Chapter 45

45

T hey all stare at the nameplate, and the demon—Ambra—paces, her steps short and agitated, before she waves at them for attention.

This time, her gaze locks onto Delina, and slowly, deliberately, mouths, "Free me."

"What are the chances she's going to kill me the moment I bring down the runes?" Delina asks, craning her neck up to Maison.

"She's not going to get to touch you," he growls, staring the demon down, who is currently actively ignoring him to mouth the words to Delina again.

"Can she hear us?" Chloe asks, small. There's more color in her cheeks now, like the walk down the hallway settled more of herself.

The demon—Ambra—nods.

Gurlien straightens, and the demon's eyes snap over to him, mouthing, "Free me," again.

"We are bringing the runes down," Gurlien says, clinical, as if he's remarking on the weather. "You'll be able to go where you want and escape."

The demon shakes her head, then tugs at the leash around her neck again to demonstrate. So she wouldn't, she would still be under whatever control they had of her.

"We have to free the child in the room right next to yours," Gurlien continues, the faux bored tone belaying a tremor underneath it. "Don't hurt one of us, and we will do what we can to free you."

Ambra looks over to Maison, as if gauging his reaction, narrowing her eyes.

"You touch her, you die," Maison says, and the demon nods, something close to relief on her face, like for once she's understanding the context.

"Shit," Chloe breathes, as Ambra resumes her pacing in the tiny space. "Shit, this is going to be bad."

Ambra nods again, at that.

"The moment we bring down the runes, at least eight people are going to die," Delina says, and the demon nods along, as if she knew all of this. "I will use one of the deaths to defend myself."

Ambra mouths, "Good."

"Is there any way to bring down just some of the runes?" Maison asks, and the demon bares her teeth at him.

"Not without the keys," Gurlien responds, and Ambra immediately stops with the outward aggression. "All of them or none."

There are two more cells between them and the rune box. One of them will die instantly, the other is another catatonic person with bones jutting from his face and the nameplate that just reads ‘coward.'

And Ambra watches them from behind the glass, until the angle of her cell no longer lets her.

Maison is stiff, his jaw tight, his shoulders aching, and Delina's known him long enough to know he's doing some mental calculations, some sort of decision making.

"We have to," Delina says.

"I know," Maison mutters, and he leans against the wall next to the box. "I'm trying to gauge how much I'll be able to fight her."

"Hopefully none," Gurlien says, popping open the paneling to the rune box. "Still have a dead bug you can take? Get it ready, so you don't have to panic in the moment to reach one."

Delina does, and pulls out the thin golden string, even though the pull in her gut tells her that the people will be infinitely more powerful, infinitely more useful.

She lets the string slink between her hands, weighing it.

"I think I speak for us all that when we do this, everything's going to be very, very chaotic," Chloe says, slinging her backpack down and handing Maison another chocolate bar. "I'll prep the wall for the staircase."

"Half these people will take hours to fully wake," Gurlien argues, which is a little better. "We make sure the wight is gone, we keep going."

"And there are two failed Terese Projects and one actual, we have no idea how this will go," Maison says grimly.

"Can you make a splint?" Delina asks, at the continued weakness in Maison's knee.

"She should save her power," Gurlien responds, and Maison nods. "We're going to need it for at least two more traps and there's no good material."

"Delina, here," Chloe instructs, gesturing her over to the box. "You disrupt this," Chloe gestures, precise, "and break this, then it'll fall."

Maison straightens, and his knee pangs him, but his face settles into something detached, before twin strips of magic appear in his hands.

Gurlien tugs Chloe's backpack off of her, his face grim, and pulls out the gun.

The gun from back in the cabin, the one stored in the living room table drawer, the one he pointed at her the very first night.

"That won't do anything against the demon," Maison warns, as Gurlien checks the chamber and magazine.

"Obviously," Gurlien snips back. "I'm worried about what else is coming down the hallway."

Chloe's face is tight, but there's something approaching determination across her features.

"Want me to tie this around you?" Delina asks Maison, and he hesitates.

"Save it for two floors down," Gurlien replies, grim. "We'll need more power there."

"Power down there won't mean anything if we're dead up here," Delina shoots back.

