Page 90 of Foul Days

“Why? What was I doing?”

“You were trying to jump off the bell tower! You were shouting something unintelligible and climbing onto the railing, and those upirs downstairs were salivating.”

The blood rushed to Kosara’s cheeks. She recalled the events from the graveyard with disturbing clarity: the upirs, the singing, Nevena. Her clawing at Asen’s face as he held her.

In the dim light of the candles, the scratches were barely visible. Good thing she kept her nails short.

“I’m sorry.” She gestured at his face.

“It’s fine. You weren’t yourself. Those upirs were obviously messing with your head.”

“You saw them?”

“Of course I saw them. Decomposing corpses. Grey-skinned, their hair falling out in clumps. Completely disgusting.”

Kosara nodded. Completely disgusting.

“Thank you for not letting me go to them.”

Asen smiled. “Don’t mention it. It’s what friends are for.”

Kosara almost smiled back, before hesitating. Friends? Did he really think that’s what they were?

No, of course he didn’t. He was just being polite after she’d nearly clawed his eyes out.

She turned back towards the door. At least the upirs had given up on the singing. Only moans and gurgling came from outside. They must have been loud, if she could hear them clearly over the ringing in her ears.

The upirs slammed against the door again. One carved wooden chair came tumbling down and crashed on the floor.

“It’s not going to last much longer,” Asen said. “We’ll have to come up with a different plan.”

Kosara nodded and immediately regretted it when the painful pulsating in her head sped up.

Asen ran a hand through his hair, making it stick up. “Here’s what I suggest,” he said. “I’ll go first and try to render as many of them helpless as I can. You’ll follow me, taking care of anyone who’s still showing signs of…” he hesitated. “I mean, anyone who’s still moving.”

“Too risky. If they manage to enchant me again, I’ll stab you before you’ve realised what’s happening. If they enchant you, you’ll shoot me.”

He opened his mouth to argue.

“I know, I know,” Kosara said. “They won’t enchant you. My point still stands.”

“Do you have any better ideas?”

She didn’t. They were stuck. She’d got them trapped in the church. Would she ever learn her lesson? Never go to the graveyard during the Foul Days. What kind of a stupid, stubborn idiot made the same stupid, stubborn mistake twice?

Asen wasn’t going to say it, but she knew he was thinking it, too. She hated that look in his eyes, even though she was starting to become painfully familiar with it: I told you this was a bad idea.

Kosara squeezed her eyes shut. There was no time to panic. She had to think.

They couldn’t fight the upirs while she was susceptible to their magic. And she couldn’t protect herself from their magic without her shadow. Unless …

“How much garlic do you have left?” she asked.

“A few heads. Why?”

“Give them to me.”

Kosara sat on the floor and began peeling the garlic bulbs, leaving nail marks in their soft flesh in her hurry. Their paper-like skin stuck to her trembling fingers.

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