“Hhh KGHH! Hhh KGHH!” I wheezed, trying to suck air through a mouth filling with blood.

“What’s happening?” Evan’s eyes were as wide and startled as a panicked horse.

“It’s S-Song,” I gasped.

It couldn’t be anything else. Perfectly healthy eighteen-year-olds don’t just start spitting up blood.

“ESPY!” Evan roared, forgetting her full name in the heat of the moment. “Seth needs help!”

She looked up, but her eyes were a million miles away. Whatever Espy was fighting was more than just the snakes in front of her. I’ve never seen that distant stare on her face before, and that was almost scarier than everything else.

“The stairs!” Beni screamed.

We all looked. We couldn’t help ourselves.

SKSKSKSKSKSKSKSKS…

Scorpions came skittering down the stairs, dozens of them, falling over each other, pouring down the steps like dark water.

GROK! GROK!

The door flew open, and I feared the girl had returned. But it was so much worse. Frogs and toads came leaping through the doorway. Each was lime green, or bright red, electric blue, obviously poisonous just by looking at them.

“Damn it!” Evan yelled, pulling his knife again. His sword was still downstairs. Although, since the creatures were made of nothing but magic, it’s not like it would have done much good anyway.

Beni was backing away from the stairwell. “Nothing works. We can’t touch them!”

Somehow we all knew they could touch us.

“Espy, please!” Evan called again, but any reply she might have made was drowned out when Beni started screaming.

Her sword clattered to the ground as she used both hands to scrub at her head and face. Oh, Josh. I looked up. Spiders were falling from the ceiling.

“Beni!” Espy cried, the sound of her niece's distress finally bringing her back. Blinking, she staggered back. The snakes had filled the sinks, and were falling to the floor hssssssssssing all the while.

“HuhKGHH!” A huge bubble of blood burst from my lungs, spattering Evan’s face.

SKSKSKSKSKSKSKS!

The scorpions were at the bottom of the stairs, right by Beni’s feet!

GROK! GROK!

Evan batted at a bright pink frog, it only flickered for a moment, before throwing my arm around his neck to help me up.

Hssssssssss!

“My notebook!” Espy cried. “I finished one of the songs! It’s our only hope.”

The notebook...on the kitchen table...with frogs blocking our way, and snakes blocking Espy.

Setting his jaw, Evan dropped his knife and swung me up into his arms. He dashed into the living room, dodging falling spiders, shoving the couch out of the way with a strong kick.

“Seth, come on, buddy.” He tried to set me on my feet, but my knees pitched. “You gotta start the temenos. I’ll bring you the notebook.”

“C-Can’t,” I hacked, drooling thick and red down my chin.

“Yes, you can!” He lifted my chin, uncaring of the blood staining his hand. “You can do anything, Seth. I wasn’t right, not a bit. Beni was right. I should have believed in you--I do believe in you. Let’s live long enough to hear her say she told me so, alright?”

I gave a clipped nod.

“Start sanctifying the ground.” His eyes hardened. “I’ll bring you the notebook.”

Sticking Baby’s point against the floor, I used her to push myself up. The room wavered in my vision. It was getting so hard to breathe, my own blood filling my lungs, but I kept myself upright.

“That’s the way.” Evan smiled at me, something in his eyes that made me feel just a little stronger. “Be right back.”

He bolted back toward the kitchen, past jumping frogs and snapping snakes and dropping spiders.

I squeezed my eyes shut. If I kept watching him, I’d never be able to do this. My lungs seized. The urge to cough was unbearable, but if I couldn’t make it through the prayer, this would never work. So I forced myself to breathe through it, calming my mind to calm my biology. Coughing isn’t that different from blushing, really. Control the brain, control the body.

Holding Baby’s blade up before me with one hand, I curled my fingers of the other into the Benediction.

“Hail, Sophia,” I whispered, “full of light.”

My Spark rose, Spirit filling the blade. I didn’t look at anyone else. I had one job right now.

“Pour your Spirit out upon us.” Baby’s blue glow danced in my eyes. “Prepare a place for us in a world half-made.”

The blue brightened, Baby lighting the room like a torch.

“Wherever we are, You are,” I continued. “Our Spirit is Your--hnn!” My chest heaved, the light flickered, but I cleared my throat, spat a clot of blood onto the floor and kept going. “Our Spirit is Your Spirit. Mother of Angels, pray for us!”

Baby lit up like a blue sun. Her light no longer shimmered, but shone steadfast. It reminded me of Espy’s work in the basement. I slashed her through the air, carving a circle above my head. The sillage of the motion didn’t fade. It grew, forming a circle as it drifted to the floor.

GRO--

A big frog (made of glowing golden characters, just as I imagined) tried to leap into the circle--and was rebuffed! But even as I felt a thrill of victory, I saw it gather its feet to try again. The holy ground had repelled them, but it hadn’t broken the spell. I could feel the weight of blood in my chest still, as well.

“Seth, I can’t get through!” Evan’s voice cut through my focus. He was standing on the kitchen table, notebook in hand, arm cocked back. “Catch!”

The book sailed through the air, and I spent one absurd instant thankful that Espy was fancy enough to prefer the hardbound kind. A simple spiral notebook would never have been heavy enough to fly true.

I caught it, but the impact nearly knocked me off my feet.

“Like a heartbeat!” Espy screamed over the noise of the creatures. “Two syllables at a time!”

With shaky hands, I flipped through the pages. Espy’s writing was as neat and clean as everything else she did. I heard Beni scream again, and almost tore a page as I flinched. Espy wailed “No!”, but I didn’t look up.

The creatures were made of magic. I had to believe their venom was, too. This would work, it had to work, and Beni would be fine.

Finally, I found the page from earlier, with all the circles and arrows like a battle plan. The arrows were drawn in ever-decreasing circles, spiraling inward. Every so often Espy had made an X and written the name of technique in her precise writing. The words from my mother’s book, a few simple lines, were scribed at the top of the page. I stared at it, committing what I could to memory, and then dropped it so it landed open in front of me.

I stumbled forward enough to extend my sword without crossing the circle, and nearly crumpled beneath another wave of coughing. Blood poured down my chin, dripping on the floor. There was no way I could speak the lines out loud.

But a prayer in your heart was still a prayer.

I slid two fingers along the blade, then swiped the blade through the air in the lines of the first form.

Like a heartbeat, Espy had said.

My-soul/you-shall/suc-ceed

Stepping to the left, I moved into the next stance, spinning into a tighter circle.

My-soul/you-shall/o’er-come

With each step, each swing of Baby through the air, I could feel the power building.

My-soul/keep-my/thresh-hold

Praying internally, it wasn’t hard to match the syllables to my heartbeat. I could do this, I knew it would work.

As-up/a-bove

I spun into the last form. Facing forward again, I had reached the middle of the circle, and threw Baby high in the air.

So-down/be-low!

With a grunt of effort, I dropped my sword like a hammer. As the blade swung down to the ground, the middle of the circle, the hum of her through the air grew louder and louder.

TNNNNNNNNG!!

On one knee, I held on to Baby for dear life as I pushed every spark of energy I had left into seeing this through. Spirit flashed outward. It was a shockwave of force, of light, and all the poisonous creatures vanished like smoke as the vibration of the completed song raced outward in all directions.

Spots forming in my vision, I lifted my hundred-pound head to see Evan climbing down off the table. He was coming toward me, his mouth was moving. Why was his mouth moving if he wasn’t saying anything? I had just enough time to see the fear fly across his face…

And then the floor was rushing toward me.

To be continued...