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She knows we are running out of time.
It will do you no good to remember, it says.
Jay.
Jay.
I was seeing his face flash through my head. My heart. I could feel him, feel him tugging at me the way my mother was earlier. Golden rope. Effortlessly strong. Alive and ageless and tying us together.
It is over, the demons says.
Sickle blades appear in its hands.
And behind its shoulder I see a shadow.
Large, solid.
It comes closer.
Closer still.
The demon doesn’t notice.
Waning candlelight illuminates the sculpted planes of Jay’s face.
Beauty in the darkness.
His eyes lock with mine and I don’t have to question, I just have to trust.
What had Pippa said to me in that cell? That I couldn’t even trust myself.
I had to trust my heart.
My true heart.
My inner compass.
I reach down inside and give it a push.
It spins around, pointing at Jay, glowing truth.
It’s him.
And I know the demon’s name.
“Legion!” I cry out, my voice sharp and unnaturally loud in this tunnel, bouncing off the miles of bones.
The demon stills, surprised. If I could describe its face I’d say it was hearing its name for the first time and trying to figure out who the hell Legion was.
Then it bares its teeth at me, grey gravestones in a row.
But it doesn’t matter.
Jay comes flying at the demon from behind.
Tackles it to the ground.
For a moment Jay is lost in the folds of the demon’s cloak, only his hair poking through, here, there, here, there, shimmery red against black as they roll and tumble.
They fight and it’s enough for me to yell at my mom to move.
She goes up the ladder first, knows there is no time to argue.
She climbs, she’s halfway there, and she’s heading to darkness, a roof we can’t see. But there has to be a way to open the manhole. There has to be.
Hope. Keep the hope.
I grab the rungs to see Jay’s hands on the demon’s throat, covered in black tar, before the demon fights back, waving the sickles. They slice into Jay’s arms, his shoulders, his beautiful face, blood flying in arcs. If he slices off Jay’s head, he might truly be done for. No wonder he never gave me a straight answer on that one. He probably didn’t dream he’d be beheaded anytime soon.
Ada, go! Jay yells without looking at me. I’ll see you on the other side.
I pause, only one foot up, not wanting to leave him. My heart wants to stay with him. My instincts want to leave. My instincts believe in putting survival first. My heart believes that you can’t survive without love.
But I do have love. I always have. And one of my loves is above me, making a frantic dash to freedom.
I start climbing, my feet slipping a few times, the ladder growing more and more slippery. Soon the black tar that was on the demon is now coating my hands and it takes everything to lift them up and go to the next rung.
Finally I’m up high enough that Jay and the demon are just two small figures surrounded by bones and I know that only one will survive. I also know that it’s unlikely either will die.
“I’ve got it,” my mother cries out from above. “I feel it!”
“Push!” I yell at her.
“I’m trying! There’s a film, like a gel. But I can put my hands through it.”
The Veil between this world and the next.
“Hurry!” I tell her, feeling like our luck is running out even if Jay is helping. Hell itself will do what it can to ensure we’re bugs under the glass.
“There!” my mother cries out. “I think I got it! I think . . .”
The slide of metal on concrete, so rough and grating I can feel it in my fillings.
Light bathes the both of us, filtered by the portal, and my soul sings. If it had wings, it would fly high into those precious clouds and never ever return. It would live in the stars and eat stardust. To say I’m elated is an understatement.
Then the light is momentarily covered as my mom climbs out of the hole. She disappears. The light comes back. I hear her gulping for air, out of sight.
Her hand appears. Then her face, her blonde hair hanging down.
“Hurry Ada!”
And I do.
Just a few rungs.
Just a few feet.
Then the ladder begins to shake below me.
Something large rushing up it, in hot pursuit.
Oh shit.
My skull buzzes with frantic panic as I shove my hands through the Veil, waving them for my mother on the other side. In these seconds I feel like a hot blade will slice me at the ankles and I’ll fall into a gaping mouth, a feast for Legion and all inside.
“Mom!” I yell.
Nothing. Then I gasp in relief as she grabs my hands and pulls me upward. My feet kick at the rungs, trying to get out, then the manhole is digging into my stomach and I’m bring dragged across hot ground.
