They were worse than Sage or even Morgan. Extra limbs stretched through holes in their clothing. Their bodies were thick and hunched. Their eyes watched all directions at once.
I stopped fifteen feet away. One coiled a tentacle around Ronnie’s neck. The threat was clear: if we crossed them, he died.
Ronnie’s face sagged with a mix of guilt and relief when he spotted the two of us. “I’m sorry. I tried—”
“Where’s Alex?” I asked.
“He got inside.”
“How?” asked Annette.
“It’s my fault.” He clenched his fists. “After I lost contact with you, I tried to stop him myself. I climbed onto the roof and nailed him with my sling. I’m pretty sure I broke his shoulder. But he caught me with his tentacle and pulled me down. He dragged me to the front door and said he’d kill me unless the house let him inside.”
And of course the door had opened. This place protected the people who lived here. The house had given up its own security to save Ronnie’s life.
“It’s not your fault,” I said. “If Alex hadn’t gotten you, he’d have found another way in. He’s always been clever.” I handed my bow and arrow to Annette.
“What are you doing?” she whispered.
“Praying.” The last time I’d whispered this invocation to Artemis had been the last day the Council sent me to hunt. The day I killed Hope Lyons.
It was the day I’d understood what they turned me into. Not a hunter but a weapon.
I’d spent the next thirty-three years trying to atone for what I’d become.
ARE YOU READY TO ACCEPT YOUR TRUTH, HUNTER?
Artemis’s voice was both soothing and startling. I hadn’t even finished my prayer. “What truth is that?”
YOUR FEAR. A HUNTER CANNOT BE PREY TO FEAR.
Rude. I glanced at the shoggoth squad. They hadn’t moved. Whatever they’d expected, I doubted it included me setting my weapon aside and mumbling to myself. “I’m not afraid of them.”
NOT THEM, NO. YOU CAN’T FIGHT IF YOU’RE AFRAID OF YOUR OWN POWER, JENNIFER.
“Tell that to what’s left of the shoggoth at the Gauntlet,” I said.
YOUR IMPERTINENCE DOESN’T HIDE YOUR FEAR. NOT FROM ME.
Annette touched my arm. “Jenny? Are you still in there?”
I stepped forward. The tentacle around Ronnie’s neck tightened. He gasped for breath. I raised my hands. “I don’t want to kill them.”
Helping to kill the shoggoth was one thing, but these were children. They couldn’t have known what would happen when they got involved with Alex. They weren’t monsters. They were victims.
WOULD YOU DAMN THE WORLD TO SAVE THE LIVES OF FOUR CORRUPTED CHILDREN?
“Would you damn me to save the world?” I asked. “I believe in you, Artemis. I believe in your strength and your mercy. Help me save them all.”
Artemis’s strength flowed through my veins, replacing aches and stiffness with strength. I measured the distance between me and Ronnie, waved Annette back, andmoved.
Tentacles whipped toward me. I drew my blade and severed three in a single swing. A fourth looped around my left forearm. I braced myself and pulled. The kid stumbled forward, and I landed a solid punch in the center of what remained of their face.
I moved in and severed the tentacle around Ronnie’s throat, then put him behind me and faced the thralls. All this in the span of two heartbeats.
They attacked again. I was careful not to kill the kids. I was less careful about broken bones or crushed tentacles.
“Holy shit,” Ronnie said, moments later. He stepped carefully around the fallen thralls. “You were holding back when you and I fought.”
