My vision narrowed, and what light I could see seemed to be far, far away.
Lu, I whispered, as consciousness slipped.
“Move, move, move!” Lu slapped the hook out of my hand. Blood gushed warm and slick over my palms. She yanked my arm over her shoulder and dragged me out of the demon circle, half-walking, half-stumbling.
The air was thick with Rooroo dust and fangs.
That’s when I realized the werewolves had arrived.
We stumbled, eyes stinging with darkness and dust. The snarl of werewolves, the flash of fang and claw rolled and shifted around us.
Once, I thought a Hush had found a way through the dust, had found a way through the ocean of fury and fur, but it was swept away by the dagger in Pamela’s hand, which appeared, then disappeared as she pivoted to stay with the battle.
“We should—” I tried to slow, to tell Lu that we needed to help them, to fight.
“Here,” she said, as we rounded a bend, the fight behind us. She let go of my arm, and bent toward something.
I blinked hard to clear my eyes. Not something, someone.
Abbi.
Lu worked to untie Abbi’s arms. I reached into my pocket for the Rooroo dust shaker, but my pocket was empty.
Shit.
Then I remembered I had the lightning rod hooked onto my belt. I pulled it and hissed as metal hit raw flesh. I switched it to my other hand.
“We need to get her out of here,” I said. “Take her. Go.”
“Still not leaving you behind, Gauge.” Lu threw the bindings on the ground and gently pulled the blindfold from Abbi’s eyes.
“You can’t stay,” Abbi said. “Mother Hush wants to kill you, Brogan. She wants to eat you—your magic.”
Lu grabbed my sleeve. “We go together.” She clicked on her flashlight, but the dust reflected the light back at us like a wall.
“This way,” Abbi said, pulling on my other sleeve.
I followed, Lu bringing up the rear. I thought I could hear the soft growl of Hado moving in front of Abbi, but he was invisible in the dark.
We were climbing. Every once in a while the sound of the fight would rise, but after a few turns in the pathway, the struggle was muffled by stone.
I knew we were getting closer to the surface—the texture of grit beneath our feet changed, became thicker, as if stone had been broken here, worn down by animals or perhaps humans brave enough to enter.
I could smell the clear air, just a whiff at first, lost again when we trudged up and around another turn.
“Oh,” Abbi said. “I can hear it. I can feel it. Can you feel it? The sky!” She released my sleeve and somehow had the energy to run up the incline.
“Abbi,” Lu called, and then she put on speed and jogged up the hill.
I tried to pick up the pace, but like a bellows with a hole in it, each breath came harder and did less.
One turn I could see the glow of red from the dagger Lu carried, and the next, I was faced with three tunnels, all dark, all deserted.
I’d lost them. Lost my way.
I settled my breathing as best I could and focused on finding Ricky in the clamor of connections.
The war being waged between werewolf and Hush strained and snarled the connections, making them all light up with jagged pops of color that tangled and flared.
