North Acton was a tiny little station over the ground, with only two platforms, a footbridge over them and a small building with a staff room and three entrance gates. There were flower boxes on both sides of the only door and there was a bicycle locker next to the building. Even if Jenna gave a speech to Robert about how essential understanding that neighbourhoods like this was London too, now she got the same feeling like the man before. This did not feel like London anymore.

'Cemetery is that way,' pointed Jenna after she consulted with the map on her phone. Even though the railway cut through the graveyard right before the station, they still had to walk a couple of minutes to reach the nearest entrance. The area was boring and typical with a few pubs and a pizzeria, and of course, a small Tesco. The skyline was ruled by a block of fairly new tower buildings. One of them even looked like something an actual architecture would draw up. When Jenna looked up to the dark sky to check if the full moon was out yet, she saw stars. They were so far away from the city that there were actual stars in the sky. And the moon was up indeed, half hiding behind a raggedy looking cloud. The cold wind howled between the towers and the girl shivered.

'Charming,' noted Robert.

'Lost your nerve, Professor?' she teased him.

Robert smiled but the woman saw that he checked if he still had his wand in his pocket.

'How come you didn't bring your silly walking stick tonight?' she asked.

'I did,' he answered and reached for his pocket (a movement still made Jenna nervous), and took out his wand. It wasn't really a magic wand, as the girl could see now, but his cane, only smaller. Robert changed it back to normal size for a moment, then shrunk it again and put away.

'That's handy,' said Jenna, trying to hide how impressed she was. Shrinking something required a lot of power, but above that, a whole lot of knowledge about how atoms and physics in general works. She wasn't sure that she could pull that trick off.

'Just a little something I have been working on lately,' Robert shrugged, but he couldn't hide his smug grin.

'How do you power it?' asked Jenna.

'I mounted a thunder orb into the head of the cane. Now I am trying to figure out how I could throw some lightning with it.'

Thunder orbs were rare and very expensive things. They were basically a harnessed lightning bolt, trapped in a small ball. If someone knew how to use them, was smart enough not to kill themselves with the huge amount of energy and was also rich enough to get one, they could do some exceptional magic with it. Not to mention they will have an illustrious place on the MET's anti-terrorist watchlist because toying with a thunder orb wasn't much better than doing the same with enriched uranium.

They got to the big forged iron cemetery gate shortly. The wall itself went all along the street, showing at least two more gates. The cemetery must have been huge.

A padlock with a glowing Rune on it kept the two-winged gates closed.

'So I assume you have got the key,' said Robert in a tone that told Jenna that he did not believe in such things.

'Sort of,' she answered, and put her forefinger on the padlock. The Rune died out and the lock opened with a very loud click. 'You have a key for everything as long as you are better than the one who locked the door.'

'The Commissioner would love that thought… And what we are doing right now. It's called breaking and entering,' Robert said.

'Relax, Montgomery. You are such a buzzkill. And my office has permission to get in here. Probably,' and with that, she cracked the gate open and slipped through the gap. Robert followed her and closed the door behind them.

'I heard that you are the best at what you are doing, which makes me wonder how are the others…' he murmured.

'Being good and following rules are two different things,' pointed out Jenna. 'Well, mostly. Sometimes if you don't follow the rules, you die. Just need to find the balance.'

'Have you found that balance?' he asked, and Jenna thought that his voice was a little nervous.

'We are about to find out, aren't we?' she smiled at him. 'Bringing you with me is against every rule ever, after all.'

Robert's face made it obvious that this didn't make him feel better.

There were no street lamps in the cemetery. A wide, concrete main road led to a chapel, and from it spread out several cobblestoned footpaths, like veins in the human body. The chapel was a big one with two wings and a low bell tower over the entrance. It looked at least a couple of hundred years old. The graves around were silent and still, as they should be, and even the wind stopped to howl. The pale moonlight was only enough to see silhouettes and make one wonder if that particular shadow moved or not.

'Shall we brighten up the place a bit?' asked Robert, already moving to grab his cane. Jenna seized his wrist.

'They won't come out if they know that we are sorcerers,' she whispered. 'In fact, let's look like some idiots just having a date. You know, easy snacks.' and she put Robert's arm around her waist then leaned against him, putting her head on his shoulder. The man scoffed.

'You just made this whole thing up so I will hug you,' he accused her.

'Like I need to do anything but ask for it,' she smiled nicely.

'Fair enough,' nodded Robert. Jenna felt his hand slowly going south from her waist.

'The hell are you doing, Montgomery?' she asked.

'Selling it,' answered the man grinning.

Now Jenna was the one who scoffed.

'I appreciate your enthusiasm, but let's focus,' she said in a serious voice.

'I am focusing. Two of them are following us already, maybe three. I assume there are more ahead.'

'Yes, probably under that willow, in the shadows. Also, see those gargoyles on the tower?

'Let me guess. Those aren't gargoyles,' he said.

'Bingo. That's an unusually big nest. Never seen more than four together before.'

'I am happy that I can be eaten by the biggest ghoul colony anyone ever saw,' said Robert grimly. 'It's an honour.'

They continued to moon slowly towards the chapel. The slight smell of rotten flesh got stronger as the ghouls crept closer, sneaking from one gravestone to another. Up on the tower of the chapel, shadows were undoubtedly moving now.

