Chapter 43

Chapter

Forty-Three

Crusher

A n ominous feeling creeps into my bones, as I drop through the darkness. Ember wasn't kidding about the evil on the other side of this portal. But I will not leave Phil behind. Never again.

Even if we both die. Even if I never see Ana again, I will not leave Phil.

Flame and Blade will protect Ana. They'll stay with her forever. She'll be safe. That's all that matters.

Gravity—or some force like it—slows me, and I grab onto the ladder, preparing to climb.

I scramble up the ladder as fast as I can move, jumping up many rungs at a time, my back slamming against the wall of the tunnel, bruising me as I shoot for longer and longer leaps.

The air is putrid, and the demons' shrieks scrape my ears, but hope fills my chest. Smelling and hearing are signs that I'm close.

As soon as my head is near the opening, I jump, landing on the solid rock at the top.

Phil's body is still on the ground, and I rush toward him, placing my ear against his chest and hoping for any sign of life.

His heart isn't beating, but I sense life inside him, as if his cells are fighting to heal. I consider forcing some of my blood between his lips, but the monsters are close now. Too close.

They're fully black, except for their eyes, like pinpricks of red, and their teeth, like jagged rows of yellow, with hints of brown as if decaying meat drips off them. Their blackness is dull, reflecting no light, as if the creatures are voids in space. In the same way that the rider and her dragon stood out from the grays of his landscape, so do these creatures, but in the opposite way.

Taking Phil under his arms, I drag him toward the portal, and then bending him at the waist, I stand to hoist him over my shoulder.

I glance down at the hole. Who the fuck am I kidding? Our combined bulk won't fit this way. Not with him bent over me. Lying him down, I remove both our belts, join them together, and use the resulting strap to hold him against me. This way, my back will be the one exposed to the rock when we scrape against it.

We fit this way—barely—and I take one last look before my eyes drop below the rock's surface.

The demons are maybe a thousand feet away.

If they follow us through the portal, Phil and Ana's sacrifices, will have made the world worse, not better.

Before we left, I went to Phil, wanting to speak to him one final time, and he gave me several bundles of C-4 with remote chargers, and a detonator with a code. It seemed strange, and dangerous, but now I plant the packets in the tunnel as I descend, using what little sense of touch I have to secure them. I can barely feel anything and can't see.

I have no idea if this will work, but I respect how Phil always comes prepared to blow something up.

The last of the C-4 planted, I let us drop, shielding the back of Phil's head from the rungs, and wincing each time my back slams against the wall behind me.

We decelerate, marking the halfway point, and I look up into the blackness, before starting to climb. I shake my head. Why look? I have no idea which way is up or down at this point, or which way the demons might be coming from. Without proper use of my senses, I have no way of knowing if they're following. For all I fucking know, one could be a few feet from us now.

With that thought, I pull out the detonator. Fuck. I can't see the keypad to put in the code.

My fingers are numb, but I sense a scratch on the back of the plastic. I remember the scratch and turn the device the other way around.

Even if I'm wrong and put in the wrong code, at this point, what the fuck do I have to lose? Every second I stall gives those demons another second to follow and take over our world.

I press in the number sequence Phil gave me, drop the detonator, and continue to climb. There's no sound. No big booms, but I remind myself that my sight and hearing don't work the same way in this portal.

Then the rungs start to vibrate under my hands.

Filled with hope—and fear—I climb as fast as I can with Phil's body strapped to my chest, and my heart fills with joy when I see the pinprick of light above, for the second time tonight.

Even better, it's still the lights cast by the Eiffel Tower and not the sun.