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Dammit.
“Get the fucking tracker!” Em’s voice is wild behind me, and I spin to see him darting left down the tunnel, away from the crowd after something that’s nothing more than a blur.
Goddammit. Nobody killed that thing yet? I thought that one of the guys had taken care of it.
Of course, I’ve never seen anything move that quickly before. Maybe they tried. I’ve just been able to fight off the bastards that came directly at me so far. I haven’t had a free second to be strategic about it.
I start in that direction, but Creep portals ahead of me, skipping from shadow to shadow easily in the darkness of the tunnels. A rat squeaks when he lands on its tail, and the little creature scurries away as soon as my monster disappears again. He appears in a shadow near Chase’s body, but the tracker is already pulling ahead. Far ahead.
No.
I lift my hands, ready to fling spears of ice, but Creep is portalling so quickly, disappearing and reappearing, that I don’t think he’ll be able to hear any warning I give. And I won’t hurt him.
Meanwhile, the crowd of new monsters is getting closer, their feet a stampede, the sound deafening in the tunnels as it echoes off the walls.
“Fucking fools,” Dev says nearby.
“Move and I’ll swamp the ground with lava,” Tesq orders, stepping through the crunch and slush of the slime monster’s corpse.
He bends and puts his hands to the cement ground. It cracks beneath him, and I blink, awed, as it quickly morphs into cobblestone and then into liquid, a soupy mass of molten orange.
Steam starts to curl through the air in the tunnel as a result, the moist air billowing around us.
“Come on.” Dev scoops me off the ground.
I wriggle in his arms, but as I cast a glance around, I realize he’s attempting to be tender, not overprotective.
There are no monsters left on our side of the lava moat to fight. The others are trying to cross, shoving their companions into the bubbling orange mass and trying to walk across their backs, but the bodies disintegrate too quickly, burning or melting into nothing but a stench.
He runs in the direction of the tracker, and we quickly catch up with Chase. But Creep is nowhere to be seen. And neither is the tracker.
We head in that general direction, slowly and silently, me in Dev’s arms, Tesq leaving little puddles of lava like a checkerboard behind us to slow down whoever might actually breach his lava moat and come after us.
When we reach Empty, he’s breathing heavily, and he’s stabbed his knife into the wall, grinding the blade uselessly against the cement in his frustration.
“Did Creep catch him?” I ask, wiggling until Dev puts me down.
A shrug is my only answer, and my stomach immediately sinks. An ominous feeling unfolds inside of me, growing bigger with each passing second.
When Creep appears in the shadows in front of us, an angry expression marring his gorgeous face, I know.
The tracker got away, which means the other side will know where we are. And they’ll be able to find us wherever we go.
21
ALIANA
The monsters have shoveda pile of their brethren into the moat behind us and are stomping across the melting, sinking mass of the dying as quickly as they can. Even with the checkerboard obstacle course Tesq left for them, the bastards will be on us all too soon.
As one, we turn and race toward a set of stairs leading to the surface. While being out in broad daylight where we can be spotted isn't ideal, at least a lot of monsters will be sleeping. With any luck—not that we've had a lot of it lately—we'll be able to take cover before we're found.
Though, no matter where we go, we can't stay long. Not until that tracker's dead.
Worry gusts through my stomach as we run because, though I know my Terrors are strong, they aren't invincible. Even monsters tire. Even monsters need to rest. But if this uprising goes on long enough and they're able to suss us out no matter where we hide…eventually…
I shove aside the dread and push myself to run faster. A set of stairs painted in yellow slashes by the sunlight is set just to our right, and we bound up it. Legs burning, I huff and puff as we hurry. It doesn't go unnoticed that my mates, even Empty in Chase's vulnerable human body, surround me. Determined to protect me.
Annoyance and appreciation weave together inside of me, and I have to clamp my lips down to avoid any sassy quip. Now isn't the time.
