Fenris Tenebrae howled horribly, and the great head surged forward again. The massive jaws opened, and started to snap closed on Billy and JC, because it couldn’t bear to hear what they were saying. To silence and punish and hurt them because that was what the Wolf did. And as the jaws were slamming together, at the very last moment, Billy pushed JC back, with all the strength remaining in his frozen arms. So that when the terrible jaws came together, only Billy was there. His frozen body exploded into a thousand jagged pieces . . . and with him finally dead and gone, with the focal point of the haunting destroyed, the Wolf no longer had a hold on the world. It had destroyed the very thing it had worked so hard to make. Fenris Tenebrae howled once, a wild, horrid, despairing sound, then it was gone. The manufactured head was left behind, all the stone and steel, bone and flesh of it; but nothing within it remained.

The world had been saved from the Great Destroyer, and not by the Carnacki Institute or the Crowley Project. By one little man, with a man’s courage.

ELEVEN - MORTAL AND IMMORTAL ENEMIES

ELEVEN

MORTAL AND IMMORTAL ENEMIES

The unreal platform melted away, dissolving into mists and shadows; and they were all back at the southbound platform, as though they’d never left. Everything was calm and quiet and normal again. First JC, then the others, surreptitiously checked themselves to make sure everything was where it should be.

“How did . . . No,” Happy said firmly. “I am not going to ask. Because even if I did understand the answer, which I am prepared to bet good money I wouldn’t, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t like it.”

“See?” said Melody. “You’re learning. Personally, whenever I encounter something I don’t understand, I say quantum, very loudly, and everyone else nods and goes along. Science is lot like magic. Words have power.”

“You mean, all this time you’ve been faking it?” said JC.

Melody grinned. “I never fake it. I don’t have to.”

She moved briskly away to check her precious instruments. Happy watched her go, then turned to look at Kim, floating above the platform some distance away from everyone else. She caught his gaze, and something in her eyes made him drift unobtrusively over to join her.

“So,” she said. “That’s that. The Wolf is gone. The Underground has been restored. But what happens to me, now?”

“I could help you . . . pass on,” Happy said carefully. “Help you cross over to what comes next.”

“Do you know what comes next?” said Kim.