Read Online Fear's Touch: A Darkworld Novella (The Darkworld Series) by Emma L. Adams - Free Book Online Page B

fountain in the center, where a statue of an angel sat under the shadow of Blackstone Cathedral.
What an ugly-looking place.
    “Jude’ll have headed that way,” said Cyrus, frowning.
    “Wait, what?” I said. “Here?”
    “Over that way.” Cyrus pointed.
    Just past the cathedral, I saw headstones rising behind a low stone wall.
    “The graveyard.” I shivered. “Right. That’s their headquarters?”
    “Yeah. I can’t see any fortune-tellers, though.”
    “You sure about this?” I said, looking from the laughing shoppers to the dark cathedral and back again. A giant bird swooped overhead, bigger than any bird had the right to be. A chill swept through me—the chill of the Darkworld.
    “Shit, the harpies are on the prowl,” said Cyrus, eyes following the bird as it landed atop the angel statue in the square.
    “The
what?”
I said, staring at the bird. It flickered before my eyes, and for an instant, its features became twisted, like a cross between a vulture and a shrivelled, ancient creature, a fairy-tale witch or something. “Okay. That thing’s giving me the creeps.”
    “Harpy,” said Cyrus. “They’re the Venantium’s spies.”
    “And it’s staring at us,” said Howard, whose fists were clenched.
    “Um. Should we move?” said Berenice.
    Cyrus shuffled his feet back a bit. “Uh…maybe, yeah.”
    The harpy let out an awful, high-pitched screech, like someone butchering a violin. It beat its wings and kicked off from the statue…
    …heading right for us.
    “Yes,” said Cyrus. “Let’s run.”
    But something else swooped in front of us before we could so much as move. A long, dark something, like a shadowy net, placed itself between us and the harpy. I froze up, glancing at the others. They looked as stunned as I did.
    A woman had appeared from nowhere, pulling a shield along with her, a shield wide enough to wrap around us all. She was tall, dressed in a long coat that covered every inch of her but for her sweeping fair hair. She turned her head, and I saw a young, chiselled face and startling silver-gray eyes.
    “Stay back,” she said. “There may be more of them.”
    Howard’s jaw had gone slack, and Berenice looked similarly speechless. Cyrus was first to recover.
    “Um…are you Madame Persephone?”
    The woman inclined her head. “I am.”
    “Can you help us?”
    She turned back to the harpy, which circled around us but didn’t dive. I wondered if it could even see us, or if the shield had hidden us from view. I’d guess the latter.
    “That would depend.” A stream of fire launched from her hands and struck the harpy, which disappeared in a cloud of black feathers.
    “Holy shit!” Howard gawked at her.
    I felt pretty much the same. The shoppers picnicking and chatting in the square carried on, oblivious to the feathers raining down around them.
    This woman packed some serious Influence.
    “That’s better.” The shield dropped. “Now, what have you children done to attract the attention of the Venantium?” She turned to scrutinize us. “I’d guess you’re new, unregistered magic-users, and you were looking to come to me for help.”
    “My guardian told me you could,” Cyrus broke in hastily. “William Melmoth. He said you knew each other.”
    She blinked, a peculiar expression crossing her face for a brief moment, something like sadness, regret, and understanding rolled into one. Yet, her eyes hardened so abruptly I thought I must have imagined it.
    “I see. You’re one of the Blake children.”
    “Cyrus,” he said. “We need your help. Claudia, here, got into trouble with Jude, one of the
venators.
He tricked her into using magic publically.”
    “And we think he manipulated our other friend, too,” I said, as her eyes fixed on me with an appraising look. “We were attacked by shadow-beasts in Redthorne —well, twice.”
    “I can speak for myself, you know,” said Berenice.
    “Then do,” said the woman.
    Between us, we summarized what had