasting no time, Millie faced me, her spear’s blade aimed at my neck. Leisurely, she took a step closer and with both hands, lifted the weapon over her head.

“M-millie?” I stammered. “What’re you—“

Deep down, I knew this was going to happen. She had turned against me so quickly just when she had noticed a sign of weakness. Maybe she was waiting all along for this moment, when it would be a lot easier for her to dispatch me.

I began to back away, instantly reminded of the barrier behind me as my back pressed against it. The see-through wall pulsed pale blue from where I touched it, revealing a long crack stretching a good three feet up. The massive wraith attack must’ve weakened the enchantment keeping the barriers intact.

Tensing my legs, I prepared to run before she could cut my head off. My legs didn’t cooperate. They were still numb from the after-effects of the Bind’s punishment.

With a grim look in her eyes, she swung her arms forward. I heard a distinct thwack as the spearhead struck the barrier, spot on the point where the crack started two inches shy of my neck.

A series of snapping sounds followed, minute fissures branching from the main crack. Bit by bit, the barrier broke like a shattered mirror. The broken pieces glowed bright blue, finally dissolving into glittering dust before it could even crash to the ground.

So that was the plan—to use the wraiths to weaken the force-field. It was just like what Vincent and I did back in the Halo to unleash the amassed souls from the abyss. The attempt was successful but it left a crack on the blade of my scythe.

“We cannot waste time,” she reminded me when she saw me gawk like a moron over the spectacle.

“Right,” I nodded, running past her to the dark wooden double doors.

For a moment, I held the bronze handles, exhaling sharply before turning them. The metallic clicks as the doors swung inward made my heartbeats erratic, lurid as if my heart wanted to skip out of my chest.

I did it. I finally did it, Vince.

My hopes sank when I laid eyes upon the once grand drawing room. As if lost, I staggered inside the house, my eyes unable to focus with all the signs of abandonment lingering in all the corners. The furniture was toppled, the grandfather chair where Vladimir used to read his old books half-charred in the fireplace. What remained of the crystal chandelier was now all over the stained crimson carpet.