by Tracey Ward
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Nick
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Alex
I come to lying on my back on the jagged ground, looking up at the cracked ceiling. I need to get up. I have to get to Nick. I have to Slip him to a hospital as soon as I can. The only problem is, I don’t know if I have the strength to even stand up.
“Alex,” Beck says urgently. “Look at me. Hey! Are you all right?”
I roll my head to the side to see him crawling slowly toward me. He’s wobbling a little. Or is my vision doing that?
“Yeah,” I groan, sitting up slowly. “I’m great. You?”
“I’ll have a headache for a week, but I’m okay.”
“Where’s Campbell?”
“Here,” he calls deeply.
He’s at the other end of the hall. He’s crouched down next to the lifeless form of Sandrine Ardant. His gun is held loosely in his hand while his other hand is pressed against her neck checking for a pulse.
“She’s alive,” I promise him.
Beck stands up and offers me a hand. I eye it hesitantly before figuring what the hell, and taking it. He springs me up off the ground like I’m nothing at all, but my hand is intact when I land.
“Thanks,” I tell him with a small grin.
“No problem.”
“Are we happy with her being alive?” Campbell asks me.
“No, but I’d be less happy having to kill her. Trust me, she’s not going anywhere and she’s not in a good place.”
Campbell stands, stepping over the body to join me and Beck. “What’d you do to her?”
“I found out what she hates and I locked her away with it forever.”
“Are you serious?”
“Deadly.”
“That’s wicked.”
“That’s karma. Now give me your hand. We have to get back to Nick.”
Slipping us out of that freezing cold, stifling house feels so good for so many reasons. We did what we came to do. We took out the head of the organization that was ordering up batches of Jim Henson’s Irregular Ability Babies. That’s a win on any day of the week. The thing that feels the best, though, is the Slip itself. I feel no pain inside a Slip. It’s like a recharge on my own batteries. I just wish I felt that way when I come out of it.
I nearly collapse on the deck of Nick’s boat when we get back, and I’m worried about how drained I really am. Then I see that’s the least of my worries.
The reason I almost collapsed is because the boat is sinking. It’s tipped at a hard angle with the back in the air and the front disappearing underwater. In the middle, surrounded by Brody, Liam, and Naomi, is Nick.
“About time you returned!” Liam shouts. “We’re losing him!”
I stumble to the center of the boat to fall on my knees with the rest of them. I hear Campbell and Beck not far behind me.
“What do you mean we’re losing him? He’s dying? We told you to Slip him to a hospital if you had to!”
“I did you a favor by keeping him here!” Liam shouts back. “His consciousness is split between his body and this boat, the predominant amount being with the boat. Were I to Slip his body away, what do you think would happen?”
My heart clenches painfully. “He’d stay with the boat.”
“Precisely. I hoped we could bring him out of it but we’ve had no luck. Now his condition is turning for the worse and the boat is sinking without him.”
“We can’t sink here,” Brody tells us. “I’ve been up in the Nest and, Alex, that thing you brought out has been doing a number on the people on this island.”
“What does it do to them?” I ask.
He looks at his hands uncomfortably. “I don’t wanna say.” His eye flicker to Naomi. “It doesn’t seem right to talk about. It isn’t pretty, though. We can’t set foot on that island. It’s headed for the house.”
“Liam,” I plead, “you have to get everyone out of here. Can you do that?”
He nods. “Yes, of course. Two at a time, but eventually, yes. What about you?”
I take several deep breaths to calm my racing heart. I feel my stomach flip several times then lie perfectly still, playing dead.
“I’m going to go get Nick,” I tell him fearfully.
It’s easy. Easier than Naomi, way easier than Sandrine. It’s easier than Slipping. Than molding a stone. Than breathing life into a nightmare. It’s easier than falling in love in a dream.
It’s also the scariest thing I’ve ever done in my entire life.
I take a shaking breath, wipe the sweat from my hands, and I fall willingly into The Void.
∞
“Nick!” I call out. “Nick! Where are you?!”
Nothing.
