The brilliance of Sara’s aura was blinding but by the time his eyes adjusted, his sister had vanished, leaving her to stand protectively over Keira. The laughter was fading but the constant shrieking of an unknown number of wraiths replaced it as they continued to flicker in and out of the building.

“Finlay,” Sara called.

He pulled himself up and checked on William who was also recovering from the blow before stepping back into the room.

“Get Keira into the middle of the group, we’ll form a circle of defence.”

He nodded and moved to pick her up as Sara slid towards the door and shouted to Faye that they'd be bringing her. Faye ordered some people to pull tables together and grab blankets from one of the nearby rooms as he carried Keira through the group. There were a few murmurs and whispers about the injured girl but they were so preoccupied with the constant appearance and screeching of the wraiths that those words faded fast.

William had gathered his fabricated stretcher and lay it beside the table in case they had to leave while Faye remained above them, guarding the group. She was still slicing open wraiths in the seconds that they appeared but they were unending. Others from his section were fighting the wraiths that appeared with moderate success; they weren’t as fast or efficient as Faye but they could hold the circle they had created together.

“They just don’t stop coming!”

Someone from the group shouted as others responded with similar complaints. Ronan had walked back to the group and was talking with Sara but they both looked up at Faye when they heard the others shout.

“We can’t keep this up forever—we need another plan,” Faye said to them.

“I’ll check outside and try to figure out what we’re up against,” replied Sara.

He watched her turn and walk to the doorway as a wraith manifested and dove towards her but was immediately repelled by the golden aura and then cut to shreds by Faye from the table. When she stepped outside he felt himself hold his breath though he wasn’t sure if it was out of fear, concern or some other emotion from everything that was happening. She wasn’t out for long but as she came back and closed the door, her face spoke volumes that there was yet another problem.

“Finlay, Ronan, come here.”

There was no argument and they both hurried over to her. Several people gave him confused looks as he pushed through the circle but no one said anything. When they reached her, she pulled them to the side as far away from the group as possible. She made sure they were still in sight of Faye but far enough that the others wouldn’t hear her given the constant screaming from the demons that plagued them.

“I’ve never seen that many wraiths, hell, that many demons. The sky, all around the building, it’s almost entirely black. I’d have thought it was solid smoke if I couldn’t see them moving.”

“Well that’s a problem,” Ronan replied, almost too carefree.

“It doesn’t make sense, none of this makes sense, what the hell is going on?”

Neither of them could give her a real answer, he felt Ronan might have some ideas but he remained lost in all that was happening. All he knew was that his sister, or at least the thing that was imitating her, was responsible for this. It was powerful, though it seemed cautious of them and it appeared unwilling to harm him.

“Demons are more aggressive, this attack is very controlled—tentative even, especially given the numbers they have. We also know that it can control the miasma; this is no demon,” Ronan said.

“Which only makes the situation worse,” replied Sara.

“Not necessarily.”

“We won’t be able to hold out like this, Faye is already at her limit and the others are struggling to even maintain their forms any more.”

“Demons try to destroy so they can take the anam within, this doesn’t seem to have that intention. It will kill if we’re in its way but that intention, the purpose is something else.”

They both turned to him.

“I don’t really understand what it wants but it clearly wants me,” he said.

“Well that’s not an option either,” Sara replied.

“It doesn’t want to hurt me.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“I don’t know what it is but it seems to think it’s my sister. Also, William attacked it and it went to kill him but I got in the way, the spear that would have done to him what it did to Keira changed and just hit me. It still knocked us over but there was no intention to hurt me.”

“I’m not convinced.”

“The miasma—I couldn’t defend against it, I don’t have the anam left and we know it controls it, but it hasn’t used that as an attack since.”

“None of that means we know what it wants, we don’t even know what it is. For all we know, it wants to take you away to that place it led you and kill you there.”

“I’d be inclined to agree with Finlay on this,” Ronan replied. “But Sara’s also right, we really don’t know what we’re dealing with here and it seems likely there’s something significant we’re missing.”

