He caught up with Camilla at the edge of the woods. A wind had picked up, making the branches and leaves shift in a whispering dance. Another shiver ran down Jacob's spine. This one was stronger, closer.

"It came near the south-west corner." Camilla pointed with her cutlass, away from the house and the driveway.

"Are you sure we should do this?" Jacob asked.

"Do you want whatever this thing is following you around forever?"

No. No, he didn't. He just wanted goddamn answers.

They started into the forest. It grew dark, fast. Jacob's borrowed slides crunched on sticks and dead leaves. Camilla picked up her pace, and soon they were jogging through the shadows, stray rays of light splashing over them.

They came to a small clearing. A moss-covered stone shrine stood in the centre, with a fountain pool around its base and a dragonhead carved into the centre. A little spout protruded from the dragonhead, but it was dry.

"It was here." Camilla said. She paced around the shrine. Jacob peered in the fountain pool. It was filled with moss, leaves, and bugs and smelled damp and musky, old. A slimy, brown substance pooled along the edge.

"What is that?" Jacob asked, pointing at the brown stuff with the tip of his sword.

Camilla hissed when she saw it. She dipped the tip of her sword in it and held it up to the light. "Runny mud. It's blood for a golem. Shit. Arturo's been hurt."

Jacob blinked, but before he could say anything Camilla pointed at a nearby bush with the tip of her sword. A spray of mud covered the leaves and dripped down onto the grass.

"There!" She hissed. "C'mon."

They charged away into the woods, Jacob suddenly very afraid, remembering the iron strength with which Arturo had held him, the inhuman way he'd moved. He glanced behind them but could no longer see the mansion through the trees.

Something flashed across his perception and goosebumps broke out on his skin. It had been stronger this time. Brighter. That was the only way he could describe it, even though he hadn't seen anything.

"More magic?" He whispered.

Camilla nodded. "Yeah. Strong."

It had grown so dark the trees were black silhouettes, the only light a faint silver glow coming down through the canopy. Sounds came from up ahead. Muffled grunts. Then a bright blue flash, followed by a tree trunk cracking. The forest echoed with the sound of wood splitting and popping as the unseen tree groaned. Then a deafening crash as the tree toppled to the forest floor in a mess of snapping branches.

Silence.

Camilla paused. Jacob stopped right behind her. His heart pounded high up in his throat. He couldn't seem to hear anything above the rustle of the wind and the buzzing of evening bugs. The air was tense, like an electric current ran through it. His palm gripping the cutlass's hilt dripped sweat.

A dense copse of short trees stood ahead of them. The corner of the tall hedge that ringed the property encircled it on two sides. A young redwood had fallen across the hedge. The stump shone white, the trunk jagged and torn where the tree had split.

A lanky, humanoid shape convulsed on the ground near the trunk.

Camilla threw her sword onto the forest floor and went over and knelt down beside the shape. "Arturo!" She cried.

Jacob followed.

Arturo lay there on the ground. He'd changed his chauffeur's outfit for a gardener's: work boots, overalls, and a dirty, long-sleeved shirt. Slimy mud covered the forest floor around him. A hole the size of Jacob's head gaped in his midriff. No bones poked out, and there were no organs or bowels. Just ambiguous brown stuff Jacob couldn't make out in the darkness.

As Jacob looked closer, he realized that it wasn't Arturo. Well, it was. The same too tall, rail-thin, angular man. But it wasn't him. He couldn't put his finger on how he knew.

"Ms D'Angelo." Not-Arturo's face lit up and his torso jerked off the ground and clutched at her hands. Mud leaked out onto the forest floor. "You should not be here. The intruder is far beyond your capability. You must get back to the house where my brothers are."

Jacob looked around wildly. The forest around them was silent. Something large moved through the forest in the distance, but it was too far away to tell what it was.

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"I can't just leave you here." Camilla sniffed. "You'll... you'll..."

Jacob realized she was close to tears. He knew most girls cried a lot, but Camilla hadn't seemed like the type.

"Come now." Not-Arturo rasped. "Your father will make another of me. The intruder was here only a moment ago. You must go!"

"But it won't be you." Camilla sniffed again. "I don't care what you or my father say. It's not the same. Tell me what to do. Tell me how he heals you. If he can do it, I can too!"

Not-Arturo reached up with one long, shaking hand and clasped Camilla's small fingers as if they held the elixir of life. "It is beyond you, little sister. But touching your flesh, feeling the life you share with the Creator, is more than enough for me. Go, I beg you."

A branch cracked not far away, followed by a sharp cry. Something blasted through the forest, strong enough to send a shockwave through the treetops.

"Camilla." Jacob whispered. "Maybe we should do what he says."

"I'm not leaving him." Camilla said.

