Page 79 of Devoured
But Marion dropped her weapon and crossed the space between us in three quick steps. She pulled me into a fierce hug. I went rigid, expecting disgust or horror. Instead, she held me tighter.
“Good,” she whispered fiercely in my ear.“That bitch had it coming after everything she did to us. I’m glad it was you.”
When she pulled back, there were tears in her eyes along with something that looked like pride. She held my face in both hands and really looked at me.
“Are you okay? Really okay?”
“I don’t know,” I answered honestly.“I don’t know what I am anymore.” I looked at all of them more carefully, noticing details I’d missed. They were definitely thinner, their clothes hanging looser.“What about you? How long have we been down here? You all look like you’ve been through hell.”
Marion and Isaac glanced at each other.“Time moves strangely here,” Marion answered.“It feels like weeks, but it might have been days. We tried to keep track at first, but the darkness and the constant danger made it impossible.”
Isaac glanced at the Executioner through his broken glasses—one lens completely gone, the other cracked.“After this... thing took you, we ran out of the cafeteria but were attacked immediately. Those crawling creatures with waterlogged faces. One of them bit Sela! We had to hide.”
“We found what looked like Varnar’s office. That place was a nightmare even in reality, but here it looked cancer-ridden.” Marion shuddered.“Everything was twisted and rotting. We couldn’t stay there long without food or water.”
“So we went back to the cafeteria.” Sela shifted her weight off her injured leg.“Figured it was the last place those things would look for us. We’d already been there once.”
Isaac wiped sweat from his forehead.“We don’t know how long we stayed hidden there. Could have been days. At least it was quiet for a while. We found some food supplies, some water, and made these weapons from whatever we could break apart.”
“Then the sirens started.” Tobias’s eyes darted to the entrance again.“Same ones we’re hearing now. Everything changed. Creatures came from everywhere—not just the crawling ones. Things with surgical grins that laughed like children.”
Marion touched the fresh cut on her cheek.“We ran. Found these holes punched through walls—fresh ones with dust still falling. Figured something powerful made them.” She swallowed hard.“We didn’t know what we’d find, but we had to keep moving forward.”
I looked at their battered faces, the blood on their makeshift weapons, the way they stood despite everything they’d endured. Then my gaze fell on Alan’s skinned corpse.
“We’re still breathing,” I told them.“That’s more than most can say down here.”
The Executioner moved then, stepping closer to me. The others tensed, but he simply extended his hand. I took it without hesitation. His fingers closed around mine—gently, possessively.
Marion’s eyes widened at the gesture. “Zahra, what...?”
“He saved me,”I said simply. “Over and over. And now he’s mine.”
The declaration should have sounded insane. A broken woman claiming ownership of a nightmare creature in the depths of hell. But the Executioner’s grip tightened slightly, acknowledging the truth of it.
“We need to get out of here,”Isaac said urgently. “There has to be a way back to the surface. Some exit we haven’t found.”
“The tunnels are blocked now,”Tobias added, still eyeing the Executioner warily. “Whatever’s up there—it’s spreading down. We barely made it through.”
Sela had been studying the Executioner with that sharp intelligence of hers. “You appeared in the ritual chamber to bring souls down,”she said. “Can you take us back the same way?”
The Executioner’s helmet turned toward her, red eyes glowing through the slits. The silence stretched long enough that I wondered if he would answer at all.
“Yes,”he said finally, his voice grinding like stone on stone. “But it requires returning to the ritual chamber above.”
My blood turned to ice. The ritual chamber meant going back where it all started. And with the alarms blaring, the Judge and his creatures would know that would be the place we’d go to escape. It wasn’t good. Not for us—and not for the Executioner, who had betrayed his master by choosing me.
“They’ll destroy you,”I said quietly, turning to face him fully. “The Judge will punish you for helping us.”
He lifted his free hand to my face, his fingers impossibly gentle as they brushed my cheek. “I want you safe. That’s all that matters now.”
The others stared in shock at the tender gesture. This creature of nightmares cradling my face like I was something precious. Something worth preserving. Marion made a small sound of surprise. Isaac stepped back. Even Sela looked shaken by what she was witnessing.
“But what about you?”I pressed, covering his hand with both of mine. “What happens to you after?”
“Let me worry about the Judge.”His thumb traced the line of my jaw. “You deserve a chance at life. At freedom. At choice. Even if that choice takes you away from me.”
The weight of his words settled over me. He was offering to sacrifice himself so I could be free. So I could choose my own path—even if that path led me away from him.
