And then I see, Ambrose and Charlotte. They’re sprawled across the lawn, swords beside them, blood everywhere. I saw some pretty bad stuff during my time with the numa, but two people I love lying slaughtered like that is too overwhelming, even knowing that they’ll come back. I lean forward for a second, close my eyes, and force the fear and horror into a space I promise myself to revisit later. When people’s lives don’t depend on me keeping it together. I avert my eyes from my friends, and don’t look back.

Across the lawn, Kate’s grandmother, sister and daughter are penned into a corner of the bushes by three men wielding swords. Georgia is screaming at one of them. “If you do so much as look in the direction of this child, I will hunt you down and castrate you in your sleep.”

Next to her, Mamie holds Odette close to her, facing away from the dead bodies. Odette is putting up a fight, trying her best to escape her grandmother’s clutches. “I. Want. To. See!” the little girl insists.

I only have a second to take all of this in before the two of the men catch sight of Arthur and me and run toward us. They’re muscle-bound and tattooed, looking like members of a particularly violent biker gang. As they near, I see that their eyes are glazed over, and their bodies seem to be controlled by a will outside their own. Gaspard was right. Numa are possessing humans and using them like puppets.

“I’ll take the one on the left. You get Erik the Red,” Arthur says as I drop my case to the ground. The latches spring open, and I grab two daggers and plunge them into the sheath on my belt. Then, taking the sword in both hands, I leap up just in time to meet the man who has hurled himself in my direction.

With his wild red hair and beard, he does look Viking-esque, and though our heights are about equal, he’s twice my size in bulk. He curves his sword down in a powerful swing, and I meet it with my own, blocking his blade before it can reach my face.

From Gaspard’s strategy lessons, I remember that my goal is to get between him and the person I’m protecting—Kate’s grandmother in this case—to defend her from that position. So, on his next swing, instead of blocking, I leap aside, let him follow through, then rush past him. His target having suddenly disappeared, he stumbles forward, loses his footing and crashes into the bushes, dropping his sword and rolling onto his side. I have the advantage, and should use it to finish him off, but I feel conflicted about killing someone who’s not actually a numa. This is a man possessed by a numa. Is killing him still justified?