CHAPTER 188

"What now?" Abella asked.

"With the Jabberwock gone, we should probably try to help Sulyvahn," Beth said. "If the shadow is taking something from the house, it makes sense that he's leaving through the front. Cerberus alone would be tough to get by, but the fact that his castle is being attacked by demons should give him pause."

"Are you thinking an ambush?" Abella grinned, then flexed her claws in excitement. "Because I would be more than happy to tear his cute little head off."

Beth nodded. "I absolutely am, but first things first. Can you get me down from here?"

The gargoyle laughed, then grabbed Beth by the hands and leapt into the sky, her wings spread wide as they glided down to the front yard. Suly was spinning his own head in a circle, creating a keening sound that set Beth's nerves on edge and apparently did something similar to the spirits around him. He cracked his whip and tore apart a spirit that tried to stab him with a spear, then smashed his own head into the chest of a barbarian with a giant ax.

Abella landed nearby, and Sulyvahn paused for a moment to look at her, his head dangling from one hand.

"Glad to see ye safe, lass," he told her. "Mind the whip, it'll steal the breath right out o' ye if ye come too close."

"Whoa, okay." She moved back and was relieved when the spirits didn't seem to notice her. Sulyvahn was clearly their target, so she had Abella move to a higher level to keep an eye on the yard. She took her own position along the outer wall, crouching low and pulling her cape around her arms and head to help blend in with the night.

She wasn't sure how long she waited, but she was holding her breath when a dark figure appeared in the door of the home. When Marco stepped out, he had the wand clutched in one hand and the book in the other.

Walking right in front of him was Kisa. She had both arms raised in the air as if she was his prisoner, but Beth noticed right away that her eyes were now a crystalline blue. Kisa wore a smirk on her face.

"If anybody tries to stop us," he began.

"The cat dies," Kisa finished, in a voice that wasn't her own. The pendant around her neck flashed ominously.

The technicolor clouds of the Dreamscape parted as Mike fell through them, and he flipped himself over in an attempt to finally stick the landing on the beach. For a moment, he thought he had it, but at the last second his feet swung out from under him and he slammed into the ground hard enough that the beach crumbled beneath him. He fought to stay above the flowing sand that rushed in to fill the gap, and was busy pinwheeling his arms when a golden ray of light broke through the sky above to illuminate him.

The fairy queen descended slowly, her diaphanous wings spread out behind her. The regal attire she had worn in the court had been replaced with resplendent armor that glistened in the light of the Dreamscape. The clouds parted, and a choir of angels hummed a battle hymn as she landed on the beach, her bare feet pressing into the sand.

She looked around the island, her eyes scanning the water, then turned to look at the house and frowned. Curious, he followed her gaze and saw that the house was in a state of disrepair that made no sense, and the roof of his porch had collapsed.

"And so we see the inner workings of your mind," she said. "I can't say I'm disappointed. This is roughly what I would expect from a mortal."

"Yeah, well—"

He tried to pull his foot out of the sand and fell on his face, getting a mouthful of grit. There was a rush of air, and a strong hand grabbed him by his other leg and yanked. He was pulled free of the sand, and now dangled upside down in front of the queen. She seemed bigger than she had been just a second ago, and his breath caught in his throat when another pair of arms unfolded from her torso.

"Let's see what you're made of, Caretaker." She spun in place and hurled him through the air, and he careened across the beach and then slid across the sand.

He bounced over an errant boulder and landed in a tide pool, which caused the crabs inside to stand up on their hind legs and flee. A fat starfish cartwheeled behind them before performing a belly flop off of a large rock on the shoreline. Mike was almost back on his feet when she grabbed him by the hair and yanked him backward, then slammed him into the ground and placed her foot on his chest.

"Feel free to wake up when you're ready," she told him, then held up a hand full of purple fire. "But try to last. I want to carve you up first."

Pain radiated through his body, but now that he had a moment to concentrate, he was able to disperse most of it. She had gotten the drop on him, that was true, but this was his Dreamscape, and he refused to let her get to him.

He caught movement off to his side and saw a crab within reach. The damn thing was wearing a top hat and a monocle, but he grabbed it by the face and smirked at the queen.

"Feeling crabby?" he asked, then threw the crab at the queen.

When it hit her in the face, it exploded into hundreds of tiny crabs, each one wearing a top hat or a monocle. She jumped away from him and shook herself off, the tiny crabs scurrying away in a hurry once they hit the ground. When she stomped on them, they burst into smears of blue and pink paint.