I’m surrounded by nothing. No echo. No sounds. It’s not warm and it’s not cold. It’s exactly the way it was when Nick ditched me there at the end of that dream, and I remind myself that I’ve been here and gotten out before. I keep telling my frantic heart to… No, it’s not beating quickly. It’s not beating at all. I can’t hear anything. None of the rushing I heard in my ears the last time is there. It is pure, solid, wall-to-wall nothing in here.
I think of Sandrine, who’s probably running through that doorway I left for her again and again, never getting anywhere but too angry to stop trying, and I envy her. At least she has a place to start. She has the illusion of getting out of there. I may have just trapped myself in absolute empty for the rest of my life—a life that will be pretty short, considering there’s a boat sinking under my feet and a demon on the shore waiting to eat my eyeballs for brunch.
I gotta get out of here.
“Nick! Nick!”
I pause, listening.
Nothing.
“Nicholas Kian Carver, where the hell are you?!”
Still nothing.
I take several deep breaths, reminding myself to calm down. It’s fine. This is fine. If he’s too weak to come to me, I’ll pull him to me. I’ve done it before, I can do it again. I’m stronger now. More confident. I can do this.
I think of last night by the river, when he made me so happy I cried.
I think of the last night we spent on the dock, when he made me so angry I cried.
I think of the first time I saw him after I lost Cara, and he held onto me while I cried.
I think of the day he helped me get home, and I was so relieved that I cried.
I think of the first time I ever saw him, on the frozen stones of the river, where he lay as he died.
I shiver violently. The air is turning cold. The black all around me is lightening, peppered with small white, downy flakes. They fall harder and harder. My feet slip under me as though I’m standing on ice. I clutch my arms around myself to stay warm but the cold gets in. It sinks into my bones and makes me shake.
My feet are wet.
I gasp, jumping backwards to get out of the stream of freezing water.
It’s a river.
It’s the river.
I search up and down its bank, looking for him.
“Where are you?” I whisper urgently to myself. “Come on, Nick, I know you’re here.”
The river is moving faster. It rushes past me with a rising roar.
A shock of black in the water catches my attention. I think it’s dark hair, but it might be a black Speedo.
Either way, that’s my guy.
I dive into the freezing water after him. He’s floating downstream with the current, and I have to hurry to get my hands on him before he disappears. I grab onto his arm and I nearly weep with relief when I feel his skin.
It’s warm.
I drag him across the water that’s growing stronger and angrier every second. Twice I trip on loose stones and twice I cling to him, refusing to let him get away. I manage to pull him up on the shore over the ice-covered rocks and lay him out just past the water’s reach.
I shake him violently, trying to get him to open his eyes. He doesn’t.
The water run
s faster. It branches out. It reaches for us.
This is not going well.
I pick up his hand and rub it between both of mine. I lean in close, so close our noses are almost touching and my hair falls around us. I stare helplessly at his pale face, his closed eyes, his mouth that’s turning blue. I whisper one word to him, the only thing I can think to say. The only thing that I know has ever worked.
“Breathe.”
Chapter Thirty
Nick
Air.
Rising and falling with the waves against the hull. My hull. My chest. My body. In and out with the tide. In the dream. In my hand. Holding my hand.
Alex.
I don’t see her. Hear her. I feel her. She’s there next to me in the water. In the nothing. In the sunlight.
I pinch my eyes tight against the glare, groaning in pain. Then in agony. I’m surfacing through the cold, calm waves. Coming up for air and finding fire in its place. My body is burning. I’m liquid heat in the heart of me. In my center.
My stomach.
The more I’m aware of my body the more I want to go under again. To hide. But something pulls me upwards. The hand on mine. The pressure on my gut. Pushing and pulling relentlessly. I fight against them, try to pull away, telling them to leave me alone.
They don’t listen.
I’m coming up.
“We’re going under!” Brody cries.
The world is etched in red across the backs of my eyelids. Etched in pain. I feel it everywhere, even in my hair. It radiates from my stomach to the tips of my fingernails.
“He’s waking up!” Liam shouts. He curses as I feel an iron hold on my wrist. “And he’s fighting me!”
“Keep that pressure on the bleeding. You can’t let up on it or he’ll die,” Campbell warns.
