The force of the word made Amber step back. The others looked at her.
“Why did the witch spare you?” Iseul asked.
“I don’t know,” said Amber. “I swear.”
“Faith’s been with us for months,” Honor said. She had tears in her eyes, but her voice was steady. “Then you come in, and suddenly Faith gets killed? Why? Are we next? Am I next?”
“Why did that thing let you live?” asked Juliana. “Are you working with it? Are you? Answer me!”
Amber looked at them, saw the grim determination in their eyes, and knew she wasn’t going to be able to talk her way out of this.
“I want you to be calm,” she said.
“Just answer the question!” Juliana shouted.
Amber held up her hands. “I will. I’m about to. But I’m going to ask you to remain calm. I’m trapped here, the same as you. My life is in danger, the same as yours. We’re on the same side. I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Hurt us?” Deb said. “What do you—?”
Amber shifted, and the basement erupted in screams and shouts and curses.
“I’m not going to hurt you!” Amber said as they all scrambled back.
“Stay away from us!” Juliana screeched.
“I am!” said Amber, backing up to the far wall. “Look! I am! I’m not going to hurt you!”
They stared at her, and she did her best to appear non-threatening. She tried smiling.
“Look at her teeth!” Iseul whimpered, and Amber stopped smiling.
“Who are you?” asked Deb.
“I told you, my name’s Amber.”
“You’re a devil!” said Honor.
“No, I am not. This doesn’t mean anything. The horns, the skin, it doesn’t change who I am. Not really. Not who I am inside. I’m still a good person, I swear to you!”
“You’re working with the witch! That’s how you know so much about it!”
Amber shook her head. “No, I’m not. And the only reason I know so much is because, well, this is the kind of thing I’ve been doing for the past two weeks.”
Deb frowned. “You’ve been a devil for two weeks?”
“Please stop calling me a devil. It’s a long story, how I got like this, but two weeks ago I thought I was totally normal and I didn’t know anything like this even existed. Now here I am, and I’m doing my best to deal with what’s being thrown at me, and I think I’m doing a pretty good job of it, actually, and I’m not a bad guy and I’m not a devil, and I don’t want to hurt anyone except maybe the witch because of what she’s done to Faith, and what she’s doing to us, and … and I don’t know what else to say.”
They stared.
“So you’re not a devil?” Juliana asked.
“No. My parents are kind of demons, though, and I inherited that from them, and now they’re trying to kill me.”
A few moments passed.
“Harsh,” said Honor.
“Yes, it is,” Amber responded. “Listen to me: I’m in at the deep end. I know this is freaky, I know this is terrifying, and it’s very hard to believe someone when they have red skin and horns, but I’m not the bad guy. I’m really not.”
Deb was the first one to take a step closer. “But this is why the witch chose you over Faith?”
“I think so,” said Amber. “When I’m like this, I’m bigger, stronger … My skin might even be tough enough to stay in one piece if she takes me over. I’d be a better … vessel, maybe.”
“If it wants to take you over,” said Iseul, “then why didn’t it?”
Amber relaxed a little more. “Like I said, she’s been experimenting. She’s been testing herself. It hasn’t been going well for her.”
“But now that you’re here,” said Iseul, “it might have found the vessel it’s been waiting for.”
“Yeah,” said Amber. “Now she’s ready to put all her experiments to use.”
“So what happens to us?” Honor asked. “Do you think it’ll let us go?”
“Hey,” said Deb. “Hey. Before we start cheering too loud, let’s figure out if we can help Amber, all right?”
Amber frowned. “You want to help me?”
“If we can.”
“Thank you. Sincerely, thank you. But I don’t know if you can do anything. The witch on her own is powerful, but add in those shawl-women and there’s not a whole lot anyone could do.”
“But what does it do, then?” Juliana asked. “Okay, it takes Amber’s skin, takes her face, but so what? Now it looks like a devil – no offence, Amber – and so where can it go? What the hell does it want?”
