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My breath caught. The kid was alive. Though how alive and for how long depended on how much of his life force had already been sucked out, how efficient Dante and I would be as a team.

I clenched my knife harder and pushed forward, careful of my footsteps, even though my blood was pumping, and I had the urge to sprint toward the sound of a hurt child. Rushing in wouldn’t help anyone, especially the kid.

Dante was close behind me, the rustle of his jacket the only sound alerting me to him pulling out his weapon. We didn’t speak as we rounded the corner, my body tightening in preparation, my mind clear, and my blood singing as I got in the zone for a fight.

Rounding the corner, we saw the source of light—candles. Dozens of them. Illuminating the space littered with bones, torn clothing, and what looked like the corpses of small animals. But my mind was telling me that. I knew those small skeletons weren’t animals.

And in the center was the Black Annis. She was smaller than I’d expected. Petite, even. Which made her all the more horrifying. Her skeletal frame, graying, rotting skin, sunken eyes, and strands of hair hanging from her bald, age-spotted scalp were enough to incite a good jump scare from even the most hardened hunter.

Not me, of course. I’d seen worse.

She let out a horrifying screech when she saw us, moving quicker than I foresaw, launching upward and scuttling up on the ceiling like a fucking arachnid.

My eyes danced upon a small, huddled form which had collapsed into a heap when the Black Annis dropped it from its clutches.

“Get the kid!” I yelled at Dante as I ran toward the advancing hag.

I was expecting some kind of hesitation or argument from Dante, even if there wasn’t technically time for that. Men usually chose the most opportune moments to assert their masculinity.

I was pleasantly surprised when he ran toward what I hoped was the alive child.

I didn’t have time to focus on much else because the Black Annis sprung from the ceiling, rushing toward me.

I crouched down, leaping across the space so she didn’t land on me, and so I had the wall of the cavern at my back. She crawled on four legs, still shrieking from her rotted mouth.

She was focused on me until a small whimper sounded. At the sound, her head jerked to the side with an unnatural click, doing an exorcist-style swivel to where Dante had gathered the child in his arms.

“Mine!” she squawked in a ragged, wraithlike voice. My ears stung at the tone, unnatural and bloodcurdling.

She started to run toward Dante and the kid.

“Fuck.”

I sprinted forward, snatching up a candle and hurling it in her direction. So why the candles were here in the first place was an interesting detail. Necessity? A ritual? Who knew. Whatever the reason, it was handy to me since the candle caught on one of the shreds of her tattered garment, snaking up her exposed, contorted, gnarled spine.

She let out another screech, this one pained, angry. It slowed her down enough for me to get in the path between her and Dante, who had his gun drawn, the kid clasped tight to his chest.

The fire engulfed not just the Black Annis, but it also consumed the scraps of clothing from her old, decomposed victims, quickly spreading amongst everything flammable in the place.

“Go!” I shouted to Dante, squaring off with the creature, who was only pissed and injured, nowhere near incapacitated.

Again, I expected Dante to try to be the hero, eager to save the kid, protect the woman, and kill the monster all at once. Never mind the fact that men sucked at multitasking. But he only nodded once, yelled, “Don’t fucking die,” then hurried toward back from where we came.

The Black Annis shrilled at seeing her prey, her only source of sustenance, being carried off.

The moment she tried to advance toward Dante, I scuttled in her path. “Uh-uh.” I waggled my finger. “Little boys are off the menu, bitch. Try your hand at me, instead. But I warn you, I’m tough and bitter.” I bared my teeth, unsure if she was capable of understanding me.

Her head titled with unnerving sentience as she stared at me.

“Mine!” was all she shouted in that horrible squeal before racing toward me in a ball of flames.

The knife had been a risky choice before the fire, since it required proximity if I didn’t want to throw it. Now I had to get close to a pissed-off supernatural entity that was currently ablaze.

No time to go for my gun, I just had to commit to my stupid decisions. Good thing I had a lot of practice.

I dodged her once, twirling to find purchase on any part of her not currently on fire. Harder than I first thought. I just had to hope I was less flammable than her. Without thinking too much, I dashed forward, thrusting my knife down into the back of her neck.

Unbearable heat licked at my face, most likely singeing off my eyebrows and what felt like a couple of layers of skin.