Page 61 of A Study of Blood and Ichor

How could you do this?

No.

It should have been you.

My grip on the sink tightened until the burning ache in my knuckles matched the pain in my chest. I braved a glance into the mirror, and my attention went to the V on my neck, the skin around it an irritated shade of pink.

What if he never came back for me? What if Ghen left him as nothing more than a mangled, bloody corpse? How was I going to get out of this?

Raucous laughter from outside made me lurch. I gripped the cool marble tighter as I continued to suck down breath after slow breath.

The door to the bathroom jerked open, and I jumped away. I raised my hands to attack, a hex sparking at my fingertips, half-expecting a demon, maybe even Ghen himself, to be the one barging through. But it was a human, a young woman who was just as painfully mortal as I was.

I recognized her as the same woman from earlier, the one Ilo had strung at his side to display proudly as his pet for the other ravenous demons in attendance. When she looked up and realized she wasn’t alone, she jerked and scrambled for the door handle.

“Wait, wait! I’m not going to hurt you.” I let my magic fall away and I reached for her.

The woman panted, but she stayed pressed against the door, cowering away from me. Her lips trembled, and her watery eyes seemed to plead with me through the blonde and bubblegum pink strands of her hair that had fallen out of her ponytail.

“Please, I can’t take it anymore. If you’re going to kill me, just do it. I’d rather die than be with him.” Her wobbly legs gave out, and she slumped to the floor, sobbing.

I knelt in front of her and gently placed my hands on her bruise-covered arms. Angry red marks from claws and teeth scarred across her neck. She looked so young, so frail. Sallow cheeks and haunted eyes. Skin and bones. A sunken girl. A shell of who she had once been.

A hollow sense of gratitude burrowed deep in my chest for my luck that Vain was not the cruel and malevolent beast Ilo was.

“I won’t kill you. I promise. I’m a witch. I can help you.”

A sliver of distrust passed over her face when I’d said the word witch. Many humans had preconceived notions about us. Even as we fought to protect our world from the dark, unholy monsters that slipped in through the rifts, our power scared them because they couldn’t understand it or where it came from. And now that I knew the truth myself—that our kind had been molded and formed from the very beings we fought—I couldn’t exactly blame them.

“What's your name?” I asked, keeping my voice low and soft.

Her chin trembled again. “Dru.”

“Dru,” I repeated. “I’m Ava. Take deep breaths for me, okay, Dru?”

Her chest heaved, each breath strained in between her choking sobs. “Please, you don’t know what it’s like. I’d rather die. I’d rather die.”

I rested my hands on her shoulders and let her breathe as a plan stirred in my head. If Vain wasn’t going to save me, then I would have to save myself. And I would save Dru.

“Listen to me, Dru. I’m going to get us out of here. But I need you to trust me. Can you do that?”

She furiously shook her head. “No, no, no. He’ll find me. He always finds me.” Tears welled in her eyes before breaking like a dam. They streamed down her cheeks as her jaw trembled. “I can’t go through that again. Not again. Pleasepleaseplease, no.”

“He won’t. He won’t.” I told her.

I reached down into my power, letting it swell within me as I let my hands hover in the air over Dru. My fingers felt clumsy as I controlled the magic and drew out a spell I hadn’t practiced in years. Illusion charms weren’t easy and required a skilled and steady hand to get just right, but I managed to manipulate the aura around Dru’s form, coaxing the spell around her until she became a mirage-like figure in front of me. When she moved, the air shimmered, but she remained mostly imperceptible, save for the sound of her still-heavy breathing. Then I repeated the same spell on myself until the two of us were nearly undetectable. I just had to hope it would be enough to fool the demons.

“We’re walking out of here together,” I said. “You and me.”

“I…I’m scared. There’re too many demons here. It’s im-im…it’s impossible.”

“Trust me. Everything is going to be fine.”

The air around Dru quivered as I assumed she nodded.

“Hold on to me.”

“Okay,” Dru croaked and latched onto my wrist as we stood.

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