After five minutes of walking past rows and rows of empty cells, we reached a thick, steel door. A small, painted sign hung over it that read ‘Laboratory.’

I glanced to Io, who shrugged. “Not like there’s any other way to go,” she said. I nodded and pressed my ear to the door. Hearing nothing, I slowly turned the handle and swung the door open.

The heavy door creaked open and we slipped inside. It slammed shut behind us. The room we were in was nearly pitch black, with a dim light coming from lanterns on the walls. Except, the lanterns weren't lit, they seemed almost bioluminescent. Io fumbled around the wall until she flicked a switch and the lanterns glow brightened, illuminating the whole room.

For once, the signage in the evil base was correct. We were in a laboratory, at least as far as I could tell. The first thing I noticed were the doors. There were four in total, including the one we'd come in through, each marked with a cardinal direction. According to that, we'd come from the South door. In the southwest corner of the room there was a forge, not unlike the one used to brand me with the Mark. In the dead center of the room, there was an operating table, dyed with dried blood. Memories began to well up and I forced myself to look at the rest of the room.

There were bookshelves, desks, and various items used in magic laying around. Illustrations of magic circles and the Hunter’s Mark were pinned to the walls. The floor was covered in chalk markings. They all looked like nonsensical scribbling to me, but by the way Io looked at them, they had to mean something.

“Makes me wish I was any good at hexing,” I said, gesturing to walls. “Then I might have the foggiest idea what any of this means.”

Io chuckled and leaned in closer to inspect one of the drawings. I began searching the room for anything that could be used as a weapon.

A crash echoed throughout the room and I looked over at Io, who was sheepishly holding a book in her hands. I glanced to the doors, which were now blocked by solid steel gates.

“Sorry I just—” Io began to say.

“Careful, if that was trapped, who knows what else might be?”

From behind the doors I heard the distant ringing of a bell.

“That's an alarm if I've ever heard one,” Io said. As if right on cue, there was a dull thud on the south door and muffled shouting. “And we're trapped,” she added.

I muttered a curse and looked around. Unfortunately, it seemed like she was right. I walked over to one of the gates and tried to lift it, but I barely got it up an inch before collapsing to the ground, exhausted. Someone, likely fixers, started pounding at another door. I muttered more curses.

I glanced at Io, who was now examining the forge.

“If I'm right…all of the preparation you need to brand someone with the Mark is in place,” she said.

“Odd that they’d just leave that out. How does that help us?” I asked, climbing to my knees. As I did, a third door began to rattle as fixers began to try and knock it down.

“You could brand me,” Io said. “And we could fight our way out of here.”

I snorted back a laugh. “No way, kid,” I said, waving my hand dismissively. “Even if your powers kicked in quick enough, we'd just get overwhelmed.”

Io frowned and said, “They would. From my research they take just minutes to set in. And we'd have a better chance, at least.”

“No,” I said, a bit more forcefully. I felt my ‘danger smile’ creeping to the edges of my lips, but I pushed it back.

“Then I'll just have to try it alone,” Io said. She picked up the branding iron, which was glowing hot. I took a step forward. “It won't work, but it'll maim me nice and good.”

“No,” I growled, “you won't do thay.”

I took another step forward and Io paused. So I took another one. I was just two steps from her now.

Then, I felt something warm drip down my left side. I looked down and there was a metal poker sticking out of my side. And on the other end, Io, looking furious. She’d put down the branding iron to stab me, at least.

“You're just like them!” She shouted. I fell backwards onto the ground and grabbed the rod which was now slick with my blood. Io took a deep breath and the anger melted from her face. It was replaced by a terrifying calm. “I'm sorry,” she said, unconvincingly, “but this is the only way. Will you help me?”

“No, I won't,” I said to Io, struggling to my feet and holding my hand out calmingly. “You don't the true cost of it.”

I took her hands and held them tightly between mine. They were slick and warm with blood, which was still freely flowing from my side.

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“You’re just like my mother,” Io hissed, jerking her hands away from mine. “I am not weak. I am not the same child you saved all those years ago.”

“It isn’t about strength, believe me. It is not a road anyone should go down. There are…risks.”

Io shoved me backwards. I fell to the ground, hard, and waves of agony echoed through my entire body.

“I am aware of the risks!” she shouted. “I’ve prepared myself.”

I stood, the blood rushing out of my head and making me woozy. I blinked away stars from my vision and steadied myself against the wall.

“The risks are greater than you could ever imagine,” I growled.

“If it’s about being replaced by a demon, I am not afraid of that,” she said, a smile slowly spreading across her face.

“How do you—”

“Who do you think helps the Guild do their research?” she spat. “You? Your friend, Lieutenant Char? No. I’ve devised a new method—a synthesis. It will allow me to survive, consume the demon, rather than having it consume me.”

