Midnight Beauties (Grim Lovelies 2)

The flashes of color intensified. Anouk felt the sensation of wind rushing past her face, though the air was perfectly still. The colored flashes began to draw in the remaining few wisps of smoke. It swirled into a miniature tornado of ticking clocks.

“Do you have the Heart of Alexandrite?” Prince Aleksi yelled above the roar.

Cricket took it out of her pocket. It was the size of a macaron, glittering in its heart-shaped cut, flashing purple and green and pink depending on the angle. She passed the jewel to Anouk.

“We must finish the entrapment spell!” Violante yelled. “Any moment this will all break apart. Every clock within the city is here. We’ve done as much as we can.”

Rennar faced Anouk. “Lead us in the final verse.”

The city rumbled again. The quake grew until entire buildings cracked and shattered, raining debris down into the street, and a tsunami rose up from the Thames and began hurtling toward them.

She drew in a deep breath.

A maid who had become a princess. A princess who had become a witch. A beastie who had promised the world that she was better than the dark purposes she’d been created for.

She closed her eyes.

All around her, the plagues were tearing the city apart. Trapped in their loops, Pretties howled and screeched. The air was filled with the sounds of crashing cars and tearing metal. The clocks in the pyre chimed wildly.

This was the moment.

This was why she’d gone to the Black Forest. Why she’d picked herself up after failure. Why she’d risked everything to try again and, this time, to succeed. She was the Gargoyle. Part beast and part girl, part wings and talons, part monster and part savior, and all of her destined to be a legend.

She opened her eyes and looked at Cricket, who silently nodded.

Anouk stood within the circle of Royals, clutching the jewel in both hands. She drew in a deep breath. Closed her eyes again. Stilled her mind. And whispered:

Omni terra das royale oscura

omni figuras das visine etan absconsia

Voc, voc eta commandet suma suspiras

Capik tu foris

capik tu intur.

The Royals echoed her whisper. She opened her eyes. For a second she saw the city on the brink of annihilation. A swirl of death and destruction swathed with smoke, two moons overhead flickering in and out of reality. And the tornado of clocks and smoke spinning faster and faster.

Then the storm burst apart.

Blinding lights flashed across the sky.

Anouk cried out, shading her eyes. Royals and Goblins around her did the same. The ground beneath their feet rumbled again but not like the devastating quakes from seconds before. This felt more like sliding plates straightening and realigning. When Anouk blinked at the city, it looked as though she was seeing the whole world through the glass of a kaleidoscope; fractured pieces of color and light filling the air around them like the northern lights. She felt the Heart of Alexandrite in her hands burning. The dancing lights sparked and crackled around the gem. She held it out, chanting low under her breath. Felt the energy shift from the jewel to her voice. She smelled her skin burning but she didn’t dare let go. The light was so bright that she could no longer see London. Only blisteringly vivid yellows and reds and greens. She kept chanting. The light blinded her, reached into her, painted her words with wild energy that shot straight to her throat and bumped around inside her like a pinball machine all the way to her toes, her head, her fingers, until every word she spoke was a live coal too.

Almost as soon as it started, it stopped.

Anouk felt sun on her face.

Daylight poured over every inch of the city, chasing away shadows, warming the last of the frost and ice. It shone on the heads of the Royals and Goblins, who were all blinking into the sun in a daze. Buildings that had fallen were standing again. The chasms that had opened in the street were closed, and there were no slick bodies of toads smeared on the pavement. The waters of the Thames flowed as calmly as always. Pretties went about their business as though nothing had happened, though some seemed a bit puzzled to find that it was the middle of the day, as though they thought they might have had too much to drink the night before and lost track of time.

A taxi slammed on its brakes and blared its horn.

Anouk stared at it until she realized she was standing in the middle of a busy street with the world’s most priceless gemstone outstretched in her hands.

Cricket held open the paper bag from the museum gift shop and cleared her throat.

“It’s done?” Cricket said quietly.