Sacrifice

by Jennifer Quintenz

  The visible Lilitu kept trying to draw Guardsmen away from the line, where they’d be easier targets for the cloaked to attack. But the soldiers refused to take the bait. As Gretchen threw knives at the enemy from her perch, Karayan and I called out directions to the soldiers any time a cloaked Lilitu came close enough to warrant it.

  It was a grueling fight, but bit-by-bit we started to turn the tide. Gretchen hit two of the visible Lilitu, wounding one badly enough to eliminate her from the fight, and killing the other instantly. Guard soldiers tagged another invisible demon, leaving us facing just three cloaked Lilitu.

  Around the time I started to feel a surge of hope, we made a critical mistake.

  Karayan and I saw an attack coming and shouted our directions at the same instant—but where she directed the soldiers to close ranks, I ordered an attack.

  Some men planted their feet, anticipating the others to form a solid line on either side of them. But others charged, confident their fellow soldiers were by their sides.

  The resulting chaos left the line vulnerable. Two cloaked Lilitu slipped through while four visible Lilitu engaged the scattered forces. Dad, seeing the carnage, ran toward the fray, unable to see the two cloaked Lilitu barreling toward him.

  “Dad, stop!” I leapt off the rickety wooden box and raced forward, intercepting the first of the cloaked Lilitu.

  We went down in a tangle of limbs. She pushed away from me, rolling to her feet—but my dagger had pierced her skin, just below her ribs. Her cloak unraveled, leaving her visible for all the Guardsmen to see.

  One of them shouted and turned on her. I didn’t wait to see what happened.

  Across the circle of Guardsmen, Dad dropped to his knees, clutching at his side. The cloaked Lilitu’s claws glistened in the darkness, slick with blood.

  “Dad—?” My feet moved of their own accord. As the Lilitu reached for Dad’s throat, I gripped two fistfuls of her hair and wrenched her away from him. The Lilitu screamed her rage, but I didn’t let go.

  She swiped for me, those razor-sharp claws coming within inches of my face. I moved as she thrashed in my grip, trying to stay behind her, limiting her ability to reach me. Dad stood shakily, drawing a sword out of the black canvas bag. He saw me struggling with the invisible enemy. He watched the fight with the intensity of a hunting hawk, then struck, lunging forward and spearing the demon sideways through the chest.

  Her cloak fell away as the scream died on her lips. She went heavy in my hands and I released her, letting her fall.

  “That’s it!” Karayan shouted. “Only one cloaked demon left!”

  Hale glanced around grimly. Final tally: 15 Guardsmen, 7 Lilitu. “Teams of two! Go!”

  The Guardsmen moved. It was like watching the inner workings of a well-maintained clock. The soldiers paired up wordlessly. Each team tracked one demon, focused on their prey, no longer worried about a sudden attack out of thin air.

  Karayan, Gretchen, Matt, and Hale took on the last of the cloaked demons.

  I ran to Dad. He still gripped his side, and when I pulled his hand free it came away bright with crimson blood.

  “Dad!”

  “I’m okay.” He pulled up the side of his shirt. “Just a flesh wound. Help Hale finish this.”

  I turned. Several of the visible Lilitu were fleeing for the dark paths out of the central cavern. If they could get the soldiers away from light, they’d have the advantage.

  “They’re leading you into darkness,” I shouted. If they heard me, the Guardsmen pursuing these Lilitu gave no sign. I pulled my attention back to the last cloaked Lilitu. Gretchen and Karayan had hemmed her back against one wall of the cavern. Hale was closing in on her. It would be over soon.

  But then, the lights failed—plunging us into darkness.

  My Lilitu eyes needed no time to adjust. If anything, the lack of artificial light casting all those deep shadows made it easier for me to see.

  “Strike now, Hale!” Karayan’s voice cut through the sudden silence. I turned in time to see Hale lunge forward. His body blocked the Lilitu, but I heard the sword hit its mark.

  “Braedyn?” Dad reached toward me, groping blindly in the perfect darkness.

  “Here, Dad.”

  “We need light,” he said, his voice hoarse with tension.

  “I’m on it.” I glanced around, conscious of the fact I hadn’t heard a pop or any sound to indicate mechanical failure. I glanced at the string of bulbs, now hanging dark against the wall. A strand across the room was swaying slightly. I zeroed in on it and saw the problem; someone had unplugged it from its power source.

