Cassie

She flew as fast as she dared with Rana clinging to her fur, Ziege in her claws, and Daniel clutching the devil girl’s waist. Apparently, the last two couldn’t take their normal flying positions. If they didn’t need Daniel to deal with Kenta, she’d leave both of them in a heartbeat.

Going after Rana had been an agonizing decision.

Cassie wasn’t sure and might never know if doing that saved the frog girl. She knew they’d had a small window of time—if she’d gone after Kenta first, they couldn’t have fought the Camouflage long enough to turn around and find Rana. She absolutely knew something would’ve distracted them, like what happened to the mages.

On the other hand, she’d deliberately passed on the single opportunity they might have to help Kenta—if this was The Moment.

She couldn’t shake the image of Kenta’s tear-streaked face. No matter how pig-headed he could be, Cassie loved that dunderhead like a brother. He’d protected them so many times. He always looked out for them even when it seemed like he was being mean.

And he was only concerned about his sister. That’s what made it so hard to tell him to shut up when he said what he did to Paul and then Rana. Of all of them, he had the right to be worried. Their guardians could all take care of themselves, but no one knew if Harumi was being cared for.

He needed comfort, not punishment.

She regretted sending Paul and Lea after him. No offense, but they didn’t stand a chance of saying what he needed to hear, let alone of catching him—and there they were, below. Cassie swooped to pick them up when she noticed Kenta standing not far ahead.

She wasn’t too late after all!

Cassie shifted from giant bat to girl, safely dropping Rana, Ziege, and Daniel as she pulled out of her dive and sped towards Kenta. She’d tackle him like she had Rana, pin the boy, and give him a piece of her mind.

Then he turned to her with his arms open, not crying, as if he were welcoming a hug. She was surprised; had he already gotten over it?

“Cassie, it’s a demon!” said Daniel.

“BLACK EYES!” Ziege shouted.

She flung open her wings, braking as they caught wind, and stopped uncomfortably close to the sinister embrace. Cassie put some space between them before It got any ideas. She hovered above, wondering how close she’d come to a fate worse than death as Daniel and the others approached.

They watched the demon, taking their fighting stances, unsure what to do.

“W-why does It look like Kenta?” Lea asked, her voice trembling with anxiety.

“I fought three demon clones of myself in Eastwood four years ago,” Paul said. “That doesn’t mean anything!”

Daniel shook his head. “It knows us, that’s what it means. I’m not sure where It came from, but It is definitely a fragment of Moloch. A lesser demon.”

> Let’s play a game of ‘Who’s Who?’

An evil screech like fingernails on a cosmic chalkboard reverberated over the grass. Cassie felt sick. Daniel and Paul wavered, stumbled, but stayed on their feet.

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Lea, Rana, and Ziege collapsed.

Then the lesser demon split into four, all clones of Kenta. Three ran forward. One ran away. As the trio advanced, they charged her fallen friends.

Lea sat with her arms around her legs, eyes shut and rocking herself. Rana lay face-down in the grass with her arms protecting her head. Ziege kneeled and thrashed her torso against the ground.

Cassie’s blood boiled. “Not this time!”

She dove on the lesser demon headed for Ziege and sank her claws of the fishing bat into It’s flesh. Then Cassie magnified her wings, partially shifting them to twice their normal size, and launched both demon and herself into the air. The G’s she pulled pinned the demon’s arms long enough for her to recover, flair her wings in an abrupt air brake, and fling the demon aloft.

The bat girl screamed with rage while tears streamed from her eyes.

Diving feet-first at It again, this time in mid-air, she balanced with her wings while going to work with her claws in free-fall. She kicked and scraped and tore, left, right, left, drawing black ooze from deep gashes. Not giving It time to react, she gouged the demon’s arms, legs, chest, and head, shredding anything she could reach.

> I know you’re blind

Meanwhile, Paul shot the legs of the demon running for Lea with a beam of heat and light, causing It to stumble. Cassie sensed the ray’s intensity by how it changed the density of the air in passing. With the demon down, Paul hammered It with bolt after bolt from his hands that burned holes clean through It’s body.

The lesser demon quickly regenerated while Paul closed the distance between them. When he stood above It, Paul shouted, “This is for Eastwood,” and opened the pectoral chest doors of his armor, bathing the entire demon in a wave of burning energy.

Daniel smacked away the demon trying to get Rana with the back of one hand, projecting a wave of Ruin magic like a car slamming into It at sixty miles an hour. “I didn’t kill mom, Moloch. You did. You’re a liar who’ll say anything to manipulate people.”

With his other hand, he made a grab at the fourth demon fleeing, but missed. After positioning himself between Rana and the third demon, Daniel focused on Paul and Cassie’s battles to see if he needed to insert himself.

Cassie didn’t give him the chance.

As she and her demon neared the ground, she swung herself around in a final kick and shifted into her giant fishing bat form—her leg becoming an enormous set of claws that cut the demon into five pieces. She landed on all fours facing the demon fragments already dragging themselves together.

> You couldn’t even tell me apart from the person you love most in the world

It sounded like a broken record.

“At least come up with something original!”

She roared, releasing four years of pain along with all her righteous anger, blasting the demon with a cone of sonic magic. The sound of her voice tore loose the grass, soil, and small rocks for a hundred feet. The demon was minced into tiny flecks by the shrapnel, the pieces of flesh were crushed by the concussive pressure of the blast, and the last scraps of the first lesser demon evaporated.

The second charred lesser demon, in an impressive display of demonic stamina, rose to its feet before Paul while the grass about them burned. Paul calmly gripped his right gauntlet in his left hand, twisted, and unlocked that portion of his armor. He removed the gauntlet—briefly revealing his humanoid hand as a wave of unbelievable heat rolled off glassy flesh—and plunged his arm into the demon’s chest.

“Who’s weak now?” the lantern boy said.

The demon screamed, fire erupting from its eyes, nose, and throat. In seconds, It was burned from the inside out. As the ashes scattered, Paul replaced his gauntlet before he set the whole field on fire. Cassie felt his heat from where she stood. The Nightwatcher hadn’t been kidding about a kiss being off the table now.

The third demon tried to run. Daniel caught It easily in a sweep of his hand and lifted It into the air.

It spat at them, “Moloch’s Will endures as long as even one shadow remains.”

Daniel squeezed and broke the demon’s arms and legs. He squeezed harder and the demon no longer looked humanoid. He squeezed tighter and the ball of demon flesh squished through the fingers of an invisible giant, then evaporated.

“One got away,” Daniel said as he opened his clenched fist to let .

Cassie flew to Rana’s side and rolled her over. “They’re fevered.”

At least Ziege was no longer hitting herself. The three girls seemed to be getting better; the flush of their skin and temperature faded by the second. Rana sat up and blinked. Lea looked around in confusion.

Ziege groaned and said, “What happened?”

“There was a lesser demon,” Daniel explained, clearly concerned for their wellbeing. “Do you remember any of it?”

“Some bad dreams,” Lea told them.

Cassie interrupted, “Sorry, but we’ve got to move. The fourth demon fragment is headed for Kenta. Everyone on!”