Page 105 of Lust

“You said that she’s planning on torturing everyone,” I say in a panicked voice. “What exactly is she going to do? My friends are up there.”

Hades doesn’t answer me as he strides forcefully past me toward the lounge door.

“We don't know,” Twila replies, her voice urgent as we all sprint after Hades, our steps struggling to match his long strides. “We do know she’s so sick of the contestants that she’s been planning this for a long time.”

“She’s been sending nasty letters to Rowena, too!”

Twila nods. “We know.”

As we tumble out of the lounge, the demon I stabbed earlier lunges at us. I knew I should have chopped his head off. Dade shields me protectively, but it doesn’t matter. Free from his shackles, Hades power has returned. He points at the demon and light emanates from his fingertip, hitting the demon and reducing it to a splatter of green goo that coats the gray walls.

My stomach churns uncomfortably as we step over the sticky mess on the floor. I hold tightly onto Dade's hand as we race down the corridor, following Hades and Twila. My mind is swirling with a multitude of questions, making it challenging to decide which to ask first. I settle on the most immediate one: "How come you can run now? Your leg…"

"Hades performed the same demon magic on me as he did on you. It healed me," Dade explains as we run.

I process this information, my confusion deepening. "But how? He was still manacled to the wall when I passed out. I didn't unlock them."

"He just needed enough knives pulled from his body to gather his strength," Dade says, his voice tense with urgency, "and then you to pull the nail holding his hand to the wall so he could point. After that, it was only a matter of blasting through all our manacles and removing what was left of the knives."

I goggle at the retreating form of Hades. Naked from the waist up, I get a good look at his back, which is perfectly scar free. I wonder if I could bottle Hell magic and sell it. I’d make a fortune.

“What’s he going to do with Anthura when we get up there?”

Dade stops and looks at me. “Anthura? Nothing. Why?”

I narrow my eyes, feeling confused. I gape at him. “Because of everything she’s done. The letters, the murders… The fact that she’s going to torture everyone tonight? Need I go on?”

“Quinn. It wasn’t Anthura that did all that. It was Noémi. Noémi kidnapped all of us and had us manacled to the wall.”

"What?" I gasp in shock. “No. It can’t be.”

"Come on," he urges, "we don't want to lose Hades down here. He's our only way out."

Dade takes my hand, and together, we race down the corridor to catch up with Hades and Twila at the elevator.

“That’s not possible.” I heave out a breath. “Noémi can’t have done all that. The charge that brought the Earthery down with us in it was planted when we were already inside.”

“So Noémi told us.”

I shake my head, struggling to understand. “No. I found the letters to Rowena in Anthura’s drawer.”

Hades turn to me as the elevator doors open. “They were given to her by one of the demons down here. She has been trying to prove that Noémi was out to sabotage the games from the very moment we arrived. She did try to warn me on the first day, but I didn’t pay her any heed.” We step into the elevator. “I’ve learned a lot from being chained up in the demon lounge. Not every demon is on Noémi’s side. Some risked their lives to help Anthura, but it wasn’t enough.”

My mind is reeling. “If Anthura was given letters by a demon, why didn’t that demon tell her about you being locked up in the lounge?”

Hades shrugs. “I don’t know. Maybe he was too scared? I do know that the demon never came back. I’m guessing Noémi put him out of action when she found out he was a traitor.”

The elevator doors open. The entertainment level is strangely quiet. A shiver runs down my spine. If we’re too late, I’ll never forgive myself. Then I realize it’s quiet because all the contestants are in the Earthery and everyone else is upstairs watching the ball from the restaurant.

I shake my head in disbelief. "I started getting those letters in Purgatory! And what about Michael and Lucia?"

Hades turns to me, placing his finger against his lips. "We need to go in with the element of surprise. I don't have all the answers, but I think she's in this with one of the contestants."

"That doesn't make sense," I argue. "She didn't even know any of the contestants before we came down here."

Hades raises an eyebrow. "Didn't she?"

Suddenly, Noémi's cryptic warning to me weeks ago resurfaces in my memory: "Trust no one." She knew. Even back then, she had an accomplice.

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