Book Two, Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

Mari Lwyd’s face may have just been a skull, but the look of complete and utter surprise it managed to portray was a memory Justin would treasure for the rest of his life.

“How dare you interfere?” she screamed, her voice shrill with outrage. “This is not your house! Why are you here?”

“Next time you choose a victim,” Lucas quipped, “try making sure they haven’t left town first!”

“You couldn’t defeat me when the sun was bright,” Mari Lwyd hissed, a pair of dark claws forming out of her smoke. “You stand even less chance now that it is—”

“Crack ‘em!” Justin shouted.

Mari Lwyd didn’t move, watching suspiciously as everyone took the plastic sticks they held in both hands, and bent them sharply in the middle. In an instant, the porch came alive with bright green light.

Military grade glow sticks, each of them fourteen inches long. They’d had to break into a hunting store that had shut down for the holiday to get them, a fact that Justin still wasn’t comfortable with, but he had to admit that the look of discomfort Mari Lwyd gave them made him feel a little bit better.

“You’re not getting away this time,” Vixen said, rolling her chair forward. “We know you’re still weak after our last fight. You can either fight us and lose, or you can lie down and let us do what we have to—”

With another shriek, Mari Lwyd threw herself at Vixen. The Elder reversed course, spinning her wheels backwards and avoiding the swipe of the wraith’s claws by less than an inch. A beam of emerald light shot from her nose, but Mari Lwyd was just as quick, surging out of the way like a cloud of smoke caught in a sudden gust of wind.

She raised her claws to attack a second time, and Justin sprang forward, swinging his glow stick. He felt a hint of resistance as it struck her arm, like he had swung it into a pool of water, and Mari Lwyd screamed again as it cut straight through her wrist. The clawed hand evaporated, and she whirled around to face him—only for Lucas and Willow to attack her from behind, leaving an X-shaped afterimage in Justin’s vision as they slashed perfect symmetry. Another shrill cry pierced the night, and Mari Lwyd shot up into the sky. Pride was forgotten. All the mattered now was survival.

“After her!” Vixen shouted. “Don’t let her get away!”

Lucas and Willow took off after her, their glow sticks marking their position in the otherwise pitch black sky. Lena thrust forward on Justin’s antlers, but for once he didn’t obey immediately. Instead, he spun to look at Vixen.

“But what about—”

“I would only slow you down,” his flight leader said. Justin couldn’t help but notice the way her jaw clenched around those words. “Your glow sticks can burn away her darkness. Destroy her skull if you can! It won’t kill her, but she won’t have anywhere to take shelter.”

Justin nodded and bent his knees.

“And Justin?”

He looked at her again.

Vixen fixed him with a hard stare. “Without me, you are the only Lightcaster. You know what you have to do.”

A chill went down Justin’s spine, and he felt his knees go weak. No. Not this. Not again. The memory of his failure at Frank Harrison’s house still burned like a fresh wound in his mind. And now if he screwed up again, Vixen wouldn’t be there to save his stupid furry butt.

“Justin!” Lena shouted into his ear. He realized she had been pushing on his antlers for the past ten seconds, and he hadn’t even noticed. “Go!”

Reluctantly, he rocketed skywards, grasping his glow stick in both hands. His stomach churned painfully, having skipped the butterfly stage and gone straight to fire ants. Images from their encounter earlier flashed before his mind’s eye. It wasn’t just his life on the line. It was all of his friends’. If he couldn’t do what needed to be done, they would be the ones who paid the—

“Justin, you need to focus!” Lena yelled, and he realized he’d gotten carried away by his imagination again. Two blades of green light were swinging wildly in the night sky, and he and Lena were racing toward it at a blinding speed.

Maybe it won’t come to that, he told himself, sweat darkening the fur on his brow. We have our glow sticks, and there’s six of us and only one of her! Maybe things will actually work out in our favor this time!

Steeling himself, Justin took his glow stick in both hands and increased his speed. Together, he and Lena streaked through the night, their friends coming more into focus by the second. Willow and Lucas were flying in circles around Mari Lwyd, continuously blocking her progress while she tried to escape. Whenever she flew too close to one of them, they would lash out with their glow stick, usually scoring a glancing hit. Then, while she was preoccupied by the first strike, the other would swoop in and hit her again. Tanraak and Moryta had their own glow sticks, but at the moment they were sheathed so that they could focus on guiding their reindeer.

Justin watched as Willow swung her glow stick at Mari Lwyd’s side. The specter howled in pain, and a few wisps of smoke trailed off before evaporating, but the shadowy mass that made up her body didn’t look any smaller than before. Each strike burned away a little more of her smoke, he realized, but weakened though she was, it still only took a few seconds for more to replace it.

