“Rayna!” I shouted. “Rayna, your lighter!”
At my words, the ghoul’s head snapped up, the hollow sockets where its eyes should have been swiveling in my direction. I stumbled backward into the rope that dangled from the ceiling. The ghoul drifted away from its kill, the woman’s body a butchered corpse I could not stomach looking at.
Its head cocked in my direction as it floated toward me, unhurried. It knew I had nowhere to go. The gauzy ends of its body trailed along the floor, dragging a smear of blood in its wake.
“Lirah, catch!” Rayna yelled.
I watched as her lighter arced through the air. I held out a hand, catching it fluidly. Still, the ghoul approached.
It grew closer with each breath, and my body shook with apprehension. But I gritted my teeth, thumb poised above the striker.
The ghoul’s mouth was a gaping maw, teeth clotted with blood and stringy flesh. It was ten feet away. Then five. I could smell the death and decay clinging to it. I swallowed against the urge to vomit. The air rustled as its folds swayed in midair, a blood-slicked claw stretching out to greet me.
Not yet.
I didn’t want to give it a chance to escape. I needed itjusta little closer before I lit it on fire.
Someone called my name, but I didn’t dare break focus. The ghoul met me, its ghastly face hovering inches from mine. A dark nail traced lightly along my cheekbone, and it breathed deeply, its mouth sucking at the air. In a raspy, guttural voice, it said, “You smell deliciously… familiar.”
The nail dug against my cheek, swiping down with such alarming swiftness that I felt the warm blood trickling along my jaw before the sharp sting of the cut. The ghoul drew its claw to its mouth, a black tongue darting out to lick at the blood gathered there.
“And your blood is perfectly aged.”
I remembered the lighter in my hand and struck the wheel. Nothing happened. I struck it again, but only air fizzled. I let loose a scream of frustration as the ghoul drifted back a few feet.
Wait. Where was it going? With each passing second it floated away from me and my chance of destroying it diminished.
“Not all blood is meant to be consumed,” the ghoul said, turning its attention to its next target. Moric cowered near the wall, scrunching into a ball as the ghoul inched closer.
I didn’t understand. Why was it not attacking me? What was it talking about? But there was no time to unravel those riddles now. I had hesitated far too long, and now Moric was in danger.
I struck and struck at the lighter, but it was no use. I tossed it to the ground, my hands ripping through my hair.
The ghoul slunk to the corner of the room, its feathery ends rustling like dry leaves as it prowled toward Moric, its mouth snapping open wide enough to swallow a person whole.
My insides clenched. I wouldn’t be able to bear it if the ghoul laid one scaly claw on Moric. He and Lana had become more than friends to me. They were family.
The lighter was a dead end.
But… that was not all the light we had.
My gaze snapped to Lana. Lana, who had emitted a strange, golden light in the tunnel network during the first Trial, having drawn it from her link to Septimus.
“Lana!” I yelled. “It hates the light. Use your magic!”
“No fucking pressure,” she called back, scrunching her eyes in concentration.
A second passed, and then another. Nothing was happening. The ghoul had almost reached Moric.
The faintest glow shone across Lana’s skin, but it wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough.
I closed my eyes, focused on steadying my shallow breaths, tried emptying my mind. And for the first time, I purposefully reached for the link.
Lirah, a faint voice on the other end.What do you need?
Light. I need light.
My fingers tingled, a spark jolting through me like I had just been shocked by something metallic.
