Beast looked into his eyes, then at the seven babies wrapped in silk scarves found in Magpie’s things. He didn’t want to leave Laurent nor face the reality of what happened to the building yet, but knew what his responsibilities were.
“Jake. Come with me,” he said, slowly backing away toward the exit.
Laurent gave him an uncertain smile and glanced at the newborn in his arms. How would they navigate seven? Laurent already had a favorite in Marcel, but the babies needed equal treatment if they were to develop into healthy adults.
Beast couldn’t come up with any answers yet, so he focused on the task at hand and led Jake to the ruined building. “We’ll climb over the rubble.”
Most of the front wall, which until earlier today featured period details, was a pile of brick and mortar, but miraculously, once they walked past the wonky door that somehow still retained its frame, the gargoyle statue was still there. Jake patted its muzzle as if he were meeting an old friend. The ground was covered in rusty dust from the crumbled building materials, but plenty of wood, concrete, and other material dotted the carnage. The upper floor had collapsed in this part of the building, and the sun’s rays warmed the bald side of Beast’s head through a giant hole in the roof.
He chose not to think of mundane issues such as the cost of dealing with all this for now. If Magpie was still alive somewhere, only one place came to his mind.
“We need to get down there,” Beast said, pointing at the wooden panels hidden behind a fallen slab of concrete.
Jake understood what was being asked of him. Beast took a step away, still freaked out by the way the black goo dripped out of Jake’s mouth, nose, and ears only to rapidly cover him, forming muscles, horns, and claws until Azog’s full form stood next to its artistic rendition.
As a gargoyle, Jake pulled rubble away the same way Beast would’ve rummaged through a messy cupboard. Stone by stone, Jake was able to uncover the panels, which lay ruined among brick and plaster. The entrance to the cellar only needed a bit of clearing, because the vault ceiling hadn’t collapsed.
Cool air blew into Beast’s face as soon as they unblocked the passage, and he met Jake’s eyes. “Be on standby. Just in case,” he said before hunching to fit into the corridor meant for someone much smaller than him.
Down there, he saw no changes, though when he tried to switch on the light, he found that there was no power. The glow of his cell phone guided him down the narrow steps and into the cellar that guarded too many secrets to comprehend. The door to the sigil room, the same one where Laurent had been assaulted by Fane, was closed, but Beast didn’t hesitate and entered.
Magpie wasn’t there, or so it seemed at first glance.
It was when Beast passed the threshold that he spotted something red glinting on the floor. They’d put the stone back in place after the failed attempt of stopping Baal with concrete. No one had felt comfortable leaving a door into hell open.
The ancient block of stone marked by Baal’s sigil carved and made permanent with iron, now glistened as if someone had scattered ruby glitter over it. The lines that made up the demon’s mark were covered with what looked like liquid crystal, but when Beast touched it, the red substance proved to be solid.
And warm.
He shut his eyes, rubbing the smooth texture that sealed the passage between worlds.
“Thank you,” Beast whispered. “Your sacrifice won’t be forgotten.”
Epilogue 1 – Knight & Elliot
Elliot stood just a step away from Knight, and the silence gutted him. He couldn’t remember ever seeing Knight so devastated. A part of him itched to run to where their apartment used to be, see if any of their research materials could be salvaged from the rubble, but being by Knight’s side was much more important than physical possessions or even fruit of their hard work.
Everyone was focused on the seven newborns and the chaos they created, leaving the two of them on the sidelines, but that was for the better. Knight sat cross-legged in the grass, his face darkened with soot, his hair a tangle, the baby asleep in the basket Knight had taken from Lana’s car, blissfully unaware that he no longer had a mother. Elliot scooted down next to Knight and touched his knee. “You wanna go somewhere more peaceful?”
Knight hesitated when his gaze darted to meet Elliot’s, stiff as if he were afraid Xavier could erupt into choking cries if he moved by an inch. In the end though, he dragged himself up and took a couple of steps toward the peaceful lake with arms hanging limply at the sides of his body.