“She hasn’t seen us yet,” Lena said as they drew closer.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Justin asked.

“Of course I am!”

“Then I’m trusting you to take me where I need to go.”

“Have I ever let you down?” She thrust his antlers forward. “Do it!”

Justin increased his speed, shooting toward Mari Lwyd like a bullet. He felt Lena making adjustments as they flew, and he followed each of them, angling himself in the cold night air so that…

Mari Lwyd spun to look at him an instant before he swung his glow stick, cutting straight through the darkness right beneath her skull. All the smoke that made up her body puffed away, and with a shriek of pain and fury, her skull began to plummet toward the ground hundreds of feet below them.

“Now’s our chance!” Justin yelled, diving after the shrinking white blob. “Shatter that skull!”

“THAT’S THE MOST METAL THING I’VE EVER HEARD!” Lucas whooped before giving chase as well.

The wind roared in Justin’s ears as he plunged straight down. Being the fastest, he could have easily reached Mari Lwyd before the others, but he held back. This wasn’t the time or place to go playing hero and charging off alone.

“I will rip open your chests and devour your hearts!” Mari Lwyd screeched as they drew near.

“You’re nothing but a talking fart!” Lucas shouted back.

An arm made of smoke burst from her neck hole and reached toward Lucas, but the laughing reindeer dodged nimbly around it and raised his glow stick. He swung—and the arm split in two. The first was severed, evaporating almost immediately, while the other grabbed Lucas by the neck.

“LUCAS!” Justin and Willow yelled in unison.

Mari Lwyd’s descent abruptly slowed, and Justin shot past them, leaving his friend in the demon’s clutches up above. He flipped rightside up again, fighting to reverse his momentum, and a few seconds later he was roaring back up into the sky. Lucas was raising his glow stick, but even more smoke billowed from her skull, forming a second arm. She lashed out, slapping Lucas’ fist away. His hand opened, and the glow stick went spiraling away into the night.

Tanraak climbed from his saddle and stood on Lucas’ shoulders, drawing his own glow stick. Mari Lwyd reached for him next, but the nimble elf leaped over it and landed on her skull. Balancing on one foot planted directly between her eerie glowing eyes, Tanraak struck at the arm that was holding Lucas. The glowing rod sliced cleanly through the swirling tendril of shadow, and Lucas began to fall.

“Willow!” Justin shouted.

“Got him!” the doe agreed, swerving away to intercept their friend.

Still perched on Mari Lwyd’s skull, Tanraak raised his glow stick and smashed it down on the side of her face. A thin crack appeared in the bleached bone, and Mari Lwyd shrieked. Her hand came up, dark claws whistling as they cut through the air.

“Tanraak, jump!” Justin yelled.

Tanraak did as he was told, bending his knee and launching himself off of the floating skull just before her claws could tear him open. He flew across the night sky, for a moment looking like a reindeer himself, but then he began to fall. Feeling Lena’s guidance on his antlers, Justin swerved sharply, shooting past Mari Lwyd and snatching the other elf out of the air.

“Thanks for that,” Tanraak said.

“This is a one time thing,” Lena shot back. “Justin is mine!”

“I didn’t see what happened. Is Lucas—look out!”

Justin instinctively arched into a backflip just as Mari Lwyd swept past below, her claws raking the air where he had just been. She spun around to face him, jaws opening in a feral hiss.

“I can’t use my glow stick while I’m holding Tanraak!” Justin shouted.

“Got it covered,” Lena said, letting go of one of his antlers and drawing her own glow stick.

More and more smoke billowed from the skull, and within seconds the wraith had six arms ready to rip the Val Luminarans open, each one tipped with three-inch-long claws.

“That’s not good,” Justin muttered.

“I thought Vixen said we’d weakened her!” said Tanraak.

Mari Lwyd came rushing up toward them, her arms spinning like the nightmarish offspring of a buzzsaw and a tornado. Justin retreated, shooting a few feet away and dropping down beneath her so she would have to double back to reach them.

“Do you two intentionally stop listening halfway through everything she says?” Lena snapped. If she was intimidated by the multi-armed abomination trying to murder them, she didn’t show it. “Vixen also said she’s stronger at night since she doesn’t have to worry about the sun burning her away!”

“So what do we do?” Justin asked. “I can’t—”

Mari Lwyd came in for another attack, and Justin shot upwards. This time, Mari Lwyd rose right along with him. Justin gritted his teeth, the wind disturbing the air just a few inches below his hooves. He surged upwards with an extra boost of speed, but it was no good—Mari Lwyd stayed right on his tail.

