Andra wasn’t sure what he understood, but he wasn’t letting her inside his mind so she could figure it out. He was cold and stiff beside her.
The band tightened around her throat, nestling close to her skin. No vision appeared, but she really didn’t need one to know what he was feeling. He was pissed.
“We’d better get moving.”
Andra yearned to explain herself to him, but there wasn’t time. “It’s not much farther.”
They moved the rest of the way carefully. Paul kept his eyes on the ceiling of rock above them, looking for more signs of danger.
The better part of that hour had passed by the time they neared a corner and Andra felt a wave of malicious intent sweep out over her. It stole the warmth from her body until her bones ached with cold. She stopped dead in her tracks, unable to take another step.
A deep groan from Paul told her he’d felt it, too. “This isn’t good.”
“Tell me about it.”
“No. I mean we can’t stay here long. It’ll kill us.”
Part of her didn’t mind the idea.
“That’s not you. That’s the fog talking. Ignore it. Think of something happy and get moving.”
Something happy. Tori’s face popped into her head. Her crooked smile showing off her two missing front teeth. The smell of her hair when they’d lain on the couch together and watched cartoons. The sound of her giggles when Andra would swing her around by her arms.
She would have been sixteen if she’d lived—too big to swing around anymore.
The empty duffel bag over her shoulder felt like it weighed a ton. It wasn’t big, but Paul had promised her it would be large enough to hold her bones.
“That’s not happy,” said Paul.
Andra tried to refocus her thoughts, but it wasn’t easy. She had way too much stuff dancing around in her brain for her to concentrate. “Let’s just get this over with.”
Paul drew his sword and they stepped out around the corner together. A metal cage about ten feet on each side sat in the far corner of the cavern. The floor was littered with trash, bones, and bits of fur. Inside the cage, Sibyl sat hugging her legs. Beside her was a pile of bones and the tattered remains of clothing. A pink nightgown. The color of the gown on the skeleton had faded out over time, and was covered in dust, but she knew it was pink because she recognized it. It had been Tori’s favorite—one she begged Andra to wash so she could wear it again every night.
Andra reached for Paul’s arm to steady herself. She could barely breathe. Seeing her sister’s body after all these years was more than she could stand. The grief nearly crushed her and ripped at her heart until she no longer cared whether she drew in her next breath. If death eased this pain, then she would welcome it. She would wrap herself around her sister and let it come take her.
“Stop that,” growled Paul. “You’re letting the fog in.”
At the sound of his voice, Sibyl lifted her head. Andra expected to see tears, but her blue eyes were dry and her face was calm. Only her voice gave away her disappointment. “You shouldn’t have come. My sister is going to kill us all now.”
Another Sibyl floated down from a ledge above them. Her black skirt billowed out as she settled to the ground. This Sibyl had black eyes and a vicious smile tilting her painted mouth. “I’m not going to kill all of you,” said the girl. “I need you, sister, and your pretty, shiny soul.”
Suddenly, things started to fall into place for Andra. All the small differences made sense. There were two of them. Andra had somehow ended up in this girl’s head when she went seeking out Sibyl. She’d found Sibyl when she’d been in her bed, but once all she had to connect her was the doll—the one with glassy black eyes—she’d somehow reached the other girl instead.
Paul stepped in front of her. “Who the hell are you?”
“Maura. Sibyl’s sister. I thought the resemblance was a dead giveaway.”
“Stay away from her,” warned Sibyl. “She’s dangerous.”
“Too late for that. You should have listened when you had the chance,” said Maura. She lifted her tiny hand and monsters flowed in like water, dribbling out of tunnels high up the walls. They landed like heavy raindrops or crawled down the cave walls, sticking like spiders.
Fear took a firm hold of Andra and locked her feet to the earth. There were too many of them. She and Paul were never going to live through this.
“No time for that,” said Paul. “Pull it together.” He grabbed her arm and dragged her toward the cage holding Sibyl. “Come on, Andra. I need you here with me.”
Right. Sibyl needed her, too.
Andra gave herself a mental slap and tried to think what she could do to save them. There was no way she could fight them all. What she really needed was to find a way to keep the monsters from hurting them.
Not knowing what else to do, Andra formed a bubble around them to hold back the slavering monsters. It took an enormous amount of power—more than she’d ever used before. Her nerve endings screamed at the force of that much energy traveling through her, but she managed to suffer through the pain.
Furry, clawed things bounced off of it as they charged, making it ripple like waves over a pond.
“That’ll work,” said Paul, pride ringing in his voice. “How long can you hold it?”
Already sweat started beading up on her skin from the effort. “Don’t know.”
“I’ll hurry.”
