Page 138 of Their Demon

“I promise.” She hugged him tightly, and he wrapped his arms around her, kissing the top of her head before letting Mavis give her a hug as well.

“Just in case I don’t see you before things start…” She gave her one more tight squeeze. “You got this.”

Lilly watched as Keir and Mavis walked away, both already scanning the crowds for Ida.

“Let’s go this way.” Nicholas pointed in the opposite direction.

We walked with Lilly between us, each of her hands wrapped securely in ours. No way were we risking losing her in this chaos.

The Mors Arena was the largest arena in Hell, more than capable of holding hundreds of thousands of spectators, and there were easily that many people here. An uneasy feeling settled in my stomach. He had a plan, a nasty one, but we were flying blind, with so many people watching.

Lilly’s hand clutched mine tighter as she anxiously searched the crowd, looking for Ida. Leave it to our girl to be worriedabout someone else when she was literally about to fight for her life.

“Do you see her yet?” she asked us nervously.

“I don’t,” my twin answered.

“I don’t either,” I spoke with disappointment. We’d walked all the way to the midpoint, where Keir and Mavis should have met us. “Maybe they already went up,” I said as I pointed to the stairs.

We walked up the stairs to the next floor, repeating what we’d done on the first: walking hand-in-hand, looking for any sign of Ida. When Mavis and Keir didn’t meet us at the midpoint on that floor, we went up another level.

By the sixth floor, we were getting antsy, worried we hadn’t run into Mavis or Keir or found Ida. Nicholas and I tried reaching them on our phones, but no one was answering.

“I think I see her!” Lilly yelled, wrenching her hand from mine to point somewhere in the crowd. “Come on.” She ran ahead of us, letting go of Nicholas’s hand too. “There she is!” we heard right before she disappeared into the crowd, even though we were right behind her.

“Do you see her?” I asked my twin, shoving people out of the way so I could follow our girl to wherever she’d run off.

“I don’t see her, Aiden.” Worry was etched into his voice, and my heart pounded loudly in my chest.

“Fuck!” I yelled. “Lilly!”

“Lilly!” Nicholas echoed.

We yelled as we worked our way through the crowd, looking frantically for her. Every second that passed without her inour sight was a second too long. Anything could happen here, especially since she was separated from us.

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”

It was as though the crowd was glued together, impossible to move through without extreme resistance. My twin and I pushed and pushed, but we both knew she was slipping away.

I had no idea how much time passed, and we were no closer to finding her.

“Aiden! Nicholas!” I froze as Keir’s voice reached us, my heart sinking as I came to the realization we had to tell him we had lost her. “Mavis kept looking on the top levels, but she insisted I find you before the trial.” His face morphed into confusion. “Where is Lillian?” He looked around for her, and when he didn’t find her, his face fell. “Where is she?”

“She thought she saw Ida,” I started.

“We were holding her hands, Keir,” said Nicholas.

“She got lost in the crowd. We tried following her.” I shook my head, guilt already eating through me.

He looked around desperately, panic creeping in. “No… No, no, please, no.”

Chapter 56

Lillian

I knew I’d fucked up the moment I let go of their hands, but I was sure I’d seen Ida. I was so fucking sure it was her. I just had to get to her and then reunite everyone before the trial started.

The twins were calling my name, following after me, but their voices were soon drowned out by the crowd. Unfortunately, I’d lost sight of Ida, so I turned around to find the twins, only to realize I’d lost them too. I tried working my way through the crowd, back to the safety of the twins, sure we would find Ida again.

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