The world slows around me when I'm under stress. In a flash, I've run an inventory of my available weapons, then the things I can use as weapons in a pinch. There aren't many of either category. Matches aren't good for direct combat, and there are no loose objects in the room except for me and Barnabas. I'm not even wearing shoes. Barnabas is, at least. That's our best bet for bludgeoning people unless he's got a knife on him, too. I dart to his side.

"Who is it?" he whispers, his voice shaking. He's risen to a crouch like he's ready to take off sprinting the moment an opportunity presents itself.

I scrap my half-formed plan. If either of us is going to get away in a teacher attack, it's the one with a sprinting build and proper footwear.

"I don't know," I say, and shock myself with how steady my voice sounds. It's nice to know my brush with Colson in the stairway just days ago didn't rob me of my affinity for sticky situations. "Barnabas, listen. I'm going to go for whoever opens that door, or Mr. Ashcroft if he's with them. I need you to get away and find Exie. Tell her what you told me, and try to memorize whatever route you take to get out. If you find an underground pool, take the main tunnel straight away from it; that'll get you back to the school."

I'm probably going to regret playing the hero the moment that door actually opens, but I can do some damage if I've got nothing to lose. I've also seen the demon ritual once already. There are weak spots in it that I can take shots at to stall the whole process—until when, I don't know, but hopefully at least long enough to let Barnabas get away.

"Once you're there," I continue, "tell the rest of the students what I told you. Tell Exie to share what she knows, if she hasn't already. You two stand a better chance than me at rallying the rest of the students; turn them against the school. They can't stop all of us."

"What about you?"

"I'm going to try and find out where this cult keeps the books they use for their rituals."

It's a plan. I'm planning. Lord knows what illness infected me with that propensity, but my own words make sense as they leave my mouth, and I can't say I'm used to the feeling. It's nice. The plan, meanwhile, will probably explode in our faces the moment the first teacher opens the door, but at least I'll have tried something different before I die.

I'm not going to die. This school hasn't killed a student yet—at least not in our year. If Exie's been smart about this, she'll have told other students what's going on already, and spread the knowledge of how to burn the doves. They might have even burned some more doves... but here my thoughts swing wide in a different direction.

The other judged students. They're not out and about around the school, waiting to have their demon handcuffs pilfered and incinerated. Headmaster Massingham told Mrs. Hardwick to separate them after we burned Barnabas's dove. The situation they feared was exactly what's played out: students figuring out how to usurp the cult's activities. That means they're all together somewhere. If I can figure out where, I can drop a hint of some kind; some trace for Exie to identify, if she happens to find it in the first place. She can free the other judged students. I'm only sad I won't be there to witness it.

All this and more flies through my overwrought mind in the half-minute it takes for the footsteps outside to reach our cell. Candlelight flickers beneath the door. I rise to a crouch beside Barnabas, one heel braced against the wall behind me for maximum power when I launch myself at whichever teacher appears first. There's a murmur outside. Then a murmured reply. Some tinkling. A rattle, and the door vibrates like someone's grabbed the handle and shaken it. The tinkling returns.

Their key is sticking. In the spare seconds it buys us, I tap Barnabas on the arm and direct him to the far side of the cell, so we can run at the teachers from opposite sides. We've just resumed our positions when a heavy knock shakes the door.

"Stand aside," says a gruff voice through the wood, and my whole world upturns. I know that voice.

A fantastic weight slams the door from the other side. Something splinters. There's a countdown, a spurt of footsteps, and an almighty crash that blows the door clean off its hinges. Two people stumble through. Never in my life did I think I would be glad to see Gilbert's bodyguard again, that burly student who threw me to the floor just this morning. Beside him is a second student of similar dimensions. Both of them look around somewhat stupidly, finding me and Barnabas pressed to opposite walls of the cell, ready to fight or bolt or hail our saviors, depending on what happens next.

"Are they in there?" asks another voice, and I swear my whole soul lifts from my body as the burly students part to make way for Exie.

"Des?" she asks, then spots me and gasps. "Des!"

I don't react fast enough to dodge, which is just as well. Exie crashes into me in a rush of worry and delight and uniform and braids, and clamps me in a bear hug that proves she'd be much better at climbing those old willows outside than I was.

"You're okay!" she says, words tripping over one another. "Are you okay? Did they get you? Are you—"

"I'm fine. God, Exie, we thought you were teachers. What are—"

"We? Is—Barnabas!"