“And why are you telling me this?” I asked, desperately wishing I hadn't let myself get stabbed in the stomach.

“Because,” she said, “I wanted to thank you for being the one to set me on this path. I wouldn’t have done it if not for you.”

Figures.

“Then let me take you off of it,” I pleaded.

Io shook her head and scowled.

“I had hoped you’d join me,” she hissed. “You and I, we could have done something really great.”

“Spare me the villain speech,” I said. “It’s tacky and useless. Without me to brand you, you’re just human. I might not be at my peak, but I’m still stronger than you.”

Io picked me up by my neck and flung me across the room. I crashed into the wall and fell to the ground, my ears ringing and my body in agonizing pain.

“You’re so shortsighted,” Io said chastisingly, as if she was talking down to a misbehaving childhood. She pulled down the hem of her shirt, revealing a complete Hunter’s Mark just below her collarbone. “You know the Mark doesn’t have to be on the neck, right? That’s just a strange aesthetic tradition. You Hunters have a lot of those.”

I cursed under my breath. I hadn't know that, of course. But if I let things I didn't know stop me, I wouldn't be a Hunter.

I stood up and yanked the poker out of my side. It came out with a spurt of blood and a fresh hell of agony, but I managed to not pass out. Io backed up, just watching me, a curious expression on her face. She licked a speck of blood from her lips and smiled.

I reached into the forge and pulled out another red-hot poker. I pulled up my shirt, held it with my teeth, and made sure my wound was pressed together. Blood flowed from it like a sewer pipe, in quick spurts. I gritted my teeth and pressed the hot end of the poker to my skin.

For just a second, it didn't hurt. Then, the whiteness in my vision faded and I snapped back to reality. I realized I was screaming and then the wave of agony hit. I flung the poker across the room and nearly collapsed to the floor, only staying semi-upright by steadying myself on the forge.

“I’d heard reports that you were stronger, healing faster, that kind of thing,” Io said, looking me over. “I thought for a moment that you might’ve evolved—reached another stage of demonic synthesis. But it appears that those reports were…exaggerated.

“Look at you,” she spat. “You can barely stand. You’re not a blueprint for tomorrow, you’re yesterday’s leftovers. You’re old, Jonas. Why don’t you just roll over and die?”

“Tempting,” I snarled. I desperately looked around the room, searching for something, anything I could use as a weapon. I leapt toward a table and grabbed a beaker off of it, shattering one end of the glass. I flung the shards at Io, who didn’t even react.

Most of the shards cut her skin, but a couple embedded themselves deep. I watched in horror as her skin began to bubble and grow, pushing the glass out.

“It’s useless,” she said. She rushed forward and grabbed me by the throat before slamming me into the wall. The entire room shook and dust fell from the ceiling. I stabbed her wrist with a glass shard and she dropped me. Wincing in pain, she kicked me, but I mostly dodged the blow and began to crawl away.

My ribs ached, but I managed to get a meter or two before Io grabbed me by the neck and flung me into the wall across the room. I hit stone brick, hard, and fell to the ground. A bit of dust and loose stone fell with me.

I started to pull myself to my feet, but Io walked over and kicked my legs out from under me. Standing over me, she spat, “I had such high hopes for you. You were able to kill my Kurtadams. That was no small feat.”

I groaned. “Boo hoo.”

“What?”

“Mommy wouldn’t let you be a Hunter so you just had to do human experiments for the Guild and military. Boo hoo.”

Io bared her teeth and kicked me in the stomach, knocking the wind out of me. I wheezed and she wrapped her hand around my neck and lifted me in the air.

“I should kill you,” she growled.

“Oh no,” I said, doing a terrible impression of her voice. “I’m so rich and going to a great school in the wealthiest city on the planet. Grow up.”

Io squeezed her grip around my throat and started to say something. I didn’t let her finish a single word, as I cut off her hand at the wrist with a large shard of glass I’d been holding onto.

She screamed and I fell to the ground. Blood began spurting everywhere as she clutched the end of her hand. I took that opportunity to tackle her. We went tumbling, knocking over tables, trading blows, until she flung me off of her. I landed on my feet and started flinging glass bottles at her.

“Enough!” she shouted and she charged me. She tackled me and we went backwards over one of the tables, glassware cracking and embedding into our skin. I pushed her off of me and grabbed around for something, anything to use as a weapon, but there wasn’t anything around. Meanwhile, Io was standing up and she’d grabbed the poker that she had stabbed me with.

She thrust the tip toward me and I closed me eyes. I knew it was the end and while I was facing it head on, I didn’t want to face it looking at the damn thing.

For some reason, a memory flashed in the back of my mind. Images of a throne made of gnarled wood and branch, painted midnight black, flashed by. A deep feeling of exhaustion passed though me, and then it was gone.