Walden, with a gasp of relief, let go of the threads of spellwork she was holding. Only her pale shield remained, and around it a spiderweb of perception and awareness, in case the demon tried to sneak back up on them. Nikki was still on the floor. Her head was in her arms, and her shoulders were heaving as she sobbed. Walden cast a worried glance at Mathias, who hadn’t moved. He was curled on his hands and knees, almost a foetal position. Walden did not dare check on him herself. Old Faithful, faced with a slightly more challenging opponent, had withdrawn—but she was not arrogant enough to think she had actually beaten it. It would be around here somewhere, watching for an opening or a distraction.

Walden’s focus had to be her defences. She did not have enough magical reserves left to do all that again. She could not afford to slip.

“Nikki,” she said, carefully modulating her tone into kind-but-firm, the voice you used when you needed them to listen. “This isn’t the time to go to pieces. I know you’re a sensible girl. I need you to stop crying and stand up. Now.”

Two more awful, gasping wails. Then, with a visible effort, Nikki lifted her head. Her dark brown eyes were still full of tears, her curling lashes stuck together with dampness. She looked younger than seventeen. Her voice was on the verge of breaking into a wail again as she said, “Dr Walden, I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it now, Nikki,” Walden said. Kind but firm. “I need you to get up for me, and find out what’s the matter with Mathias. I’ll be right here with the shield. Come on. Up you get. You can do it.”

Nikki crawled over to Mathias. She looked exhausted. It had to be after midnight by now, and she had spent most of the last hour trapped at the heart of a critical incursion with Old Faithful on top of her. But Walden’s concern had to be a distant, floating thing, next to the immediacy of maintaining their defences. They were nowhere near safe. One mistake on Walden’s part would most likely doom all three of them.

“Matty? Matty?” she heard Nikki say, and then, “I think he’s having a panic attack.”

Can’t blame him, Walden thought, but oh, that was an unwelcome complication. “Nikki, I need you to get him up and walking,” she said. She could hear the tension leaking through her professional calm. Nikki was far too bright not to know how much trouble they were all in. Her glance up at Walden was frightened, and then determined.