“Oh my God,” said Honor, practically running up to Amber. “When you’re like this, and again no offence, yeah, you look evil and all, but you’re also … I mean, you’re beautiful. She’s beautiful, right, guys?”
The other women nodded.
“Maybe that’s why the witch chose you over Faith,” Honor continued. “Not only because you’re bigger and stronger and a more likely vessel, but also because you’re better-looking.”
“Uh,” said Amber, “okay … I don’t really know where you’re going with this, though …”
“The one thing we never understood is what all this has to do with Jacob Buxton. You said the witch was sent to make his life hell, right? But none of this has any effect on him in the slightest. Amber, how long has the witch been doing this?”
“Killing people? I don’t know. But she’s been tormenting him for fifteen years.”
“Fifteen years,” said Honor, “this ugly old tree-monster witch-thing is making Jacob Buxton’s life a misery. Fifteen years and it never stops. It never leaves. It doesn’t go on vacation and it doesn’t go home to its witch-husband and their little witch-kids. It’s a single lady in an all-consuming job, and all it does – all it does – is watch over this one man. My brother was in the army; he worked in a sniper team. They had to stay in one place for days, watching their targets. He said the longer they watched, the harder it was to pull the trigger. Because they’d got to know the targets, they’d developed almost a fondness for them …”
“Holy crap,” said Deb. “It’s in love with him.”
Honor snapped her fingers. “Exactly! He’s all hidden away in his cabin and he doesn’t talk to many people, does he? But every woman who has had contact with him, no matter how briefly, is snatched away and hidden in a dungeon.”
“She’s jealous,” said Amber. “She wants her rivals out of the way and now she wants to take the form of one of us so that she can be with Jacob.”
“B I N G and O,” said Honor.
Juliana looked at them like they were nuts. “Seriously? The tree-monster’s in love? That’s our theory?”
“It’s a good one,” said Iseul.
“It’s a tree-monster! What does it know about love?”
“More than some people,” said Amber.
“Okay, okay,” Deb said, “so we have a possible motive. If we were trying to solve a crime, this would be an important moment for us all. But it changes nothing. The lovestruck witch is still probably gonna take over Amber and then kill the rest of us. Knowing it has a softer side will not help us in the slightest.”
“Wow,” said Honor. “I know we’ve been living in a dungeon and all, and we’re all in danger, but you are surprisingly depressing.”
AMBER SLEPT ON A bed of leaves. It was exactly as uncomfortable as she’d expected.
In the morning, she woke to the sound of the gate opening. Two shawl-women stood there. Two more lurked beyond it. Their intentions were obvious.
Amber got up slowly. The other women stood beside her. It was a touching show of solidarity, but they couldn’t help her. They couldn’t stop what was about to happen.
“Don’t change,” said Deb. “If it’s your red skin it wants, stay like you are.”
Amber nodded, and passed through the gate, and it creaked shut behind her. The shawl-women brought her back to the room with all the carcasses, where the witch wa
s waiting.
A long, gnarled finger reached out, poked Amber’s shoulder. It poked again, and prodded her chest, but Amber didn’t shift. The witch must have sensed her resolve, because she regarded her anew. After a moment, the shawl-women released their hold, and the witch struck her.
The force of the blow rattled Amber’s skull and made her stumble, but she didn’t fall. Holding one hand to her stinging cheek, she looked up at the witch and said, “I’m not going to change.”
The witch hit her again, in the belly this time, doubling her over. Amber gasped and groaned, and fell to her knees. After a few panicked moments, she sucked in a breath, and the shawl-women hauled her up.
The witch was going easy on her. She couldn’t afford to damage her vessel.
“I don’t care what you do,” Amber wheezed. “I am not going to change.”
The witch observed her. Amber didn’t like that. She could almost see the gears move behind those eyes.
She heard shouts of protests and curses, and Amber’s heart plummeted. The shawl-women dragged Juliana in first, then Deb and Honor and Iseul. Despite their struggles, the captives were lined up along the wall.