The strap of the bag over her shoulder disappeared. She couldn’t let herself become distracted by thinking about what that meant, so she didn’t. She heard the screech of metal bending too fast and a soft word of thanks from Sibyl.
The monsters pounded the shield, and Andra felt every one of the impacts like a sledgehammer blow to her brain. Sweat slid down her temples and her legs started to shake. Paul’s power flowed into her, but she used every bit of it for the shield as it came to her, leaving her none to strengthen herself. She felt hollowed out—a thin shell of brittle skin was all that was left of her, and that was threatening to crumble.
The dry rattle of bones filled her ears and she had to cover them and block out the sound. Paul was gathering up what was left of her sister. Poor, sweet Tori.
I’m sorry, baby.
Tears joined the sweat running down her face.
The shield faltered and one of the things with glowing green eyes broke through. “Paul!” she shouted, and lifted her hands to channel more power toward the breach. She wasn’t sure if the hand motion did any good, but it was worth a shot.
Paul’s sword came into her field of vision. It slashed through the air between her and the charging monster, lopping off one of the beast’s paws. The thing howled and black blood spewed over the rocks.
He finished it off with a quick series of slices that sent its head rolling away. He kicked the body as far as the shield would allow, where it twitched as the blood drained from it.
Andra re-formed the shield to get the thing away from all of them before the blood could burn them. She felt the luceria heat as she forced yet more power into her body. Sweat evaporated from her skin in small tendrils of steam. Her head throbbed in time with the crash of monsters against the shield.
She wasn’t going to be able to hold it much longer.
A small, cool hand slipped into hers. “You can do this,” Sibyl said, her child’s voice steady and trusting, as if she hadn’t spent the day locked in a cage with the remains of the sister Andra hadn’t been able to save.
“Time to go,” shouted Paul.
“Go where?” Andra gasped. They were surrounded. Only the bubble she’d built held the demons away. Already the monsters were covering it, scratching and clawing as they tried to find a way inside.
“How do you feel about flying?” asked Paul.
“It’s great if I’m inside a nice metal shell.”
“The way we came in is blocked. I’m not seeing any options here.”
Neither was Andra. Shit. She so didn’t want to do this. “Up it is. Hold on.”
Paul slid his hand around her nape, locking them together, freeing more of his power to flow into her. Sibyl clung to her waist and Andra held on to Paul’s shoulders.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” she muttered before she put all her focus into the task at hand.
Energy poured out of Paul, leaping to her command. She let the bubble shrink until they were nose to nose with hungry monsters. She had to close her eyes to block them out so she could concentrate, but she somehow figured out how to use a burst of strength to push the bubble off the ground. She didn’t make it far, and they kind of rolled around inside the bottom of the sphere, but it lifted, giving her the confidence that this might actually work.
She pushed harder, and one by one, the monsters started sliding off the smooth shield, making it lighter and easier to move. A few still clung to it with insectoid legs, but she couldn’t help that.
The ceiling was coming at them fast now, and she couldn’t figure out how to slow down.
“You’re going to have to break through,” said Paul.
“There’s too much rock overhead.”
“No,” said Sibyl. “We’re only a few feet down.”
A few feet. She could do that if that was what it took to get Sibyl and Paul to safety. To get her sister’s body into the empty grave next to her mother’s.
Andra looked up at the rock, searching for a weak spot. A single crevice ran the length of the room across one corner, so she aimed for that. She formed a wedge out of air, much like the shield bubble, hardened it with her mind, and shoved the thing into the crack.
Her body vibrated under the strain, and her eyes felt like they were going to evaporate under the heat pouring out of her. At some point she’d stopped sweating, or maybe it was just drying faster than her body could form it. Whatever the case, she figured she had another few seconds before she passed out completely and they all landed in the writhing mass of teeth and claws below.
She was not going to let it end like that.
White spots formed in her vision, making it hard to see, but she could feel Paul’s breath at her ear as he spoke to her. “You’re doing great. Just a little more.”
He was pushing energy into her now, helping her as much as he could. She gathered it, holding on to it until the pressure was too much for her to take. She could hardly see now, just barely enough to make out the spot where she’d shoved the wedge.
Andra let loose, hammering that spot with the force of a battering ram. Rocks rained down on them, and beneath the rumble of stone, she could hear the painful screams of the monsters below as they were crushed. The bubble held, protecting them from the big chunks, but grains of sand started making it through. The shield was getting weaker, and it wasn’t going to hold for much longer.
“One more time,” panted Paul. He sounded winded.
She couldn’t see him now. She couldn’t see anything. She let instinct guide her as she gathered her strength and hammered at the wedge again. Another fall of rock cascaded down. This time chunks the size of gravel were making it through.