In the yellow-green glow I saw the Nightstalkers. Gold-hair girl and Captain America were watching the flanks, with Ja-Ja behind in the shadows and Dhruv at the centre. Lee was at the back, along with the girl I’d seen once before; I didn’t know her name but I was sure she was their gater. At the front was Will. He’d been already looking across the chapel and he saw me almost instantly, standing in the shadows of the far archway. He began to stalk across the stone floor.

“Will, wait,” Dhruv said sharply, looking from side to side. “It might be a trap.”

“Then check it,” Will said, not taking his eyes off me.

The Nightstalkers advanced slowly, crossing the floor of the chapel. They didn’t bunch up but didn’t space out as much as they should have either. Their movements looked nervous, and in a sudden flash of insight I realised how I must appear in their eyes. They didn’t see me as an ordinary man with a few tricks who’d survived the last few encounters only through help and luck. They saw me as a mage, mysterious and powerful, someone who derailed trains and summoned monsters. I knew that together the seven of them could defeat me . . . but they didn’t know that. To them I was an unknown, standing alone against the seven of them and not running away, and they were afraid. So I stood still, held Will’s gaze, and waited.

The Nightstalkers came to a ragged halt thirty feet away, leaving Will out on his own in front of them. Sensing that he was alone he stopped and half-turned his head back towards them. “What are you waiting for?”

“This doesn’t feel right,” Dhruv said uneasily. “Why’s he just standing there?”

Will let out a breath in frustration, then drew a gun from under his jacket with lightning speed, aiming and firing in a fraction of a second. As he pulled the trigger I spoke the command word for the forcewall and the gold discs flared with energy. The roar of the gun was loud in the enclosed space, echoing and rolling around the stone walls, and several of the Nightstalkers flinched at the din, but to my ears the forcewall muffled the sound, sending the bullet tumbling harmlessly to the floor. The barrier blocked off the archway completely, separating me from the Nightstalkers. Now the chapel didn’t have two ways out, but only one.

“There,” Will said curtly as the echoes faded. He lowered the gun. “If he’s so tough, why’d he seal himself in?”

Captain America and Ja-Ja moved forward. Captain America had what looked like a submachine gun levelled at me; Ja-Ja had no weapon but for his lethal touch. Both watched me warily; forcewall or no forcewall, they’d obviously learnt to respect me. “How do we get through?” gold-hair girl asked from behind them.