The stairs corkscrewed upwards for an eternity. I was out of breath before I could tell any difference in the volume of the chanting above me, and had to lean against the wall for support. I had exhausted a lot of energy breaking out of the chains and killing the guard, out of whatever stock I had left after my vision.

I reached out to Grace. «I made it out of the dungeon, but I'm tired. I think something's wrong about all this. They only had one guard down here, and he had the full ring of keys on him. Where are you?»

«Flying your way,» said Grace. «Arthur is taking me. We're almost there.»

«Flying?» I repeated. «You'll draw too much attention that way! We're wanted, remember?»

«Fuck that!» Grace shouted. «Who cares about that!? You're in danger, and I'm coming to help, the end! If it's a trap, it doesn't matter anyway, they'll be expecting us regardless.»

«If it's a trap, then you're giving them exactly what they want.»

«If it's a trap, then we're one step closer to dealing with it just by knowing it exists,» countered Grace. «This isn't a discussion. We're getting you out.»

I growled aloud. «Fine. I'll try and get to the surface before you arrive.»

I stood up and kept running. My wings scraped against the cramped walls, and I could feel my heartbeat in my feet and in my ears. Gradually, the chanting got louder and clearer, and I began to hear other voices mixed in with them. It was the general din of a crowd's aimless chatter, without the acoustical amplification that the chanters had. There must be a lot of people attending the cathedral today. Hopefully I could get out without involving them.

Finally, the stairs came to an end at a short, bare hallway that led to an unadorned, thick wooden door. I tiptoed closer and gently pushed the door open, feeling its weight as it ground along the stone floor. I could tell from that that it was another secret door, hidden in the wall of the cathedral's main floor.

I put my eye to the crack where I had pushed the door ajar and scanned the room. The door was located off the nave, where that crowd was gathered. Some knelt in prayer, some sat and listened to the chanters on the upper balconies, and some were admiring the art and sculpture incorporated into the walls. Oddly, there were again no guards. It seemed like the only people in the room were a few dozen ordinary churchgoers.

I retreated from the door to think. Obviously, the continued lack of security was suspicious. I couldn't tell exactly what it meant, still. The nave didn't seem like a good spot for an ambush, and if Barbosa just wanted me dead he had the opportunity when I was in chains. If the trap was for my rescuers, I'd also probably be locked up still. So he had to want something from me that he couldn't get while I was a prisoner.

I glanced again through the door. Maybe it was violence? The crowd here would be witnesses if anything went wrong and some innocent happened to die. So it could be that he wanted to cement our stained reputation with the public. If that was the case, I couldn't use the main doors. I'd have to try and get out of sight, and find another way out of the cathedral.

«Grace,» I said. «When you get here, don't come in the front. There's a bunch of people here. I think we're being set up to be framed.»

«Don't come in the front,» she repeated. «Got it.»

I nodded, confident that she would be able to find her way in on her own. I approached the door one more time to scout out a route. The hall to the dungeon was located on the opposite end of the nave from the entrance, which meant that there should be doors to my right that would lead deeper into the cathedral, probably to office space for the ministers or galleries or something. I'd never be able to completely sneak over; the nave was far, far too open for that. Getting out of sight was more important than staying entirely unseen, though, so as long as I was fast, it was my best option.

I pushed the door just a little bit further open before stepping back and readying my sore muscles to sprint. Once I calmed my nerves and took a deep breath, I lowered my head and charged.

With it already ajar, the door was easy enough to smash fully open. Gasps echoed out from amongst the congregants, but I didn't pay them any mind. I saw the path I needed to take, with three large, well-decorated doors to the right beneath the vicar's balcony pulpit, right where I had expected them to be. I angled my charge, skidding a little on the stone as I sharply turned and lowered my head again to bash through one of the doors.

I slammed into it—and bounced off. My head rang and my horns went numb for long enough that I feared one of them had snapped off at the impact. I stumbled back, barely able to keep myself from falling over as I felt my head and made sure I was still in one piece. I blinked rapidly to try and clear my blurred vision as I looked back up at the stubborn door, watching as a tangled web of glyphs and magic circles faded back into obscurity amongst the moulded relief on its surface.

