Page 77 of Abducting Sarah

“Can you see them?” I asked.

“No,” Omen said.

“Sarah, can you?”

She looked around frantically and shook her head. “No.”

But then we heard them. Chanting whispers that got louder as we stood there, like they were closing in on us. Fan drove the onworlder toward a dead conduit and snatched up her bone sword, just before another conduit appeared and slashed at him with her knife. Then, she vanished again.

He clutched his arm and cursed, before driving back to us. Bell hopped off the onworlder and reached out for Omen’s first victim’s knife but was thwarted by a conduit. She stabbed the back of his thigh, then disappeared again. He fell to the ground and fought to get to his feet.

Mother Portend’s voice proclaimed, “You can’t kill what you can’t see.” Then a bone knife slashed the air, before it sliced across my chest, drawing blood.

I sucked in a painful breath and quickly brought my weapon up to defend myself, but my attacker was gone before I had moved.

Omen said, “If we can stop whoever is chanting then we can break the gift they’re using.”

“How the fuck are we supposed to do that?” Jac asked.

The door on Father’s house creaked, and I turned that way, afraid a conduit had snuck past us. But it was Silence coming out to the battle. Surrounded by Gram, Treg, Drift, and Camp Deo, she strode toward us with the twins on her back in a pack.

Once next to us, she raised her hands, and the whispers instantly stopped. White fog flowed from invisible conduits into Silence’s palms. With her own powers, she had stolen the voices of the chanting conduits. All of our enemies were visible once more.

We wasted no time fighting back. I lunged at those in front of me, and the others did the same, except for Camp Deo, who took Silence’s babies back into the house. Fighting alongside my friends and family and my consort, I prayed we would survive this. But the odds were not in our favor.

I dodged a conduit’s slash, leaning around her for the one behind her. Jac took on the one who slashed at me first, then twirling back for the two behind himself. Father, being a ghost, was able to fight both hand-to-hand, and with his bone knife. He didn’t need them to solidify to fight them on even terms like the rest of us.

Gram fought with two knives, slashing in unison. Treg had taken half a dozen knives into his gelatinous body, before they realized they could not kill him that way. He began to chase after conduits, swinging a pilfered bone sword and shouting, “Come on! I want to play, too!”

It was Drift and Sarah who worried me the most.

Drift had taken Sarah out to get Tiger, before I had a chance to stop them. He crouched to check on Tiger, while Sarah watched for attackers. I couldn’t get to them—there were too many combatants between us. As I spun around, knife in hand to take out the three who had closed in on me, I saw that Mother Portend was approaching Drift and Sarah.

I dove between Father and his attacker, stabbing her, then ran through a hole in the crowd. But someone cut my calf before I could reach them, and I fell on top of a conduit on the ground. She wasn’t dead—and she was nearly solid.

We struggled, turning in the dirt. She kicked my groin and shoved me off of herself as I coughed from the impact. She straddled my chest, bringing her knife down toward my face, but I bucked her off and she tumbled over my head. Soon we were both on our hands and knees in the dirt, facing off. As she lunged, Treg stepped on her back, forcing her flat with his mighty, gelatinous weight. He stabbed her in the back, smiled at me, and kept moving after more of them.

I turned to see Sarah’s predicament. Drift was bloodied and laid out on Tiger’s back. But Sarah was on her feet, knife in hand, squared off with a cackling Portend. I ran to her, barreling into solidified conduits until there were too many to push and all I could see was them.

An explosion, louder than the grenades, sounded near us. Conduits flew into the air in parts. Some of those nearby looked around or felt around their bodies for signs of shrapnel. I took out a few more while they were distracted. But my focus was only on Sarah, and I cut a deadly path toward her.

When I had a clear view a few meters from them, Portend had her eyes on me, a handful of Sarah’s hair, and a knife to Sarah’s throat. Blood ran down the side of my consort’s face and she appeared listless, her body limp and upright only by Portend’s grip on her hair. Fury, unlike anything I’d ever felt before, raged through me.

Smug satisfaction filled the crone’s eyes. “You should be grateful I am doing this for you, Deacon Ladrang. The living will only ever disappoint you.”

“Let her go!” I demanded, even though Portend had the upper hand, and she knew it.

“Drop your knife,” she countered.

I did without hesitation, praying it saved my consort’s life.

As it clattered to the ground, Sarah suddenly thrust her left leg out for leverage, grabbed Portend’s knife hand and twistedsideways. Sarah pushed the blade backward across her own throat, sacrificing herself as she managed to shove the tip up into Portend’s torso.

I ran to them as they both fell to the dirt. I heard nothing but an awful roaring sound in my head. I saw only a sea of red as the battle raged on around me.

When I reached them, Sarah’s blood was everywhere. Portend was dead. I dropped to my knees and held my hand over Sarah’s gushing throat. Her eyes were on me for a breath, before they fluttered back and her body went completely limp.

An awful, helpless feeling nearly strangled me. “No, no, no!” I screamed, then I shouted for help.

---