"Yes, you are." A new voice said.

Arturo was standing beside Jacob. The Arturo from the car, still with his chauffeur's outfit. Jacob flinched back from him.

Arturo knelt down beside Not-Arturo. "Brother."

"Brother."

They clasped hands. Magic whispered between them. Arturo's flint-chip eyes lit up.

"I see." Arturo straightened. "Ms D'Angelo, you will come with me now. We will return to the mansion while my brothers delay the intruder. There will be no arguing."

"Goodbye, Ms D'Angelo." Not-Arturo said.

Camilla wiped her eyes, but before she could speak Arturo stooped down and picked her up, cradling her like a baby.

"Hey!"

The golem turned its eerie gaze on Jacob.

"Follow."

Arturo took off at a dead sprint back towards the mansion. Jacob scrambled after him.

It was all he could do to keep up with the golem. It moved through the forest without breaking stride as it slid over debris and under low hanging branches, like a shadow.

They reached the little clearing with the old shrine.

A man in jeans and a white T-shirt, both splattered with mud, emerged from the trees. He wore glasses, and had a mop of dirty blonde hair that hung down past his ears. His shirt was baggy, but Jacob could see veins running up through cords of muscle on his forearms. When he saw them a grin spread across his face and his eyes glinted with crazed glee.

The man's gaze swivelled directly to Jacob.

Jacob froze, paralyzed by the eager insanity on the man's face.

Another Arturo, dressed the same as the wounded one, blurred in from the side, moving with inhuman speed. It flung itself at the man, swinging its long limbs viciously.

The chauffeur Arturo shifted, turning to the side and running out of the clearing. Jacob stumbled after. He glanced back. The man somehow met the other Arturo blow for blow, limbs blurring. As they left the clearing, the man sliced the other Arturo's forearm from its body with a smooth open-handed chop. The severed limb fell to the ground in a spray of mud.

A fourth Arturo leapt out of the trees, this one dressed in an apron and holding a long, gleaming kitchen knife in each hand. It flung itself into the fight.

Then Jacob was chasing the chauffeur Arturo through the trees and he didn't dare turn around. They broke out from the forest onto the long, sloping back lawn.

They reached the back door. Arturo threw it open and they ducked into the TV room.

"Close it."

Jacob closed the door.

Arturo dropped Camilla, who shook herself and bristled, clearly embarrassed at being carried like a baby. But for once she didn't comment. They followed Arturo back up to the ground floor and into the main entryway, then down another hall and past a massive kitchen Jacob associated with a hotel.

"What is happening?" Camilla asked. "Where are we going?"

"I am taking you to the Rolls Royce machine and driving you to the Sanctuary."

"What? Why? We should be safe here. Your brothers will take care of him."

Arturo grabbed Camilla's arm. "The mage is beyond us."

The blood drained from Camilla's face. "What? That's impossible. You're father's strongest golems. You're supposed to be able to protect the house from mages and magical creatures."

Arturo straightened suddenly. His eyes went wide, and for the first time since that afternoon Jacob saw something that could have passed for emotion flash through them.

"He has destroyed them." Arturo said quietly. A moment later he snapped into action. "Give me your swords. Now."

Jacob held his out and Arturo snatched it.

"Follow me."

They ran through the kitchen and out into a huge garage that housed five luxury cars. The Rolls Royce was cooling off at the far end.

"Can you drive?" Arturo asked Jacob.

"No, I've never driven a car before."

"Then it is on you, Ms D'Angelo. The Bentley." Arturo pulled a set of keys out of his jacket pocket.

The floor of the garage shook once. Jacob had never felt an earthquake before but he imagined it was something like that.

He stumbled. "What the hell?"

The floor shook again. The house groaned. A sound like an enormous glass window shattering filled Jacob's ears.

"He is here." Arturo said. "Ms D'Angelo. You will go to the Sanctuary."

"What about you?" Camilla asked.

"I will delay him."

"But I can't drive-"

Arturo grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. "You are the daughter of the Creator. You can and you will do it. Go!"

Camilla hugged the golem, who blinked in surprise. She snatched the keys and got in the Bentley. The car purred to life.

Arturo shared a look with Jacob. "You will make sure she is safe."

"I will." Jacob said, maybe a little more aggressively than he intended.

Arturo turned and blurred out of the garage and back into the house. Jacob slid in the Bentley as fast as he could. The garage door opened, peeling back agonizingly slow.

Then it was up and Camilla jerkily backed the car out of the garage. She stomped down on the gas and they flew down the driveway.

Jacob looked out the rear window at the mansion dwindling into the distance behind them. Magic flashed across his senses. A second floor wall blew out the side of the mansion in a spray of wood and pink stone.

"Go!"