I let out a breath of relief. I was glad they’d taken the opening, hoping they managed to get away and get the upper hand. I had no doubt they’d come back to me. Hopefully with help.
The man holding me was shaking. He kept digging his hands back into the salt bag, recoating his hands to hold me.
“Fuck!” Makwa growled in rage. I felt him fighting inside me, bursting at the seams of my body to be let out. His tentacles slid up my throat, choking me. A black tip squirmed from my mouth like a tongue and the man holding me jerked back, his hand already going to his gun.
Victoria hissed and grabbed at the man’s wrist, stopping him from grabbing his weapon.
“Not her,” she snarled. So they were willing to shoot my men but not me? That didn’t line up with what they’d told us. What they made us believe. I was realizing something was amiss here, things weren’t lining up. Makwa roiled in my gut and I choked around the tentacle coming from my mouth.
“That’s enough!” I shouted in my head. Makwa gave a small gasp and then he was small inside me, just a shadow in my mind again.
“Fine,” he grumbled, settling down. It was almost as if he was pacing inside my head, back and forth, trying to calm himself down from everything that just happened. He felt different—bigger, stronger. Power hummed under my skin, his that he’d absorbed from the souls he'd eaten.
They pulled me to the very back of the cave, making me sit on the ground before escaping to the front again. Ben and a few others came stomping inside. He immediately pinpointed me and took a deep breath.
“Good. Okay, we still have Ava. That's all that matters,” Ben said, wiping his forehead of sweat. How he could sweat in these frigid temperatures was beyond me.
No one moved or said anything. They all just glared at him. Ben jerked his head around, looking at them in confused outrage.
“What!” He snapped.
“You threw us at them,” someone barked. “How many people died because you flung them in the path?” Ben was looking angrier by the moment. The blank facade and false charm he’d first had was nowhere to be seen as he stomped over to the man questioning him.
“I did what I had to in order to save the rest of us. I got him to retreat, didn’t I? Would you rather he ate us all?”
“It isn’t right,” the man said, shaking his head. “None of this is. Don’t we need the others to perform the ritual again? How are we going to be monsters if we don’t have them?” Victoria skulked behind the man, coming up behind him.
“You dare to question Ben?” She asked. “He just saved us and he’s the only one who can make you more than human. That’s why you’re here and that’s why you’ll listen to him,” she spat. No one was happy but they gave up voicing it after that.
“In the morning we’ll exorcise the…thinginside Ava,” Ben said. He gazed at me over the fire. The flames lit up his face redder than it normally was. His eyes looked dark. I could have sworn they’d been a pale blue but right now they barely looked blue at all.
“Let’s do the exorcism now,” someone said. He had blood sprayed all over his face that he was failing to mop up entirely. It looked as if someone had exploded on his face.
“Someone did,” Makwa cackled inside me.
“No. I need to prepare and daylight is ideal. That’s no normal ghost and she’s no normal human. Getting it out will be hell.”
“So we sit here all night hoping it doesn’t kill us all!”
“If it comes out, I’ll do what I need to,” Ben snapped and stomped off, picking up his big book and flipping through it. Makwa sank back deeper inside me at the sight of it.
“He can do it,” he whispered to me, sounding scared. “Ava, I don’t know what to do. I… underestimatedhim,” he choked out in anger. Begrudgingly the people settled down, spacing out and shooting angry glances at Ben and Veronica. They whispered to one another. Things weren’t going as they hoped and they no longer trusted Ben.
Victoria did though. She eyed the others and whispered threats that if they didn’t follow, they wouldn’t get turned. The rest grit their teeth and get their complaints quiet for now.
Finally, I calmed down and started to think.
“You ate his soul,” I told Makwa in my head.
“Indeed.”
“Why?” I asked, at a loss.
“It's what I do,” he said with humor.
“No, tell me why. What's the purpose?” He said it before but my mind was spinning. I didn’t even know how to accept what he did. He’d obliterated the existence of people—killing them and them consuming their souls into nothing.
“Power. So much power. Can you feel it? How much stronger I am.” Icouldfeel it. His power hummed in the background of my mind like a refrigerator.
