The Demon in the Pastry Shop

61: Can You Hear Me?

Kit picked up the flask from the ground and used the coffee table as a boost to tackle Lovell. Her body ran cold and shivered with repulsion to touch him, but she locked her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck, throwing the contents of the flask over his face again. She was tired of watching someone she cared about be killed in front of her.

Lovell pushed off from the ground, stumbling backward, writhing and snarling as he tried to shake Kit off his back. Kit gritted her teeth and shook the chocolate onto his eyes. He swatted his hands in the air trying to knock the flask out of her hands, but even when he grabbed hold of her wrist the syrup never stopped running.

"Remis!" he bellowed. His wicker brittle fingers kept clenched around the chisel and he thrust it behind him, jabbing Kit sharply until she released him. She fell roughly to the side, at the last moment realizing she couldn't fall on the carpet, so she aimed for the coffee table and slammed her injured side into the ledge. Her brain struck dizzy as she climbed onto the lifeboat.

Lovell stumbled over his carpet creatures and Kit wondered under a haze of horror why the Porcupine Demons weren't attacking her. Instead, they stood rigidly across the room.

From the corner of her eye, Silus stirred and clambered to his feet. One hand covering the right side of his face, the other stretched out and glowing white. Across his right cheekbone, down his jaw, and etching up into his brow, Kit spied a crack. She crawled along the table and as Silus teetered between unsteady feet, forcing himself to hold the Porcupine Demons still, she glanced at the ground and saw his ear on the carpet. She snatched it up, afraid the carpet would try to eat it and was surprised to find the chunk of Silus that Lovell chipped off turned back to alabaster. She stuck it in her pocket.

The cries from Lovell grew into roaring snaps of thunder, banging against every panel of floral wallpaper as it echoed through the churning house. Kit could feel the shudder in the air. Lovell had been a nightmare with his gun, but she knew something worse was on its way.

A spiced marmalade shape lifted its discombobulated head from the table. Kit's heart fluttered and she reached out for Ravitavah, cradling the cat in her arms. No sooner did the Ace summon the strength to stir than he flopped back down in Kit's arms without it.

"The couch cushions!" Jude shouted from the stairs, his voice curling and uncoiling with Lovell's rage as it fought for passage through the living room, "Kit, use them as stepping stones! I've made a path with the plates to the window!"

Kit grabbed the sofa cushions one-handed, trying her best to ensure the Ace of Mistakes didn't slip out of her crooked arm. She hurled one cushion toward Jude as far as she could jump and took the next one with her as she bounded to the first. The second one flew through the air just as a gust of forks flew at her. It blocked the threat, but missed it trajectory and Kit knelt on the cushion, stretching her arm just about as long as any arm could stretch.

Her fingertips grazed the rolled edge of the cushion. Another scream from Lovell shocked her into recklessness and she threw her body forward, barely catching her palm on the cushion. A carpet viper whipped up and snapped at Ravitavah's dangling tail while Kit held herself up between two platforms. She crunched her stomach in to pull the cat into her chest, but the viper caught hold of the end of his tail. Soon her muscles shook against the strain and she dragged her cushion-wise hand into her body until the bottom of the seat bumped the creature. It didn't want to let go, but Kit could drop her shoulder onto the cushion now. Once she had, she grabbed her scissors from her pocket and snipped at the volatile Saxony until it abated with only a tuft of fur as victory. At last, she threw the next cushion where she could reach it and where she could leap to Jude's path.

Kit quickly made her path and relief steadied her the minute she reunited with Jude. He glanced at the house around them and once the scene satisfied his unspoken question, he waved Kit onto the pie slice sized shards of dinner dish that led to the windowsill. Eagerly, she hugged Ravitavah and rushed to the window.

"Come on, Silus!" Jude beckoned from where he balanced shakily in his house slippers atop a picture frame he toppled to make his new path. Kit placed one weak hand on the ledge as she lifted herself. Jude shouted, "Silus! Release them! It's time to run!"

The beats of Lovell's wrath were getting louder and his screams becoming more lucid. He was about to take action again and Kit didn't want to wait to find out what he would do. Kit raised one leg onto the open window.

As loud as he could (Kit knew his voice couldn't go any louder), Jude screamed, "Silus! We've got to go!"

Kit spun her gaze around until her neck craned as far as a neck could crane and her eyes strained as hard as eyes could strain. Silus kept the carpet beneath him stilled and his hand commanded the Porcupine Demons paralyzed, but his right hand pressed hard against the right side of his face and he only spared a momentary glance Jude's way despite his desperate calls. Frustration ticked tightly in Kit's body as she considered what plan Silus was sticking to and why he would choose it over Jude's and not tell them anything about it. He could jump quite easily from where he stood to one of the sofa cushions Kit planted. What was he possibly thinking was a better idea while the house was chewing them up and Lovell was ready to ruin them?

Except, of course, Silus had no plan. Kit knew as soon as she turned her head. His broken ear was in her pocket; it could hardly get clearer than that. Silus wasn't answering Jude's panicked shouts because Silus couldn't hear.

She leapt down from the windowsill and dropped Ravitavah into Jude's arms. She pointed at him sternly and then pointed at the window.

Jude frowned, "Kit, I can't leave you-"

Kit leaned forward and patted the rolled up quilt he carried. Her mothers were trapped on it. He needed to leave not just to save himself, but them too. Jude could understand such a thing.

In fact, the old muse nodded and complied with her request. He left the house with Ravitavah and Petra and Chloe in his arms.

Kit whirled around and retraced her steps, leaping from couch cushion to couch cushion until she jumped onto the coffee table and waved her arms broadly in front of Silus.

He glanced, then jerked his head, almost shocked to find her in his periphery. Maybe he thought they were leaving him. Well, not so. Kit wouldn't leave him here. Not when he needed her most.