I practically leap out of the cell and throw my arms around him.
He pats my back awkwardly. “You know, you really undersold this place. Stuff of nightmares, abyssal void, shroud of evil. Wish you’d told me about it sooner.”
“I don’t appreciate your tone, New Guy,” I say as I disentangle myself from him. “How did you even get here?”
“CJ brought me.”
“Yeah, I’m going to need more than that.”
There’s movement down the hall. Ezra grabs my arm and drags me into a shadow. There’s a slight tremor in his hand, and I realize he’s not as unaffected by the horror of this place as he seems. We listen for a moment. When nothing appears, Ezra whispers, “When Poppy told us what happened, CJ went to their family. Said they needed to get into Tartarus—”
“Wait, wait.” My stomach drops. “CJ went back to the Phantoms?”
They hate their family. Hate them so much, they won’t even talk about it.
“How did you convince them to do that?” I can barely get the question out.
Ezra scrunches his nose and shrugs. “It was their idea.” It’s clear he doesn’t realize the enormity of this. “They knew if they went back, they could make a deal to get into Tartarus and bring the limen stone with them.”
I feel like I’m going to be sick.
“What kind of deal?”
He makes a face. “I think they have to do some contract work or something.”
Shit.
Shit shit shit.
Look, I’ve always wanted CJ to use their powers. I mean, come on. If I had magic, I’d use itall the time. It doesn’t matter where it came from. Despite all that, I never wanted them to go back to the family they despise to do the work they hate.
Ezra snaps his fingers. “Hey, you can’t fall apart now. We’re in the middle of breaking out of literal hell. Wait to freak out later.”
He’s right. This is not the time and certainly not the place.
Deep breath. In. Out. Focus.
I force a scoff. “That’s rich coming from you.”
He winks and throws up some finger guns. “I freak out before the job so I don’t freak out on the job.”
I roll my eyes but nod and square my shoulders.
“Okay, so,” I say, voice steadier, “how did CJ bring you here?”
He opens his hand to reveal the limen stone. The rune now has a faint glow. “They summoned me as soon as they got a moment alone. My job was to pickpocket a key, then find you and tell you the plan.”
“Which is?”
He cringes. “They told their family they want to torture you because of what happened with your brother.”
“Damn, everybody’s really leaning into that,” I mutter.
“They’re still negotiating with their family, but the hope is they get to escort you themself, and then they can take you to Credence’s cell.”
He digs into his pocket and pulls out a skeleton key. An actual skeleton key. Like, a key made out of a skeleton. A finger bone forms the stem, the jagged end is a molar, and the top is a single vertebra.
“I got this off a guard. It should fit all the cells.”