They were doing well when their group was suddenly attacked from behind as several trolls burst through the back wall.
Jack cursed. He’d forgotten the trolls’ inordinate strength to crush rock. “Sam! Ted! Cover the back!” The trolls kept ad-vancing, forcing the team to make a tighter circle. “We’ve got to surprise them when they come out, back to the wall!” Jack cried.
Sam and Ted pushed hard, turning their blades sideways.
They beat the trolls to the ground, pushing them to the side as the six of them moved back toward the wall. The smell of death and blood filled the air. They were fighting well, but Jack knew the trolls had more in store. He found his answer when he looked up and saw the trolls falling into the cavern from a hole they’d made in the ceiling.
“Watch out!” he warned as a dozen of them crashed onto the team, forcing Sam and Ted to the ground, knocking Dehua off balance, and striking Mahrus in the head.
The trolls rained down and inserted themselves between the companions, driving them apart. Jack and Schuyler fought back-to-back and lost sight of the others. “Jack, there’s too many of them. There’s no way we’re going to fight our way out of here. They can just keep sending more of them,” Schuyler said. “We’ve got to f
ind Deming and get out.”
“Okay,” he said, slashing at a troll’s torso. “Let’s go.”
“No. You need to stay and fight; keep them off the rest of the team. I’ll find her and bring her back.”
Jack turned to look at her. It was what he feared most—and she was suggesting it. “No! I can’t let you go alone.”
There was a noise from the depths of the dungeon: a dark low growl that sent shivers up Schuyler’s spine.
“What is that?”
“It’s a Hellhound….” Jack said, paling slightly. “Unleashed from the ninth circle.”
“Then they’ll need you down here. I’ll be quick. I promise.” There was no time for good-byes. Schuyler weaved through the pack, leaving Jack behind.
“Over here!” she heard him call from behind her. He was drawing the trolls to his side to cover her escape.
Schuyler followed the trolls’ slimy trail through the dungeon, guessing correctly that it would lead her to the exit, and she found a winding stair that led upward. That had to be it.
She took the steps three at a time, running up to the tower.
She could hear the sounds of battle below, and the roar of Abbadon unleashed—Jack had transformed into his true shape.
There were several landings on the way up, and Schuyler tried a few doors. She opened the first one to find a skeleton hanging from a noose. She stifled a scream. Bluebeard’s castle, she remembered. The second contained a coffin. The third…
Schuyler did not open the third. There were more, seven in all, and the final one was on the highest landing.
The door was painted red to indicate the Harvest Bride.
The newest bride, sacrificed on the eve of Lammas, to bear the child of the demon.
Schuyler said the words that unlocked it. The door flew open, and she ran inside the room.
“Deming! We’re here!”
But the room was empty. Deming had already been taken to the Harvest Bonding.
FORTY-FOUR
Runaway Train
“This is the end of the line.” Kingsley stepped from the train as the subway doors opened in front of them. Mimi and Oliver followed him to the platform. Mimi noticed it was the same one they had taken when they’d first journeyed to Tartarus.
“What now?” Oliver asked, peering around the empty station. “It looks like the tracks loop back into the city.”
“Exactly. Hell’s a closed circuit. None of its paths lead to the surface.” Kingsley explained that they would have to find their way out of the tunnel and locate the above-ground train, which followed the only path that led out of Hell.