Damn it! I roared in my mind. Wards! I should have known this place would be protected like that. And from the brief glimpse I got of it, this set looked like the most complex ward I had seen yet, orders of magnitude stronger than the ones at the palace, or at Athanor Hall.

I stepped back, glancing at the crowd. All of the people near me had fled towards the main doors, some actively running and others with their hands over their mouths in shock. I heard them whispering, wondering to each other what a dragon was doing here in Yorving, and whether I was a true dragon or one of those beasts with the "nasty dragoons". Despite the pompous tone of some of the gossipers, they all seemed like normal people. Well-dressed, but not overly so like the nobility, and accompanying friends or children.

I ignored them. Things would only get worse the longer I lingered. I looked up and around, frantically searching for another exit. The chanters had abandoned their balcony at the sound of me crashing into the wall, but I bet that their doors were sealed too. Anything a thief might think to use to navigate this place easily was liable to be blocked, so that counted out most if not all of the regular doors. I glanced up at the ceiling, at the stained glass windows that let colourful sunlight stream into the towering chamber. The windows at Athanor Hall weren't sealed; maybe if this place was warded by the same people, they hadn't bothered with the windows here, either?

I spread my wings, ready to leap into the air and find out, when a booming voice echoed through the chamber. "I am surprised you were able to escape so quickly. I had thought that it would take you until sundown at least to give in and use your bestial nature to break the chains, but here you are, having fallen far sooner than expected."

It was Barbosa, but his voice seemed like it was coming from…everywhere. I stumbled back, looking up at his balcony pulpit only to find a stern deacon looking over the congregation, motionless.

«Where are you, you slimy bastard!?» I shouted.

"Still, bestial or clinging to intelligence, your presence here is dangerous," the vicar said, leaving my statement unheeded. He must not have been able to hear my mental speech, so he wasn't in the room, at least. Maybe he was speaking through pipes in the walls, like the ones that those organs used in other churches?

"This is a dire emergency," Barbosa called out, more urgency in his voice. "Faithful! You must run, and fetch the Templar Guard! Quickly, before this beast decides to sate its hunger!"

Those who had been migrating towards the door broke out into a full run, shoving the grand doors open and escaping into the midday light outside. Then, a moment later, more warding circles flashed bright red on the entrance, and the doors slammed shut hard enough that they hurled some attempting to make their way through several feet across the floor. I was sure they had broken some bones, and the way they laid still, groaning in pain supported that theory. Fury ignited in my heart.

"How many witnesses do we have?" I heard Barbosa say, his voice a little more distant and indistinct, as though he had stepped away from his mouthpiece. "Fourteen? That will be plenty." His voice became clear again. "To you faithful who remain, I must share my deepest and most heartfelt sorrow. For each of you, I will shed a thousand tears, for your loss will weigh heavy on my heart. Yet, it is something that must come to pass. There are times when each of us is called to sacrifice something dear to us. Perhaps it will be an evening meal, given up so that the hungry may be fed. Perhaps it will be the company of others, forsaken in order to serve in monastic study of the saints. And perhaps it will be a building, made by hands whose artistry will remain recorded in history books long after their work has been reduced to rubble, which must be brought down to open the gateway to new and greener fields. Yet sacrifice, we must. And for you, the sacrifice must be your lives."

Panic set in almost immediately. People loudly began questioning what they heard, then shouting at the voice in the walls in disbelief. Some stood staring into space, shell-shocked. Others began banging on the doors in a futile hope they would open up and allow them to escape. A few marched forward and started screaming at the deacon on the balcony, as though its deadened mind would be able to assuage their fears.

"It is not a choice I make lightly," said Barbosa. "Yet it is one you may exult in, for your souls will be cherished in memory and light forevermore for the sacrifice you make. Your impurity will cleanse this place of its sanctity, and allow greater works to be done in its absence. It is a holy task before you, to destroy the chains wrought in falsity and forged in ignorance. Rejoice."

With his last word, the deacon on the balcony uncovered a thin metal disk from within its coat. My eyes went wide. How many of those things did they have!?