  I raced forward, catching the free plug and reinserting it into the industrial outlet that powered this cavern. Light flooded the space once more. I had to clamp my eyes shut against the sudden brightness. When I blinked my eyes open once more, the clarity of the darkness had been replaced once more by the jarring light and shadow.

  But, for the Guardsmen, light meant life.

  I watched as the last Lilitu in the cavern were surrounded by soldiers. The men made quick work of the job, and when they withdrew, the demons joined the other lifeless bodies on the ground.

  I felt something inside me give way. It was over. It was finally over.

  Someone let out a ragged sob, but cut it short. The sound echoed hollowly in the chamber before falling away, leaving an oppressive silence behind. Matt embraced Gretchen fiercely; both had survived.

  Behind them, Lucas emerged from his hiding place at the entrance to the cavern. His eyes scanned the space. A desolate shock washed over his face. I turned and saw what he saw. Of our forces, less than a dozen living Guardsmen remained. Bodies covered the cavern floor, soldier and demon alike.

  Hale took the devastation in, then bowed his head. The others joined him, paying silent respect to the fallen. When he looked up, his expression was grim.

  “We need to move. Idris is still out there. It might be a slim chance, but we have to try and stop her.”

  “Weapons.” Dad barked the word crisply. As Hale wiped the ichor off his blade, other soldiers moved over the battlefield. They collected the irreplaceable swords and daggers of the Guard—weapons that the dead could no longer use. I turned back to Lucas, offering him my hand. He stepped forward gingerly, but he didn’t reach for me.

  “I can’t believe it.” His voice rasped hollowly; it sent a shiver down my spine. “The Guard—the Guard is basically gone. What are we going to do now?”

  “The only thing we can do. Rebuild.” I lowered my hand, feeling awkward. “They’ve done it before. We can do it again.” Glancing back at the group, I let out a long breath. “I’d better help. The faster we get out of here the better.”

  I moved forward, joining the others, gathering weapons. I tried not to look at the faces of the dead, but my eyes continued to pick out men I’d come to know.

  Jeremy, the artist who’d drawn a picture of Senoy before we’d known he was an angel.

  Marx, who’d just saved Cassie’s life—and not five feet away from him, Caleb.

  Chris, whom I’d practiced sparring with, who’d tried to preserve the last vestiges of Lucas’s innocence regardless of the fact that Lucas didn’t want him to.

  All these people had given their lives to protect a humanity unaware of the peril it was facing. I bit my lip, fighting against the surge of grief threatening to overwhelm me.

  With my hands full of weapons, I headed back to the nearest duffle bag.

  “No—Hale!” The force of Lucas’s panic pierced my thoughts. I looked up. Lucas raced forward. I followed his gaze—

  Seth tapped Hale on the shoulder. As Hale turned, Seth head-butted him, sending Hale staggering back, grasping for the hilt of his sheathed sword blindly. Seth slipped behind him, lips peeled back in a grimace of rage. Just as Hale drew his sword, Seth reached across Hale’s face with one hand and gripped the back of his head with the other—

  With one brutal motion, Seth twisted Hale’s head to the side. I hear
d a crack like a gunshot. Seth stepped back, releasing Hale.

  “Hale!” Weapons clattered from her hands as Karayan sprinted forward—

  Hale dropped like a ragdoll, dead the instant his neck had snapped. His sword clattered to the ground beside him.

  “God—oh, God!” I raced forward, but Dad caught my arm.

  “Braedyn, no!” he hissed.

  Lucas skidded to a stop, frozen with horror. Karayan dropped beside Hale. A guttural scream unlike anything I’d ever heard before tore itself out of her throat—a pure grief of unimaginable intensity. Her hands hovered over his face, as though she were afraid to touch him.

  “Hale?!” The desperate, hollow quality of her voice stabbed a fresh jolt of pain through my heart. She laid one hand to his cheek. His body was still under her touch. Karayan’s shoulders shook, but when she looked up at Seth I could see it was rage—not grief—that made her tremble.

  Seth ran. He grabbed Lucas, catching him round the neck and poising his free hand, claws extended, against Lucas’s carotid artery. Karayan stood slowly.

