Everyone jumped away. No one jumped to help him.
As if I were watching a movie, Joel jerked his arm free of the third compartment full of wieners. Colored water cascaded to his elbow as he held his hand in front of his face.
Joel screamed over and over, face twisting grotesquely with immense pain.
For a shocked second, I wasn’t sure what had happened until I realized the dark water was blood gushing from where Joel’s thumb used to be.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Gripping his injured hand, Joel collapsed to his knees.
Did I do this? I thought in horror.
You created a loop when you woke the man. Your emotions in that moment will make him suffer.
Phoebe unglued first. She was gripping a strip of blue cloth, obviously prepared for her own leg. Instead, she dropped to her knees and grabbed for his hand. At first, I thought Joel was going to hit her. His eyes blazed as he pulled away, his screams diminishing to shocked whimpers, which were worse to listen to.
“Give her your hand, Joel!” I commanded, my voice sharp and strained. I took several uneven steps backward, clutching my stomach as the warmth writhed, and I struggled to contain it.
Cody stayed rooted in place, staring in wide-eyed disbelief.
Phoebe demanded that Joel hold still as she wrapped the white cloth around the spewing stump.
Gritting his teeth, he forced himself not to flinch. Joel shuddered with each wrap of the tender wound. To his credit, he didn’t jerk away again. He kept his arm up, squeezing his eyes shut and gritting his teeth.
Blood rivered down Joel’s forearm and Phoebe’s hands. She gave a final tug to the knot, looking uncertain. “This won’t work for long,” she said.
The blue cloth was drenched, and I remembered the thumb that I had pulled from the stand earlier. My eyes darted to the dusty edge of the circle where I had thrown it, but it was gone.
Nausea clumped in the back of my throat. Fanning my face, I felt as if I was overheating, and I wasn’t sure if it was the Challenge or me.
Could the thumb have been Joel’s? I knew that time here wasn’t the same, but this was too much to think about. Damien said he knew I’d done this.
Did this mean that Joel had been punished before he’d even woken up in the Challenge? Or that what was going to happen could never be changed?
I gripped my stomach and doubled over, leaning against the bars of the nearest cage to keep upright.
All your fault, the voice whispered. This is all your fault, and they’ll realize it and hate you for it.
Joel’s glassy eyes stared at his missing digit. “I have to get it back,” he said. “Maybe they can reconnect it.”
“Who?” Phoebe demanded. “There aren’t any doctors hanging around. Hell, that thing should be cauterized…” She wiped her bloody hands on her shorts then realized what she’d done and grimaced.
Joel wobbled, seemingly drunk, and glanced back at the hotdog stand. “Cody, you get it out,” he growled through clenched teeth.
Cody paled at the demand.
Joel didn’t seem to notice as a string of curses pierced the air. Gripping his arm, he turned in circles, fear being sponged with each turn.
“Where did you go?” Phoebe asked me, interrupting Cody’s response.
Part of me wanted to tell her the truth, the other screamed to stay quiet. They were suspicious of me, and if I told them I had a demonic grandfather I doubted they would enjoy my company much more. The idea of demon blood sent an upchuck of hysteria. The idea that Mama Nell, the woman who’d sacrificed us—her own daughters—was worse.
“Damien…” I started. My mind fumbled for an excuse—anything to stop the madness from seeping through.
Nell had to have known we were her kids. She murdered one of her own children. The new thought made me stutter, and I had to look at Phoebe to keep my thoughts focused.
If I told them Damien thought I was cheating, they’d want to know why and how. I wasn’t sure how much of a lie I could feed them without screwing up. I glanced at Joel, who gripped his wrist, blood wet and shiny.
Flustered, I saw the shadow of unease cross Phoebe’s forest green eyes. This dead girl’s eyes, I thought.
Clearing my throat, I tried again. “Damien wanted…”
Joel shouted and moved back so quickly that I stopped. Hitting the bars behind him, Joel stared past Phoebe and me.