“What’s it want?” Honor asked, trying to free herself of a shawl-woman’s grip. “It’s not going to practise on me. No way am I letting that happen.”
Amber sagged. “She doesn’t want to practise,” she said.
At Juliana’s feet, roots cracked the hard-packed dirt, started twisting round her shoes. Juliana screamed, tried kicking, but Amber knew full well what was going to happen next.
“Okay!” she said. “Okay, just stop! You hear me? Stop.”
The witch observed her a moment longer, and the roots retreated.
“They go free,” Amber continued. “You let them go right now. That’s the deal. Let them go, don’t hurt them and don’t go after them, and I’ll change. You can … you can use my skin.”
The witch considered the proposal for a moment, and then pointed at her. Amber hesitated, then shifted into her demon form. At once, the shawl-women released their captives.
The women shared a look of uncertainty, like they were expecting to be grabbed again the moment they started believing they were free. Iseul was the first to move to the corridor. No shawl-woman went to stop her. The witch didn’t even look round.
Iseul ran.
Deb and the others started edging out.
“Up here!” Iseul yelled. “The way out is up here! Follow my voice!”
Honor hesitated. She looked at Amber, looked at the witch, and hurried out. Juliana went next.
“Thank you,” Deb said to Amber, then she followed the others.
Amber waited to hear screams or shouts that would indicate they’d been recaptured. When that didn’t happen, she looked back at the witch. “Seems we have a deal.”
The witch stepped forward, and reached for her.
Amber’s hand encircled her wrist. “I’m sorry,” she said, black scales spreading across her skin, “you weren’t expecting me to go without a fight, were you?”
She wrenched the witch towards her and slashed at her face. The witch howled, an unearthly sound that made Amber’s bones quiver, and then they went tumbling. Roots sprouted from the ground, trying to hold Amber in place, but she was on her feet and moving, still tangled up with the witch as they crashed into the wall.
The witch’s hair came alive and Amber shut her eyes against a hundred stabbing splinters that scraped across her scales. She felt her way up from the witch’s shoulder, found her neck and got two hands on it as they stumbled round the room. She started squeezing, then grew her talons and sank them into the witch’s flesh. It didn’t make any discernible difference.
There were shawl-women on her now, pulling her away, and Amber cracked her eyes open to find a target. When she found one, she swiped, and the shawls ripped cleanly and the branches underneath came apart. The clothes collapsed to the sound of falling sticks, but even as that happened another figure rose on the far side of the room. It wasn’t even attempting to look like a person this time – the stick-thing joined the shawl-women and wrenched Amber’s arms behind her back. They forced her to her knees, and she looked up as the witch stepped into view.
Amber’s snarl turned to an angry, defiant roar.
The witch turned her head, and through that tangle of hair Amber saw an expression flash across her face—
Fear.
Amber smelled smoke moments before she noticed the flickering light. A fire. There was a fire raging, spreading fast. The shawl-women were loosening their grip as the witch’s attention was diverted.
Amber heard shouting. The women. At first, she thought their voices were raised in panic – then she realised they were voices raised in challenge.
“Come get us!” she heard Deb shout. “Come get us, you monstrous bitch!”
Amber tore free and the shawl-women and the stick-things fell to the floor, nothing more than scattering branches. She launched herself at the witch and they fell back, hit the table and rolled off. Amber ignored the witch’s long limbs and held her close. She bit down on an ear, tore a chunk out of it, and the witch shrieked and bucked wildly. Amber lost her grip, went tumbling, and only managed to get to her knees before the witch had scuttled round behind her. Hands gripped her. The world tilted and blurred and Amber hit the far wall and dropped.
The ceiling was on fire.
A beam dropped and the witch jumped back. Amber sat up, watching her panic, and a curious sense of victory took hold. Then she remembered that she was here as well, and the feeling vanished.
The witch ran.