«Close your eyes!» I desperately yelled out to the crowd as I turned away myself. «Don't look at it!»

The clamour grew louder, and I realised that maybe mentally shouting directly into the ears of everyone present might not have helped keep the situation under control. But what other choice did I have?

I beat my wings and jumped, aiming for the balcony where the deacon stood. By the time I hooked my claws over the rail, though, I heard the whoosh of fire igniting, then a brief pulse of flowing air rush past my ear. I hauled myself over the banister and landed a falling claw on the deacon's chest, hurling it to the ground before I tore into it with my bare hands, taking advantage of its lack of a weapon to retaliate with until its flesh was shredded and it stopped convulsing. The moment it stopped moving, a stench wafted off of its bloodless corpse, like eons of decay were released all at once.

But the disk wasn't in its hands anymore. Behind me, in the middle of the nave, there was a loud, painful clatter. Loud protests and fearful babbling turned to screams, then growls that resounded off the walls in a growing chorus. I turned around, but I couldn't look at where the people were turning into fiends directly, for fear of losing myself to my own Fiend again at the sight of the burning carving. All I could see was the aftermath, people running down the aisles with bleeding wounds and terrified looks, once-human fiends right behind them, blood dripping from their ravening jaws as they discarded their shredded clothes and the last vestiges of their humanity. Some glanced back at their pursuers and accidentally beheld the carving, immediately collapsing in fits of screams as their body tore itself apart and warped into something twisted.

I felt myself starting to hyperventilate. What do I do!? was the question that ran through my mind over and over again. I couldn't get through any of the doors, I couldn't fight all these fiends myself, I didn't know whether I could get anyone still human to trust me enough to protect them, and on top of all that, I didn't have any time to think about it anymore.

I acted on instinct, and jumped back over the balcony, snapping out my wings and gliding out to the centre of the room with my eyes squeezed firmly shut. I felt the minor fluctuations in air current as I passed by each of the room's pairs of pillars, and once I counted them all out, I angled down, landing only slightly awkwardly by the main doors. I felt that the ground was warm and sticky, and didn't care to look down, instead tilting my head back and inhaling sharply.

Fire! I shouted to myself. We need fire right now to scare them off! Come on! You can do it without the Fiend's help!

I reached for that ember of warmth I had felt from the fire before and exhaled. Nothing but smoke. I choked and coughed, clearing my throat for another try. You have to! I screamed in my head. You have no choice! Do it NOW!

For a second, I felt smoke bubbling back up. Then I felt a spark, the tiniest of pushes from the depth of my mind, and there was a slight click in my chest before with a loud whoosh, fire billowed up into the air. The growls faded momentarily. I chanced a look down to make sure it had worked.

There were already two bodies in the room, and a couple of the four survivors were missing limbs that the fiends were mercilessly gnawing on, having torn them from their stumps. But the fiends stopped chasing, at least for now, staring at me and the fading fire in the air and hissing. I blew another gout of flame and spread my wings wide to get the room's attention.

«Over here!» I shouted to the humans that were left. «I'll protect you!»

The crowd was panicked, but they had enough sense or instincts to listen, and stumbled my way. All those that could walk, at least. One of them, a young girl, just stared at me from where she laid across the room, her leg mangled below the knee. Fiends were closing in on her from behind.

I roared and darted forward, keeping my eyes locked on the fiends as I breathed a third blast just over the girl's head. She cowered, but the fiends scampered away, hissing and spitting in my direction. As soon as I reached her, she let out a bloodcurdling scream, her arms shaking so much they were flinging the blood off of them as she limply tried to push herself away from me.

«Shh, shh,» I said, doing my best to keep her focussed and conscious as I picked her up in one arm. She resisted, but didn't have near enough strength to push herself out of my grip. «I won't let them hurt you.»

I sprinted back toward the door as fast as I could on three legs, trying to avoid jostling the girl too much. I had to send another blast of flame to my left to keep a group of three long-legged fanged fiends from lunging at the group that was now huddling by the door, but I made it before the monsters did, and gently laid the girl down as far away as I could. I breathed one more fire blast at the encroaching fiends, but I could already feel that spark going cold. I'd run out of fuel soon. I had to either kill the fiends or figure out a way out before then.