Twirling around, my hands up, I saw the source of Joel’s alarm.
Sitting beneath one of the archways was the tiger.
Swishing her tail, she uprooted the dusty earth in a cloud behind her.
If I didn’t know better, I could have sworn I saw amusement in her furry face. But I must just have perceived what I wanted to see.
Blinking away the confusion, I held up my hands to stop Joel. The last thing he needed was a racing heartbeat.
“He wanted me to bring her back.” I spit out the lie before I could stop myself. For Phoebe, I gestured to the tiger. In my desperation to find an excuse, it seemed that one fell in my lap.
“Bring her back from where? Where did she go?” Phoebe asked, glancing between the tigress and myself.
I looked at the tiger, but she just watched us. “She was supposed to follow us and didn’t. I was just told to keep an eye out for her.”
Phoebe frowned. “He made you disappear for that?”
I nodded. “I think she’s important to the Challenge.” The lump in my throat thickened, and I didn’t dare say more.
The tigress yawned, stretching her enormous jaws and revealing the dozens of sharp fangs.
“How?” Cody asked when the tiger closed her mouth. His body was poised to run.
“I don’t know,” I confessed, unable to think up an excuse on the spot. “But she did save me in the monkey cage when I was with Phoebe.” At least the last part was true.
Phoebe’s eyes widened. “Really?”
“Yeah, I fell, and they had me surrounded.” I explained how the tiger had chomped one of the leaping monkeys.
Joel was creeping forward, his body hunched around his bloody hand, which Phoebe motioned for him to keep elevated. His dark shirt was blotched with blood and sweat, but he did as he was told and asked, “How do we know that thing isn’t this Damien guy?”
We all turned to the tiger for confirmation.
She stared back calmly.
Phoebe shrugged. “Well she did show up with Damien at one point.”
“And it’s a she?” Cody asked, though he didn’t sound convinced that this was notable. “Unless demons don’t have a gender.”
Damien could do whatever he pleased in the Grave. I doubted that appearing in the form of a tiger or changing his gender would be trouble. That being a thought, I still doubted that this creature was him, just a product of the grave.
“It’s the eyes,” I said. “She doesn’t have his eyes.”
Having had enough of our examination, the tiger stood up. Turning her back to us, she started down the pathway, powerful shoulders shifting.
“Hey.” Phoebe pointed up to the sign.
House of Mirrors, it read.
To Phoebe, I said, “That wasn’t there before.”
“I know,” she confirmed in a soft tone. “Something’s changed. This can’t be good. Did Damien say anything about this?”
I shook my head and lied again. “I guess he changed his mind about something.”
“Also not good,” Phoebe said.
Clutching his injured hand to his chest, Joel stepped up beside us. “Do we follow it?” His jutted his chin toward the tigress.
It was the first time Joel had asked instead of telling us what to do. It almost deserved a pat on the back and a smile.
I refrained, however.
“We could.” Phoebe nodded.
Cody peered at the other signs in the circle of the zoo. “It could be a trap.”
“Yup,” Phoebe agreed flatly as if she’d already thought of it.
&nb
sp; “Well, how do we tell?” Joel asked.
Phoebe snorted. “Let’s follow. If something weird happens, we run.”
“Wait,” Cody warned. He pulled his shirt off and twisted it up. I realized that the bottom had been torn, probably for the cloth around Joel’s thumb now.
Kneeling, Cody wrapped his shirt around Phoebe’s snakebite.
She ducked her head away, seemingly embarrassed. “I could have done that, Cody.”
Tightening the shirt on his hand into a knot, Joel asked, “With what? Your tube top?”
Phoebe flinched at the final tug but otherwise seemed okay.
“At least you don’t seem to be suffering from the snake bite,” I said, testing. Did she already know?
“I feel fine,” Phoebe said, looking away.
Maybe her symptoms were delayed because of that weird time warp with Joel’s thumbs. I wasn’t sure if I should be grateful or skeptical. I went with skeptical.