“So what should we do?”

They all looked at one another again and again they realised that none of them had any answers. A part of him wanted to face it himself; this thing was after him, and no one else should be hurt like Keira was. But the other part of him felt terrified of what he’d find and what would happen if he did.

“It’s gotten quiet,” said Ronan, snapping him back to focus on them.

The screaming, shrieking wraiths had all stopped and there was no other noise beyond a few mutters from the exhausted group. They had stopped appearing, stopped attacking and everyone started to wonder if it was over. Ronan and Sara started walking back to the group, calling them to maintain their vigilance. There was more outside, far more from what Sara had said so it was hard to believe that they’d stop now.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Brother…”

He spun around from surprise but the voice was for him alone as no one else heard it.

“Why are you hiding from me, why do you avoid me?”

He thought about running to the group, telling the others that she was talking to him again but that other part of him that felt guilty for everything that was happening stopped him. Instead, he forced himself to remain still, non-reactive as he watched the others. Many of the people in his section weren’t able to maintain their spiritual forms any more. Faye told those who were worn out to move to the centre of the circle so the others could protect them. But the centre was becoming too full for the outer ring to maintain, just another alarming sign that they were struggling to maintain the pressure from the attack.

“I don’t like it when you ignore me.”

He remained silent but still didn’t walk to the others. His hand naturally drifted to his amulet but there was no sign that the spirit was there, he couldn't feel it since the previous attacks. That only made him feel worse, a fear and worry that there was something wrong with his companion.

“I’m done waiting.”

There was a rushing force as though a storm had blown through the building and his whole body felt the impact of an invisible wall slamming against him. Screams and shouts came from the group and almost half of the people collapsed to the ground. Those within his section who had managed to maintain their spiritual forms broke and their auras dissipated instantly under the new force. A thick smoke that was like the wraiths started to appear, curling and twisting in unnatural ways as it pushed its way around the group. He realised that he was watching the miasma, thicker, denser, more potent than he had ever experienced take on a near physical form as it almost crushed the will of the people within that section.

Only the instructors managed to maintain their forms and even Faye, who by now was reaching exhaustion seemed to struggle. In the moment of that rushing force, the girl had also appeared beside him. His sister was standing at his side, watching the crushing force press down on the others as though this wasn’t reality and they were enjoying a show.

“Stop it!”

He turned to her while pleading but she didn’t move.

“Stop!”

He yelled again, reaching out to grab the girl instinctively but his hand waved through her shoulder and body as though nothing were there and she disappeared into a plume of black smoke only to reappear on his other side. There was nothing he could do, he couldn’t even call upon his own spirit or that of the amulet, let alone fight this girl that his hands wouldn’t reach.

“Please…”

“Come with me and they may live.”

“Okay, just stop, I’ll come with you.”

She spun around, a grin so wide it stretched her face and there was a sense of relief as the miasma that washed over the others lifted. The wisps of black smoke disappeared and the cries of everyone that collapsed were all that was left. The girl walked in front of him and then towards the door where she paused and looked around. As he started to follow, Sara ran to him with Ronan hobbling behind.

“Finlay, what are you doing?”

“It’s the only way.”

“You’re not going with her, with it.”

“I have to, Sara—I’m sorry.”

“You won’t harm him,” Ronan asked, pushing past Sara.

The girl turned to face him, a curious expression filling her features as she canted her head to the side. No one spoke, not releasing even a breath and then the girl shot across the space between her and Ronan. She didn’t run but flew and when she reached him, she was floating in the air so that her face was in front of his. Her wild, ungainly hair flickered in the air as though she was underwater and her entire body was rotating with a strange, slow but constant motion.

“Harm him? He’s my dear brother, I’ve come to protect him.”

“We were protecting him,” Sara said, frustration evident but she was holding herself back.

The girl floated to the side so her eyes lined up with Sara’s. Her whole body kept rotating as though it was on a spit, a slow and uncomfortable movement that defied any reason. After staring and circling in front of the woman for a full rotation, she finally answered in a hushed tone that was seeping in malice.

