Page 101 of Monsters in Love

Golden Gods preserve her.

Abandoning any attempt at stealth, she broke into a half run. “Emmi!”

“Belle!” Her sister, who’d stood so bravely before the bishop and his guards, sounded terrified. “Run! They’re here. Run!”

To the pit of darkness with that.

Isabelle struck her flint against the wall and a hail of sparks flashed in the dark. Her torch sputtered to life, and she saw that she’d made it to the tunnel opening. She ran inside—directly toward her sister’s voice.

Her feet skidded on dirt and debris and pale objects. She rounded a corner, and there was Emmi, crouched on the ground in a niche where two of the tunnel’s supporting arches curved upward to join at the crest of the ceiling. Her sister’s eyes were saucers, her cheeks scuffed with dirt.

And she was not alone.

Hulking shadows circled her.

The demons were huge. Massive shapes with horns, hunched beneath some kind of cloak.

“Get back!” She swung the torch at them. “Begone!”

They hissed and scuttled into the shadows. Their bodies ducked and wove around each other, so rapidly and in such great a number that it was as if the very darkness boiled around her.

Claws rattling and teeth gleaming in the dark. This close, the scratching was overwhelmed by a new sound. The slap of leather, as if a row of leather work aprons had been left outside in a storm. Flapping against themselves as the wind tossed and twisted them on the clothing line.

Throat tight with fear, she forced her way to her sister.

Placing herself between the creatures and Emmi, she faced the darkness. She kept the torch high, and crouched as low as she dared. “Emmi,” she said. “Are you hurt?”

“No… no,” Emmi whispered. “I’m well.”

“Thank the gods,” she breathed. With her free hand, she reached behind her and touched Emmi’s knee. “Don’t lose your nerve now. Come, take my hand. I’ve mapped almost every inch of this labyrinth. I can get us out of here.”

Emmi fingers closed around hers. “There are so many of them, Belle…”

That there are.

Belle swallowed hard.

The creatures kept themselves just beyond the torch’s light, and she was unable to distinguish where one misshapen shadow ended and the next began. But she could hear them. Chattering and scratching and flapping things, waiting for her small light to burn itself out.

How much longer did she have?

I pray long enough.

“Come.” She couldn’t risk the time to consult her map, she had to rely on her memory. “The Keep is this way.” Without turning away from the monsters, she pulled Emmi to her feet and tucked her close against her side. “We stay together. We walk quickly. And we will get out of this place.”

Together, they started walking.

The shadows churned around them, but none seemed willing to approach the torch. Thank goodness. At least that part of the bishop’s claims were true: the creatures did shun the light.

She moved the torch in a careful arc, back and forth.

With each pass, the demons shifted out of reach, creating a rough path forward. She and Emmi passed beneath some small grates. Light filtered down from above, and the demons retreated further.

Was that music she heard?

Yes.

Hope shot through her.

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