"This is going to ruin them, I think," Chloe says, thoughtful, and they all glance back at her. "All these people, once they wake up, the ones that survive…they're not going to be able to recover from this."

"Good," Delina says, and the two of them share a brief, insane smile. "We ready?"

"Not terribly," Maison grumbles, still leaning against the wall, but he nods anyway.

"If the wight doesn't have a way out, we're gonna be screwed," Chloe warns, but she's already tracing the motions across the runes, fingertips swiping in the dust, where Delina can follow. "Just so everyone knows, this'll be loud."

And so Delina steps up to the box, and with the horror still in her heart, breaks the runes.

The moment her fingertips lift from the last one, death punches into her.

The mass murderer, almost immediately, slamming against her chest and leaving her gasping.

The woman bleeding from her eyes, a spare second later, as unforgiving as a wave in the sea, sending sparks behind her eyes.

And another, and another, until she's choking on it, coughing around it in her throat, clinging onto the rune box, as if it can support her body weight. Her fingertips dig into the metal, nails scratching and breaking, before a scream echoes down the hallway.

A scream and glass shards erupt outwards from the demon's cell, before she crashes through it, shoulder first, panting.

Maison shifts, so he's between Delina and her, though his knee sends a knife of pain up his entire leg.

Ambra stares at them, her chest heaving and eyes glowing, before her face splits into a wide grin and she rips the leads off her head, stomping on them.

"Stop panicking, half-demon," she spits out, and her voice is raw. "And get me out of here."

Fear so strong it's almost pain, Gurlien brushes by her, to the pre-teen wight's room.

"She's still here," Gurlien says, and the demon watches him like a beetle. "Guys, she didn't get out—"

Ambra closes her hand and jerks, and the glass shatters to the Wights cell, showering Gurlien with shards, and he flinches back, but none of them strike him.

It'd be a miracle if Delina didn't catch a split-second shield around him, fast and fluent.

Maison inhales at the casual display of power.

With nary a glance behind her, Ambra pushes past Gurlien, stepping among the glass and emerging with the pre-teen.

Stella's blinking, dazed, but upright. Her head's spinning so hard Delina can taste the dizziness, and her stomach roils.

"Here," Ambra says, then shoves her at Gurlien, who scrambles against the sudden weight to catch her. "Now let's go."

The wight blinks up at Gurlien, then over to the group, to Maison and Delina and Chloe, then opens her mouth and screams.

Screams, screeching, high pitched, before she vanishes, as sudden as anything else.

And all of the sudden, the lights slam off, and an alarm blares through the hallway, before getting flooded with red lights, strobing.

The demon recoils back, clapping her hands over her ears.

"Shit," Maison mumbles, but Chloe's already at the wall, sketching her runes, her hands glowing. "We're going loud."

"Yes, this is the definition of loud, thank you, Maison," Gurlien says. "Okay, she's out, we have an hour to go get your mom." He clicks on his stopwatch, pale.

Another scream ricochets down the hallway, piercing, and Delina grabs the death from the room nearest to her, pulling it to her, and it surges with power in her hands.

Like nothing she's ever felt before.

Ambra flinches back, her eyes wide, at that, before gaping in horror at Maison. Like he's to blame for letting Delina grasp the death, somehow.

"And…here." Remote, Chloe splits open the brick, revealing a staircase down, the red lights strobing.

"That's the wrong way," Ambra says, surging up to Chloe between one blink and the next. "We're underground, you need to go up, that's just to more traps."

"And we're here to rescue my mother," Maison says, staring at the staircase with trepidation. "We'll have a way out in an hour, first we get her."

"You're insane," the demon says, flat. "No human is worth the traps in here."

Maison squares his shoulders down at her, despite the pain in his knee, and Ambra has the temerity to roll her eyes, before they fall on Delina.

For a split second, hunger echoes through her, so sharp it's pain Delina can feel, before she shakes her head, and starts down the staircase.

"Jesus Christ," Chloe mumbles, and Delina tucks her shoulder underneath Maison's arm.

"You ready?" Delina asks, and he nods, and they follow the demon down, Chloe in front of them, Delina and Maison in the middle, and Gurlien in the back, still clutching the gun.