“Justin, move!” Lena yelled, a hint of fear finally touching her voice.

“I’m trying!” Justin yelled back. And try he did, but he was quickly beginning to realize that they had all made a horrible mistake. They had underestimated Mari Lwyd. Her apparent weakness to light had made them overconfident, and Justin had let himself forget that they were facing one of Krampus’ oldest and most trusted servants. He had faced the Lord of Darkness himself. He should have known—they all should have known—that wasn’t a title that was handed out lightly.

“Chop you, slice you,” Mari Lwyd was cackling. “Mince you, dice you!”

“Justin, you have to change!” Lena shouted. “You can outrun her in your four-legged form!”

“But I can’t hold Tanraak like that!” Justin argued.

Closer she came.

“Throw me!” Tanraak said.

“What?” Justin exclaimed. “No!”

“We’re nearly a thousand feet up!” the elf insisted. “Throw me, get away from her, and then catch me!”

“What if she—”

“We don’t have time to argue!” Lena yelled. “Do it!”

Mari Lwyd let out a bloodchilling scream of victory, and Justin realized that he was out of options. He pushed himself to fly as fast as he could, but she was faster. He could only watch as that razor-sharp cyclone of death rushed up to meet him, and—

A line of green light streaked through the air, and Justin gasped when he recognized Willow in her four-legged form. She appeared right beneath Mari Lwyd, her transformation allowing her to catch up to them easily. Moryta stood in her saddle and thrust her glow stick straight up into Mari Lwyd’s vortex of arms. Mari Lwyd did the rest, and she shrieked as all six of her limbs were sheared off in an instant.

“Let’s throw in a little extra spice!” Lucas swooped in from the right, appearing almost out of thin air, and clobbered Mari Lwyd on the side of the head with his glow stick. “BAM!”

Again, Mari Lwyd’s skull went flying, decapitated from her vaporous body, and…

Justin’s eyes widened.

…soaring straight toward Willow!

“Willow!” he shouted. “Watch—”

Too late. Willow was in the process of changing back into her two-legged form, and wasn’t able to react in time when six new arms erupted from Mari Lwyd’s skull. She instinctively swung at the nearest arm, but another caught her by the wrist, twisting it so that her hand unclenched. The glow stick went tumbling down into the night.

“This pretty doe will taste divine,” Mari Lwyd cackled, her hands working quickly to immobilize her. “She’ll pay the price. Her heart is mine!”

“Get your filthy hands—” Moryta exclaimed, only to be slapped away with another one of her hands. Without a word, Lucas dove after her.

Mari Lwyd fled, taking Willow with her.

“NO!” Justin yelled, white hot panic flaring inside him. He took off in pursuit, flying so fast that the wind stung his eyes. He hardly dared to blink for fear of losing sight of Mari Lwyd in the darkness. Instead, he fixed his eyes on Willow. She was fighting with all her strength, but even in her weakened state the wraith was too strong. One hand was wrapped around each of Willow’s limbs, keeping her from moving, while the remaining two squeezed her neck. Willow’s mouth was open, trying in vain to breathe while the life was crushed out of her throat.

And once again, Justin found himself reaching inside himself for that elusive light.

Come on, he thought. Come on!

He groped for it, only for it to dart out of his reach time and time again like a playful puppy.

What are you doing? he yelled at the petulant little spark. Are you really going to just sit in there and watch Willow die?

For a moment, he actually thought he felt it pause, quavering with indecision like a candle flame in a draft. He lunged for it…

And it slipped between his fingers like a lightning bug.

“No!” he yelled, startling Lena.

“What is it?” his Rider asked.

Justin didn’t answer. With anger boiling up inside him—Why did this have to be so difficult? Was saving his friend not a worthy enough goal?—he fixed his eyes on the fleeing wraith again.

She had Willow. If Justin didn’t stop her, she was going to take her away from him forever. And on top of losing the doe he loved, he would have to live with the guilt of knowing that it was nobody’s fault but his own. He was the Lightcaster, yet he had failed to harness his powers. He had let Willow slip through his fingers, condemning her to a horrible death and infinitely worse afterlife of unending horror in Mari Lwyd’s collection of souls.

And that terrified him. It terrified him enough that it filled his body with desperate, frantic energy. He channeled it into his flight, and Lena yelped in surprise as he shot forward, going faster than he ever had in his life. Blinded by fear and anger, closing in on the fleeing monster, he raised his glow stick.

“Let,” he roared, “her go!”

Mari Lwyd turned to look just as he caught up to them—and he rammed the shining rod straight into her eye socket.

