A tearing, ripping sensation pulled at her back. Prax’s dormant muscles spasmed. They grew under her skin, then shrank, then grew again. Every time, they seemed to be just a little less attached. Her natural muscles strained as they pulled against each other.
All the while, Shalise screamed. Like the rest of her body, her brain felt like it was being torn apart.
Prax’s screams faded in and out of the back of her mind. Unlike her, he needed no air to continue his screams. His vocal chords weren’t wearing and tearing from the stress. His screams came in a constant tone.
Shalise couldn’t say how long it lasted. She was fairly certain that her consciousness lapsed more than once, only to be brought back by the crescendo of pain.
It ended with a sudden thud and a hot, wet, and sticky sensation against her chest.
Shalise slumped forward. The ground was quickly approaching.
She stopped inches away as a pair of arms caught her and pulled her into a tight embrace.
“It’s alright,” Lynn’s voice came faint and distant. “Shal, you’re okay. It worked.”
Shalise blinked twice, trying to clear her mind of the lingering pain. She was pressed tight against Lynn’s body, her head resting on the older woman’s shoulder.
Behind her back, Prax–red skin, horns, bulking body and all–lay face down on the ground.
Eva stood over him, nudging him slightly with her foot while Zoe stood to the side with her dagger out. When Eva had reentered the room, Shalise couldn’t say. She had no idea how long that ritual had lasted. Her muscles screamed at her as if she had been running three marathons in a row, but it had only felt like a moment or two.
A splattering of red and black blood lay about between Shalise and Prax.
Seeing Prax, Shalise’s eyes felt heavy. She tried to keep them open. She wanted to stay awake.
After two more blinks, she found it too difficult to lift them again.
“We’ll let her rest for a few hours,” Lynn’s voice came, distant and quiet. “Then we can return.”
“Fine with me,” Eva said from even farther away. “Keep watching her and don’t worry. If any of the enigmas attack, I’ll deal with them.” A certain violence entered Eva’s voice, one that Shalise couldn’t recall hearing before. “I hope more of the enigmas attack.”
There was a sound not dissimilar to the cracking of knuckles.
“I could use a little cathartic release at the moment.”
Her voice trailed off into a deep silence as Shalise lost consciousness.
— — —
“It’s time.”
Nel jumped at Ylva’s words. She had been concentrating.
Sawyer was on the move. At least, she assumed that Sawyer was on the move.
It was just her luck that he would have noticed that his augur shield wasn’t working. After preparing the salt for Eva, she had immediately returned to watching him.
He had been in the middle of surgery on the little girl when Nel got to her altar. While the girl had torn off the violet-colored organ attached to his hand, there were still traces of it left. Veins, purpler than they should be on a person, bulged from his skin.
He didn’t seem to pay it much mind, choosing to focus on the surgery. In just a single half hour, he had done something that caused everything to go dark.
Likely by repairing whatever he had done with Nel’s eyes.
But all was not lost. After a few minutes of experimentation, Nel found them again. She couldn’t actually see them–anything within a few mile radius just vanished from her sight. But she could monitor that blotch of darkness. The edges of it moved around. Not much, it presumably moved as the little girl moved.
Still, it allowed Nel to track their general movements, if not their exact position.
Five days after Sawyer had repaired the girl, they had started moving north. Not quickly. They made frequent stops in areas that held tiny towns. Perhaps ones that were just large enough to have a motel or some other hostel.
After three days of travel, they had crossed the Nevada border into southern Idaho.
Nel had a feeling that she knew their final destination, even if they weren’t heading towards Brakket Academy in a straight line.
She had been hoping that Eva would be up to enact their revenge on Sawyer sometime before Ylva closed off her domain, but that didn’t seem to be all that likely anymore.
Nel glanced up at Lady Ylva and gave her a resigned nod.
“Shall I stay here? Or do you need me somewhere specific?”
Ylva stared. She didn’t blink or tilt her head to either side, she just stared in silence.
Anyone else might have missed it, but Nel knew her mannerisms well enough after a year and a half of being constantly in her presence.
Lady Ylva was confused.
“You wish to stay?”
Ice cold fear gripped Nel’s heart. This was it. She had allowed herself to grow complacent–comfortable even–as Lady Ylva’s aide.
Now she was being thrown away. Dismissed.
Nel could feel her breath quickening.
No. Not killed. Sister Cross had tried to kill her. Discretely, true, but the evidence was plain to see from her position.
