Strange and Ever After (Something Strange and Deadly #3)(86)

But I was too far. Too slow.

The spear cut through the air.

And Daniel stepped into its path.

CHAPTER TWENTY

With a single twist of his body, Daniel blocked Joseph from the spear.

And the spear impaled him.

Right through his heart, until it thrust out the other side.

Screams blistered inside me and tore out, rattling and unearthly. I ran and dived as fast as I could. I threw my magic at the mummy—at the spear. At any goddamned thing that would stop this moment.

But nothing stopped it.

The guard wrenched back his spear, and it yanked free from Daniel’s chest. Daniel spun around, limp but reaching.

His eyes locked on to mine. His lips parted.

He hit the obelisk.

His body slid down.

And he stopped moving.

Jie reached him, tumbling to her knees. Her screams melted with mine as Joseph’s electricity exploded into the lines of mummies.

I hit the sand and hurled myself forward. All I saw was Daniel. All I thought and felt and shrieked was Daniel. My Daniel.

I dived at him, Jie’s sobs meaningless to my brain. My hands grabbed his face. Blood was everywhere. I tried to gather it up, as if I could push it back into his chest.

But he wasn’t breathing. His eyes were still. His lips frozen.

He wasn’t dead, though. He couldn’t be dead. I shook him. I screamed at him.

And all the while, electricity sizzled and held the mummies away.

“Daniel, Daniel, Daniel.” Jie’s cries sounded over and over. She rocked back and forth, and I wanted to screech at her to stop!

Because he wasn’t dead. I wouldn’t let him be dead. There had to be some way to change this. Some way to go back. Some way to bring his soul here, where it belonged.

I clutched the sides of my face. They were warm with his blood; the keening stench seeped into my skull.

And my eyes landed on the obelisk. Like me, it was streaked with Daniel’s blood . . . and as I stared at it, it shifted and swayed.

It shimmered golden. Like a sunray trapped in moonlight and covered in blood.

By blood and moonlit sun.

Suddenly the phrase made absolute sense. I could cross the curtain. These obelisks—which had reminded me of sunbeams each time I looked upon them—were gateways to the spirit dock. But they had needed blood and moonlight to open. . . .

Now this obelisk had both. Sprayed with Daniel’s blood, I could cross into that realm.

I shoved to my feet, roaring at Jie to hold Daniel. Keep him safe. Then I staggered to the obelisk and slammed my bloodied palms against it.

I fell through the curtain.

Instantly, Joseph’s electricity and Jie’s sobs vanished. Everything was silent. Too silent after all the violence bursting in my chest.

The dock spanned ahead of me, empty.

Where was Daniel? He should be here. He had just died, and he should be here.

“Daniel,” I screamed into the stillness. “Daniel!”

Nothing.

So I kicked into a run. The wood thumped beneath my boots, and the slats smeared beneath me. I swung my arms and drove my knees high. I ran and I ran and I ran.

Until a silhouette appeared before me. An ambling stride. A lanky build.

He paused, his head cocking as if he heard me. . . . His lips twitched up.

But then he blinked and resumed his unhurried stride.

“Daniel!” I shoved my body harder, but for every slam of my heels, he stayed the same distance ahead.

But I didn’t stop.

Not until my body betrayed me. My legs tangled together. I plummeted forward, my single hand lurching out to catch me.

My face hit the dock. Wood stabbed my cheek. My teeth chomped through my tongue, and blood splattered onto the deck.

I dragged my head up.

Daniel walked on, his pace constant, his silhouette never vanishing.

His name shredded over my vocal chords. “Daniel, Daniel, Daniel.” I screamed it, and my tongue gushed blood.

But still he walked on.

Then came the sound I knew would arrive eventually. A muffled baying, far out over the black waters.

Gritting my teeth, I staggered upright. The Hell Hounds could not have my soul, and they could not have his.

Daniel was mine. He was my Daniel, and I would not let this death claim him.

I shambled back into a run, shouting for him. Begging him to wait.

Even when ice gusted into me, I stumbled onward.

Even when howls splintered my skull, my course stayed true.

But the Hounds would reach me at any moment. Their frozen storm kicked at me from behind. Harder, colder, and louder with each second. They would claim my soul and blast it into a million pieces.

But they couldn’t shatter an already-broken soul.

And then I saw the opening—the jagged hole that cut into the dock. I could keep going. I could escape the Hounds. . . .

I lunged low, hitting my knees and sliding over the wood. My pants shredded, my legs sliced open, and I choked on the blood that surged from my tongue.

I reached the hole; I toppled through.

The Hell Hounds’ fury screeched overhead, exploding through my eardrums. Ice clawed into my hair and yanked chunks from my scalp.

But my eyes were blanketed in darkness. My hearing cloaked in thunder.

I hit the boat.

You found the way.

I snapped my head up, and in the gloom a figure formed.