Mari Lwyd let out a sharp cry, which was abruptly cut off as her entire body evaporated in an instant. Willow gasped, frantically filling her lungs with air for the first time in over a minute. But the breath was purely involuntary, Justin realized as he saw her eyes roll back in her head. She had already passed out from lack of oxygen.

Willow began to fall.

“No!” Justin yelled again. Casting his glow stick aside—and flinging Mari Lwyd’s skull away with it—he dove after her.

Down, down, down they went. Justin pushed himself, teasing out every ounce of speed he could muster, but the burst of power he had used earlier had left him tired. He held out his hand, his fingertips mere inches away from hers. The ground was rushing up to meet them.

“Just a little faster!” Lena was yelling, desperately pushing forward on his antlers. “Come on!”

But it was no good. Justin was simply out of gas, and could only watch as Willow plummeted toward her—

Her eyes flicked open.

“Willow!” Justin shouted. “Grab my hand!”

Her eyes locked with his, and though he could see the questions flashing behind her eyes, she did as he said, thrusting her hand upwards. Justin wrapped his fingers around hers and immediately flew upwards, straining to cancel out their momentum before they crashed into the rapidly approaching ground. They were less than twenty feet up. In his exhausted state, he wasn’t going to be able to slow them down in time!

And then he felt Willow’s power join in with his own. Their descent slowed, and they touched down as lightly as a pair of feathers.

Justin stared at Willow, hardly able to believe they were both still alive. His heart was racing in his chest. His emotions were a hurricane. He felt Lena hop down from his saddle, heard her say something, but he was in no state of mind to notice anything but the beautiful doe in front of him.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said hesitantly. “Are y—”

“I love you!” he blurted out before he even knew what he was saying.

They both froze, and horror crept into Justin’s mind. Had he really just…after all that time he’d held it in…that was how he told her? A confession right out of the blue, five seconds after they had both nearly died? Idiot! He would be lucky if Willow didn’t hate his miserable guts after—

Willow threw herself forward, wrapping her arms around him in the tightest hug Justin had ever been given.

“W- Willow?” he asked, shocked.

“I thought you would never say it!” she whispered. Her body was shaking, but she clutched him the way a drowning man clutched a life preserver. “Justin, I…”

Tentatively, Justin returned the hug. The feeling of her body pressed against his like this sent his emotions spiraling out of control all over again, but he didn’t care. He had waited so long for this. So long that he had begun to think it would never happen at all.

Still holding onto him, Willow looked at him with wide eyes that were filled with every single emotion that Justin himself was feeling.

“I love you too!” she finally exclaimed, and pressed her lips against his in a kiss.

Is this really happening? Justin thought. Happiness purer, warmer, brighter than anything he had ever felt in his life spread through his body. This couldn’t be real. He was dreaming. But if that was true, then, he never wanted to…

A flicker of motion caught his eye, and he broke the kiss to peer into the darkness.

“What is it?” Willow asked.

Without answering, Justin spun them both around. A moment later, Mari Lwyd appeared, her one remaining eye blazing with hatred and her jaw opening wide as she screamed in rage. Justin realized he had moved just in the nick of time, putting himself in between her and Willow as Mari Lwyd raised her clawed hand, and—

PAIN!

Justin cried out as agony ripped through him. His red jacket was shredded, revealing the light brown fur underneath. Blood began to pour down his back from five paper-thin cuts. Still holding on to Willow, Justin fell to his knees, eyes bulging wide but seeing nothing.

“Justin?” Willow exclaimed, her face contorting in horror. “Justin!”

“DIIIIIIEEEEEEEE!” Mari Lwyd shrieked, raising her claws again for the killing blow.

A blast of emerald light pierced the night, striking Mari Lwyd right in the center of her already dwindling smoky form. Justin turned his head, and could faintly make out the sight of Lucas streaking toward them. He was in his four-legged form, and Vixen of all people was riding on his back. Her antlers blazed like he had never seen them before, and she unleashed another beam of light at her foe. Mari Lwyd managed to dodge this one and, giving Justin and Willow one last hateful glare, turned and fled into the night. This time, nobody pursued her.

“Help!” Willow screamed. “It- It’s Justin! Help us!”

Justin sagged, held upright only by Willow’s grasp. He watched as Lucas came back around and landed, staying in his animal form so that Vixen could remain on his back.

“What happened?” the flight leader demanded.

“He’s hurt!” Willow sobbed. “It’s bad! Please, heal him!”

“Lay him down…et…m…ee…im…”

Her voice faded into a meaningless drone as the world went dark around him, and Justin sank into blissfully painless unconsciousness.