I gripped my sword, watching the ghostly figure approach, feeling Ash and Puck on either side of me do the same. As it drew closer, I saw the sheet was actually a tattered white dress, but so stained and torn it was barely recognizable as clothing. The figure’s head was bowed, so I couldn’t see its face, but dark strands of hair hung from its shoulders. Its hands were also hidden in its billowy sleeves, and I saw a glint of something shiny through the cloth.

  “I think it has a weapon,” I warned, just as the figure raised its head and stared at us straight-on.

  My stomach twisted. The creature staring at us from the nest of rags was gaunt and skeletal, pale skin shrunk tightly over its bones. Its eyes were hollow pits of black as it stared blankly. Tears poured from the dark holes, making wet trails down its wasted cheeks. It had no mouth. No lips, no gash, not even a slit to show where a mouth might have been. The skin from its nose to its jawline was smooth, though I could almost see the outline of teeth through the nearly translucent covering.

  The creature staggered toward us, the bones of its jaw working beneath its skin. I had the sudden, horrible feeling that it was trying to cry or scream, but without a mouth, it could make no sound.

  “O-kay,” Puck said, and gave an exaggerated shudder as he stepped back. “Suddenly that full dining table is a whole lot more horrific.”

  “Is this an Evenfaery?” Keirran asked.

  “No.” Gilleas’s voice was full of horror and pity. “Perhaps it was, once. Perhaps a whole colony or race lived in this castle. But it has been too close to the Wailing One for too long. Whatever it was, it is only a Nightmare now. It cannot be saved. Nothing to do but put it out of its misery.”

  The creature covered its face with one hand, the other rising in front of it. Ragged sleeves fell back to reveal an arm as brittle as bird bones, fingers curled around the handle of a cleaver. Without a sound, it lunged at me, and hit both Ash’s and Puck’s blades as they swept forward. Puck’s dagger struck the wrist that held the cleaver, dropping both hand and knife to the ground, as Ash’s sword smoothly removed the head from its neck.

  The creature flopped forward, collapsing like a marionette severed from its strings, making absolutely no sound as it fell. There was no blood, only the cleaver clinking against the stones before coming to rest at my feet. The rag-shrouded body shuddered once and went perfectly still.

  “Well, that was awful,” Puck muttered as Ash slid his blade back into its sheath. “A little too easy, though, and I mean that literally. It is never that simple. Not in a place like this.” Glancing at the heap of bones and dirty cloth, he wrinkled his nose. “How much you wanna bet that this thing is gonna jump up, headless, and take a swipe at us again?”

  The body on the floor rippled. For a moment, I thought it would do exactly what Puck said, but a second later the bones shivered, withered away, and turned to dust. The dress decayed rapidly, until only a few strips of ragged linen were left. A breeze swept through the room, blowing away the rags and causing the lines of dust to dissolve on the wind. In seconds, nothing remained of the Nightmare Evenfey.

  “Huh.” Puck sheathed his daggers. “Well, that was unexpected. Lately, Nightmare beasties seem to love coming back from the dead. I was sure we were gonna have to fight this thing again. Happy to be wrong for once.”

  Behind us, Nyx drew in a slow breath. “Don’t be so sure, Puck,” she whispered. Turning, I saw her staring with narrowed eyes at the vaulted ceiling overhead. “You might be right, after all.”

  Everyone looked up.

  There were probably a hundred of them, crawling like huge pale spiders along the ceiling. Withered arms and long, thin legs moved as the horde shuffled lazily overhead. Gaunt faces with no mouths twisted, almost as one, to peer down at us.

  Puck groaned. “I hate being right,” he sighed, as the bundles of rags and withered bodies began dropping from the ceiling. They landed with barely audible thumps against the floor, then slowly rose to their feet and staggered forward.

  “Everyone, move,” Ash called, pointing his blade out the door. “This isn’t a good place to fight—we’ll be surrounded if we stay here. Keep going!”

  A ragged body dropped beside me with a muffled thud, a dagger clutched in one hand as it straightened. I lashed out, shearing through the middle of its torso, and both halves exploded into dust as they fell away.