“Ready.” Cody stood up and brushed off his jeans. His upper body was slender but wiry with defined muscles.
He caught me looking, and we both smiled nervously and looked away.
“Let’s go,” Phoebe said. She motioned for me to fall beside her.
Phoebe and I stepped forward first, side by side. I noticed she wasn’t limping as much and wondered how much of it had been poison and how much was because of her new…situation. I tried not to stare at her as we made our way down the trail, dust swirling.
My socked feet were beginning to throb.
The pathway bent only once, and the Egyptian theme became more distinct. The bars looked like stone instead of metal and were colored with red, orange, black, and white images forming a story I couldn’t decipher.
The path didn’t branch off, which worried me. If the Freeze Tag Monster popped out, we would be herded like chuted cattle.
Around the bend, a large, arched stone door that was painted black sealed an entrance to what could be a square stone tomb decorated with the same Egyptian hieroglyphics.
The door had one large Egyptian eye staring out at us. What was utterly out of place was the large black doorknob in the center.
On either side of the door sat two stone sphinxes. Their mouths gaped so wide that they appeared to have hollowed-out throats. A sphinx’s head was supposed to be human, which this was, but the teeth looked more like our tiger’s.
On their bellies, words were carved, but I was too far away to read them.
Our tiger stopped ahead and settled on her stomach, looking to the door.
I came up next to her. She didn’t move or make any sounds to attack, but that didn’t make me less leery. She could snag my ankles in her teeth if she wanted.
Phoebe walked up the other side of the tiger, approaching the statues.
The tiger took up most of the room in the center of the path. We all had to sidle past her to get to the black door. The bars one either side of us were pitched into darkness beyond the cage. The torches wouldn’t cast light into the mystery cages.
Phoebe stepped between the two stone statues that stood as high as her armpits. She twisted the doorknob to find that it was locked. Cursing, she glanced back at the three of us for help.
“So how do we get in there?” Cody asked.
“Well, Phoebe’s door was locked when I came into the Demon’s Grave,” I noted.
Phoebe squeezed her fingers. Her hand looked limp again, and I debated telling her. But just how was I going to breech that conversation?
“How did you get in?” Phoebe asked me.
I blinked, trying to wrap my thoughts around the simple question while my head was too full of complicated ones. “I, uh, used that stick earlier to knock the sign from the archways. It knocked the knob loose.”
“We could try that,” Joel said.
Cody was nodding.
“On a stone door, boys?” Phoebe quirked a brow. “Really?”
My eyes caught the words on the statues’ bellies. “I don’t think it’ll work this time.”
“Well, how do we get in?” Joel snapped irritably.
I motioned to the statues.
On the belly of the one to the right it read, “One of us is the Devourer.”
The statue to the left read, “One of us is the Key.”
Cody read them out loud before the pregnant silence consumed us.
Phoebe ducked down and peered at the knob before announcing, “Yup.” Straightening she twisted her neck to look at us. “There is a keyhole here. We must need a key.”
Staring incredulously at the two gaping holes in the tiger statue mouths, I frowned. “So one of them is going to chop an arm off, and the other will have the key.”
Joel’s face was nearly ashen as he glanced down at his cradled hand. “I don’t think so.”
“Which is which, do you think?” Cody asked.
I peeked at the tiger. “Do you know?” I asked her.
The tiger turned her giant head up to look at me. Those sparkling eyes spoke volumes though she stayed silent.
She stood up, causing all of us to stiffen. Turning around, she padded past Joel and Cody only to collapse onto her side several feet back, seemingly bored with us.
“Well, she’s no help,” Phoebe muttered.
“Go ahead, chickenshit.” Joel shoved Cody with his shoulder. The jolt made Joel wince, which was somewhat satisfying. “Go put your arm in. It’s a fifty/fifty chance.”
Cody stepped forward.
“He’s not serious,” I protested as Cody walked past me. “Don’t put your arm in. There must be a clue.”
