Page 69

“Are you hurt?” I whisper, though the words sound foolish the moment they leave me. I reach out, hesitantly, toward what appears to be a young woman mangled beyond recognition. Her arm jerks up toward the wall, her hand splaying across the wainscoting with long, spidery fingers that claw for purchase.

“What in the hell…” My breath catches as I stagger backward. A deep, guttural growl vibrates through the air. Her hair impossibly long, veils her entire face, cascading down her body until it brushes her knees. One leg bends crookedly, like the bone beneath has been snapped and mended in the wrong shape.

Then—

There’s a heavy thump behind me. Much like yesterday with Daisy. Is it Kieran? Maybe he’s looking for me. I whirl around, searching the dark behind me, praying I am not about to uncover a second monstrosity lurking just beyond my reach. There’s nothing. But when I turn back, she’s gone.

The air grows suddenly colder, tighter. I lift the candelabra higher, firelight trembling violently in my grasp. And then…I see her. Perched against the ceiling, clinging to an exposed beam with inhuman ease, her limbs contorted, her spine arched like a predatory insect. Her hair hangs in curtains, swaying subtly as though stirred by wind I cannot hear.

What am I looking at? What is she?

This one is different from the one in the mountain pass. Alarms blare in my skull. My jaw slackens. The dread in the room materializes, thickening the air until every breath tastes putrid.

“What…” My voice trembles.

She tilts her head toward me, the motion sharp and unnatural. A sliver of her face breaks through the curtain of hair: mottled flesh, bruised and peeling; a jaw half missing, teeth exposed in a grotesque, permanent snarl. She croaks again, wet and rattling.

A foreign emotion akin to fear spurs inside me finally snaps back into survival. I turn, bolting for the pool room, heart slamming against my ribs.

“You won’t be able to escape this time.” Her distorted voice splinters the air, a hiss dragged through ruined vocal cords, following me like a curse—following me like my empty past.

I whip around, suspended between terror and the strange pull of curiosity that refuses to let me flee. “What the hell are you hissing about?”

She drops from the beam with a gelatinous thud, then begins slowly crawling toward me, her silhouette a deformed smear against the faint wavering light. Fear clamps around my muscles, rooting me in place, yet my mind holds steady and unyielding. There was nothing that could affect me after waking up to an unknown world. I reach blindly for a weapon, finding another thick brass candelabra and gripping it steadily.

I would not die curled in a corner nor quietly. But in the next sweep of trembling light, the creature vanishes again. I turn in a slow, careful pivot, candlelight orbiting around me like a frail shield. Shadows pulse along the walls. From behind, I feel her before I see her. Long, spindly fingers rake through my hair, yanking backward without hesitation. I tumble onto the floor, the impact rattling my bones. The lit candelabra slips from my hands, slamming into the floorboards. Flames snuff instantly, plunging me into darkness so complete it feels like being swallowed into a monster’s belly. My eyes adjust just enough to make out the creature crawling toward me on all fours, her limbs bending at wrong angles, elbows jutting, spine arching like a bowed bridge with ridges of bone visible through her tattered clothing.

I fumble for the weapon and swing hard. My arms tremble with the adrenaline coursing through my veins. But she is faster. Her slick hand shoots out and clamps onto my ankle with vice-like strength.

“Foul demon.” I spit, breath unsteady. Whoever she once was, whatever humanity she may have carried, has been hollowed out. She leers at me with tattered, sagging scraps of expression where her eyes should be.

“How many times do you think he will kill all of us?” she hisses. “Even the Devil knows his limits.” A black tarry substance spits from her mouth, splattering across my face and neck. It singes cold. Nausea churns in my stomach, bile clawing its way upward. She leans closer, her broken mandible grinding, croaking. My lungs seize. I forget how to breathe. Her breath reeks of rot, washing over my skin in frigid waves. Her tongue, slick and twisted drags across my cheek and up to the healing wound on my forehead.

“He did this.” Her voice is inside my head. “How many tries do you think it took for him to cage you?” she croons. “Purgatory isn’t easy to control, much less keep so many of us below. The Devil lends his gifts only to other devils.”

“I don’t know what you’re saying.” I manage, though my voice fractures. Her fingers coil around my throat, tightening. My pulse hammers against her grip, pounding against the edges of consciousness.

“You know,” she snarls. “We know. You’re one of us. We’ve come back for you. He’s taken so much. Pieces of us. And pieces of you.” I should be terrified. I should be fighting for my life with the wild desperation of a trapped animal. But fear slips away, draining out of me as I stare into her hollow sockets. Thick black liquid streams down her face like tears, dripping onto my chest. A wave of unbidden sorrow spears through my heart. She pins my arms above my head with strength no corpse should possess.

“Open your eyes.” As she speaks, a vivid image flashes in my mind: a young woman with long black hair and golden-brown eyes with a face both familiar and unreachable. A thread of recognition unfurls. Who are you? I try to say, but only a strangled pitch escapes.

The creature hisses, tightening her grip, but I thrash against her, forcing my body to move, to fight, to exist. My scream loops in my skull, drowning out everything else. “I don’t care what you’re showing me, I’m about to kill you again.” An enraged scream finally tears free from me, echoing off the corridor walls. Suddenly she shifts, climbing off me but still clutching my bound wrists. She begins to drag my body down the corridor, my back scraping across rugs and wooden boards. I writhe, kicking and cursing. Still, I’m not afraid. I’m angrier at the constant predicaments I find myself in.

“I should have never woken up.” I choke, squirming at the slick, tar-coated hands dragging me. The rug burn becomes unbearable, and I glance around for another weapon, a plan to escape this grip. Swinging my legs out, I kick a console table hoping to knock loose a weapon. Nothing falls. An unbridled fury cascades from my chest across my arms and down to my legs.

“You foul fucking demon,” I snarl, trying to twist my body, grabbing at her arms.

Effortlessly, she slams me back down. Bones inside her, crack and reform in sickening rhythms.

“What do you want from me?” I ask.

“You are ours,” she growls. “You belong to us. He will never have you, not after what he’s done.”

“I don’t know what you are,” I grit out, “but you are not taking me anywhere.” I yank downward with every ounce of strength. She stumbles just enough for an opening. Before I can do anything, a sharp metallic zip slices through the air, an arc of silver flying by, too fast for me to register what it is. Then, impact follows as what appears to be a blade cleaves through the corpse’s head. Her body collapses; a sound like wet branches breaking from a tree fills the corridor. Her severed head lands squarely atop my stomach. Her mouth gapes, and bits of dark brain matter drip onto the floor beside my cheek. Her hands remain clamped around my wrists until I tear them off, flinging the liquefied remnants across the boards. Bile surges then vomit violently spews from my mouth, emptying my stomach until nothing remains but dry heaves.

A warm hand presses my shoulder. “Are you okay?” Kieran’s voice is sharp.

My breath claws its way back into my lungs in shallow, ragged gasps. “What the hell was that thing?” I wipe my mouth, trembling.