Chapter 28
Twenty-Eight
HAVEN
Jerking awake, the first thing that registers is the cold, followed by the wet. The smell comes next and I gag, rolling to my side just in time to retch, emptying the contents of my stomach onto the hard wet ground beneath me.
The remnants of bile burn my esophagus and nasal passage as, with shaky arms, I push myself up to a seated position. At first I think I’m blind, but then my vision adjusts, catching faint traces of light, and I realize it’s not my eyes, it’s just dark.
Fear grips my heart and squeezes.
Where am I? What happened?
In a rush, it all comes back to me, and a sob shreds my throat.
Kendra. Becks.
Even in the dark I can see Kendra’s lifeless eyes as she stares unseeing up at the sky, one side of her jaw and throat ripped away by the claws that appeared on Tate’s hand.
No. Not Tate. Not anymore.
The demon.
I squeeze my eyes shut, but it doesn’t stop that moment from replaying in my mind over and over again: the demon blasting Becks with some sort of dark power, like a geyser of black smoke or mist; him sailing through the air; Kendra screaming; that monster turning toward her and slashing at her.
The shock in her eyes as she grabbed at her throat, trying to stop the blood from spilling from the wound before she dropped to the ground.
And then the fear in her eyes as she lay in my arms, dying.
Shaking my head, I try to dislodge those final moments, but all I manage to do is change the image to Becks: blood leaks from his mouth as he staggered toward me and the blast he took from behind that sent him sailing forward; his prone figure as it lay on the ground, unmoving.
I’d tried to get to him, to see if he was even still alive, but after getting to my feet, the demon had returned and struck me on the back of the head.
Everything had gone dark, and then I’d woken up here.
What if he’s dead? What if he’s gone too?
A black hole of grief opens up inside of me, threatening to swallow me whole. But I can’t let it. I have to get out of here . . . wherever “here” is.
I struggle to my feet, my limbs numb from cold and wetness.
The shape of the space around me appears as my vision acclimates to the dark.
It’s a tight space, with curved brick walls that form a tunnel.
The ground has an inch of standing water, which is what I was lying in, and is the reason I’m soaked.
There’s a wall behind me, so there’s only one way to go. I try to move, but my leg snaps back and I go down hard, splashing into the freezing water. Pain blooms at my ankle. I grab at it and hit metal, realizing there’s a manacle locked around it. A chain trails from it to the wall behind me.
No.
My body starts buzzing with fear and panic. I take a deep breath to try to calm myself, only to gag again on the stench of what I’m starting to realize is sewage.
I must be in a sewer somewhere.
Underground. Alone. Trapped.
Shivering, I back up against the wall, using it to lean on. I wrap my arms around myself, trying to stay warm.
Someone will come for me.
But who?
Becks may be dead. My parents and Locklyn and Talon are in the creature world. If Cassian didn’t make it through the portal, they may be trapped there, not having any idea what happened to me or why I didn’t follow them.
Who is going to come for me?
I can’t just wait for someone to save me. I have to save myself. Which means keeping my wits about me. Otherwise, I’m dead.