Page 44 of Huntress

Elsie reached out, linking elbows with the healer, not allowing her to distance herself. Elsie pulled her along, nudging her shoulder. It was subtle, but some of the stiffness left Marley’s frame.

At the entrance of the tunnel, the beams of the geographer’s flashlights bobbed as they explored. Their voices were low, barely even a whisper. Sound carried in the tunnels like a system of caves, and they didn’t want to give themselves away. They’d make enough noise when it was time to collapse the damned thing.

“How deep are they going in?” Trenton complained, soil crunching under his boots. He didn’t pause for a second, simply following Grady and Talbot in.

“I get the feeling we’re never going to hear the end of how great Talbot is,” Elsie said to Marley as they took the rear.

“He’s definitely smitten. He didn’t even wait for us to…” Marley trailed off when she spotted Elsie’s demon loafing nearby. The healer came to a halt, crossing her arms over her chest. “Captain, can we not try pretending like nothing’s wrong right now?”

Elsie stopped a few steps in front of her, scowling. She gestured at the demon who was rocked back on his heels, looking up at the sky and doing his absolute best to ignore everyone.

“I’m not pretending nothing’s wrong. I’m trying to function in spite of what’s wrong,” Elsie told her. “I get that you’re upset, but the way you’re treating me is pissing me off!”

“That’s not fair–” Marley started, but Elsie wasn’t having any of it.

“Fair?! Is that the direction we’re taking this? What’s not fair is being treated like a pariah by my own team for the crime of showing compassion toward a creature those assholes intended for me to take care of!” She paused to collect herself.

“Compassion for a demon, but not for how his presence affects your own team,” Marley seethed. They were silent for a long moment, neither of them caring that the rest of their group had moved beyond their sight while they spoke.

“You know that’s not true, you guys are the closest thing I have to a family. I’m asking you to trust me. We can work through this together. I’m not pretending it will be easy.”

“I have followed you through hell, Boss. I’ve fought at your side against all odds, but this? You’re asking too much.” Marley’s eyes were hard as she leaned in closer. “We could kill him right now, bury him in a tunnel and call it an accident. Cornick can’t blame you for an accident, and your responsibility to him would be severed.”

Those words shook Elsie deeply, rattling something discordant in her soul that rankled and ached. Killing Mutt and covering up his death was a non-issue for the healer, and it was probably the same for most of her squad. He was a demon; they were demon hunters. It was that simple to them.

Elsie sighed. “I don’t want to kill him, Mar.”

“Then I’m not sure if I want to continue healing this squad.”

The words were like a punch to the gut, sucking the air out of Elsie’s lungs. They hung between them, heavy in the air. “That’s something you’ll have to decide for yourself.”

Marley pressed her lips together, a flinty sharpness in her eyes, then she walked away, leaving Elsie and the demon to follow. It took them a minute to catch up with the others, who’d gone full steam ahead. The geographers were already marking the tunnel walls, deciding where the explosives would be placed.

“How far have we come? Are we still in the nest?” Elsie asked, catching Marley sharing a private moment with Trenton. Their conversation would be passed along to him. Before long, the whole squad would be weighing their options, if they weren’t already.

“No, we are outside the barrier wall,” Talbot replied.

“Good. We’re going to be collapsing it on both sides of the barrier, right?” Elsie questioned, inspecting their marks. It required a lot of wiring, but it shouldn’t take too long once they got going. Her people knew what they were doing.

“Do you think it’s necessary?” Trenton asked, a touch of surprise in his voice.

“If we collapse it too far away from the barrier, they can simply dig around and have access to the same tunnel. We’d basically be handing them a cheat code,” Elsie commented.

“We’re going to end up using a much larger amount of C-4,” Talbot commented.

“Grady brought enough.” Elsie shrugged. “What’s important is making sure these rats aren’t able to get back inside the nest before we go hunting.”

“Agreed.” Talbot pushed his glasses up and peered at her.

His eyes were illuminated by the flashlights, and she spotted a luminescent sheen. He had a decent amount of fae in him, and a touch of demon. It was a heavily downplayed part of the breeding programs. Ironically, most hunters had no idea that a small percentage of demon DNA ran through a good number of the younger generation’s blood. Talbot probably didn’t even know.

“We should collapse all of these tunnels at the same time, don’t you think?” Trenton asked. If they detonated a few at a time, they’d give the rats way too much warning.

“Best to get them all at once.” Grady nodded.

“That’s how we’ll do it, then,” Elsie decided. “Get this thing wired, and we’ll get a head start collapsing everything on the other side of the barrier by hand. When you finish the third site, let us know, and we’ll move to the fourth. We’ll play a game of leapfrog until it’s all ready to go.”

“Yes, boss,” Grady said. “We’ve saved the tunnels through the oil field for last. Honestly, it’s not as big a deal as Jeshua made it seem. Their wells are deep enough that the bit of explosives we’ll use for the tunnels won’t even come close.”