  “Easy!” Seth pressed his claws tighter to Lucas’s neck. Lucas took a sharp breath, his nostrils flaring. Seth glanced at Gretchen. “Keep her back, or your little brother dies.”

  Karayan took a step forward.

  “Karayan, no!” I ripped my arm out of Dad’s grasp and barreled for Karayan. Gretchen, seeing the same intention in Karayan’s eyes as I had, reached her first, gripping one arm tightly. Matt was two steps behind, her. He caught Karayan’s other arm.

  “Get your hands off of me.” Karayan never took her eyes off of Seth.

  “He has Lucas,” Gretchen hissed.

  I reached them two seconds later, skidding to a stop in front of Karayan, planting my hands against her shoulders. “Don’t, Karayan, please.”

  Karayan’s eyes shifted from Seth to my face.

  “It’s Lucas, Karayan.”

  Karayan’s gaze swiveled back to Seth. But she didn’t make a move to attack him. I turned to face Seth.

  “Let him go.”

  “Braedyn. Did you get my little present? I meant to finish wrapping her for you, but—well, we were interrupted.” Seth gave me an icy smile.

  “Please,” I whispered. “You’ve already won.”

  “I’m glad someone noticed.” His voice was rich with amusement. He edged toward the cavern’s entrance, dragging Lucas with him step by step. When he reached the edge of the cavern, he stopped. Then his eyes settled on my face. “I vaguely remember warning you to stay out of my way. What happens next is on you.”

  Before I had time to worry about what that might mean, Seth crashed his shoulder into the prop elevator car. The heavy metal cage swung to one side, revealing a dark shaft beneath it. Seth wheeled Lucas around, sending him careening into the pit.

  “Lucas!” I sprinted forward, not caring that Seth was escaping. I dropped to my knees at the edge of the shaft, peering over the side, trying to see past the still-swinging elevator car. The drop was a good 20 feet down. Lucas lay at the bottom, struggling to push himself to his hands and knees. He groaned and turned himself over, looking up. Relief flooded through me. He was alive.

  Gretchen and Matt dropped beside me a few moments later.

  “Lucas?!” Gretchen peered into the darkness of the shaft. Matt caught the swinging elevator shaft, bracing it with his hands, slowing it to a stop.

  “He’s okay,” I said.

  “I wouldn’t go that far,” Lucas groaned. But he was able to haul himself into a sitting position, even as he winced at the pain.

  “Seth,” Karayan growled.

  “We’ll get him.” Dad glanced at me, worried, then turned back to Karayan. “You stay here with Gretchen and Braedyn while they help Lucas. Keep an eye out for more Lilitu.”

  Karayan nodded slightly. I saw a muscle jump along her jaw line. But as Dad led the remaining Guardsmen after Seth, her eyes fell back to the ground. She sank down beside Hale, gripping his hand in silence.

  Dad paused beside us on his way out. “Braedyn, get Lucas and get home.” He shot a quick look around. “I don’t want you in here any longer than necessary.”

  “Seconded.” I caught Dad’s hand and gave it a brief squeeze.

  Matt stood beside Dad, turning back to Gretchen. “Gretch—?”

  “Go. Get that little bastard.” She gave him a tight smile. “Just be careful.”

  Matt nodded. Then he and Dad were gone, pounding up the entrance tunnel after Seth.

  My eye snagged on movement at the entrance to the tunnel. Cassie emerged, starring at the carnage beyond us.

  “Cassie, you shouldn’t be here.” I stood, worried. Cassie pulled her eyes off the bodies. She looked shaken to the core.

  “I heard a scream.”

  At that moment, we heard a loud, metallic clanking from the mouth of the mines. Everyone turned, creeped out.

  “Maybe we should get out of here,” Cassie whispered.

  “Uh, a little help here?” Lucas called from the bottom of the shaft.

  Cassie glanced at the shaft, alarmed. “Is that Lucas?”

  “Yeah.” I looked around. “We need rope. I think I saw some—there.” I pointed at another faux mining supplies display, which included a coil of thick rope. Cassie picked her way around several bodies to retrieve the rope. I turned my attention back to the shaft. “Hang on, Lucas,” I said. “We’re getting some rope.”

  “I don’t think I’m going to be able to climb up with this leg.”

