It was very peaceful here. Far off in the distance, I could hear the sound of traffic and the bustling streets of Paris, but where we were, surrounded by elegant gardens and beautifully graveled pathways, only a few people ambled past, glancing at us in surprise as they took in the tall sentry guards and ministers who had accompanied us, along with our strange outfits and heavy weaponry. Most of the sentries were muttering among themselves, looking over at Shayla with varying degrees of alarm and surprise.
Once the shade was cast over those who needed it, we moved forward, heading in the direction of the Eiffel Tower, its iconic steel structure awe-inspiring.
“Wish we were here under different circumstances…” I smiled at my husband.
“Don’t worry,” Lawrence said, “if we defeat the entity before dinner, I’ll take you out.”
I laughed, taking his hand. I couldn’t imagine the shadow appearing here—it was just too much of a perfect day. I started to wonder if we had the right place, and I sensed Shayla and Lucas were thinking the same.
Before they could question Vivienne, the gravel on the path started to tremble. It was only slight at first, but it quickly increased, the ground shaking violently, causing traffic horns to blast out and loud cursing in French to erupt throughout the garden. The day didn’t seem so peaceful anymore.
Screams came from the direction of the tower, but I was sure they weren’t human. My instinct was proven correct a second later, when a flood of ghouls shot through the air toward us.
“No shadow?” Lucas growled as he unsheathed a sword.
“Clearly not,” I replied, searching the skies for the approach of its dark mists.
Tourists started running toward us—they’d obviously been at the tower, or on their way there, and chose the Champ de Mars as their escape route. Many of them were crying and screaming, their faces panic-stricken as the ghouls zipped after them. The creatures matched the high-pitched notes of the human screams, but theirs were ones of joy—their bony clawed fingers outstretched, rows of shark-like teeth bared while saliva fell from their lips in anticipation.
“Spread out!” Vivienne cried. “Keep looking for the shadow—it can’t be far behind.”
I crashed my sword into the first ghoul, my blade hitting its skull and splitting the creature’s head in two. I needed a full decapitation or dismemberment to kill the creature, so while it was struggling to remove itself from the end of my sword, I cut its neck with a smaller dagger. Its bony body fell to the floor.
Lawrence and I started working together, one of us jabbing the nearest ghoul like a shish-kebab while the other lopped off one of its body parts. We were getting into quite a good routine when Lucas shouted out.
“What the hell?” he yelled. Still keeping my main focus on the ghouls that kept swarming toward us, I quickly glanced to where Lucas was looking. His gaze was fixed on the tower.
I heard a horrific noise, the sound of steel groaning and creaking, so loud it seemed to ricochet off the buildings in the distance and bounce back to my eardrums.
“What is that?”
“The ghoul queen,” Lucas shouted at us, “she’s, uh… grown since I last saw her.”
What?
Finally catching a break with the ghoul onslaught, I looked up at the tower. A ginormous, overweight ghoul was lumbering past the tower, its structure groaning where she’d pushed it aside to reach her prey: us.
“You never mentioned her size!” Vivienne yelled, having not heard Lucas.
“She wasn’t this big before!” he cried back.
What the… How did she even do that?
She stomped toward us—apparently too heavy to float—her feet shaking the ground with every step. She looked like she was capable of crushing entire buildings, let alone us.
“We need to keep her contained!” I cried. If the ghoul queen got out of the park, Paris would be completely destroyed in a matter of hours. We were talking a Godzilla-like catastrophe.
“I’ll do what I can…I’ll see if I can shrink her, if not – I might need the sentries for this one,” Shayla replied, beckoning to the ministers and ordering them to get barrier-building. We were going to need something sharpish—the ghoul queen was gaining on us, and with the weight and height she was carrying, anything flimsy would be torn apart in a matter of seconds.
Barriers popped up trying to block her way, but she just brushed them aside, roaring down at us in fury.
“It’s not working!” Shayla cried. “She’s not getting any smaller – everything I’m sending her way just seems to bounce off!”
“Anyone got any other ideas?” Vivienne yelled.