searching for Savannah in the garden below.
Fucking Kahanov was on its back. I wanted to throw myself into the air
and dive toward him, but it was too far to leap and have any chance of
landing the attack. I had no idea what to do. Try to kill Kahanov? Take out
the demon? Or simply find Savannah and get the fuck out?
I crouched and prepared to leap again, but I froze. Something was off.
Then I saw it: the shadows below were moving. A dark velvet wall drifted
closer to the demon.
Savannah’s magic.
Damnit, what the hell was she doing?
I had to get to her. I leapt for the next window down. Stone rushed past
me, and then I slammed my claws into another lintel and swung myself up
onto the stone sill.
The noctith paused. Then both it and Kahanov looked up.
I’d been spotted.
The thing began beating its iridescent wings and started to rise. But
suddenly, it spun to its right with unimaginable speed toward the caves and
shrieked.
Savannah’s cloud of shadows ripped away, revealing the hidden form of
the basilisk. The noctith demon’s mouth split wide, and it spewed a pink gas
toward the monster.
But it was too late. The demon had looked the basilisk in the eyes.
The noctith reeled backward and gave a twisted, piercing wail as its head
and legs turned into stone. It clawed the earth and tried to rise, but its dead
and hardened foot caught on the low wall, and the demon feebly flailed its
stone wings and limbs in the air.
It was already doomed. Half statue, half flesh and blood, the demon
plunged over the edge of the garden, flinging Kahanov from its back. There
was a flash of light, and he disappeared.
Transport charm.