I kicked the knife away and stepped out of Finch's reach. A footmen descended on him and stood guard. It all happened so fast. Adelaide ran down the stairs and wrapped her arm around my shoulders. Her mother calmly handed the candelabra to a maid and went to her husband. He folded her against his chest and rested his chin on her head, the sword loose at his side. His gaze returned to where Jacob and the demon fought.
But the demon suddenly spun round and fled. With a roar of frustration, Jacob chased it. I went to follow but Adelaide held me back.
"No," she said. "It's much too dangerous."
Behind me, the footman gave a short grunt. I spun round, just in time to see him stumbling backwards and Finch fleeing in the opposite direction to the demon and Jacob. The thick fog enveloped him before I could react with anything more than a gasp.
"Fool!" Lord Preston shouted at the hapless footman.
The servant rubbed his knee where Finch must have kicked him and shrugged an apology to me. I tried to reassure him but it was impossible to feel anything but a terrible fear pressing down on my chest.
The pressure eased slightly when Jacob returned. "Gone," he said. "It was too fast." He frowned. "Where's Finch?"
"Also gone," I said. "And he has the amulet."
Jacob paused then crouched down, the fingers of one hand on the pavement to balance himself. He wiped his brow with the back of his hand. As I watched, his shirt mended itself as did the small cuts on his lip and cheek. The skin simply re-covered them. There had been no blood of course and the skin was neither new nor pink. If his hair hadn't remained messy there would have been no evidence of the fight at all.
"Are you all right?" I asked.
"Don't come near me." He rubbed a hand through his hair and studied the ground near his feet. "Damn it!" He slammed his fist onto the pavement and a guttural growl tore from his throat. It was full of desperation, anger, hurt and so many more emotions I couldn't identify. It ripped through the blanket of night, shot through my heart.
I pulled away from Adelaide and went to him but he got to his feet and moved to the edge of the light where I couldn't quite make out his features. "Don't," he said again. His voice sounded raw, not his own.
Adelaide came up beside me and held up her lamp. "My brother...he's here?"
I nodded. I couldn't speak. I wanted to go to Jacob, wanted to hold him. But he didn't want me near.