Marcus laughs and walks away.
I rotate my body in time to see the carriages leave. Vex is screaming for them to let me go until they’re so far away I can’t hear her anymore.
Tears are streaming down my face.
Stellan… I should have never left without him. I’m happy he’s not here with me right now, condemned to die, but I hate being alone. For however long I have left.
But death doesn’t come quickly. I stay hanging for hours, my arms and shoulders on fire. The flies found the horse meat quickly, and they’re swarming at my feet. If I die of thirst before being found by Scylla, they’ll lay eggs on my body. I almost wish for the old god to find me before it comes to that.
The sun is slowly gliding towards the horizon, readying to get swallowed by the sea. The heat is still relentless, but at least it’s not blistering my skin anymore. Small mercies.
I close my eyes, defeated and exhausted, when a noise startles me.
Something is coming. My eyes widen, adrenaline flooding my veins.
The water in the bay is calm, but I can hear giant feet dragging on the ground behind me. I wiggle to pivot in a full circle. The land surrounding the bay is lifeless…
The reeds! The reeds are moving, as if pushed aside by something huge.
“Oh, shit… shit… shit…” I whisper.
Is it coming from underground? Scylla should come out of the water! Don’t tell me the meat attracted something else.
The pier shakes. But just as I’m about to let out one last desperate scream, a giant creature appears out of thin air on the shore.
No… not a creature of flesh and bones like the old gods, but one of metal and wires.
Fresh tears well in my eyes as I realize what I’m looking at. It’s a giant machine on six legs, with what looks like a blue and green shell built from different panels.
The Beetle! It’s the fucking Beetle!
I’ve heard the tales, but I never expected to see it with my own eyes one day.
A hatch opens on the underside of the walking machine, and the Devil of the Wastes jumps out. He’s as tall and as wide as the King. Two small horns peek out of his dark hair. He’s a living legend among survivors.
A smaller man follows him. He has blonde hair curling around his ears and a pretty face. He must be Helios. The friend Jude told me so much about, and the Devil’s lover. He takes off running towards me.
“Oh, fuck, are you okay?” he asks me as soon as he reaches me. “It took us a while to locate you. We feared we might be too late.” My only answer is to cry harder. Helios panics at my renewed tears and pulls out an army knife. “Don’t worry, we’ll take you down. Griffin, help me.”
The Devil of the Wastes—Griffin—reaches us. As he gets closer, I realize his eyes are red, and his pupils are vertical slits. I try not to stare. He takes the knife from Helios’ hands and cuts the rope. I land in their gentle embrace. I cry out as my arms are finally free—they hurt worse than the wound on my leg.
“How?” I ask as they put me on the ground.
“Your friend, Vex, has been broadcasting a distress signal,” says Helios. “And Beet—our AI—caught it.” He gestures at the giant machine waiting on shore. “She told us they’ve offered you as a sacrifice along the bay. But she didn’t have the exact coordinates, so it took us a while to find you. Sorry, Perri.”
“Oh, fuck. Don’t be sorry,” I say, encircling my painful arms around him like a terrified child. “Thank you… thank you.”
Helios pats me on the back awkwardly while the Devil of the Wastes watches over us, frowning.
“We need to move,” Griffin eventually says. His voice is deep. “Scylla might not be busy for long.”
“Busy?” I ask as they help me to my feet.
“Beet intercepted a message on the traveling merchant’s channel. She attacked travelers less than an hour ago south of here.”
Not Vex, then. The zealots were heading north, and they wouldn’t use technology even for radio signals. I’ve seen them send a message with an honest-to-gods pigeon that was kept in a cage with others.
“My friend,” I say. “Vex…she—”