  We sprinted from the room, avoiding creatures that continued to fall from the ceiling, dodging or cutting our way through the ones on the ground. We made our way through the castle, not knowing where we were headed, just trying to stay ahead of the Nightmares.

  A blast of icy wind hit me as I followed Ash and the others through an arched doorway, and suddenly, we found ourselves outside in some kind of inner courtyard, surrounded by broken walls and rising towers. Piles of stone and rubble were scattered throughout the open space, as if parts of the surrounding towers had crashed into the courtyard below. One of the walls had been flattened completely, showing a gap that plunged straight down the side of the mountain. An enormous tree, gnarled and bare of leaves, rose up from the courtyard’s center, scraping the sky with twisted branches.

  “Oh,” Puck remarked, looking around as we moved across the open space. The mouthless horrors followed us, but at least they weren’t dropping onto our heads from above. “Well, this is a lovely boss arena. What a perfect place for an epic battle, don’t you think, ice-boy? Now all we need is—”

  “No.” Ash turned and glared at him. “Puck, I swear, do not say it—”

  A wail rose into the air. Sudden and ear-splitting, it swept through the courtyard like an icy wind, causing my stomach to curl and my skin to crawl.

  Keirran staggered, turning toward the spot where the wall had fallen away, the blood draining from his face. “She’s coming.”

  I took a deep breath and raised my sword, seeing Ash and the others do the same. All right, Wailing One, I thought. We’re ready for you. Show yourself.

  The shriek rang out again, making my ears throb. And then, a massive, dark shape rose from beyond the shattered wall. Horns, scales, and beating, leathery wings appeared, as an all-too-familiar creature landed at the edge of the courtyard and let out a scream that made the ground tremble.

  My breath caught. Out of all the frightening, terrible things we had seen, I was not expecting the Wailing One to be an actual dragon. Though, as I stared up at it, heart pounding and stomach twisting, I immediately realized my perceptions were wrong. The dragon had two heads, but they were not reptilian, lizard-like, or bestial in any way. Horns sprouted from the skull of a beautiful elven woman, her face twisted into a mask of anguish and despair. The other was a male face whose eyes blazed with fury. The great leathery wings unfurled, and within the folds, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of faces could be seen, melting in and out of the membranes. Hundreds of mouths opened, and a torrent of screaming anguish and despair slammed into me like a tidal wave, making me stagger back.

  Keirran fell to his knees, clutching his head. Images flickered around him, shadowy figures that were there one moment, gone the next. The Wailing One screamed again, a piercing shaft of pain through my head, and lunged into the courtyard.

  The male head swept down, jaws opening, and a column of fire erupted from its gaping mouth. Ash grabbed Keirran, hauled him to his feet, and yanked him out of the way as the inferno roared across the courtyard. I ducked behind a broken pillar and watched it set the tree ablaze, several mouthless Nightmares bursting into flame as the fire passed over them. Writhing and flailing, they scattered like birds or rolled about on the stones, before turning to dust and blowing away on the wind.

  Peering out at the Wailing One, the named Elder Nightmare, I set my jaw. This was what we were here for, but we couldn’t slay the Nightmare without destroying its essence. Heart pounding, I watched our Nyx spring over a wall, vault atop a broken pillar, and launch herself at the Nightmare. Her crescent blades flashed, striking the Wailing One in its long, coiling neck, an instantly lethal blow to anything else. A gash appeared in the Nightmare’s flesh, and both heads screamed, twin voices rising in a unified wail of anger and pain. But almost immediately, the wound closed, sealing itself, and the male head roared as it spun on the Evenfaery. The dark wings flared open, faces pressing forward as they howled, only now they weren’t random strangers but dozens of Varyns, all crying out in pain and rage. More faces appeared, members of her Order, silver-haired and golden-eyed, crowding Varyn as they stared at Nyx, screaming until the noise was deafening.

  Nyx stumbled back, wincing. The Wailing One took a booming step toward her, wings still spread wide, and Puck dropped between them with his daggers unsheathed, smiling dangerously as the Nightmare loomed overhead.

