Page 94 of Katya and the Young God

So he passes the dog test. Not that Katya has seen Stepan actually reject anyone, but Stepan has probably not encountered someone so inhuman as the Archdemon before.

“Unless I see the runes on the forest ground, I can’t tell you for sure how far I can get in, but that one,” he jabs his finger at the one surrounding the cage, “is definitely put in place for demons.” His red eyes flicker to Katya. “Did they know I was coming?”

“One of the early organizers was a half-demon, it was probably put in place for him,” Pieter says, and his voice is soft. “They killed him.”

There’s a wrinkle of distaste on Not-Thomas’s face. “They really thought he’d be the main threat here, didn’t they?” He says, before he straightens, pointing at the spot well outside the perimeter, in the trees. “I can guarantee getting you here, maybe closer, but the rune might stop me from entering entirely.” Inside the initial proximity alarms set up along the road, from the back where there are less guards, but there’s also less entrances.

And that’s not what Katya wants to hear, but no battle plan survives first contact, so she just nods. “Even that would be good.”

Not-Thomas evaluates Pieter again, with his narrowed eyes that are more appraising than suspicious. “And you teleported out?”

Pieter puts a hand on Stepan’s collar, twists it, showing a flash of the embroidered runes. “I had an anchor here. Didn’t think I would live.”

“You’re lucky you did.” Not-Thomas, again, looks to Katya. “If I can’t get you inside, I will wait for you as close as I can, for a safe getaway.”

“Will you be warm enough? Waiting?” Katya asks, before both men give her disbelieving looks. “Fine, it’s cold here, I’m just being courteous.”

With an absent-minded shake of his head, Not-Thomas bends close to the blueprints. “What are they even trying to keep here?” He asks, more of a murmur than anything else, before his eyes look to Katya’s, sharp. “What are you going in to get?”

“A child,” she answers, simply, and even though he is clearly waiting for her to elaborate, she doesn’t. “A child who is being tortured and held against her will.”

His eyes sweep over her again, taking note of her gloved hands, her weaponry, her stance.

“No one ever suggested you were unjust,” he says, and Katya’s gonna take that as if he is complimenting her. He holds out both hands, one to her, one to Pieter. “Let’s go.”

* * *

There’sthe familiar push pull of something behind her stomach, before they’re deeper in the forest, trees so thick that Katya can’t see the moon.

Pieter stumbles the moment the Archdemon releases them, before he stabilizes against a tree, breathing hard.

“That’s...different,” he says, and Katya doesn’t even want to start thinking about differences in what causes teleportation. On a human level it’s mostly the same, some slight differences in sensations.

Not-Thomas just grins at him, and it’s not the soft grin he reserves for Katya’s friend Miri. “Get powerful again, we’ll compare notes.”

The light is dim enough that Pieter’s face is in shadow as he straightens, but he doesn’t give a retort, and instead just looks away.

There’s a single source of light, in a well disguised building. Long serrated metal walls, the sort that rust in a few months, reach towards the sky, giving a mottled appearance, helping it blend in with the dark pines.

There’s a single door, padlocked, the chain bright and shiny new. Will take her less than a minute to pick, if she’s uninterrupted.

Dirty snow still rests in patches, where the sun didn’t reach during the day, another crunchy level of sound to avoid, beyond the muddy leaves and sticks. If they had ears outside, they’d be sitting ducks.

But...

Katya feels, almost more than hears, a buzzing noise, at the back of her throat. Like under her skin, crawling with sensation.

She swings around to look at Pieter, and he’s observing her. “You hear it too, even out here,” he says, a hand touching the small of her back. He’s there.

She manages a nod, and after what happened, after all that she went through, after she failed the first time...the noise prickles at her eyes. Selene is in there, and all Katya has to do is figure out a way in.

The hand on the small of her back turns gentle, as he spreads his hand. Obvious physical support.

After a few seconds of staring at the building, of seeing things she can’t, Not-Thomas shakes his head. “I can’t go in there,” he says, a fission of stress in his normally monotonous voice. “I can knock out the power and their phone lines from out here.”

“That’d be good,” Pieter all but interrupts, dropping his hand and straightening. And just like that, he’s the figure from her nightmares, the thing that kept her up for over a year.

But this time she’s pointing the nightmare at someone else.

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