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I hold my breath, expecting the worst. I know how using his poison affects him. But the only thing that happens is that his tail drops off.
Theo scoops it up and shoves it in his mouth. I stare, unable to look away.
“Did you want some?” He bites off what’s hanging out of his mouth and the end drops onto his palm. He offers me the last bit.
Do I want a piece of Joe?
Joe wouldn’t refuse a piece of me. I nod and open my mouth. Theo puts the last piece of tail on my tongue. I crunch and swallow. Joe tasted good, and I wish I hadn’t wasted all the time we lived in the cave. But at the same time, it couldn’t have been any different. I wasn’t ready. And he was too angry at everyone and everything.
We were both doing the best we could. And that’s okay.
My skull aches, but I keep backing up. Theo seems to still be growing.
Unable to stay on all fours, I stand.
Ah shit…I’ve shrunk and even though we are at the exit, there are some big monsters coming after us.
“Run,” Theo says.
19
Gerrard
Idon’t understand what has happened, but none of the guards seem to recognize me. They attack me and I need to fight, but I’m not regrowing my armor. Their claws cut my exposed skin, but all I’m worried about is what’s going to happen to Julie and the others.
She doesn’t belong to the queen, and she doesn’t belong here.
I shouldn’t be helping her, but when she included me so easily in her group, I couldn’t help but join in. They don’t know how I killed all my friends.
How I survived.
I went to four funerals and then I was taken as though my guilt dragged me here. But it wasn’t guilt. It was the queen as she pulled people to Under.
Is she some kind of god? The devil?
I don’t deserve Michael’s help, but I accept it because I don’t want to die. With the others, we back onto the walkway to the spire. Beneath us are the truly terrifying monsters. They are bigger than the guards or anything else I have ever seen.
The walkway is too narrow, forcing us to walk single file.
Joe leads, spear in hand, followed by Julie. I’m in the middle. How did I end up in the middle of the group so well protected?
Michael is behind me. No longer such a beast. He walks on two legs, but he still has horns. Theo is last, tall, and taloned and defending us from the attacking monsters. He throws someone off the walkway and the monster screams all the way to the ground, then screams some more when it is attacked.
Fear is hot and sharp in my body.
This is not what I thought would happen to me. I don’t know what I thought when I imagined my life continuing here—probably more of the same—I certainly never thought about leaving. And now I am. And I have no idea what that means.
Aside from dying.
The spire rises before us.
“Help!” Theo shouts. I spin in time to see him go over the side. The monster that threw him off runs at Michael and me.
Julie launches off the walkway and her wings spread.
My heart lurches. She’s never used her new wings. I don’t have time to look for her as I’m attacked. The six-legged monster won’t let us leave. He stabs at us with his legs, spearing Michael through the foot.
There’s no room to maneuver, so I can’t help him.
