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“Because everyone should have the chance to leave Under. No one is monstrous all the way through, but you have to make that choice.”
Gerrard lifts their linked hands. “I don’t belong here anymore.”
“You never did,” she says.
“None of us did,” I add. My gaze lands on the weapons on the walls. “Let’s arm up.”
“Kill them all, except the one with wings,” the queen shouts. Her fire crackles with laughter.
I lunge for the wall and rip a spear off. It’s tipped with metal, but the shaft is made of bone. Michael growls as he battles something that snuck up behind him.
Theo might lack size, but he slices at anything that comes close. That creepy spider-like guard attacks Gerrard, who is far too close to Julie. I can’t reach them though, as something hairy with four arms is taking a swing at me. I duck and dodge and stab, but the spear isn’t working against the thick fur.
I need to get closer and jab it into the monster’s face. Poison drips onto my tongue, or I have to bite it. The thought of losing my legs terrifies me and makes my blood cold. That is the fear I need to embrace. So what, I can regrow them. I can bite its bare foot. I’m about to launch myself at the ground when a horn suddenly appears out of the beast’s chest.
Michael tosses his head, and the dead monster falls off the horn and lands on the floor. “Head toward the spire exit.”
18
Michael
This fight will damn me, but I can’t stand back and do nothing. I don’t want them to be killed, any of them. Even the green bug man she has named Gerrard, who appears to be no longer a guard.
Joe nods. “Thank you.”
“I’m always saving your ass.”
He grins and there’s a glint in his eyes that I never noticed. How many times has he looked at me like that? “It’s because you like it.”
I laugh, but it’s more of a growl. Around us, the fight goes on. There’s screaming and the scent of fresh blood. Theo shoves something into his mouth and grows before he’s even finished swallowing.
Julie smacks a monster in the face with her wing and breaks free to join us.
“Run for the spire. I’ll get the others.” Joe and Julie are the most vulnerable.
“I’m not leaving without everyone.” She’s gripping what looks like a sword in her hand. Its blade is bloodied but she is unchanged.
Gerrard is struggling against his fellow guards, so I charge in and scatter them. He looks at me as though not sure if he should fight me or thank me.
“Go,” I growl.
I’m not climbing the spire with them. I’m too far gone, and it’s my own fault. I thought I needed Julie to myself to be happy. I thought she was mine, just like the queen. And in wanting her to myself, I pushed her away. I moved further from what she desires.
Right now, I am what she needs.
My horns keep everyone back as Theo falls back to join me. We back up toward the exit to the spire. He is, once again, double the size of a human.
“Are you climbing?”
“Yes,” he says with a nod.
“Like that?”
He puts the back of his bloodied hand on my shoulder. “I have forgiven myself for my previous failures. I am where I need to be. If I hadn’t been defeated by the queen, then Julie wouldn’t be here. We would never have had this chance to be free.” He spits out a couple of teeth. “You are where you need to be. Without you, we wouldn’t be able to reach the spire.”
He’s right, but it’s much easier to carry the blame that to let go.
Joe cries out. I turn to see him fighting off a livid yellow creature. He’s bleeding from his thigh. He spits in the monster’s face, and it squeals and backs away as its skin bubbles.
