Within These Wicked Walls(88)

Despite being contradictions, both were true. He had finished welding, and was threading some of the thin lines he had burned through the silver with red thread. There were three colors in total he had to thread, and he was only just finishing up the first. He needed more time, and I wasn’t sure I could give it to him.

A slam on the shield made both of us wince. I grabbed a weapon off the floor—a sharpened broomstick—while Jember got up and moved into the next amulet’s pocket of protection. The hyena backed down and Saba stepped forward, her face a mask of terror and regret as she reached up to remove the amulet from above the door. It was nailed on, but with her strength she could probably easily break it off.

“Saba, no!” I cried, and when she didn’t stop I hit her arm with the broomstick, cracking it. She still wouldn’t stop. “Please, Saba!”

I had to hit her again, and her arm dropped to the ground, forcing her to pick it up. And the hyena resumed slamming into the shield. It didn’t take much. Three slams and I could hear the shield cracking. The hall suddenly felt too small and I panicked, backing into the safety of the amulet on the opposite side of the door as Jember.

The hyena broke through just as I made it out of that space, its mane standing up with rage …

But it didn’t come after me. It paused where it was in the doorway, just looking at me. And then it swung its long neck to look at Jember. My stomach dropped into my feet. It must’ve been able to sense that the amulet was getting close to completion.

“I’m your prey!” I yelled, tapping the ground to get its attention. “Come get me, monster!”

But it was done with me, it seemed. Instead it ran at Jember, so fast it cracked its own head against the shield.

Jember jolted, making eye contact with me from across the doorway. I’d never seen him so scared, and for a moment my heart was pounding hard enough to weaken me. There were fewer amulets on the wall going toward the stairs—only two. It was a bad side to be on when you were suddenly the new target of the Evil Eye. There was no way I could break through and get to him, especially when there was so much more of the amulet to go.

I swallowed, adjusting my grip on the broomstick. And when the hyena charged at Jember’s shield, I ran out from behind the safety of mine and speared it through the neck.

I rushed back behind my shield on the other side of the door, checking on the damage I’d done only after I was safely behind it. It barely reacted, as if nothing had happened, even though the sharp end of the stick stuck through its neck about two feet, dragging heavily on the ground on the handle side. It could barely run now, let alone break the shield, with its head being weighed down. But its focus was on me again, which was all I cared about. We were back on track.

Saba, God bless her, had held herself back for as long as she could, but now she came out into the hall and took hold of the broomstick. I picked up the closest weapon—a cricket bat—and stood ready to swing, waiting for what would happen next. As soon as Saba threw the stick aside the hyena came at me, and I hit it before it could damage the shield. It clamped the bat in its powerful jaws. I yanked the weapon back, the force making me stumble further into the protective pocket.

“Andi!” Jember shouted. “Watch—”

A solid, strong, far-too-smooth arm wrapped around my neck from behind. I gagged, dropping the bat to grab Saba’s arm as she lifted my feet off the ground. I clawed at her arm, trying to dig my fingers beneath hers, to let up the pressure enough to catch my breath. She wouldn’t budge so I kicked back at her, throwing my entire weight into it, slamming her back against the wall. I heard a crack so I kept going, slamming my heels backward until she let go.

I never thought Jember’s Real World Prep training would come in handy until now—when, instead of being short of breath and panicked, I was more clearheaded than ever. I snatched up the bat and swung at Saba, breaking off her arm in one big piece. I rammed it at her stomach, stabbing a hole through it.

Saba’s eyes were wide with fear—fear of what I couldn’t tell since, out of the two of us, she couldn’t feel pain. But there was determination in her expression, too, as she nodded at me. Do what you have to do, her expression said. So I pulled the bat out of her stomach and broke off her face. Then her shoulder. Her legs. I kept hitting and hitting until Jember shouted, “Focus, girl, it’s breaking through!”

That’s when I finally paused, staring at Saba in pieces on the floor, like a broken doll. This was more horrific than if we had just scattered her across the desert. I had to remind myself she couldn’t feel it. That if I didn’t do it one of us might die before Jember had a chance to finish the amulet.

“Andi, run!” he said, and I didn’t question it. I pulled my small knife, prying one of the nails out of the wall and stealing the amulet there, holding it in front of me as I ran past the hyena. Jember let me pass him before following, but I could hear the hyena’s head ramming against one of the last two shields between it and us.

“Pick a room!” Jember shouted over the wind as we ran past the stairs. I didn’t put much thought into it. We ended up in a small study I had never spent much time in. Neither did anyone else, clearly, because the fireplace wasn’t lit.

Jember locked the door behind us. “Near that corner,” he said, tipping his chin toward the only one with any moonlight touching it.

I grabbed a paperweight to re-nail the amulet into one of the walls while he shoved a solid wood desk in front of the door. And then he eased himself down in front of me. Between all the running and panic and the solid wood desk, he was panting. He removed his supplies without a word, transferring them to me. First the amulet, then the rack of thread. And then he took up the needle, threading the amulet while I wore it.