  “Man, you are not the scariest dragon I’ve ever faced, but you sure are the loudest!” I could barely hear the words over the cacophony of the Wailing One. Even though Puck was very good at making himself heard, the screams of the Nightmare nearly drowned out even his voice. “How are you not completely hoarse by now?”

  The Nightmare screamed even louder in reply. Flaring its wings, it turned on Puck, the faces shifting from Varyn and the Order to some familiar and some less recognizable visages. I caught a glimpse of my own face within the folds, twisted into a horrible mask of pain and rage. I shivered, and Puck flinched back, still keeping his body between the monster and Nyx.

  “Yeah, that’s fine—show me my past traumas. I get it. That’s not gonna stop us from taking you down right here. Meghan!” he suddenly shouted, making me jerk up. “Do you see the tower?”

  I glanced at the towers rising over the courtyard, my gaze landing on the familiar crooked one. Water poured from the very top of the ruins, shimmering like curtains as it fell. “I see it.”

  “Go!” Puck called. “We’ll keep this noisy thing busy.”

  Beneath the tree, the Wailing One screamed, the male head bellowing a challenge. Its jaws opened again, blasting a stream of fire down at Puck and Nyx. They leaped away, scattering in different directions, and Ash and Varyn darted in from behind. Ice blade and crescent daggers flashed, cutting deep into the Nightmare’s flanks. There was no blood, though the blows did draw an enraged bellow from the Wailing One. Rearing up, wings snapping, it came down with a boom that shook the courtyard, and a ring of flame erupted around it.

  I gripped my sword, feeling the edges dig into my palm. I desperately wanted to help, to join my allies and family in taking down the Nightmare. But that would be useless until we destroyed the essence. As much as I wanted to stand with my family, I had to get to the core at the top of the tower to kill this thing for good.

  There was no sound beyond the terrible screams of the Wailing One, no warning except the faint prickle against my skin that alerted me to danger from behind. I spun to see a mouthless horror reaching for me with arms outstretched, but before I could react, a steel blade swept through the air, slicing into the lesser Nightmare and cutting it in two.

  Keirran staggered forward, his jaw set and his eyes hard. “I’m coming with you,” he told me. “I’ll be of no use against the Wailing One. Every time it cries out, I can’t see anything but shades pressing forward. The closer I get, the harder it is to even breathe.” He shot a quick glance at the distant spire, narrowing his gaze. “I’ll be more useful helping you reach the tower,” he said. “At least the enemies we’ll be facing there won’t scream at me.”

  I nodded at my son. “All right,” I said. “Let’s get to that tower.”

  I spared one more glance at my friends and allies, fighting the Nightmare in the center of the courtyard. Nyx and the other two assassins were darting in and out, dodging flames and blows to strike where they could. Ash and Puck were fighting side by side, as they had hundreds of times before.

  I trust you, I thought to Ash, to Puck, to all of them. I know you’ll be fine. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of this as quickly as I can, and then we’ll finish this Nightmare for good.

  “Let’s go,” I told Keirran, and we went deeper into the castle, leaving the others to distract the Elder Nightmare for as long as they could.

  21

  THE TOWER

  Hordes of mouthless horrors waited for us through every door and down every hallway, dropping from the ceilings and skittering down walls. They clawed at us with brittle fingers and slashed at us with cleavers and knives, all the while making no sound. Keirran and I cut our way through the masses, dust and rags swirling around us, fighting our way toward the highest tower that loomed ever in the distance. I could see glimpses of it, through windows and the many holes, tantalizingly close, yet just out of reach.

  “This way,” Keirran said, pointing to a crumbling spiral stone staircase that looped into the dark. “We have to keep going higher.”

  The horrors followed, climbing the stairs after us. About halfway up, Keirran grimaced, and I raised my sword. “More incoming,” he warned, as another group of Nightmares came down the steps, trapping us in the center. I ducked as one swiped at my head with a carving knife, swept its legs out from under it, and plunged my blade through its center as it fell.

  “We’re trapped,” Keirran muttered at my back. “There are more coming from above us.”

  “We stand here, then,” I told him. “You take the ones coming down. I’ve got the ones coming up.”

