Men stood guard in teams of six that night, those with the ability practising their new magical skills while they watched for signs of another attack. Those who weren’t on watch tried to sleep, with little success. Jacob expected the call to come at any moment that another wave of those fae sorcerers had arrived and were laying waste to the small force arrayed against them.

Nothing happened until dawn on Midsummer’s day. It was Jacob’s turn at watch and he had just arrived at Stonehenge with the next shift when he sensed that something was in the air. Some sensation crawled over him and raised the hairs on the back of his neck. Looking around himself he realised that the other ‘talents’ had also sensed it and frozen in place. “Stand to!” he called, and the men dashed into position without a word. He sent one runner back to call for reinforcements, certain that the attack was imminent, but Grey had also detected the surge in power, and met him half-way with the rest of the battle forces.

The air shimmered over the stones, like the heat haze from the earlier few summer days; at a chilly 5am they knew it was something else.

For a few minutes everyone prepared themselves in silence, waiting for action. As time passed with no sign of anything beyond the odd glimmer in the air, a few men whispered among themselves that it might be a false alarm. A quiet “hush” from Jacob silenced them.

The first figure appeared just a few dozen yards away. By sheer luck Jacob had been looking in that direction and saw it blink into existence; he let out a shrill whistle and pointed. As he did so, another whistle sounded to his left, and a quick glance showed another figure had materialised there.

Now whistle blasts sounded around the stones, the men deployed their powder jars and braced themselves for battle.

Everyone knew their duty, they understood their orders; no-one was to fire until the figures were closer. Experimentation had shown the best range for engagement to maximise the likelihood of hitting the target and causing enough damage. Jacob risked calling out ‘Hold!’ as the figures strode into view; an understanding of the reason for an instruction and the ability to remember it in the face of their adversaries were two different matters.

They were more of the same sorcerers, armed with the curving staffs that focused their powers. As before, several smaller beastly fae attended each, and as they came towards the waiting men more of the creatures appeared behind them. Before long they outnumbered the waiting army twofold. Jacob and Grey had decided that it was best to focus on the larger threat. They’d dealt with the smaller creatures before and while they did not dismiss them as harmless they were not as formidable a foe.

Inevitably, someone would break. Jacob’s only surprise was that it came so late; a fiery blast jetted from behind a stone to his right and slammed into one of the tall blonde fae with full force. Lucky he didn’t miss, Jacob had time to think, before the rest of the front defensive force let loose. Strike after strike radiated from the stone circle, taking down the sorcerers first as planned. Despite their glowing shields they were no match for the men’s newly discovered magical talents, and they never got within ten feet of the defenders now slumped, exhausted by their exertion.

The smaller beasts, meanwhile, had been running in the vanguard. Now they were a threat to the tired men who’d given their all in the first assault, and who were not only unable to strike at them but even incapable of standing.

The second row of defenders then stood, aimed over the heads of their compatriots and using their staffs blasted the front line of beasts. While they readied their shots on the next wave, yet more defenders dashed up to pull the weary front line back to safety.

As wave after wave of creatures charged at the stones from all sides, the defence never wavered for an instant. Where one or more of the fae got too close, Jacob or one of his counterparts spread around the ring let loose a small blast just enough to take them down. The men with staffs could keep this up all day, now they’d eliminated the larger threat from the humanoid fae, and Jacob allowed himself a small measure of relief. We’ve done it, he thought.

Then the earth parted.

A few hundred yards from the stones a sudden ravine had formed; a crack running towards the monument and the defending men. Smoke rose from it and the light morning breeze brought the rotten stink of sulphur.

Then long, whipping tendrils snaked out of the hole, sampling the air and probing the surrounding ground. They pushed down against the earth, sliding deep into the soil and stiffening as whatever creature they belonged to began to haul itself out of the ground.

A massive head appeared first, countless black eyes ranged across its shiny carapace. There was no sign of a nose or a mouth, just a large rigid near-hemispherical dome studded with black. As it rose, a gigantic soft body followed, bulbous and slimy. From this amorphous mass grew the tentacles that dragged it up from underground; of these there were at least a dozen though any exact estimate was impossible as they moved faster than any eye could follow.