Amber scrambled up and followed her, surging into billowing clouds of smoke that seared her lungs and burned her eyes. She groped blindly for the walls, letting them guide her, tripping on roots and banging her horns. She felt cool air on her skin and staggered towards that, before doubling over as coughs racked her body. She forced herself up, forced herself to focus on that cool air, and then she stumbled against steps. She climbed them on her hands and knees, felt more hands on her, dragging her up, and she emerged into fresh air and light.
The hands released her and she heard Deb and Honor, and she curled up, coughing, and dug her knuckles into her streaming eyes. She looked up, blinked against the sunlight. Juliana peered at her.
“Amber? You okay?”
She nodded, and coughed, and nodded again.
“People!” Iseul yelled. “Look!”
Amber looked to where Iseul was pointing, saw a dark figure move through the trees.
“Amber!” Milo shouted.
She forced herself up, wiped her eyes again, tried to answer, but coughed instead, made do with waving. Milo broke into a run, holding an axe in both hands. Something moved ahead of him.
Deb yelled a warning as a coughing fit bent Amber double and the witch sprang from cover. Milo went down, losing the axe, the witch all over him. She lifted him, threw him against a tree. He smacked into it horribly and spun and hit the ground. The witch moved in to finish him off, but Glen and Jacob Buxton were already there to help him to his feet.
The witch froze when she saw Jacob.
Amber sucked in a breath, broke free of Juliana’s grip, and scrambled into a run. She scooped the fallen axe off the ground, jumped to a tree stump and leaped high. She swung, the axe cutting deep into the witch’s neck and lodging there, and Amber landed empty-handed and went stumbling. The witch shrieked, arched her back and twisted, yellow blood spraying from her wound like sap. She found the handle, yanked it free and let it fall, but her head rolled to one side and she toppled, like she’d lost all sense of balance.
Amber ran back for the axe, but the witch caught her with a desperate swipe of her arm and Amber went rolling. She looked up to see the witch snatch up Jacob and run.
Amber grabbed the axe and took off in pursuit. The witch was easy to lose in the trees, but she caught flashes of Jacob’s clothes and kept up. Her seared lungs burned.
She
tripped on a log and stumbled and smacked her horns off a branch and fell, cursing. She got up, ran to the last place she’d seen Jacob, ran on, shouting his name.
Then she slowed. The witch was on the ground, bent over on her knees with her arms out in front, like she was praying. Her head was turned sideways, with yellow blood slowly leaking from her wound. Jacob stood just out of her reach, looking down at her.
“She’s dead,” he said. His voice was oddly dull. “She was running and getting weaker, and stumbling, and then she put me down … and just sort of … sank to her knees.”
He looked up, looked at Amber.
“Milo told me you were a demon,” he said. “You don’t look anything like the way my father did.”
Amber reverted, and Jacob looked back at the witch.
“She was almost gentle,” he said, sounding surprised.
THREE MINUTES. THAT WAS how long Milo gave her to say her goodbyes. Any lead they’d had on Amber’s parents had been eaten up by the witch. Her brand read 168 hours. They couldn’t afford to waste any more time. Amber knew this. She agreed with it. And yet, as she was being ushered to the car, she realised that she didn’t want to go. The women who had been held captive in that dungeon had welcomed her into their group even when she’d revealed the truth about herself. They’d accepted her. She’d belonged. They’d formed a family down there, formed bonds that would never be broken, and she’d been so close to being a part of that. Now they were standing there by Jacob’s cabin, watching her go, their questions unanswered, her questions unasked.
Then she was in the Charger and she was leaving them behind.
“You okay?” Milo asked as they were driving away from Cricket Hill.
“I’d liked to have stayed a while,” Amber said.
He nodded. “You understand why we had to get out fast, though, right?”
“My parents.”
“Them,” said Milo, “and we want to be far away from here when those women return home. The cops are going to be all over this. We can’t afford to be delayed any longer than we already have been.”
“Yeah,” she said, looking out of the window. “I know. Where are we going?”