The second one was easier. I spun around. «Get close to me!» I yelled, urging the crowd towards me as I reared up, aiming for the doors. I wished Brand was here to help with this plan, but I didn't have the luxury of team support. I brought my head down in hard bash against the wood. The wards flared to life, but I felt the door's heft still crack beneath my strike. My head felt like it had cracked too, but I was willing to lose a horn or fracture my skull if it meant getting these people out of here alive.

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The fiends closed in, but I had a plan for that. I spread my wings out and turned them down so that they formed a fan in front of the people to my sides, blocking the monsters' view of them. At the same time, I raised my tail, and waited until I heard another fiend's growling get close before swinging it to the side and smashing the beast away, feeling a few spines come loose with the attack for good measure.

Moving so much of my body all in tandem needed focus, but with adrenaline rushing through my veins, I had enough. I rammed the doors again and again while shielding the innocents and keeping the fiends back. A few of the people even had the courage to stand up and start banging on the exit with their fists alongside me. They didn't have near enough strength to make much of a difference, but the sight helped me rally and keep striking. The headache set in after the third attempt, but the cracks were widening, and the light of the ward was starting to fail.

I took one second to turn back around and send an arc of fire spinning around us while I gave my head a moment to stop throbbing. I couldn't see the carving from this location, just the small tongues of flame above it that were slowly dying. It was a relief to know that I wasn't in danger of accidentally seeing it and murdering all the people behind me, or one of them looking over and becoming a beast behind my defensive line.

What wasn't relieving at all were the cracks in the floor. Where human and fiendish blood had been spilled, where the dead bodies laid out on the ground and beneath every spray that had accompanied my tail attacks, slowly widening cracks had appeared and run through the tiles. They were thin now, but wide enough that the blood could dribble in, and as it did, a warm red light shone from beneath that began flickering from red to dark purple and back again.

I was confused, but then I thought back to Barbosa's speech. Cleanse this place of sanctity…destroy the chains…. Was this all just an elaborate way to get fiend blood into some kind of ritual complex beneath the floor? How? Why? What were the chains? Was it a ward that was being corrupted by the fiend blood?

Whatever it was, I didn't want to be here when the process was done. I reared up for a decisive strike on the door.

«We're here!» I heard Grace say.

Shit! In all the chaos, I had almost forgotten….

«Grace!» I shouted, suddenly desperate and seized with fear. I faltered on my hind legs as the contact distracted me. «Close your eyes!»

«What?» she said, confused.

«CLOSE THEM!» I roared.

One of the windows above us shattered. Glass sprayed across the room as Arthur dove straight through, his wings tucked in tight before he snapped them open, landing right in the middle of the nave, the wave of air forcing the fiends around him away. On his back, I could see Grace, not bothering with a saddle, but thankfully with her eyes squeezed tightly shut as she reached for her spear and dismounted.

Arthur's eyes, however, weren't closed.

It took him a second to notice the disk, but everyone in the room knew as soon as he did. His eyes flicked down, and then he suddenly collapsed on his side like he'd been struck by a train, his back arched and his wings outstretched. Grace was hurled to the ground where she landed in a practised roll, staring at Arthur as his limbs twitched and his jaw locked open in a silent scream. Gurgling growls escaped his throat, and then I heard his voice in my ear.

«Help…» he muttered, strained, like he was being choked. His voice sounded the same, but when I heard it I felt like an icy claw had been dragged down my spine. «I…can't—»

His words abruptly cut off, and a wave of cold air washed over the room. His limbs stopped shaking. Condensation gathered from the air around him, and minute but wickedly-sharp crystals of ice began to grow on his wings. The fiends stopped slavering at us by the door and watched Arthur's transformation.

Grace stepped back, pointing her spear at the fiends that she didn't seem to have the attention of. The growling monsters seemed to revere Arthur as he stood again, ice forming spikes across his body. His eyes were dead, like a snake's. He bared his teeth.

«Move!» I screamed to Grace. Somehow, I could tell that Arthur couldn't understand me.