At the sight of this thing, many of the men had frozen in place, awestruck and terrified. Without their attention the smaller fae penetrated the circle and were now attacking them, dashing from man to man to distract them. Jacob bellowed instructions, and the men snapped out of their paralysis.

Those dealing with the smaller fae continued to do so, while everyone available charged to the same side of the stones to prepare to attack this new threat.

The nearest of the men were within its range, tentacles grasping at them as they blasted with every spell at their disposal. Most broke free of its grip, but it yanked an unfortunate few from the ground and either dashed them against the stones or pulled them back downwards into the pit beneath the beast. Jacob glanced around to make sure his men were in position, and they readied their response.

A surge of power ran through Jacob as the ranks of men behind him poured their energies into his body. He let it build inside him until he could bear it no longer. The creature sensed the growing power and turned its attention to him, drawn to the energy like a moth to a flame, but it was slow-moving over the ground. The tentacles whipped around it, propelling it forward, and brushing aside any man foolhardy enough to get in the way. As it came within striking range, a tendril snapped towards Jacob, but he deflected it with a thought.

Now the power was too much for him to hold back. He stared at the creature, raised an arm and focused every bit of borrowed energy at its head. Not content to just release the power, he forced it out, feeling it burn through his limbs as it moved. The beam that surged from his fingertips was neither flame nor lightning, but something brighter and dazzling to behold; the other fae fell back as it illuminated them and it forced even the men contributing energy to look away. Where it hit the giant creature it burned, burrowing into its gooey flesh. It writhed, trying to get out of the path of the attack, but Jacob could keep pace with its gyrations and kept the beam focused right on it.

Unable to speak, Jacob couldn’t exhort his men to keep sending the power to him, but he found he was drawing it out of their bodies now without difficulty. One by one they fell to the ground, drained and worn out. He couldn’t stop, not now, even if he wanted to; he had to defeat this thing at all costs.

With one last flailing attack, the creature died. As soon as it did, its body began to melt and evaporate, leaving a slick green residue. Jacob slumped, spent, and looked around to see what remained of his allies.

That evening, no attack came. Whatever men still had the ability to stand and fight patrolled the stones, but there was nothing for them to do. Jacob couldn’t have explained how he knew that this was the final meaningful battle, why he believed that this was the fae’s last best hope for victory, but somehow he just understood that it was. While Grey trusted Jacob’s assurance of that being the end was true, he was not leaving anything up to chance.

Either way, Jacob could not help in any future defences. His heroic stand against the ‘Stonehenge Squid’ as it was already being dubbed had burned out whatever ability he had to control magical energy. He’d tried, alone that afternoon while his men were being patched up, and couldn’t even muster a gentle glow of light. Probably for the best, he thought. This way I can go home, be with Grace, put my life back in order.

Black strode into the canteen where Jacob was eating his dinner with a hunger he hadn’t felt in years. Jacob tried not to meet his eye, mentally willed him to bother someone else but Black made a beeline straight for him.

“Brown,” he greeted him.

“Black,” Jacob grunted in reply. Black sat and said nothing. Not until Jacob finished his meal, placing his knife and fork on his plate, did Black speak. “Well done out there.”

If Jacob hadn’t finished eating he’d have choked at this.

“We need you in our research division,” Black continued. “You’ve made a larger breakthrough in magical theory and practice than that whole department has in over two decades, and you did it in an afternoon. Whatever you think of me, and I know what, I’m not so big a fool as to not realise that.”

Jacob had no reply. His thoughts turned back to his half-formed plan to return to Grace, live a normal life with a normal job. Then he thought of Harry, and how they had always wanted to do their duty. Hadn’t he done enough now?

“Think it over,” Black said, as he turned to leave, then turned back. “Oh, and Jacob?”

“Yes sir?”

“Harry would have been proud.”