Craven Manor(66)

Daniel spotted a deformed tree ahead and corrected his course towards it. The plague crawled over the trunk, and black fungus had begun to ooze out of cracks in the bark. Daniel avoided touching it as he ducked around the dying plant and followed the trail. Eliza seemed to be heading towards the gate Daniel used to access Craven Manor.

He felt woefully underprepared for the confrontation. He had the talisman and the salt but none of Bran’s knowledge or experience. He didn’t know what he needed to do to kill or even contain Eliza. If he was lucky, tying the talisman around her neck would be enough. If he was unlucky, he might need to find a way to make her eat it or break the glass and sprinkle the holy water over her. He didn’t want to contemplate what would happen if none of that worked.

The plants thinned, and Daniel stepped into the clearing ringed by stone statues and benches. A dozen agonized faces seemed to glare at him, the discolouration highlighting the folds of their clothes and painting tears down their cheeks. The basin in the circle’s centre looked deeper than it had before, and its filling of leaves and dirt seemed darker.

Daniel came to a stop. He was breathing heavily, and his legs, taxed to their limit, shook.

Which way did she go? It was hard to see the trail of destruction when shadows disguised it so well. He huffed, trying to replenish the oxygen in his aching limbs, and a cloud of condensation gusted away from his lips.

She’s close. When he searched for it, he felt the unnatural chill cutting at his skin and digging into his bones. He reached into the bag of salt as he turned in a slow circle. Mist had appeared out of nowhere, spilling between the statues and swirling around the dry fountain, and thickened with every passing second. As Daniel hunted amongst it, his eyes began to render bizarre shapes slinking through the white.

A feather-light touch breezed across the back of his neck. He reacted quickly, twisting away from the sensation and pulling out a handful of salt. The space behind him was empty. He blinked, then the mist shifted, and Daniel gasped as he recognised the outline of a figure.

Annalise peeked out from behind one of the statues. The girl was shaking. Her hair flowed around her face like a river, but hardness had replaced the fear in her eyes.

Daniel released the salt and took a step towards her. He kept his voice to a whisper. “What are you doing here? It’s not safe.”

She gave her head a small, quick shake. Daniel frowned. Eliza didn’t find the tomb, did she? No, there couldn’t have been enough time—Annalise must have followed me. Why? To help?

“You need to go back and hide.” Daniel was hyper-aware of the way each word created a tiny plume of condensation. Sweat on his forehead stung as it froze. “Quickly, Eliza’s here. I’ll be fine—go and stay with Bran.”

Annalise raised a hand. Her long, near-invisible finger pointed over Daniel’s shoulder. He tried to swallow as he turned.

Mist grew thick in the space between a headless faun and a weeping Grecian woman. Amongst the swirling white glowed two wide, hungry eyes.





Chapter Thirty





Daniel took a step back. He reached into the sack tied to his side and grasped a fistful of the coarse grains. The shadow creature drew out of the mist, its writhing, smoke-like form pushing the white fog aside. Its eyes had latched on to the girl behind Daniel, and he shifted to block Eliza’s view.

How much does Eliza remember? Annalise is technically the reason she became this monster. Does she want revenge?

Eliza took another step forward. Her monstrous maw gaped open, dripping strands of saliva onto the leaf litter. Her claws, each one as long as Daniel’s forearm, flexed and dug up clumps of dirt. She’d grown larger since he’d confronted her in the foyer. He didn’t know if she was feeding off the environment or whether Bran’s blood had nourished her, but she towered above him.

How on earth am I going to get the talisman onto her without being ripped apart? Terror squeezed Daniel’s insides, but he couldn’t afford to feel it. A single moment of weakness could carry an unforgivable cost.

Motion made him flinch. Annalise darted out from behind him. She leapt towards the creature that had once been her mother then danced back.

Eliza reacted instantaneously. A snarl ripped through the cold air as she lunged towards the girl. Daniel threw the salt with a yell. He’d hoped it would stop the monster, but Eliza’s momentum carried her past it, her jaws reaching towards the girl’s throat—

Annalise ran into the statue of an elegant woman holding a vase. The ghost morphed through the stone like smoke through a fly screen, and a second later, she appeared on its other side. Eliza hit the sculpture. A scraping, crunching noise rent the air as the impact crumbled the stone. The woman’s head tumbled off, the tear-streaked cheeks catching in the light before it smashed on the ground. The vase flew away, half of an arm still attached to it. Chips and dust billowed out in a small cloud, and the shadow monster yowled.

Trapped in the space between the living and the dead—like Bran, not quite tethered to the real world but still too solid to walk through walls. We can use this.

Annalise’s huge terrified eyes met Daniel’s. She looked as though she wanted to speak, but he understood her glance and nodded. “Keep her distracted. I’ll get the talisman around her—somehow.”

The girl’s lips twitched, and for a second, a smile lit her expression. Daniel grabbed clumps of salt out of his bag, trying not to notice how much his left arm ached, and scattered them over the ground between the nearest statues. The leaf litter was too uneven to let him make unbroken lines, and there was no time to clear it away, but Daniel hoped the salt would still give some protection. He stepped behind the lines he’d created as Eliza rose.