Page 168 of The Girl Who Inherits the Dead

Delina just stares over at the room, exhaustion rendering her unable to react.

“Mom, we got you,” Maison mumbles. “We got you, we’re getting you out, everything’s okay.”

Ambra eyes them, and Delina tears her glance away from Maison to watch her.

“That was two out of five,” Ambra says, her voice wrecked. “Your team killed two out of five.”

“So three people out there can still control you?” Gurlien asks, and he’s shaking, despite the gun still outstretched.

She nods, her eyes wide.

Delina should get up, should interfere, but the very idea of standing is so beyond her.

They did it. They actually did it.

They actually freed his mom. His mother is alive, despite the blood on her front.

Maison’s knee still hurts, but it’s almost beyond them now. Delina’s hands ache, a headache brews behind her eyes, but they did it.

They actually did it.

“How much time do we have, Gurlien?” Chloe asks, voice hushed. It’s so silent there, with just Ambra’s ragged breathing and the buzz of the overhead lights.

The remaining death clogs up Delina’s nose, like it was waiting for her to notice.

“Four minutes,” Gurlien says, tucking the gun back away and staring at his watch, a little dumb founded. “Four minutes, then we get a rescue.”

Ambra rockets back up to her feet, and, almost instinctively Delina tries to stand, but the demon stares, a bit too intensely, at Gurlien.

“Rescue by who?” she asks, voice tilting downwards, almost in a warning.

Maison stirs, lifting his head. There are streaks of tears down his face.

The silence is fraught, now, and Gurlien gapes at all of them, like he’s asking for help in it.

“The Wights,” Chloe answers for him, still sitting on the ground, and Ambra slates her eyes over to her, evaluating. “That was the deal, we rescue the girl—”

“—Stella, yes, her,” Ambra interrupts, impatiently. “She cried a lot.”

“—and then they’d break us out,” Gurlien finishes, rocking back on his heels, away from the conversation, like he’s grasping for straws. “You helped, I’m sure they’ll help you, we’ll tell them.”

The demon’s glowing eyes narrow again. “There are three people still out there who can control this,” she says, tugging at the leash around her neck again, and even though it’s her own hands, Delina gets a hint of pain, sharp among all the death in the room. “Three more. The Wights won’t help me, not with three still out there.”

Maison pulls away from his mother, his face grim, and even with everything else, even with the pain in his knee, he grasps magic in his hands. Even after all the fighting, he’s still ready.

Ambra twitches, then grabs at the leash, and there’s some split-second decision in her eyes, a split-second of warning, before she snakes her hand out, grabbing Gurlien by the collar of his jacket, and disappears.

Taking him with her.

Chloe gasps, the air so exhausted it’s almost a squeak. “Where…”

And then, the entire building above them opens up, and the Wight strides in, fury along every line of her body.

Maison pulls his mother up to standing, then reaches down and extends a hand to Delina, helping her up.

The rescue is here, and now they can leave.

THE END

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