Chapter 126: _ TAKE US WITH YOU!
FOUR DAYS LATER...
It’s been four days. Four days of enduring the Bellamy twins’ insolence and four days of endless sex. But most importantly, four days of an intense game of survival. Occasionally, demons smell or stumble on the treehouses and would either make attempts to take them from them or hurt all the wolves inside—courtesy of their lifelong hatred of the supernatural.
Knowing how many Moon Blessed they’ve lost to the hands of the demons, Heidi fought like hell, surprised even by her strength. She has no idea what beast of a wolf she has, and as much as she wants a personal moment of discussion with her, time seems never to be on their side here.
Right now, it’s a frenzy.
Heidi is strapping a knife to her thigh while the Alpha Boy, whom she now knows as Andre, snaps orders at the nineteen remaining Moon Blessed. They’re preparing to scout for food again, scraping together courage as if it were rations, because survival here has been reduced to scraps of dried roots, bitter fruits, and the occasional carcass they risk their necks to hunt down. Her stomach growls in protest. It’s a reminder that even her wolf can’t run forever on fumes.
She yanks her hair back into a knot, her fingers shaking out of impatience rather than fear. Four days in this nightmare, four days of fighting off demons like rabid dogs, four days of listening to the Bellamy twins’ arrogance, and now, at the edge of collapse, they’re setting out again for food.
Already, they’ve lost six kids during the food scouting. The group just left and never returned. Now, they are reduced to nineteen. It’s unbelievable that there were a hundred of them when they arrived here. So... so many lost souls.
The poor kids.
When it happens, Heidi is about to blink back the tears pooling in her eyes.
The world shudders.
A sound like the crack of the earth itself splits through the air and...
Boom!
A violent roar comes that shakes the branches of the treehouses and rattles Heidi’s bones. She jerks, eyes snapping up. In the distance, beyond the skeletal outline of the labyrinth’s twisted horizon and a massive ripple of light tears through the air. A portal, colossal and pulsing, unfolds like a burning wound in the fabric of reality.
For a heartbeat, the entire camp goes silent, marveling and shocked at the sight before them.
A few seconds later, laughter and sobs of joy reverberate. Nineteen voices erupt all at once, overlapping like a storm of birds breaking from a cage.
"It’s here!" someone shrieks.
Another cries, "We can go home!"
Two of the younger wolves collapse to their knees, clutching the earth as if they could kiss their way back through the soil.
Heidi’s chest seizes, then floods with relief so sharp it almost hurts. Finally. She can barely breathe from how fast her wolf is clawing at her ribcage, howling for freedom. That shimmering tear in the world is salvation, and for the first time in days, her mind sees beyond survival to something like hope. She can’t believe she’d ever be this excited to return to that hell called Duskwind.
However, even that hell is better than this one crawling with blood thirsty demons. Heidi sighs once again, then her gaze snags on Junie.
Oh, poor poor Junie...
Junie’s standing near the edge of the group, clutching the bandaged stump of her hand. It’s only half-regrown with her pale skin stretched awkwardly, veins still faint and bruised. The rune that had once glowed on the back of it is gone—stripped away with the missing flesh. Heidi’s stomach plunges.
The portal means freedom, yes. But for Junie? It’s a gamble. Fifty-fifty. Maybe she passes through. Maybe she doesn’t. Maybe she disintegrates in front of them all.
The thought twists Heidi’s insides. Junie’s laugh, Junie’s unshakable optimism, even in this hell—those things have kept Heidi sane. And now, watching the girl press her lips together so tightly her face pales, Heidi realizes Junie knows it too.
The frenzy sharpens. Some of the Moon Blessed don’t even look back; two sprint into the trees already, tearing toward the portal like animals set free. Their shadows whip between branches, disappearing into the labyrinth without a thought for the others.
"Idiots!" Andre’s roar cracks across the clearing. He stands at the center like a pillar, muscles tense, fury radiating from him in waves. "Get back here! Don’t be stupid!"
But those kids? Hell, they freaking they don’t stop. Desperation makes cowards of even the bravest wolves.
Andre swears viciously, snapping his head toward the rest. "Listen to me! Every damned thing in this labyrinth sees that portal! Do you hear me? Every monster, every demon, every scavenger is already running for it. You sprint ahead alone, you’ll be ripped to pieces before you ever touch the light!"
His words bubble through them, but frenzy is a tide, and frenzy doesn’t stop easily. The Moon Blessed are torn between two hungers: the hunger for survival and the hunger for freedom. Heidi sees it on their faces, the way their eyes flicker toward the portal like moths to a flame.
And then the demons—good demons appear.
The ones who’d sheltered them these past days spill out from their own crooked shelters. Heidi doesn’t anticipate what happens next.
"Take us with you!" one cries, falling to his knees. "Please! Don’t leave us here!"
"We sheltered you! We gave you water!" another howls, clutching at Andre’s arm. "You can’t abandon us now!"
The sight slams Heidi in the chest. The demons are pitiful, desperate, and nothing like the snarling beasts they’d fought here. They’re trembling with terror, voices cracking, as if they know this is their only chance to claw out of the labyrinth.
But Val sucks in her teeth. "No," she says flatly. "It won’t work."
Dozens of eyes swing to her.
"The school marked us," Val explains, rolling up her sleeve to show the faint rune carved into her forearm. It still glows. "This—this is the only thing that gives us passage. The portal is tied to us, the marked ones. Anyone else without it who tries..." He shakes his head. "They won’t make it through."
The demons wail louder, their grief heavy on Heidi’s heart. Even though they are still demons no matter how kind they are, they’ve somehow grown on her. Hell, if the Bellamy twins who are bloody jackasses could, who says kind and well-behaved demons wouldn’t?