Something Strange and Deadly (Something Strange and Deadly #1)(43)

“I need electricity,” Joseph said. “I can do nothing without a source.”

Daniel yanked off the goggles. “This place ain’t powered. We’ve gotta find something else.”

The black clot formed like a sudden thundercloud over the desk. Daniel shoved me behind him.

Books flew off the desk and hurled toward us. Jie sprang up and intercepted them with fists and flying kicks, and the books pounded to the floor one after the other.

The darkness winked back out.

“It must stay in our realm,” Joseph murmured. Sweat beaded on his brow, and his face was twisted with concentration and effort. “Lure it out or I cannot affect it.”

“Here.” Daniel shoved the goggles in Jie’s hands. “You cover us.” He turned to me. “You look for quartz. Like a prism or part of a small decoration.”

“Quartz?” The word tasted heavy on my tongue—I didn’t see the logic. “Why do you—”

“It’s a power source,” he snapped. “D’you know of any here?”

“N-no.”

“Then you have to look around. Maybe it’s part of a [illegible] or some other bauble.”

“What will you do?” I asked.

“See what other electricity I can find. Now go.” He shoved me toward the western side and darted off toward the east.

I jumped into action, scrambling to the first aisle of shelves, but a quick scan showed only books.

A thump and the flap of pages resounded behind me. I whirled around just as a dictionary thudded at my feet. I jerked my gaze up and saw that Jie had stopped it. But only barely. I had to trust her instincts to protect me.

I rushed from that row and on to the next.

“Down!” Jie screamed, and somehow I reacted. I dropped to the floor, and a crash suddenly filled my ears. Shards of plaster and white powder rained down around me.

That figurine would have killed me.

The thought set me moving again. I raced to the next row of shelves and spared a glance across the room. Daniel seemed no better off than I. He was covered in soil as if he’d survived a potted plant attack.

I skittered into the next aisle, but the spirit was already there. Waiting, its shape like a twisting shadow in the hazy light.

I tried to stop, windmilling my arms to keep from tumbling forward.

In that moment as I fought for my balance, time seemed to stop. This couldn’t end here. Not now, not after we’d finally found a clue about the Exhibition guides and the Dead at the library.

I grasped at a shelf, and my eyes lit on a book spine.

The Nature and Presence of Amethyst.

I knew, deep in the back of my mind, that this meant something. But what?

Darkness consumed my vision, and the stench of grave dirt invaded my nose. Time surged back to its racing pace.

Before me, the spirit grew into a hulking, long-armed shadow. It slithered forward. Death. A creature of fear.

Then it clicked into place. Amethyst. Quartz. They are the same. Elijah had taught me that.

I wrenched myself around. I didn’t check to see if Death pursued—I just bolted.

“My earrings!” I screamed. “Amethyst!”

Joseph’s eyes flashed open. My feet drummed on the wooden floor as I hurtled toward him and the fountain.

“Amethyst! Quartz!” My voice broke as I strained to run and scream.

“Squeeze them!” Daniel bellowed from the back of the library. “Squeeze them!”

I reached the fountain. I searched over my shoulder, and though I couldn’t see the spirit, I knew from the chill that it hovered in the spirit world nearby.

“Come out!” I whirled around, thrusting my head forward and my shoulders back. “Come and get me! I’m right here!”

The spirit winked into being directly before me. Piercing cold and corrupt darkness. The high-pitched shriek stabbed at me again, burning into the crevices of my brain.

I faltered, tripping backward. My calves hit the lip of the fountain, and then a hand planted against my back.

Joseph, standing in the fountain, ripped my hair aside and clasped my earring.

Instantly, a ripple like hot, thick oil ran under my skin from my earlobe. My muscles started to twitch, and my heart beat faster and faster. A weak blue light snaked across my vision, filling the air with a crackling pop. The light flashed again—stronger and booming like thunder. It hit the spirit but was sucked in.

Again the blue lightning. Again it was consumed.

I felt as if my veins would burst, as if my brain were too large for my head. The agony bit into my bones so deeply that I thought they would surely snap. And still my heart beat faster.

Another blue crack, but this time it hit the clotted shadow and remained a flowing line of electricity. A thousand veins of blue sizzled over the spirit and down to the floor.

Just as my brain screamed for this hot oil to leave my skin, for my heart to slow, that I could take no more, a howl of pain erupted from Joseph’s mouth. The lines of blue lightning stopped. The darkness was gone.

Joseph and I lay on the floor of the library entrance, leaning against the fountain’s lip. Beneath his legs, a pool of water grew as his trousers dripped dry.

I brushed halfheartedly at the white powder on my gown. It must have come from the plaster bust that had nearly smashed my head in.

“What did you do?” I asked. “With my earring, I mean.”