She reacted instantly, which saved her life. With a snarl, Arthur let out a blast of cold air from his mouth that formed into freezing fog as it blew through the room. Grace rolled to the side, her spear up and ready when she stood again. The fiends howled at once and moved to attack alongside the demon.

"Might need a little help!" Grace cried, breathless already.

I glanced at her, then at the people still cowering behind me. They were still futilely banging their hands on the door, or standing terrified behind my outstretched wings, their eyes locked on the fight in terror. If I left their side to fight the fiends, they wouldn't make it out.

Grace spun her spear to bash the haft into Arthur's head as he spun around, swinging his claws enhanced by his new icy power into jagged blades. The blow barely fazed him and his claws punched into Grace's breastplate, missing drawing any blood but successfully tearing the metal. She grunted in effort as backpedalled, thrusting the spear into the head of one of the encroaching beasts, killing it instantly before it could get its claws on her.

She needed help, definitely. I couldn't risk her getting hurt, or, heavens forbid, killed here. I stepped forward.

Do it, I heard the Fiend's voice say in my mind. Save her.

I stopped. Why did the Fiend want me to help? If it took over, it would make me a demon, all it wanted violence. Why did it want to save Grace?

The Fiend associating itself with the choice was enough to make me hesitate, then turn around. Whatever it wanted, it wasn't good. Maybe it wanted me to go over there so it could force me to seen the carving. Grace could hold her own for the few seconds it took me to get these people out of here.

Now it was her life on the line instead of mine, though. So, I gave it everything I had. Instead of rearing back, I fully launched myself at the door. The resounding crack and throbbing pain in my skull was enough of a sign for me that that had done more than my previous attempts, so I did it again and again. The wards shook, giving out one by one as the door was battered down.

I stopped, panting, after the third try. It was nearly there, but I was so, so tired, and every strike was doing less than the last because of it. I made the mistake of turning around. Grace was pinned against the wall, frantically stabbing fiends left and right as they came after her. By the bodies on the floor, she'd made a dent in their number all on her own, but the demon was stalking closer to her as she thinned the crowd. Then it suddenly lunged, brushing past her spear and wrapping its jaws around her shoulder, picking her up and shaking her back and forth before throwing her to the centre of the room, a long trail of blood following her as she skidded over the tiles.

«No!» I screamed. I wanted to go to her side immediately, but the combination of fatigue and imbalance from the damage I'd surely done to my head by now kept my legs from holding me steady. I limped forward, but the fiends were already closing in. And I still had the door to deal with.

"All together now!" someone in the crowd shouted behind me. I gave a cursory glance back to see a burly woman with her shoulder down gesturing for the rest of the people to follow her. "One! Two! Three! Push!"

Those with strength left in them rallied at her command and charged the door together. With a sound like shattering glass, the last of the broken and disrupted wards dissolved, and the doors toppled over, knocked fully off their hinges by now. They crashed to the ground, revealing a gathered crowd of onlookers outside, who began to panic as they saw the scene of violence within the cathedral. The survivors inside didn't help the air of calm, as they all rushed out as soon as they could, screaming about fiends and the vicar betraying them. I could only hope that their making it would at least stir some sentiment against the tyrant.

Only two people remained. One was the girl who had lost her leg, who looked desperately for the exit, but could barely manage to drag herself along, and the other was the woman who had commanded the crowd. She stood over the girl, gesturing for her to remain still while she looked out towards the onlookers outside.

"Someone, get something to carry this girl on now! And a doctor, if you can find one!" she screamed. She glanced up at me. "You. Dragon. I don't know why you're helping us, but I can handle her. Go help your friend now."

I didn't have the energy to do anything but nod and start running for Grace.

The cracks in the floor had widened as more blood had been spilled and seeped into the imperfections. The glow from within was now heavily faltering, and with each flicker of the light, the foundations of the cathedral shook. The place was coming apart as the hex embedded in the floor was undone. We didn't have long before it fully collapsed.

