Ash Princess (The Deviant Future #6) - Eve Langlais Page 0,38

just to whack things with. Gorri pressed a round ridge on the metal-capped end, and a wick popped up. He lit it with a scrape of flint on the metal, sparking the fuel. Flames immediately ignited, blue and mauve with hints of white. The hottest kind of fire. Bright, too.

“Nice,” Cam remarked. The boy had improvised fuel canisters for the tips.

Gorri grinned. “Better than carrying a torch or a lamp. The tunnel rats don’t like it. Want me to light yours?”

Cam eyed his stave. “We’ll save mine for later.” No point in wasting fuel in case they needed it. Again, just a feeling he had.

With stave held high, Gorri moved slowly ahead, illuminating the long, somewhat narrow hall. The nice thing about hanging with people who had to survive every day? They knew how to move. Silently, not asking dumb questions or rushing in.

As they penetrated deeper into the oldest part of the Necropolis, carved from the very stone, Cam noted the worrying details. The doorways just gaping holes with sagging and missing doors. “How long has it looked like this?”

Gorri turned with his torch. “This damage is recent.”

“I was worried you’d say that,” Cam muttered as he neared a door and the rank smell of shit hit him.

He knew of a predator that liked to keep its fecal matter in one place to keep discovery to a minimum. A cunning adversary that seemed to be adapting.

Cam retreated. “We need to leave. Right now.”

“We haven’t found Hale, Pelo, and Bea yet.” Gorri peered ahead, holding his torch like a beacon.

“And you won’t.”

“Meaning what?”

“You might want to keep your voice down,” Cam suggested as he grabbed a flint from his belt and lit the end of his stave. The increased flame brightened the hall even more but did little to illuminate the rooms.

“What is it? What caused the damage?” Lila asked. “There’s a funky smell, but I don’t recognize it.”

Cam did. “Ghouls.”

The very word hung in the air ominously. Gorri’s face blanched.

He went to extinguish his torch, and Cam barked, “Don’t.” Then more softly, “They can’t stand the light.”

He moved back to the stairs then ensured Gorri and Lila went first. He’d yet to hear anything. That meant nothing.

Only once they’d gone up three floors did Gorri finally huff, “How did they get in? The only entrance is the stairs above.”

“They must have tunneled their way in.”

“They can do that?” Gorri squeaked.

“I’m sure they can do lots of stuff. Problem is the people who discover it don’t usually tend to live,” he muttered.

Ghouls were nasty critters, and they could be wily, too. Blame their once human heritage.

“If they managed to tunnel inside, then that means they’re going to move up, aren’t they?” Lila stated more than asked.

“Eventually.” Which meant the Necropolis’s days were numbered.

It was a few paces from the seventh floor that Cam called a halt. The flames on their torches flickered.

Lila whispered, “What’s wrong?”

He pointed to the fire. It drifted again. The current of air made it dance. And if he concentrated, he could smell them. Ghouls.

Moving ahead of his companions, he entered the main area around the stairwell. It still had the luminescent lichen, meaning he could see. See the doors to the crypts suddenly open and the shadowy bodies as they emerged from the doorways. Got to comprehend the horror of their situation as he noticed the ghouls all had gaping eye sockets. They didn’t cringe from the light. But who needed sight when they lifted their faces and sniffed? Scent pinpointed the prey, and the ghouls turned toward them.

“Uh-oh,” muttered Lila, the slight sound causing the beasts—with their all-too-human characteristics—to pause.

Their skin was almost scaly with its leathery appearance, in various shades of gray. The pointed teeth were yellow like the claws on their fingers.

“When I give the word,” Cam said softly, keeping his eyes on the one moving the boldest toward him, “run for the stairs and don’t stop until you get to the top. Then no matter what, lock that fucking door.”

“You sound as if you won’t be with us,” Gorri said with a frown.

“I’m going to buy you time.”

Because they couldn’t outrun the ghouls. But they didn’t all need to die.

Was this the prophecy, the time and place he gave his life to save Ozz? Were Lila and Gorri essential to the future?

Apparently not, because the dumb fucks weren’t taking the chance he was giving them.

“Leave no person behind. It’s the one thing I remember my dad saying to me,” Gorri stated, taking