Eden

trying to casually weather another contraction.

Ryan touched Jared’s arm. “Jared, we got through an entire city of shells. If she wants to breathe some fresh air after nearly sixty days in a cave, I say let her.”

“You don’t have a say, so shut up,” Jared said through his teeth.

“I don’t either?” I said. I hobbled toward the entrance slowly, but Jared matched every step.

“Of course you do,” he said. “Just…just let me think for a minute.”

I closed my eyes tight. They twitched every time the drops of water slid from the rock wall to the ground. “That’s the problem. I can’t think in here. I can’t breathe. I can’t sleep. I feel like I’m dying!”

“Jared,” Ryan began.

“Shut the hell up!”

“Maybe we all need some fresh air,” Bex said.

With wide eyes, both Jared and Claire craned their necks at their little brother.

Jared’s jaws worked under his skin, and he struggled to relax enough to speak to me in a calm voice. “Nina, for all we know the devil is up there. They will stop at nothing now.”

Ryan shrugged. “Sometimes you gotta dance with the devil to get out of Hell.”

The further we got to the entrance, the darker it became. Bex had set up twin-head industrial light stands around the perimeter, so bright that at first, when they were all lit, it felt like day. Now the shadows they cast were just another reminder of our prison.

I moved quickly to the doorway, and Claire grabbed my wrist. “Maybe we should sedate her?”

I yanked my arm back, easily shouldering past her. “You’re not keeping me here against my will! I know I sound crazy! I feel crazy! This place is making me crazy! I don’t want to leave forever. I just…I just want a couple of minutes of sunshine. Just a moment to feel alive again.”

Ryan appeared in front of me, holding up his hands. “Whoa, buddy. You’re getting yourself all worked up,” he said. He spoke through nervous laughter, trying to lighten the mood. “You need to take a minute to think about this. No one is making you stay, but maybe if you think about this a little more, you’ll reconsider.”

Jared looked to me with hope in his eyes.

“I thought you were on my side,” I said.

“I am, Nigh. I’ve always been on your side.”

“No one’s on my side. No one hears me.”

Ryan relaxed a bit. “Just try to clear your head and think about it. You’re not a prisoner here. You’re here to keep the baby safe until it’s born.”

I nodded. “Okay, I’ve thought about it. I can’t stand it anymore. Who wants to have their baby in a tomb? Not me. This was a bad idea. I just need to go. I have to go.”

I made my way to the entrance that led to the stairs, but Jared stood in my way, his fingers digging into my shoulders. “I can’t let you go, sweetheart. If you go upstairs, they’ll kill you.”

“But, we…you…you need to get me out of here, okay? I don’t want to be here any more.”

Jared nodded, his voice low and calm. “I understand. As soon as the baby comes, we’ll leave. I promise.”

I shook my head, the tears cascading down my cheeks. I took a step back. “No. No, I don’t want to have the baby here. I can’t stay here another night. Not another second.”

“That’s a prize-winning freakout, right there,” Kim said without emotion.

Jared grimaced. “You’re not helping, Kim. Listen,” he said, returning his attention to me.

My body shook. I was in control of nothing. Not my body, not where I slept. I couldn’t even go to the bathroom alone or take a walk. It was too much. Too much.

“You can’t make me stay here. I can leave when I want.”

“You’re right. You can leave when you want, but…I want you to stay. The second you’re aboveground, Nina, you’ll regret your choice. Just…trust me? Please? Just a little bit longer. Can you stay with me a little bit longer?”

Tiny twin rivers dripped from my jaw onto my dirty shirt. I closed my eyes, but all I could hear was the dripping. The damn dripping. It wouldn’t stop.

“No,” I whispered. I ran for the door, and Claire and Jared grabbed my arms. With my full strength, I took one step after another, slowly but surely making my way to the doorway.

Claire grunted against my strength. “Nina, stop!”

Bex joined his siblings, grabbing both of my ankles and wrapping his feet around them. I could have broken free, but I didn’t want to hurt him. I didn’t want to hurt any of them, I just needed to be aboveground, to breathe fresh air and feel the sun on my skin. To hear my voice — just one time — without an echo behind it.

“Nina, look at me! Look at me!” Jared said, positioning his face in front of mine. “You have to stop. You’re going to get yourself killed, and the baby will die. Do you hear me? We’ll all die!”

I stopped struggling, and my body went limp as I sobbed on the ground against my husband. My focus on survival, irrational or not, had become a monster.

Claire and Bex took a step back with labored breath. I’d given all three of them a run for their money.

Jared stood and pulled me with him. “Okay?”

I nodded, watching him walk into the tomb. “I’m sorry.”

Chapter Twenty Legion

I bolted for the top of the stairs, shoving the altar out of the way. I crawled out of the hole, squinting against the bright sun filtering in through the rotunda.

I took a deep breath, letting the warm, fresh air fill my lungs. I bathed in it, taking in every bit before Jared dragged me back underground. After a few seconds, the warm air went away, and the cold, dark feeling of the tomb surrounded me. Jared had barely let me take an entire breath before he’d forced me to return.

I opened my eyes and realized I was still in the Sepulchre. The room was full of shells, poised to pounce. I could hear Jared crawling up the stairs, yelling my name, but immediately I was attacked. I fought off one, and then two and three at a time. By the time Jared reached the top, I had already taken out half the shells in a fury of moves I didn’t even have to think about. A small woman threw herself at me, her arms flailing about. Jared incapacitated her with a single blow. Claire and Ryan reached the top, quickly followed by Bex, and the mob inside the Sepulchre quickly thinned. More filed in, though, and we were running out of room.

“Back up!” Jared commanded. “Back downstairs!”

The walls shook, and two large, dark forms squeezed their misshapen bodies into the entrance of the Sepulchre. They weren’t shells, but demons, large demons with gray skin and mouths full of teeth under moist snouts.

The one on the right grabbed Jared while the other took my shirt in one hand, and slammed my back against the opposite wall.

“Hey!” Kim yelled from the mouth of the stairway. “Get the hell out of here!” Even though the monsters stood two heads taller than her, she didn’t seem nervous in the slightest. The demons wailed at her, shielding themselves with their shoulders, but they didn’t retreat.

The demon that Jared fought barked at the black-eyed minions filing into the room, and before anyone could react, a half-dozen of the shells dove at Kim, pushing her down the stairway. Her scream faded as she rolled further underground.

Bex leapt in after her, and Claire and Ryan went to work on Jared’s demon.

I tried to rip my shirt to escape the grip of the brute, but his hands were gigantic, and I couldn’t break free. A shell in military fatigues slipped into the room, walked to me without hesitation, and held a pistol to my temple.

The demon holding me signaled his partner, capturing Jared, Claire and Ryan’s attention as well. In a move