I picked my way across the nave, searching for spots where I could put my feet without falling into the holes, until I made it to Grace's side. She had landed so close to the still-burning disk that I could barely even look at her for fear of witnessing the horrible carving, but I could tell she was badly wounded. The bite had pierced, then torn, the muscles in her left shoulder so badly I wasn't certain she'd be able to use that arm again without the aid of magic. She was trying to reach for her dropped spear which had skidded far too close to the fiends to safely get.

I hooked a wing and hand under her, helping her to her feet, but she still wobbled even with my support. She coughed. "Can we save him?" she asked.

I snorted in a brief flash of entirely inappropriate humour. Of course, even with her arm nearly torn from her body, she was still only thinking about Arthur, not herself.

«The doctor at the academy said demons can be brought back,» I said. «But we might need to get him to Rosalie for that. And considering the circumstances, I don't know….» I left it at that.

Grace snarled and let her left arm fall uselessly to her side while she pulled her pistol from its holster. "If that's what it takes, then that's what we'll do."

She fired wildly at the fiends. There was still a dozen after her desperate defence, but even the ones that had witnessed their fellows die in fire or hoisted on a spear didn't have the wherewithal to approach with caution. Bullets pelted their hides, and although many only served to wing the beasts and halt their advance momentarily, a few landed dead-on and punctured skulls, leaving their targets instantly dead.

I focussed on the demon. A crown of cruel horns had grown up around its antennae, and the scales on its back were now keeled, with the central ridge tilted up to host a spike of ice. Its eyes weren't as dead as I thought they were before. They were just cold. Malicious. It took a deep breath, and so did I.

I put the last of my fire into one final blast that collided with the freezing fog from the demon. It didn't seem to care about any of is fiendish allies that had gotten in the way, and the rest of those that remained screeched in pain as they were frozen through or burned. The jets of air met with a loud whoosh, fanning out where they met into a wide shield of fire and ice. Water pulled from the air by the fog met my fire and turned to steam instantly, spraying the room with warm mist until the visibility had been ruined.

Grace kept firing until her gun clicked and she tossed to the ground with an angry grunt. "Kill the fire and dodge!" she shouted, and I listened. I let my already faltering breath go and jumped to the side. But the colliding fog disappeared as soon as the flames did. Grace darted forward, taking up her spear in one hand and looking all around. The room was now heavily obscured by the demon's fog, so much so that I couldn't see it anywhere.

I silently cursed. How could I let this happen? My mind was always so simple and stupid when the Fiend was in control, that I had expected Arthur's to be the same. I had expected the demon to rely on brute force, not tactical decisions like this.

With my eyes failing me, I tried to use my ears instead, but they were still ringing too hard from my attempts to break the doors. All I could smell was blood, nothing that would let me hone in on the demon. The cathedral rumbled again, and pieces of the ceiling began to come loose.

Then a shape launched out of the mists and crashed into my flank. The demon flung its horned head upwards, puncturing several of my scales and hurling me away, toppled onto my side. As I slid across the floor, I felt it fall away under my feet, and looked back to see a fissure opening up behind me. I scrabbled on the broken tiles, digging my claws in and flinging my wings out as I desperately tried not to fall in.

I roared futilely towards Grace,. The demon charged her, again unbothered by the spear that she lodged beneath its arm as it grabbed her. It ripped the spear from her hands, twisted her around, and dragged her by the head to the centre of the room, right over the disk.

A tempest stirred up in my heart, driven by fear and fury. No. No! This couldn't be happening! I finally managed to get my hind claws hooked into the stone foundation enough to haul myself over the ledge and onto the nave's floor again. But it was too late. Grace blinked, but couldn't hold her eyes shut against instinct.

A high-pitched ping shot through my head, like the strike of metal on metal. Grace screamed and fell limp on the floor, and the demon let her go, standing back to watch. On top of the concussion I was probably suffering from, I felt like I'd been shot point-blank in the forehead. «Grace, please, no, don't let this happen,» I madly babbled through the agony. «Please, this can't happen….»

I could feel her mind growing hot. I feared what might be happening within, and I found myself almost wishing that I could go with her. At least then, we wouldn't be separated. I wouldn't have to kill her. But I still had all the people outside to worry about. The city, the rest of the flight…I couldn't just give up. So I stood and steeled myself, trying to make ready to fight until I couldn't any longer. Hopefully Rosalie had noticed that something was wrong through her and Arthur's bond, and would be able to bring backup before I was overwhelmed.