  He nodded. Putting my back to Keirran’s, I raised my sword as the mob of horrors came at us from both sides. For a few moments, we stood in the center of chaos, and it was nothing but claws and limbs and flashing blades. I braced myself against the horde coming up the steps, determined that none would get past me to Keirran. Thankfully, there were so many that the Nightmares got in each other’s way, bumping into one another as they crowded forward. They reached for us, and I cut them down, putting all thoughts of weakness or mercy aside. I did not worry about the horde at my back. Keirran was there, and I trusted him as much as I did the one who’d taught us both.

  “The ones above us are cleared out,” Keirran panted.

  I slashed through a reaching claw and kicked the Nightmare in the chest, sending it crashing back into the others. But more crowded into the stairwell from below, an unending flood. “Keep moving,” I told him. “I’ll be right behind you.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes! Go!”

  He went, his presence vanishing up the stairs, and the Nightmares pressed forward. I ducked, cutting the legs from the pair in front of me, and leaped back as they went down. The ones behind them stumbled, tripping over their fellows, and I quickly turned and sprinted up the stairs after Keirran.

  Wind blasted me as I reached the top and stepped onto the castle roof. Towers and battlements surrounded us, though the turrets and parapets had fallen away, leaving enormous holes in the walls. One tower had collapsed completely and now rested against the side of the roof, jutting up at a steep angle. It pointed like a finger toward our final destination: the narrow, spindly tower that rose above all the others. There was no obvious path to it, however; the battlements that must have once connected the tower to the rest of the castle had fallen. It stood alone, pouring water down its sides like a waterfall. So close, and yet...

  “Where to now?” Keirran panted.

  A pair of mouthless Nightmares suddenly clawed their way up the side of the wall and grabbed at my legs. I plunged my blade through the back of a neck, and Keirran swiftly kicked the other off the ledge, sending it tumbling back into space.

  “There,” I said, pointing out our path. “If we cross the roof, that fallen tower is very close to where we need to go. We’ll have to jump at the end, but I think we can make it.”

  Keirran blew out a breath. “That’s a lot of heights,” he said. “Good thing I had tons of practice creeping across the rooftops with Razor when I wanted to get out of the Iron Palace.”

  I turned to him with a frown. “That’s how you snuck out all those times?”

  He gave me a brief, sheepish grin that I hadn’t seen in ages. “The gliders and I were very well acquainted.”

  There was a thump behind us. The mouthless horrors had begun crawling up from the stairwell, and I grimaced. “I want that entire story later, but right now, let’s go.”

  We leaped onto the roof and began the treacherous path toward the fallen tower. The roof, unsurprisingly, was full of holes, and the remaining tiles rocked and slid underfoot. Lesser Nightmares skittered after us, moving like spiders over the exposed beams. More crawled up and over the edges of the wall, and a few even slithered out of the holes in the roof beneath us. The screams of the Wailing One drifted up from below, and I hoped that Ash and the others were doing all right.

  Ahead of me, Keirran cut down a Nightmare leaping for him, and the monster crashed into the roof before exploding into dust. The tiles beneath it shivered, then disappeared with a roar as an entire section of roof collapsed, taking my son and a pair of Nightmares with it.

  “Keirran!”

  I raced to the edge of the yawning hole, relief spiking as I saw Keirran clinging to a beam with one hand, the other still gripping his sword. The Nightmares clung to him, hanging off his back and legs, clawing wildly as all three dangled over the sheer drop to the stone below.

  “Hang on, Keirran!”

  Hurrying to the other side, I lay on my stomach to reach for him. Keirran clung doggedly to the beam, but his head was bowed, shoulders hunched against the Nightmare clawing at his face. Rage flickered. Pulling my sword back, I aimed carefully, then stabbed down at the monster assaulting my son. The point of the blade struck the creature in the forehead, flinging it back. It shivered into dust and rags before spiraling away into empty space.

  Freed from the monster on his shoulders, Keirran raised his sword and plunged it into the horror still trying to climb his leg. It reeled back, tearing wildly at his clothes, then tumbled into the darkness without a sound.