Strange and Ever After (Something Strange and Deadly #3)(64)

I reached the doorway. Blue light blazed ahead, and the pop-pop! of the pulse pistols slipped between the thunder in my ears.

I bolted up the narrow tunnel. Faster, I ran. Faster. There were mummies ahead, and there were mummies behind. Their armor clanked, and their bony feet clattered. Soon enough, the guards in front would realize I was behind them. They would turn around and swarm over me. . . .

And I could not call on Oliver’s power—not while I used electricity. So I simply pushed more strength into my legs. One foot in front of the other, and one ragged, heaving breath after the next . . .

Until the mirrors shifted. As one, they rotated, and all light winked out.

Black, clotted panic surged up my throat. I couldn’t see. I lost all sense of the tunnel or where anything was: the mummies, the Spirit-Hunters, the exit. All I could do was hear the guards’ footsteps and armor. Closing in . . .

My feet slipped on the loose gravel. My hands hit the floor. My chin hit next. The crystal clamp fell and clattered back down the tunnel.

“Sleep!” The scream burned up my throat, and magic I hadn’t even gathered rushed from me. It poured out of me in a great wave of blue light.

Oliver’s magic. I pushed myself back up with bloodied hands. In pulsing gusts of magic—Sleep, sleep, sleep—I kept the guards above slowed and slogging.

And through the light, in front of Daniel and Jie, I saw Oliver. His eyes glowed so brightly that the contours of his skull blazed.

I reached the next mummy, ducking below its spear. Then the next mummy and the next—they were slowed by Oliver’s unrelenting power. It rolled off him, gushed from me. All the while, Jie kicked at knees, and Daniel heaved bodies aside.

And Joseph ran onward, chasing someone who always managed to outrun us.

I pushed past the final mummy, shoving its spear aside, and then Daniel’s hand was latching on to mine and pulling. We reached Jie—Daniel grabbed her too. Then we were to Oliver, and it was my job to snatch his wrist.

My demon jolted, his magic roaring back and the glow leeching from his face. “Run,” I shouted.

He did run, shoving at me from behind while Daniel towed ahead. The mummies’ speed was fast returning—and ours was fast flagging. . . .

But Joseph had already reached the sunlit door. With a final burst of strength, I pumped every ounce of life into my legs—into my grip on Oliver and my grip on Daniel. We were so near, so near. . . .

Then we were through, back on this high stone level of the Great Pyramid. The morning sun stabbed my eyes. Joseph had bolted left along the worn-pyramid side. We followed.

The mummies followed too.

I don’t know why I’d thought daylight would be our salvation. The guards were not slowed in the least. They hopped the pyramid steps as easily as acrobats. In fact, the narrowness of the tunnel had slowed them—now that we were open and exposed, they doubled their speed, scuttling on all fours like bronze spiders.

“Faster!” I shrieked at Oliver. But he needed no prodding. His eyes flashed blue; his face paled; he lashed out with another attack.

It did nothing. With the extra space, the mummies simply fanned out. The magic licked harmlessly over them.

So on we ran. My ankles rolled, and the corner of the pyramid came into view. We would round the edge . . . and then what? Even jumping to the next level would be too slow, and at this point, the only thing that kept me going was Daniel’s hand on mine—and Jie’s hand on his.

We reached the edge, barreled around . . . and then as one skittered to a stop, our arms spinning.

For Joseph had halted, his gaze on the distance, his shoulders back.

“Run!” Jie screamed, bolting to him. She made it in three steps, her hands outstretched to shove him into action . . . and then she froze.

Midstride, her entire body locked up.

“Jie!” I screeched. “Move!” But she didn’t move, and had it not been for our own motion—for Joseph’s twisting body and Daniel’s beating steps—I would have thought the world had frozen once more.

But then Jie pivoted sharply left, and when she began to bound up the pyramid in great, inhuman leaps, I realized what was happening.

Somehow the compulsion spell had taken control once more.

I lunged after her. “Shoot her!” I screamed at Daniel. “Stop her!” In a frantic climb, I hauled myself up the stone and then the next. Mummies scrambled ahead of Jie, moving at the exact same speed and in the same direction.

She was so much faster than I was. Ten steps above me quickly became fifteen. . . .

Daniel’s pulse pistol cracked. Jie’s right leg ripped wide, the cloth shredded and turned instantly red. “Resiste!” I screamed, focusing all my magic on canceling the compulsion spell. My vocal chords snapped, yet over and over I shrieked at her, “Resiste! Resiste!”

For a moment her arms clapped to her sides and she stiffened like a plank . . . then she toppled forward. Her face hit the stones in a sickening thud.

I spared a single glance at the mummies—they were rounding the top of the pyramid now . . . and then they were gone. They followed something I could not see. So I continued my frenzied climb after Jie. Joseph passed me, reaching her long before I was even close. He eased her onto her back and shouted her name over and over.

Then Daniel was clambering by. He fell to Jie’s side, crying, “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”