This would be the end for my uncle. They would take us back to the torture chamber and I knew without any shadow of doubt that one more session in there would drain him forever. As it was, I feared that they might pass judgment on him and send him down to The Necropolis, but after one more session, I could predict it as surely as the oracle herself.

“No!” I bellowed, kicking and flailing in the ghoul’s iron grip.

The ghouls began leading us away from the main door, down the corridor. I wouldn’t have been surprised if the ghouls had just been on their way to conduct their inspection… and to think that we would’ve just made it out in time if it weren’t for that bastard Keb causing them to hasten.

They moved faster and faster, and I was already mentally preparing myself for another round of torture when, to my shock, they stopped abruptly before we reached the end of the tunnel.

The ghoul had been carrying us with our backs facing forward, so I couldn’t even see why they had stopped. And everything that happened next was a blur. I heard the ghouls scream, and then the slicing of flesh… and then my ghoul’s hold on me—and Lucas—abruptly loosened. Drifting to the floor, I whirled around to find myself staring at all three ghouls, lying on the floor, decapitated.

Hovering over them were Sherus and his companion. They held daggers in their hands, tinged with thick, black blood. I gaped, both stunned and bewildered by what they’d just done.

I’d thought that if we got ourselves caught, our contract would automatically end. That the fae were actually willing to risk murdering the ghouls while in their own caverns spoke of deeper levels of desperation on their part than I’d ever imagined.

Sherus’ jaw tensed grimly as he wiped his blade against his sash and slid it back into his belt. He and his companion quickly scooped up the bodies and opened one of two coffins that rested behind them. They dumped the ghouls inside, crushing up their bodies in order to make them fit. Then, removing their shoulder sashes, they soaked up the blood on the ground before chucking them on top of the corpses. They closed the lid of the coffin sharply before opening the lid of the second one.

Then Sherus set his steely gaze on me. “Get in,” he said, gesturing to the second box. “Now.”

Luckily we had subtle bodies and all six of us could pile in, our bodies merging into one another, which was a truly bizarre feeling. I shifted around as the fae slammed the lid shut, my body passing through all five ghosts simultaneously, as I moved to get a better look through the small, narrow window of the coffin.

I felt the coffin being lifted and held slightly vertical so that I could glimpse what was in front of us. They arrived at the main door, flung it open and we shot out. We flew over the lake, then into the canal before arriving in the vast entrance cavern.

It all happened so fast, I barely even believed my eyes as the fae rushed us past the unsuspecting guards and shot up through the base of the whirlpool. As the churning water sloshed against the glass, it was the most beautiful sight I’d ever seen.

We’re out.

Ben

We soared out of the vortex of swirling water over an expansive, tree-lined lake, and then the fae tilted the box so that the window faced directly upward to the sun-streaked sky and I couldn’t glimpse what was beneath us. Although I was curious to observe the location of this place—where the heck the portal to that ghastly hole existed on Earth—I could hardly complain.

I’d never thought I’d appreciate the sun as much as I did now. All those months as a vampire, it had been the bane of my existence. Now it felt like my salvation.

Overlapping each other in the cramped coffin, the six of us were all still too stunned to say anything. We just lay as we were, blinking, shocked at everything that had transpired.

I wondered what my uncle was thinking. I wouldn’t be surprised if a part of him believed that this was all just another vision imparted by one of the ghouls, one that would soon turn and twist into a torturous nightmare. But it wouldn’t. This was real. The fae had helped us to escape.

We zoomed with what felt like the speed of light, and soon enough, the coffin was lowered to the ground. The lid clicked open. I drifted out first to find myself back on the snowy mountaintop where it had all begun.

The fae stood barely three feet from me, but I barely looked at them. I gazed around, taking in the full glory of our snow-clad, earthly surroundings. After I’d been held captive in the dead realm, every detail of Mother Nature’s artistry seemed heightened and my spirit swelled with joy.

The rest of the ghosts followed me, and Lucas was the last to drift out of the coffin. He came out uncertainly, hovering next to me even as he looked around. From the look on his face, one would have thought that he’d just landed on another planet. I guessed it really was like another planet. He had suffered in The Underworld for almost two decades. It blew my mind to think what a shock this must be for him. Not to have seen sunshine for all that time. Not to have witnessed the living world. No wonder he had gone insane. I was actually surprised that he hadn’t gone more insane than he was. Then I reminded myself for a second time that he was, after all, a Novak.

We were all still too taken by the euphoria of our surroundings to pay attention to our rescuers, even as they stood, surveying us intensely. Finally I forced my attention to Sherus… and now that I did, the bitter reality of our escape returned to me. We’d gotten out. But now I had to ensure that we stayed out.

I cleared my throat. “So now…” I began, eyeing him and his companion tentatively. I noticed for the first time that the second coffin containing the ghouls’ corpses was missing. Maybe they had dropped it in the ocean along the way.