At the rate the floors were swallowing us, we’d be consumed in thirty seconds or less.
The monster under the bed laughed. “You get it now. That’s right. I’m?—”
Lightning-quick, I reached into my shirt, pulled out a dart of Smith’s Folly, and flung it at him. Now, the monster under the bed was not a Smith. The poison wouldn’t affect him at all.
But a sharp dart through his right eye would affect him a lot.
He screamed.
I grabbed the rice I’d saved for Last’s wedding and tossed a handful of it at him. The mini thunderers exploded. They singed the walls and fell like tiny bombs, flashing, sparking, booming.
The monster under the bed dropped to his knees.
He sank to his waist into the floor.
“I will?—!”
I threw one of Jagger’s blood snakes at him. As soon as it hit the viscous floor, the wormlike creature exploded into a full-size snake. It darted at the monster and sank its teeth into his throat.
He screamed.
The snake’s venom was one of the most painful experiences on the planet. Even a small dose would leave a being in mindless agony for more than a day. The pain made some people go insane.
The monster convulsed and fell back into the floor. The viscous surface gulped. It swallowed the monster and the snake.
When they disappeared, the walls dimmed. Then they began to shake.
“Last?” I reached toward her, gripping her shoulder. “Last? Wake up.”
Sweat dripped down her pale face. Her breaths were quick and frightened. The nightmares swirled around her. Even through the floor, I could hear them sinking their teeth into her.
Nightmares about her mom. About Primus. About Luvic. Even about me.
I gripped her shoulder and shook her as hard as I could. “Last! Listen to me. It’s not real. It’s just a nightmare. It can’t hurt you. You are stronger than it. You are better than it. Wake up! Wake up and conjure! Last! You said we were friends. If we’re friends, then wake up and?—”
Last’s eyes snapped open.
She looked around at the bleeding walls. They shuddered, and the wet slosh of them gushed free. The humming became a wheeze, and the walls began to fold, caving inward.
“Where’s the monster under the bed?” she asked, her eyes widening. She tried to move but couldn’t.
“Dead. The tunnel’s collapsing.”
“You killed him?”
I nodded.
She smiled. “I had a nightmare about you. Then I heard you calling. You said we were friends.”
The walls slid toward us, a marrow-red mudslide. “Conjure! Conjure us to the ceiling! We have to get out.”
I pointed up. The underframe of a king-size bed hung above us.
“Did you hurt him? Was it painful?”
“Very!” I shouted. “Get us out!”
“Did you do it for me?”
