I follow the deranged sound and the pull of my Bel. No matter how hard we run, it seems they’re still on the move, keeping us from getting much closer.
When they finally reach their destination, more hell breaks loose. The explosions have stopped, but every few seconds, I hear gunfire followed by the terrible screech of metal on concrete.
The man beside me pants, “What are they doing now?”
I shrug, “Not sure, but hopefully that’s Isla and Bel, not the hunters.”
We pass by another collection of scattered hunter pieces and barely breathing young men, some pleading for death, but I don’t have it in me to show them that mercy right now.
Eamon and the rest of his team have almost caught up to us, and I hear them putting the fuckers behind me out of their misery. A quick bullet to the head is far kinder than the death I’d like to give every one of these assholes, but that’s not my priority right now.
Bel screams, “Where the fuck is he?”
Is she looking for Cas? Is he not here?
No. She’s not worried. She’spissed.
“Where the fuck is he?” she shouts again.
“He’s gone,” a broken, rattling voice tells her.
Cas.
“What do you meangone?” Isla asks through gritted teeth.
When we finally round the corner, the sight that greets me makes me nauseous. Caspian is in the middle of a giant room, almost like an auditorium, but both the guests and the show are in cages. Caspian’s demon form is slumped over in a chair that’s slick with his blood. His one-antlered head buried in his hands, trying to ease the pain. Bel stands before him, covered in the blue-black of his blood, no doubt having thrown herself around him the second she arrived.
“He left.” Caspian tells them.
“Fucking coward,” Eamon scoffs beside me, and I nod in agreement.
Eamon stalks forward to grab the prize that he came here for.
“Oh, hi,” she finally says upon seeing him. “So nice of you to be here.” Before he can get any closer, she backs away. “I’m just gonna let all these nice people out real quick, ‘kay?”
“Isla,” he growls, stalking forward.
“Eamon,” she mocks back. “We’re already here. We may as well, right?”
Bel grins at the exchange for a moment, then her eyes meet mine. The relief in them is so palpable, so warm it’s contagious. Even though my best friend is bleeding like crazy from the stump on his head and obviously in agony, I can’t help but smile.
We did this shit.
Some of the cages around us, the ones on the bottom floor, have already been opened, the prisoners inside barely dragging themselves out.
“Dear demons,” Isla announces, “For your dining pleasure, there are no less than 50 hunters within the walls of this fucking place dead and or dying, so please feel free to indulge yourselves.”
With that announcement, the energy in the room changes; the demons who must have been feeling hopeless only moments ago are now as frantic as they can be with how long they’ve been locked up and drained.
Eamon grunts out his frustration, “Fine. Just— fuckingfine.” He gestures to the armed forces surrounding him, “Go help.”
All at once, they move. A couple head directly to the top level of this gruesome torture room, releasing its prisoners with a well-placed bullet, the screeching of each door being forced open echoing throughout it all.
I take it all in, just for a moment, enjoying the feeling of this victory before I take a step towards where my girl is comforting Caspian and trying to help him stand.
And then I stop dead in my tracks.
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