I thought that Grace's fate would come fast, and the fight would resume. But it didn't. Oddly, she just laid there, slowly moving her arms to clutch at her head, no apparent mutations happening yet. The demon seemed to get antsy at the slow pace, and took a step forward, growling. I felt the edges of Grace's mind, trying to tell what was inside. It was hard, only having silhouettes dancing within to go off of. But I sensed that there was anger. Anger and pride, or maybe it was…confidence? Suddenly a powerful feeling of resilience flooded into my mind from hers, and the piercing pain in my brain vanished.

The deep purple light of the dying flames from the carving clashed against new blue light shining out from Grace's veins all across her body. At the next rumble of the building, she shot to her feet, heedless of the wounds she'd suffered. Her back was to me, but there was something different about her silhouette. Two horns had appeared, sweeping back from her temples. I was afraid that the transformation had finally begun, but then she spoke.

"Arthur!" she shouted, her voice echoing like thunder. "I know you can hear me in there! I swear, I'll bring you back!" She hefted her spear before quietly adding, "One way or another."

Fast as lightning, she lunged forward, smacking the demon across the face with the spear's haft. The strike made a resounding crack, and sent blood and pieces of scale and tooth flying out onto the ground. The demon was knocked backward, stumbling as it tried to steady itself. Grace held the spear point forward in a resolute, threatening stance. Behind her, I spread my wings wide and bared my fangs at the demon, snarling.

The demon glanced between Grace and me. Then a tremour went through its body, and it suddenly reared up on its hind legs, screaming and shaking before its hands twitched to its chest and started clawing long slashes across its own body. A voice, small and quiet, gradually grew louder in my ear.

«Get it out…. Get it out…. Get it out…! GET IT OUT!» Arthur's voice screamed. Blood sprayed across the ground, mixing with water as the ice that had clung to his wings and scales melted and pooled on the floor before draining into the fissures. Grace froze in shock before she hurled down her spear, running to Arthur with her hand up.

"Arthur, stop!" she said. "It's out! Saints, stop hurting yourself!"

Arthur stopped, still on his hind legs with his hands down by his sides. His serrated claws dripped with blood, and his head was tilted back towards the ceiling. He was breathing hard, sobs shaking every exhale. «It's not,» he said, his voice so tiny and fragile in that moment. «I can still feel it there.» He looked down at his hands, and shook them to get some of the blood off. «I'm sorry….»

The blood landed on the wall of one of the fissures nearby, slowly rolling down into the pit below. The light had been flickering from down there flickered for the last time, flashing purple before dying completely.

Another rumble shook the cathedral, but this time, it didn't stop. The cracks in the floor shot out to the sides, travelling up the pillars and walls of the nave and then across the ceiling. Bits of debris fell from above, first shards of gravel and stone, then larger rocks. I could see whole segments of columns shaking themselves loose as the building began to collapse. Arthur lunged forward, grabbing Grace and holding her beneath himself as cover.

My adrenaline had all worn out, and panic made it hard to think. I took a single hesitant step towards the others before a fragment of ceiling the size of my torso landed just to the right of me, and I retreated. That's when I remembered.

The two by the door!

I glanced back, hopeful that they had made it out already, but they hadn't. Someone from the crowd was running forward with a large cloth sheet made into a makeshift stretcher, but with the next tremour that made stones fall like hail from above, the doorway collapsed, the keystone falling from the arch before the entire wall caved in from the side, almost crushing the person running in. The woman tending to the girl jumped halfway to her feet before realising it was futile. They were trapped.

I ran towards them. «Arthur!» I shouted behind me. «Get yourself and Grace out of the open! Now!»

I didn't have time to check whether he listened. I barrelled into the entryway, pushing the woman and the girl into the corner before arching my back and spreading my wings to keep them beneath me, protected. I shut my eyes. Weight pelted me from above, each stone that rained down larger than the last, until with a final crash, the walls of the cathedral collapsed into rubble.

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