Then she grabbed Sophia's injured arm and shoved her down into the pit.
Sophia landed awkwardly on her left side and let out a sharp gasp of pain. Slowly, she got to her feet. Even though she was standing on the foulest sorts of things imaginable, covered with the foulest sorts of things imaginable, flies buzzing in the air all around her, the men hooting and hollering at her, Sophia still squared her shoulders, lifted her chin, and glared at Hazel with murder in her eyes.
It was one of the bravest things I'd ever witnessed.
I'd seen a lot of horrors in my time. Seen them and done some of them myself. Blood, guts, screams, tears, terror, torture, murder. But I don't know that I would have been able to do the same in Sophia's place - to face my enemies with such grace, bravery, and poise. I don't know anyone else who would have. In that moment, I admired, respected, and loved Sophia more than ever before, and once again, I vowed to do whatever it took to save her from this nightmare forever.
One of Grimes's men stepped forward and handed Hazel a shovel, which she threw down to Sophia. The shovel skittered across a couple of bodies, scattering the flies for a few seconds, before finally coming to a stop a few feet away from her.
"You know the drill," Hazel repeated. "Pick it up and start digging."
"Yes, Sophia," Grimes said, gesturing out at the pit.
"Please start digging. As you can see, we need some more room. I've been very . . . displeased with people lately."
I frowned. Sophia had done this before? Buried bodies in a pit? When? The first time Grimes had taken her? I looked at Warren, who gave me a grim nod, confirming my worst suspicions. My heart clenched. Poor Sophia.
Of all the things that Grimes had done to her back then, of all the things that he could do to her now, I'd never thought it would be anything like this
Because this was what Sophia did for me . She got rid of all the bodies that I left behind as the Spider. I never asked where she took them or what she did with them, although I could guess. Dropping them in out-of-the-way spots like the Ashland Rock Quarry. Heaving them into the Aneirin River to float downstream. Burying them in graves in the woods.
Was this . . . was this pit where Sophia had learned to
dispose of bodies in the first place? It had to be. But if so, why would she willingly get rid of bodies for me now?
Why had she gotten rid of them for Fletcher for all those years? Why continue to do something that had to remind
her of all the horrors she'd suffered at Grimes's hands?
Guilt and shame joined the shock and disgust in my heart. All these years, I hadn't given a second thought to Sophia cleaning up my messes or the toll it might take on her. But now that I'd seen this, witnessed this horrific vision of her past, I felt sick inside to think that I'd asked her to do the same thing over and over again through the years. No, I hadn't even asked; I'd just assumed she would do it.
In a way, that made me worse than Grimes, Hazel, and their men. Because I was supposed to care about Sophia, not subject her to something like this. I wasn't supposed to benefit from her pain, but I had all the same.
Sophia glanced at the shovel that Hazel had tossed down to her, then slowly, carefully, deliberately crossed her arms over her chest.
"Pick it up, Sophia," Grimes said in a soft but deadly voice. "You'll only be punished more if you don't."
Sophia glared at him, showing her defiance, but after a few more seconds, her shoulders slumped in defeat.
She let out a tired sigh, leaned down, and picked up the shovel. She shuffled over to the opposite side of the pit, as far away from Grimes, Hazel, and their men as she could get, stuck the shovel into the earthen bank there, and started to dig, widening the trench.
For several seconds, the only sounds were the steady scrape-scrape-scrape of Sophia's shovel stabbing into the earth and the soft squish-squish-squish of the bodies, mag-gots, and more under her feet.
But it apparently wasn't enough that Sophia had already been shot and kicked and was now wading through death. Grimes and Hazel decided to torture her with their Fire magic too.
The two siblings reached for their power, and flames
sparked to life on their fingertips, dancing back and forth like molten-lava butterflies in the soft summer breeze. Their magic moved in perfect harmony, the flames undulating in time and even burning at the same intensity. Then, together, they threw their magic forward. Sophia's hands tightened around the shovel, and she stopped digging, knowing what was coming next, but she didn't hunker down or try to move out of the way. Instead, she stood there straight and tall as two balls of elemental Fire raced through the air and exploded into the bank, one on either side of her.
The scorching heat from the twin blasts blew back into Sophia, knocking her down onto the bodies again. I could feel the intensity of the elemental Fire all the way over where we were in the woods, and I could imagine how excruciating it must have been for her to be so close to it.
But once again, Sophia slowly picked herself up and staggered back onto her feet. The skin on her face, neck, hands, and arms had reddened from the blast, although
I couldn't tell if it was only temporary from the heat or if her skin had been that badly burned.
But maybe the worst part was that the shifting cadavers beneath her feet actually ignited - at least, their clothes did. Oily smoke boiled up from the torn, bloody fabrics that were still clinging to the rotten limbs, adding to the horrible stench in the air.
Sophia glared over her shoulder at her two tormenters.
Hazel cackled and threw another ball of her Fire magic into the bank close to the dwarf, the flames exploding and washing over even more of the corpses. More wretched smoke bubbled up around her, until it hung over the pit like the foulest sort of fog. After another moment, Sophia turned around and went back to her digging, the flames of Hazel's magic licking at her and the dead all around her.The men who'd come to watch hooted with delight through the whole horrible thing. A few even stuck their revolvers up into the air and fired off some shots. The sharp cracks rattled around the clearing, punctuating the men's mocking laughter. Hazel played to the crowd, holding her long off-white skirt out to one side and elegantly bowing to the men before sending little bursts of Fire straight into Sophia's back. Not enough to kill the dwarf but more than enough to hurt her. Grimes tipped his white fedora back from his forehead, as though he wanted an even better view. Then he simply stood there and watched the whole thing, his lips curved up into a small, sinister smile.
The searing heat from the elemental Fire. The foul, rotten stench from the swollen, bloated bodies. The acrid aroma of burned flesh. The bugs humming through the air, hungry for whatever blood and bones they could find.