“You’re the ones that endangered him.”

“No, you’re wrong. They’ve protected help, helped me, trained me,” he said, stepping forward.

“That’s why we’re here, to protect him, that’s why we fought—we thought you wanted to hurt him,” Ronan added.

She floated back to face the man, peering into his eyes as he had done to Finlay many times before. A searching gaze that looked for any signs of a lie that couldn’t have been there. Once again she held that strange expression while spinning in front of him until something changed, and she flung herself back to Finlay, stopping in the air beside him. She threw out one arm to his chest and as she touched him, his shirt burned away to reveal the amulet below. She grabbed the artefact in the same hand and pulled it forward with a jerk that caused the chain to tighten behind his neck.

“Yet you corrupt him with this.”

Her eyes were filled with a fury and he had to step forward to relieve the pressure on his neck. The smoke that danced around her body was building again and he feared she was going to launch another attack with the same miasma as before.

“That’s my companion, we’ve formed a contract, we’re working together, it’s a friend.”

She turned to him and for the first time those eyes, now as dark as coal locked to his. But she dropped the amulet so it fell to his chest and was floating upwards in front of him, the same way she had with the others but without the strange rotation.

“It is trying to steal your soul.”

He wasn’t even sure how to respond to this as it wasn’t as though she was wrong. That was the nature of the contract; his anam would one day, when he died, be taken by the spirit. What he didn’t understand was how she knew of this, how she, who was on this island and had no previous knowledge of the guild, knew anything about the artefacts.

He looked at Ronan and Sara hoping for an answer, a response to come from them but they seemed as lost and unsure how to approach this situation as he did. This wasn’t a demon, it wasn’t just attacking them, it had ulterior motives. Yet it was powerful enough that these attacks, mere games to it were wearing their entire group down to the point they could no longer fight.

“I entered the contract willingly, it was my decision.”

“I won’t let it take you.”

“Fiona—”

It was the first time he’d said her name and she reacted as he hoped she would, shocked, startled and taken back.

“If you care about me, your brother—then you’d respect that decision and you’d leave now and let everyone go... Let me go.”

She continued to float in front of him, eyes locked to his, with a silence that fell over everyone and he was unsure if he had made the right decision. Slowly, as though time itself was being weighed down, she drifted closer to him. One arm stretched out to wrap around his shoulder and neck. He froze, unsure what to do but this time, unlike when he tried to stop her, he could feel her touch. Her skin was cold, lifeless and there was a strange dampness to it that he couldn’t place. She pressed her cheek to his and hugged him in a way that felt more like the embrace of a corpse.

“I love you, brother.”

Her other hand drifted to his chest and pressed against the amulet.

“That’s why I must protect you.”

He felt like he'd been stabbed in the gut, his breath left him and his body became limp. She had wrenched the amulet from his neck, a bluster of black smoke swarmed the artefact in the second she ripped it from him and he could see, and feel it shatter in her hand. A piercing noise erupted in his ears and the warmth that the spirit always held vanished, ripped from him without mercy.

She threw herself backwards and vanished into the air, once again leaving only the trail of black smoke behind. But this time she had also taken the amulet, destroyed it and the spirit within. He fell to his knees, his hands hitting the floor and he let out a horrendous howl of pain. The contract, a connection with his being, with his soul had been viciously torn out of him and every fibre of his body felt it.

Sara leapt to him with Ronan close behind but there was nothing they could do to comfort him. They were talking but he couldn’t hear what they were saying, he couldn’t understand what was going on, all he knew was pain. The world was on fire, with every inch of him ripped apart and desperation was taking over as he willed it to end.

It would not end and while he struggled to comprehend what had happened, his body fell to the floor. Unable to pick himself up, unable to bear the pain, he clawed at his chest where the amulet should have been but there was no return and soon his mind faded into the darkness that was taking over. She had broken him and not his body, nor his mind could take it and so he fell into unconsciousness.