I regain my view of the room just in time to see Barnabas slide down the wall across from me. Exie abandons me and flies to his side next, but he's fine. Just shocked, I think.

"Gilbert, Juliet, come help him," commands Exie.

She's not here alone. Now that I can see again, I realize the hallway outside is full of students. More students than I can count from here, most of them holding candles that give the stone walls around them a radiant glow. I have to shield my eyes after so long forsaking God's light. Gilbert and the girl he's always hanging out with join us in the room, crowding the space almost to bursting. Exie has them tend to Barnabas, and returns to my side.

"Let's get out of here," she says, and slips her hand into mine, tugging me towards the doorway. She propels the two burly students ahead of her, then posts them at either end of the group gathered in the hallway. There's at least ten people here, and that's not even everyone. Lights bob farther off down the tunnels as more students jog towards us. They must have spread out to search the tunnel maze.

"What happened?" I ask, the moment we're free of that oppressive cell. "You didn't tell me you were putting an army together."

"I've changed plans."

"Well, I can tell that much."

"Let me finish." Same old Exie. Though she's having trouble meeting my eyes, and she's gripping my hand with a force I haven't felt since we got trapped together beside the demon's pool. A small bubble of warmth blooms inside me. She was worried—scared, even—for me.

"When Clarice got taken..." her voice falters, but she steadies it and forges on. "When I saw you get trapped in that room, then Clarice with a dove, I knew the plan we had wasn't going to work. Just the two of us... we're not enough to go up against a cult. But we're not the only people here, either. I talked to the other students, and told them we needed to find you and Barnabas. There's a group providing a distraction upstairs right now. In the lunch hall, so we could sneak out and get down into the tunnels. We don't have much time—we need to get back again soon, before afternoon classes start."

It's jarring to even think about classes after everything that's happened. But Exie wouldn't care without a reason, and she wouldn't bring half the school along with her if that reason was still doing well in school. "Do you have a plan?"

"I think so. Well, half a plan."

"Close enough."

"Only if it does better than last time." She turns towards me and drops her forehead to my shoulder.

I hug her with my spare arm. "Did I scare you?"

"That was my fault for leaving you alone. Or making you go without backup. I'm sorry."

"If you hadn't, though, who would have been left to come rescue me? Every fairy tale needs a knight in shining..." I look around. "Candles, I guess? We'll go with that."

"You're terrible."

"Thank you, I try. Really, though. What's the plan?"

"I was going to ask your help with that."

"You know me and planning."

"You're the one who just asked."

She's not wrong. And something really has changed. The part of me that would have tossed any plan out the window half a day ago isn't gone, but it's more willing to wait its turn now. It'll serve me plenty well if whatever plan we end up with here still goes out the window. Until then, we need a more strategic approach.

"We need to burn some more doves," I say. "How many people are on our side?"

"All the other students, in some way or other. Some are just there to cause chaos, I think. But most of them are willing to help."

"We can work with chaos. Where do you need me?"

We're interrupted by the arrival of a student whose slinky walk tells me they've been taking a sneaking mission about as seriously as it should probably be taken.

"Sorry," they say, hovering just behind Exie as she withdraws reluctantly from my hug. "Am I interrupting something?"

"What did you find?" says Exie.

"There's another cell not far from here that sounds like it's got people in it. They're not responding when we knock, so it's either someone else who's been locked up down here, or it's what we were looking for."

"Take Barnabas to pick the lock. Tell him he can bring whoever he wants as backup."

"Are you going to want to be there?"

Exie sighs. She turns back to me. "Can you come, too?"

"I said I'm ready to go wherever you need me."

"Don't be like that."

"Like what?"

She actually stomps her foot. "Don't just listen to me. If I start overplanning, I need you to stop me. You know what to do when things go off-plan. We need to work together."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Do not—" She breaks off as I burst out laughing. "Are you teasing me?"

"You gave me the opening. But yes, I hear you. Rest assured that I will follow your plans to the extent that they serve us, then try something different. Maybe a plan of my own, who knows."

Exie clamps me in a hug again. "If any plan sees you get caught again, honestly Des, fuck the plan."

I think I learn in that moment how it feels to be possessed. "Sorry for scaring you," I say, and kiss her braids. Any lower, and I'm not going to be able to stop myself.

"If you're going to do that, at least do it properly."

"Scare you?"

"Idiot," she says, and kisses me.