“I’m not going to put my arm in,” Cody said, offended. “Unlike the genius back there, I don’t just stick my hand in anywhere.” He stopped before the statue to the right.
Cody unclasped his belt. Being so narrow, it wasn’t surprising that he’d need a belt. As he pulled it free of his jeans, I heard Phoebe snicker.
“Keep this up and you’ll be naked by the end of the Challenge.”
Cody reddened and turned his back to Joel and me.
I half expected Joel to say something cruel, but he surprised me by staying quiet.
Edging closer, I watched Cody place the metal clasp of his belt against the stone teeth with a shaky hand.
Meticulously, he fed the belt down the throat.
I felt every muscle tense each time he pushed his belt down a little further into the open maw. The sound of the metal scraping the stone echoed for us all to hear.
Joel eventually strode closer, leaning near me to watch but mindful not to touch.
The belt reached the bottom and went slack, and the sound stopped.
“That’s the one then,” Joel said eagerly.
“But don’t put your arm in,” Phoebe said as if the idea had crossed anyone’s mind.
It hadn’t.
Cody started to pull his belt free.
“Try the other one just to be sure,” Phoebe said, eyes intense.
Cody grabbed his leather belt, holding the clasp of it as if it were the head of a snake before shifting to the second statue. With the same care, he lowered the tip into the mouth. The metal scrapped against the stone all the way down.
We all leaned closer, waiting.
The belt began to bend, hitting the bottom.
Nothing happened.
“Crap,” Phoebe breathed. “Maybe if we can make a hook of some kind and fish out a key or something. Neither can’t be the devourer.”
Cody nodded. “Yeah, I don’t want to stick my arm in there.”
He began to pull the belt free, the metal tip clanking noisily.
Taking a deep breath, I tried to think, speaking out loud. “Maybe we’re missing something, a clue or anything that might be hidden.”
The stone jaws suddenly ground shut. The crunch of the stone echoed and made me squeak, while the rest of them jumped.
Joel crashed into the stone bars of the surrounding cages, spinning to find an escape like a madman.
Phoebe grabbed Cody around the waist, and together they fell to the dusty earth.
Coughing, I waved my hand to clear the dust. “Everyone okay?”
“I’m okay,” Cody said quickly, quietly. His voice seemed to chill the kinetic atmosphere that erupted the moment the jaws closed. Everyone around me stopped and stared.
I inched forward to see the massive stone jaws. The belt protruded from the bared teeth, partly severed. It would have crushed an arm if that’d been the case.
Phoebe’s wide eyes cast themselves to the rest of us before a smile cracked her lips. Laughing out loud, she reached down to help Cody to his feet. “That scared the crap out of me.”
“Me too,” Cody said, and they smiled at one another.
I couldn’t even force a feigned giggle as I clutched my pajama shirt. “I guess we’ve found our devourer,” I said.
“That means…” Phoebe stepped towards the second tiger.
“Wait!” I protested. “Shouldn’t we try the hook idea? We can find something else.”
The ground beneath my toes shook. I started to duck, gripping the bars of the closest cage for balance.
The monster was back already.
My eyes met Phoebe’s, and I saw the unyielding determination. “No time,” she said and plunged her hand into the open jaws of the sphinx statue.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Leaping to her side, I prepared myself to grab Phoebe’s waist and pull her away at a moment’s notice.
Though in all fairness, it would probably be too late.
With equal swiftness, Phoebe swirled her arm inside the gaping mouth once and drew her arm to safety. She produced a black long-necked key for us to see. It was similar to the glass one I’d found in the previous Challenge, except this looked as though it were carved from obsidian stone. I realized I hadn’t seen the glass key since the hospital. How could I have forgotten?
The earth rumbled beneath my feet, interrupting my thoughts.
Phoebe didn’t miss a beat as she went to work unlocking the door.
Joel kept glancing behind us and inching closer to Phoebe and me.
Cody grabbed for my arm, missing and catching the front of my shirt in his fist. He was mindful of where he grabbed, at least.
Midnight Ruling Page 21