  “No kidding.” Gretchen eyed the prop elevator car. It was suspended over the hole on a metal I-beam. “I’ve got an idea.” When Cassie returned with the rope, Gretchen loosed a long length from the coil and tossed the edge up and over the metal beam. I caught the other end and fed it into the hole. We had just enough rope for Lucas to tie a loop around his chest. Together, Gretchen, Cassie, and I hauled on the free end of the rope. We pulled Lucas up to the edge of the shaft, but the elevator made the opening too narrow for Lucas to fit through. I had to brace my shoulder on the edge of the car and push in order to buy Lucas enough room to crawl through.

  Lucas collapsed on the ground, rolling over onto his back. “I don’t ever want to come here again.”

  “How’s your leg?” I bent beside Lucas, examining his left leg gingerly. “Is it broken?”

  “Um, I don’t know.” He hoisted himself up to a sitting position, bending his injured leg slowly. He winced, letting out a low hiss of pain. “Could be just a bad sprain.”

  I closed my eyes, letting some of my tension release. If Seth had meant to kill Lucas, he’d failed. For one brief moment, I felt lucky. The feeling didn’t last.

  Seth had destroyed the Guard.

  Chapter 18

  “We need to get the weapons out of here.” Gretchen stood, rubbing her hands where the rope had chaffed her skin raw.

  “Right.” I started to rise to my feet.

  “Wait.” Lucas caught my hand, stopping me. I glanced back at Gretchen.

  Gretchen studied Lucas, then gave me a curt nod. She turned to Cassie. “Think you can give me a hand?”

  “Yeah. Yes, of course.” Cassie followed Gretchen onto the battlefield. Where Cassie couldn’t help but stare, transfixed, at the bodies, Gretchen seemed focused only on the duffle bags. Together, they each grabbed one strap of the first duffle and hefted it up off the ground, dragging the heavy load back to the mouth of the tunnel leading to the entrance.

  I eased back to the ground. Alone with Lucas, I found it harder than I expected to look at him. When I finally met his eyes, I saw him wince.

  “I know,” he whispered. “I know. But, Braedyn—” He shook his head, helpless with grief and frustration. “I thought she was you.”

  An ocean of complicated emotions roiled through my stomach. I couldn’t think of anything to say to this. All I could do was stare at him.

  “She was waiting in my room. She—I thought you’d changed your mind about the hotel—”
/>   “You thought some other Lilitu was me?” My voice grated in my ears. I pulled my hand out of his grip.

  Lucas closed his mouth, watching me with an agonized look on his face. “Okay. Okay, I get it. This isn’t the time.”

  “No.” I shook my hand, trying to clear my head enough to process what he was saying. “I want to know. How exactly did you mistake some strange demon for me? How could you let some other girl—?” I squeezed my eyes shut, fighting nausea.

  Lucas licked his lips, but he held my gaze, unflinching. “She came up behind me, put her hands over my mouth and whispered ‘shh’ in my ear. I thought it was you, warning me to be quiet so we weren’t overheard but—Braedyn, I never heard her voice. She never spoke, or I would have known—”

  “You couldn’t see?” I heard the fury in my voice, but couldn’t dial it down.

  “She’d pulled the blinds closed. The room was so dark. She could have been your twin, Braedyn. All I could make out was long brown hair—” The instant he said those words, realization struck. Lucas must have seen something in my expression. His brow furrowed. “What? What is it?”

  “Long brown hair—?” As I said the words, her face swam to the front of my mind. Elyia. The Lilitu who’d seemed to have something personal against me long before I gave her a reason to hate me.

  “Braedyn?” Lucas searched my face.

  I could only shake my head, unable to form the words I’d need to explain. She’d warned me she’d make me regret taking the memories out of her mind. I forced myself to meet Lucas’s gaze. Even now, the aftermath of his encounter was obvious. He looked sick and tired, like Royal had looked after Seth’s attack. But more than that, he was punishing himself for the mistake, swimming in a guilt only sharpened by my anger. But the truth was, if it weren’t for me, he’d never have made Elyia’s radar. I’d painted a target on Lucas when I’d broken into her dream.

  Lucas hesitated, afraid to touch me but unable to stop himself from reaching a hand toward me. I turned into his embrace, pulling him close, burying my face into the warmth of his chest. After one startled moment, Lucas’s arms closed around me, holding me. A thousand questions must be swimming through his mind, but he held his tongue.