Page 70 of Housesitter

“All right,” he said. “If we don’t have any other choice.”

Shepherd gave a short, quick nod of acknowledgement and tilted the contract toward the light. He jumped as Kel stepped up next to him and took one of his hands.

“What are you doing?” Shepherd asked as he tried to pull himself free.

“Going with you.”

“That’s fucking stupid.”

“Yeah,” Kel said as he squeezed Shepherd’s hand. “I know. Do it.”

Shepherd closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Below them…a lot closer below them… Easy brayed out a wet laugh.

“What are you going to do?” he mocked. “Sound it out? It’s written in the first language of Hell and–”

He stumbled over his own split tongue as Shepherd started to read in a confident, carrying voice. The words were foul and hurt the ear, but they were clear.

“Fuck me,” Easy muttered sourly.

He started to climb faster, shedding mass the closer he came. The horns were the first to go, shed like a deer in rut. They clattered back down the shaft, spinning away into the dark. The wing stubs squirmed back under his skin, his shoulder blades popping as they jammed under them, and his muscles wasted back to wiry, human fitness.

…Think this through, boy, the smoke whispered inside Kel’s head. There’s still time to pick the right side. My side. We’re blood. We’re the same.

“I know,” Kel said. “That’s why I don’t trust you.”

Easy screamed in rage and climbed faster. He hauled himself up, hand over hand, like a lizard going up a wall.

“Shepherd,” Kel said. “Read faster.”

Shepherd gave an exasperated snort, took a deep breath between one clause and the next, and did his best.

Hell is going to be hell for the two of you, Easy snarled through the smoke.

One hand reached up over the side of the pit. His talons were splintered and split from the climb, but still dug down into the brick. Tendons bulged in Easy’s forearms as he dragged himself up enough to get his other arm over.

“When I’m done with you,” Easy spat as he dragged himself up. “I’m going to tell Ruby exactly how little any of you meant to me.”

He got his knee under him and wiped his nose on the back of his hand as he started to stand up.

Kel let go of Shepherd’s hand as he stepped forward. His foot came down on something soft and dry that gave under his weight with a creaky ‘ahhh’ from a long-broken voice box. He hopped to the side in surprise as he glanced down at Shithead.

The doll stared back at him with cracked blue eyes.

Cursed, Shepherd had said, or haunted—something like that. And it hadn’t been here before. Kel was sure of that.

But why would it—

Kel supposed it didn’t matter. He stooped down, grabbed Shithead by her one china leg, and swung her like a bat. Baseball had never been his game, but he managed well enough. The doll smacked against Easy’s jaw hard enough to crack the porcelain face from the bottom to the top. There was something brown and flaky under the perfect doll-face, something stitched and leathery. Kel only saw it for a second.

The impact made Easy stagger, his mangled lips bleeding again. He snatched Shithead out of Kel’s grip and held the doll up.

Shepherd faltered in his reading as he spluttered, “What are you—”

“Keep reading!” Kel told him.

He glanced from Easy to the pit, grimaced, and picked up where he’d stopped.