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He wished he could wave those worries away…but he couldn’t. The groaning of metal was only getting louder. “We aren’t…” He licked his lips and kissed him back, trying to find calm in his taste before he pulled away.
Turney pushed up and off of him, and Octavius forced himself to get up.
He eyed the others. The wolves were panting lightly, Theo a bit harder than Cormac. Scarlett looked grim but unfazed by the run. Min-ji was sweating, no doubt from exerting herself as she had tried to keep up at first.
“I’m sorry, Min-ji. We should have never let you attempt to keep up. I wasn’t thinking,” he apologized.
She gave him a weak smile. “There wasn’t really time to think.”
The fence groaned again and began to bow inward under the weight of the ghouls.
“That won’t hold for long,” Henry stated grimly.
Octavius glanced at the fence, his gaze then wandering to the hotel, before back to his people. What was the right choice? Did they even have a choice at this point?
“There’s no choice, Octavius. We have to go inside,” Scarlett said gently. “I’m sure this is what Dayan intended.”
“So, we just have to keep walking deeper into his trap,” Turney sighed. “I have to say, I preferred being chased by fake zombies over real ones.”
Octavius let out a soft laugh. “Yeah, I would much rather be on a fun zombie run than here.”
It was odd thinking about how just days before he and Turney had run hand and hand away from a horde of fake zombies while laughing, and now they were literally facing a real horde of zombies who were trying to eat them.
“What are you two even talking about?” Cormac said, sounding exasperated.
“If this is Dayan, then the only answer is to go inside,” Theo growled. “He must be stopped.”
Cormac leaned against his brother. “It’s not like there’s anything else we can do.”
“Let’s end this bastard,” Turney said with a weak smile.
There was a loud screech as the fence started to give way.
“RUN!” Octavius cried.
They sprinted up the drive. Octavius made it to the door first, he yanked it open and then held it. And he would keep holding until all his people had run in. Scarlett with Min-ji in her arms was the last to run past him. Octavius made it inside when the horde was only steps away from him, slamming the door shut just in time.
The minute it closed, his whole body shuddered as he felt a ward stronger than any he’d ever felt before snap into place.
“Shit!” Min-ji gasped, her eyes widening. “That’s…not good.”
“What was that?” Turney asked. Once the door had closed, he had felt something run through him. Like a buzzing across his skin. He was pretty sure it was a ward, but it had felt more bone shaking than the ones Min-ji had cast around them before.
“A ward,” Min-ji said grimly. “A powerful one. One that will not be easy to break.”
“You can’t break it?” Octavius asked.
“I didn’t say I couldn’t, just that it’s not going to be easy.” The witch sighed. “It’s an extremely complex spell. It will take hours for me to break it down.”
“Considering the path outside is at this very moment blocked by a horde of ghouls that we have no hope of fighting off…perhaps we should worry about the ward later? Such as, on our way out?” Henry suggested.
“Yeah, it's not like we’d go out there at the moment, even if there wasn’t a ward in the way,” Cormac said with a huff. “Though, without the ward, the ghouls would be probably minutes from breaking the door down, so…we are pretty fucked.”
He tried not to agree with Cormac, but…in terms of the ghoul situation…they were as strong as him, yet had no fear. The reality was, there was no way they could fight off that many at once. So, even if they defeated Dayan…it would be difficult to escape the hotel after.
Turney pulled out his phone, grimacing at the zero bars. No signal, no nothing.
“Still…no signal,” Turney told them.
