I let the idea sit with me for a few moments, the tantalizing taste of freedom pooling on my tongue. Then, with a sigh, I turned away from Arkham.
I scrambled over the scattered rocks, sucking in gulps of fresh, chilled air. I pulled my tired body from the muck, dusted as much of the grit and mud off my body as I could, and took off in a hobbling run down the ridgeline.
With every step, pain jolted up my leg, sending waves of nausea through me, mingled with garbled visions from the injured god. In the same way that Greg now had horrible dreams because he’d been in the god’s presence, I and it were now somehow connected. I could tell when it was hurting by the way it lashed out at my mind, which could be something I could use to my advantage.
But right now, I needed to focus. I forced myself to ignore the pain and the god and keep going. After a while, the pain became background noise to the wild thoughts and theories swirling in my head.Why was Ayaz’s sister waiting for me in that cave? If she isn’t a student at the school, then what’s she doing here? What was that creature Courtney sent after me? Could I somehow get her in trouble for breaking the rules of the initiation?
How did I make that fire?
I had no answers to any of it.
My chest was heaving by the time I reached the road. Sweat poured down my back, soaking through my ruined dress, but I didn’t slow down. I had no way of knowing how much time I had left. My ankles rolled as I pounded along the gravel road toward the school.
The tall iron gates came into view – the same ones I’d passed through on my first day in this hellhole. When I reached them, they were locked.No, no.I ran at them, slammed my body into the metal. They didn’t budge. My lungs screamed. My body begged to lie down in the trees and forget about the whole thing. I lifted the chain and found that the lock hadn’t been bolted. I unlooped the chain, shoved the gate open, and ran through, tearing along the drive toward the athletic fields, where the initiation ceremony was to end.
Lights flickered in the lacrosse field. A circle of students carried torches, counting down in loud voices. “…nineteen, eighteen, seventeen…”
I poured on speed. My body had gone numb from the waist down.
“…fifteen, fourteen, thirteen…”
I tore across the field, barreling through their ranks and collapsing in a heap on the pitch. Tillie scrunched up her nose. “She looks like a swamp creature.”
I grinned up at Courtney, waving a hand. “Hi!”
The look of rage on Courtney’s face as it dawned on her I had escaped her monstrous trap and was now part of her secret club made every agonizing moment worth it.
“Fuck, Hazy.” Quinn sank to his knees, cradling me in his arms. “You made it.”
“I knew you could do it,” Ayaz said. Behind his shoulder, Trey’s ice eyes swept over my body, but he didn’t say anything.
“No thanks to Courtney,” I growled, rolling my leg over to show off the burn on my calf.
“That was an accident. I can’t help it if you were thrashing around like a dead fish,” Courtney snapped.
“Hazel, you made it!” Greg crawled toward me. He fell into my arms, the two of us rolling on the turf, smearing mud all over each other.
“Of course I did. And you? They didn’t make you saw your own arm off to get a key?”
“Nope.” Greg shuddered. “It was scary enough down there as it was. I kept thinking I heard things…”
“You’re fine, that’s what matters. Where’s Andre?” I searched the field for him.
Greg shook his head. His face darkened. “I haven’t seen him. I don’t think he made it.”
Chapter Thirteen
No. It can’t be.
Andre was bigger and stronger and smarter than the two of us combined. He was much closer to the school than I had been. How could he not be here?
What have they done to him?
“Andre?” I sat up, shoving Quinn’s arm off my chest. The burn blazed with pain, but I ignored it as I staggered to my feet and shoved aside one of Courtney’s minions. “Andre!”
“Hey!” The minion – I remembered her name was Amber – yelled. John stepped toward me, his hands balled into fists. Beside me, Greg stiffened.
A hand slid around my face, clamping over my eyes. I screamed and kicked out, trying to knee the bastard in the balls as I shook my glass shard out of my sleeve.No fucking way am I going back in a hole.
