Something dark came out of the sky, and I dove for the nearest bush. After so many attacks by the antique zombie gargoyles, I wasn’t taking any chances. This one must have been one of ours, though, because it went for the elves. In the darkness, it was difficult to follow the fight. All I could see was a swarm of shadows. After taking down Sylvester, Owen guarded me, but at the moment, everyone was more focused on fighting each other than on going after the brooch. In fact, I wasn’t sure they’d yet figured out which one of us actually had the brooch, only that it was in the vicinity.
The sound of heavy breathing nearby jolted me out of my hiding place. “It’s here, it’s here, it’s here,” Sylvester muttered, sounding more and more unhinged. He pounced on the spot where I’d been just a second earlier. At that sound, Owen whirled away from watching the fight to pull me to my feet and away from the bush. Sylvester still came after me, his hands stretched out ahead of him and his fingers bent into claws. “It’s mine,” he rasped.
“Back off, buddy!” I ordered, on the off chance that I could use the Eye on other people even if it didn’t affect me. It didn’t work, or else Sylvester was too far gone under the power of the Eye itself to fall under the sway of the Eye’s holder. He kept advancing, and when Owen and I fled from him, we nearly bumped into Lyle.
There was a loud popping sound, and I felt magic nearby as Sylvester suddenly swayed, then collapsed. Rod stood behind him. “Sorry it took me so long,” he said. “I was trying to remember a spell that might work on an elf. Now, come on, we need to get out of here.”
We evaded Lyle, only to find ourselves facing Earl. Rod flexed his wrists, preparing to fight, but then Earl grinned and joined us, shouting over his shoulder, “Help! I’m being kidnapped!”
“Are you trying to make them come after us?” I asked him.
“Do you really think they’d come to rescue me?” he replied without breaking stride. “I was just coming up with an excuse to leave.”
We followed Rod into a rough, rocky, hilly area that felt like it was in the middle of the wilderness. I could still see the city skyline, so I knew we hadn’t somehow teleported out of the park without me noticing. We stopped in a secluded area surrounded by trees. There were some large rocks, just the right size to sit on, and I availed myself of one of them because I wasn’t sure my legs would hold me up any longer.
“I thought I said we didn’t need help,” Owen said, facing Rod.