No, you fucking don’t. I’m not letting you lay a finger on my friends.
“They won’t find out,” I promised. “My life for theirs, that’s my terms. If you break or anyone else breaks our agreement, Iwillkill myself, and I’ll do everything I can to torture your creature while I do it. Do we have a deal?”
From the depths, an odor like rotting flesh rose up, striking at my nostrils like a weapon. And I knew without knowing I had been given my answer.
“Our god is most pleased with your offer.” Headmistress West held out her hand to me. I took it. Her talons scraped across my skin as we shook. Her hand was ice cold and waxy, like my mother’s skin had felt when the firefighters dragged her from the blaze.
“You have all witnessed our agreement tonight,” Ms. West addressed the room. “Return to the school. Hazel has agreed to be sacrificed at the end of the year. Our god will wait with eternal patience to be sated by her soul.”
The teachers threw the trapdoor closed, wrapped the chains through the bolts, and locked it down tight. Instantly, the room felt a little brighter, a little less oppressive. Dr. Morgan dragged Greg’s limp body down from the ropes and dropped him at my feet. He stepped back and flashed me a cold smile.
“He’s yours,” he said. “Although you may be too late. His mind is not as strong as yours – many turn insane in the very presence of our god, before they even meet him in his prison.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re insane, all right.”
Quinn swooped in and scooped up Greg, throwing him over his shoulder. Trey grabbed my hand and dragged me out the opposite tunnel. Headmistress West’s tinkling laughter followed us.
Walls of shimmering stone pressed down on us, their angles always appearing slightly skewed. Quinn ran ahead, with Greg’s body flopping against his back. Trey and Ayaz jogged on either side of me, keeping pace with my shorter, wobbling legs. Ayaz’s hand rested on the small of my back, the gesture urging me onward even as my limbs screamed and my mind rebelled against all the horrors the entity had thrown at me.
The roof of the tunnel raised and the floor sloped into a set of wide steps. We clambered up them and through a small opening at the back of a supply closet. Dusty brooms and pails knocked against me as I fought my way outside, collapsing onto a cool marble floor. There were no lights on, and I could just make out an empty notice-board and a sign pointing to a locker room. A rancid smell filled the air, making me cough and choke.
Dimly, I realized that I recognized the hall and that smell. I’d been there only once before – on my way to the gymnasium.
Warm, strong hands grabbed me under the shoulders, lifting me, taking the burden of my weight. “Hazel, what have you done?” Trey hissed.
I glanced at his cruel mouth, then at Quinn’s stricken face, then to Ayaz, whose expression held only darkness. Something in the Turk’s eyes told me he had some inkling of what I was planning.
“What I’ve done is save two innocent lives,” I said, wishing my voice sounded strong and not tiny and terrified. I broke down into a coughing fit as the vile stench piled into my mouth.
“You’ve also doomed yourself,” Trey’s voice cracked. “You felt his presence touch your mind, but that’s nothing.Nothing. Do you have any inkling what it is like when the god embraces you? We tried so hard to save you, but you probably should have killed yourself. It would have been kinder.”
“What I’ve done is brought some time.” Determination set my jaw. “Now we’ve got until the end of the year to figure out how to banish that deity into the shadows and bring you all back from the dead, once and for all.”
Chapter Five
“I don’t care about school rules, I’m not trusting you alone in the dungeon tonight.” Trey pushed open the door to his dorm room and ushered me inside. “We can’t have you running off to make more fucking deals with malevolent deities.”
Students weren’t supposed to sleep in each other’s rooms. It was an instant 50-point demerit if you were caught, although it didn’t seem as if the teachers much cared what the monarchs did in their fancy suites that were more like apartments than dorm rooms. I desperately didn’t want to lose any of the hard-won points I’d gained during the first quarter, but I was also tired and cold and frightened andno fucking waydid I want to sleep alone in the basement with the rats and that fucking demon sleeping beneath the school.
I collapsed onto Trey’s enormous sofa. Quinn staggered in after him and dropped Greg down beside me before sliding to the floor. Trey frowned. “You’ve smeared dirt all over the carpet. You’re cleaning it up.”
I bit back a retort. As soon as we’d dragged our weakened, filthy bodies up the flight of stairs leading from the gym, Trey had reverted to his usual dicksome self. I pointed to the trail of muddy prints he’d tracked across his own cream carpet. “You’re rocking your own creature from the Black Lagoon look, so chill. We should get Andre up here, too.”
“This isn’t a fucking sleepover.”
“Fine.” I stood up. My legs wailed in protest. “Bye.”
“Where are you going?” Ayaz moved to block the door.
“I’m not going to leave Andre alone in the basement. Not when that thing is…” I couldn’t finish the sentence.
“All right!” Trey yelled. “Quinn, go get the other charity case, if it will shut her up.”
Quinn got up, deliberately smearing his hand along the wall as he headed out the door. I slid back onto the sofa, nestling Greg’s head on my legs and pressing my fingers to his wrist, feeling a steady pulse. I held my hand over his forehead.He’s freezing cold.
I went into Trey’s room and dragged his duvet out, placing it over Greg’s body and curling up around him, trying to warm my own freezing limbs at the same time. I stroked Greg’s face, hoping like hell he was unconscious the whole time, that he hadn’t had to endure the things the creature had fed into my head, that he hadn’t felt the god’s malevolence coursing through his veins.
If the god wasthatpowerful andthatmalevolent while it was still – according to Ms. West – trapped within the earth in a deathlike slumber, then what could it do if it was awake and free? I couldn’t contemplate that now. I needed to stay sane.
