Chapter Thirteen #2
Reyes pulled two vials from somewhere in his cloak. Solana hoped there were a few in every pocket. “Quick and quiet,” he said and handed her one. “Inject it deep enough into any part of them, and it should easily subdue them.”
“How deep is deep enough?”
Reyes gave her a look. “Shove it in as far as you can,” was all he said before his fingers were digging underneath the panel and the door was lifting and the total darkness underneath them was on display.
Solana sucked in a deep breath and tried to calm her racing heart.
She could barely hear anything over the pulse in her ears, but she didn’t need to hear them to know they were near.
Her dagger was giving more than enough warning.
It wouldn’t surprise her to find burns on her hip at the end of all this.
Reyes descended first, his steps smooth and soundless.
Solana followed carefully until the dark swallowed her as well, and then Reyes turned to face her, pointing behind him.
The opening above provided enough light for Solana to see that the narrow space beyond the stairs was empty.
To the right were a couple of sleeping mats pressed against a stone wall.
To the left, the space opened up far enough that the light couldn’t touch it.
The shadows shifted. Reyes saw it and paused, one foot on the ground and one foot on the steps. Solana was still solidly on the stairs and felt more exposed than ever.
They should have run. They should have never come down there. Solana reached for Reyes, ready to tug him out of there with her when the shadows pounced with a screech.
It punched into her chest and stole her breath.
There were glossy eyes and wicked teeth and then Solana’s head hit the wall and all she saw were blotches of black.
Her arms shot out and pushed against the muki, keeping its teeth from ripping her throat out.
It was so small in her hands, and slippery, vicious desperation limning every lunge.
She felt its claws rip into her flesh and screamed. It would tear her to ribbons given the chance. Solana would die down here, in a dank and dark cellar, by the hands of terrifying tiny muki.
“The vial!” Reyes screamed from nearby. She could hear him grappling with his own demon, grunting and cursing as teeth snapped in the air.
Solana’s eyes landed on the small vial an arm’s breadth away.
Her arms shook as she held the muki as far from her as possible.
She would have to let go and duck at the same time and hope that the momentum would send the muki into the wall.
If it didn’t, she would die. If she couldn’t reach the vial, she would reach for her dagger, consequences be damned.
Solana refused to give herself even one moment to hesitate before she was ducking and reaching, the tips of her fingers brushing against the glass until it rolled into her grip.
Between one breath and the next, she whipped around, hands out and the vial extended between them.
It caught the muki in the throat, the otherworldly blue glow disappearing as Solana pressed the opposite end.
It snapped at the air like a rabid animal.
Foam flew from its lipless mouth, and then it simply stopped.
Chest heaving, Solana pushed the muki to the side and rolled out from underneath it, onto her hands and knees.
She crawled over to Reyes, who was sprawled on the base of the stairs, and tugged at the hem of his cloak.
The muki he had been fighting was pressed against the wall, its back to her, hands tangled in the rope around its neck.
Its eyes were darting around the room, opened so wide that she thought they might pop right out of its head.
“Reyes,” she whispered. “Are you alive?”
He pushed up onto his elbows. “I am,” he said between breaths. “Disappointed?”
But Solana couldn’t tear her eyes off the small muki that was twitching sporadically, as if fighting to stay awake. Like a child might fight sleep. “The elixir, it’s not—”
The door above creaked open at the same time a glacial grip wrapped around her ankle and yanked.
Reyes caught her before her chin could slam into the stone floor and pulled her between his legs.
He kicked out and Solana heard a horrific squelch.
The muki that she had fought was wriggling closer, its movements jerky and horrifying.
“Isabella, no!” she heard from the top of the stairs.
“Command them, Solana! Now!” Reyes’s voice rang out over her head.
His arms were wrapped around her, shielding her body from the muki, giving her the chance to sink into herself and dig past the terror and panic to the core of her that recognized these creatures, that shared in their suffering.
Time slowed, and she felt for that tether.
Sighed when she found it coiled tightly beneath her fear.
She let everything go, let it unfurl and unspool and grounded herself in the knowledge of what she had to do. What she could do. Though it should feel unnatural, nothing had ever felt so easy.
“Stop,” she said, the word a whisper of breath. A stroke of thought. “Stay where you are.”
Immediately, the clawed hands digging into stone ceased. The room fell into an unnerving silence. Reyes’s heat radiated at her back, leashing her to him as she felt the cool, slippery pull of the dark. She had commanded it, but it recognized her power and whispered back.
?akapana.
A tingle across her scalp. A hand on her neck. A caress at her ear.