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It ruined the whole aesthetic of the meticulous city we’d been wandering through.
“Can we just get this over with?” Mel asked, resting her head on my shoulder.
“Might as well,” Charon replied, walking through the entrance.
We all followed in after him. As soon as the last of us crossed the threshold, the gate shut and the green light on the sign turned red.
“What do you think that means?” Gracelyn asked.
“Someone’s about to die,” Ciaran replied casually.
“I think we should be open-minded about that,” Selena said. “So far we’ve lost someone with each riddle.”
She was right. They both were. I doubted we would all make it past this part alive… whatever this part even was.
I looked over at the guard shack, but the window was way too dark for me to see through. My gut said someone was in there.
“Think there’s anyone watching?” I asked Ciaran.
He reached for my hand and followed my line of sight. “Someone’s always watching, puppet.”
We gathered around the sign indicating to go straight for Cerberus Hall.
“If we know we have to go that way, why do we need this?” Mel asked.
“Have they made anything simple since we’ve been here?” Kyrous countered.
“I’ll do the honors this time,” Margo said, hitting play on the tape deck. There was a familiar whir, and then the rhythmic voice began speaking.
One head in the past.
One in the future.
One leading the pack just around the corner.
Four legs, sharp teeth, guardians of the manor.
Servatis A Periculum, save yourselves from danger.
Before the voice finished speaking, they were there. They’d arrived in silence, making their presence known with feral growls, massive blurs of black fur and gnashing teeth. Six of them came from different directions, bodies darting around the rusted cars with trained agility. I had hardly registered what I was looking at when Ciaran pulled me forward and started to run.
Not one person delayed in doing the same, screams and curses rising in the air. The terrain had purposely been muddied, causing our feet to slip and slide.
We struggled to put distance between us and the canines.
“Oh, fuck!” Charon yelled.
From my peripheral, I saw him splitting away from us to save his ass from being chomped on, pursued by one of the furry beasts and now alone.
We could hardly relax though, not when plenty more were right behind us. There was a building a few yards away, the illuminated bubble letters a beacon for temporary safety.
Running for it, my breath came in small spurts.
Having pulled free to run, my hands curled into fists, pumping at my sides as if it would make me run faster. Behind us, I could hear the snarls and howls of the dogs, could practically feel their rancid, heated breath.
At first sight of a familiar masked figure, my brain wanted to draw back. I threw myself forward, knowing that wasn’t an option. And he wasn’t alone.
Four of them stood on either side of exactly where we needed to go, all watching us get closer and closer but making no attempt to come towards us.
“Guys,” I gasped, the warning painfully ripping from lungs searching for air.
“Keep going,” Maverick rasped, as if we had any other options.
An anguished scream carried from behind us not a second later. I dared to look back already knowing who it had come from.
Leonard was down on the ground, clawing through the mud on all fours, screaming like no man should as he was mauled.
I couldn’t watch and run, but I’d seen enough. His arms and face were torn into by teeth, body smothered by masses of black fur.
Three dogs remained on our heels, their excited yips and snarls seeming to heighten now that someone had been successfully hunted.
I veered as close to the center of the path as I could, racing past the masked figures without incident, Ciaran right by my side. When the girls and the remainder of his friends all made it, I thought they’d been standing there as nothing more than a scare tactic.
We were stride away from the Hall when Margo went down. Her cry of pain was what alerted me that something had happened.
Unlike with Leonard, I turned back for her, seeing an arrow sticking out of her right shoulder.
Before I could dare to run to her aid, Ciaran’s arms were wrapping around my middle and dragging me the rest of the way to the door. Margo never stood a chance.
One of the dogs plowed into her chest, slamming her onto her back. The action caused the arrow to shove clean through, and the tip poked out of her, dripping blood.
The dog—now on top of her—buried its snout in her neck as the rest latched onto whatever they could, shaking their heads as if she were a toy to be fought over.
Maverick weaved around us and burst through the heavy wooden door, holding it open for the rest of us. We spilled in behind him, practically a tangled web of limbs and sweaty skin landing on a marbled floor.