'Robert?'

'Yes?'

'Your hand is still on my ass.'

'Oh, my bad,' he said and moved his hand back to the girl's waist. 'So, what do we do? I reckon it is too late to turn back now.'

Jenna stopped and faced Robert, then hugged him, pushing her face against his chest. She could hear the fast heartbeat and knew that this time it wasn't for her. Robert put his arms around her, holding her tight.

'Are you ready?' Jenna asked, looking up. Her lips were so close to Robert's that they almost touched.

'Can I kiss you now?'

'Don't die and we will see,' she said quietly.

'Let's get this over with, then' he answered with a smug little smile.

They moved in perfect synchrony as if years of fighting against each other was only a long training for the moment when they are finally on the same side. Robert's first spell made the closest ghoul unable to move. They had exactly one second to look at the sickly skinny human-like figure with its bald head, greyish skin, short, dirty claws and broken teeth before the bench Jenna tore out from the ground hit it hard. The ghoul disappeared in the darkness between the graves.

The second one came with inhuman speed, running on all fours, but the very ground under its feet grabbed it, breaking its limbs with a loud, disgusting crack. Then a spike emerged made out of concrete, impaling its head, and that was it. While Robert did that, Jenna got herself busy with the ones attacking from behind. They looked a little different, slightly bigger and slower with a hint of choked to death-shade blue on their skin. Jenna broke the chapel's colourful rose-shaped window and killed the first ghoul with the pieces. The second one got torn apart by the shadow hound mid-air, but the third slipped, avoiding the rest of the glass shards, pushing the woman aside, and jumped on Robert, who just finished with his second attacker.

Jenna wanted to do something but crashed with another ghoul, which grabbed her shoulder and tried to bite her throat. Ghouls didn't have testicles to kick (they replicated by turning fresh dead bodies into one of them), and even if they had, they didn't feel pain. It was a huge problem because Jenna needed to get away from it quickly so she can aim and use some serious spell without injuring herself, but couldn't make the monster back down.

Then a ray of pure, white light hit it at the head, entering at one temple and leaving at the other, thanks to Montgomery, who found the time to look after her even with a ghoul on his back. That fancy trench coat of his must have had a ton of defending charms sewn into it because it was able to hold back the ghoul's teeth and claws.

Jenna's hound finished off another creep, jumped and bit the ghoul on Robert's back, tearing it down with brute force. The dog threw it away and it was dead before it hit the ground. Robert turned around, drew a thin sword from his cane, and decapitated another ghoul.

Two more monsters arrived, but they misread the situation and attacked the big, shabby dog. They didn't stand a chance, as the dog was made out of magic and shadows, hence, couldn't be killed. But then something out of nowhere hit Jenna at the ribs, and she collapsed with a painful cry. The shadow hound disappeared, leaving the two ghouls alone and confused. That didn't last long, as they noticed the easy target, laying on the ground already. The fastest one lept and bounced off an invisible wall what Jenna did not make, and charged again, nonetheless. The other was smarter and turned to Robert instead, who had to dodge some flying rocks too, which came from the darkness. Jenna didn't bother with magic, just took out a butterfly knife from her jacket and opened it up with two quick movements. The blade found the ghoul's eye and didn't stop up until its brain. Something poured all over Jenna's hand and she didn't want to know what exactly. She cleaned her hand on her jeans with a disgusted grimace.

In the meantime, Robert tried to kill the other freak, but it was a stubborn bastard, and wouldn't give up even with its insides slowly pouring out through a big cut. Jenna threw a handful of spikes made out of the stone of the ground into its face at the very moment a rock struck Robert at his shoulder, making him lurch. The ghoul somehow survived the spikes and stepped forward to attack again, with half of its face missing, just to end up on Montgomery's blade. As it fell, the sword stuck in its skull, taking it away from Robert, who was hit by yet another rock. That one punched him in the middle of his chest, and he tripped over a dead body, falling on his back.

'Merda,' Jenna said and made half a dozen shining balls. They flew all over the place, and found the rock-throwing jerk, hiding behind a gravestone. Another rock came, missing her head by millimetres and she realised that she just revealed her position. It didn't matter though, as Robert was on his feet again, blood on his face, coat flying, and a second wand in his hand, glowing with Runes. The ghoul died horribly between two gravestones, one it used as cover, and another Robert ripped out of its place and made fly. Jenna could hear the bang long after its last echoes died.

There was silence. The whole battle, as desperate and brutal as it was, didn't last much longer than a minute.

Robert offered his hand and Jenna accepted it, leaping on her feet. Didn't even lose her swing, bumped into the man, put her arms around his neck and kissed him. Robert hesitated for a second, then hugged her, even tighter than before the fight, and kissed her back. Jenna didn't think, she just wanted to feel the man, tell him that he passed the crazy test even she didn't know she was doing until that very moment. He was there, he fought for her and he cared and it was new and strange. He showed that he wasn't just another empty promise.

They didn't see it coming. Robert might have heard something because even lost in the kiss, he somehow managed to put up some barrier with the wand he still had, but it was only enough to slow down the flying bench. It still knocked both of them down, and Jenna hit her head on the cobblestones, so hard that she only felt a second of sharp pain then darkness came.