“Look who’s a doctor all of the sudden,” Liam murmurs under his breath. He leans harder on my stomach.
My free hand shoots out again to push him off me as my world falls to ash and ruin under the pain.
“Stop fighting me, you berk,” Liam grunts. “I’m trying to save your bloody life. Campbell! Get over here and hold him steady, would you? Alex is no help.”
“What’s the matter?” Campbell asks coolly. “Not strong enough to take him? He has a bullet in his stomach, dude. How hard can he really fight you?”
“I’m trying to keep pressure to stop him from bleeding out, but if you’d rather I play slap fights with him all afternoon, I’ll gladly do that instead.”
“Guys,” Brody calls down warily. “It’s coming this way.”
“The being?”
“You mean the unholy freak show your sister unleashed on this island and us? Yeah. That.”
I struggle to open my eyes but I can’t find them.
That’s weird.
“Alex!” Liam shouts.
She doesn’t answer.
“Alexia!” he tries again.
“What?” she mumbles, her voice very near my ear. It’s weak and worn.
“We need you to work your magic again, love. Now.”
“How?”
“You need to put the monster to bed,” Campbell tells her urgently. “It’s done its thing on the island but it’s still hungry. It’s coming for us.”
“No, I mean how?” she asks desperately, her voice gaining strength from fear. “I’ve never put anything into a dream. Only pulled it out.”
“How’d you dispatch the dragon?” Liam asks, sounding annoyed.
“Nick killed it.”
Campbell grunts in disapproval. “Well, that’s not going to help us now. I emptied an entire clip into that thing. Bullets don’t bother it. Do what you did to Sandrine.”
“I locked her in her own mind,” Alex explains irritably. “I don’t think this guy has a mind to go to.”
“Then lock it in yours.”
“Campbell, that could kill her,” Liam snaps.
“And this thing will kill all of us!”
I kick toward the surface. Every inch hurts. Ever kick, every effort is blinding agony that becomes more and more clear as I come up. Fuller. Louder. I’m in full Dolby Digital Surround by the time I’m able to find my tongue, and all I can manage is a weak, chocked whisper.
“Mine.” I squeeze Alex’s hand as hard as I can. It’s not impressive. “Put it in mine.”
She scowls at me, her face a blur as she shakes her head. “You’re too weak. You can’t take it.”
“So are you.” I swallow as my throat constricts, my body collapsing in on itself. “I’m not afraid.”
“I know you’re not. I’ll be afraid for you.” I open my mouth to protest but she shakes her head again. “The answer is no. This is one of those moments, Nick. This is when I tell you that you’re trying to go too far. Just because you’re not afraid of it doesn’t mean rolling with that thing inside your head won’t destroy you.”
“Guys…” Brody calls, his voice tightening. “It’s here.”
I feel it. I don’t feel the fear everyone else must be riddled with, but I feel an anxiety that I can’t put a name to. One I can’t reason with. It’s just there, oppressive and angry in the air around us. The light hasn’t changed. The sun hasn’t moved, but it feels darker all of the sudden. Like the world is going black around the edges, tunneling toward the bow of the boat.
The bow where Naomi stands waiting.
“Naomi, no!” Liam shouts. He leaps to his feet after her.
The release of pressure on my stomach is somehow more excruciating than when he was pushing on it. I cry out in agony and surprise before clenching my teeth together and groaning angrily through them.
Alex stumbles to kneel next to me and replace Liam’s hands with her own while Campbell and Liam collide – Liam running to his sister and Campbell sprinting toward Alex and I. There’s a horrible moment of near silence, just a breath of time where nothing happens. Where we’re all stunned and stopped and quiet.
Then the world falls off its axis.
Alex and Campbell gasp, their eyes going wide. I hear coughing from up in the Crow’s Nest. From Beck and Liam near the bow. I feel it myself. The air is getting thinner, harder to breathe. It’s cold in my lungs like it’s weighted by ice that leaves us all gagging on it, struggling to breathe through it.
All of us but Naomi. She stands steady at the bow, face to face with the writhing black mass. Her long, blond hair billows out in a golden mess behind her, pushed back by a wind coming from nowhere and everywhere at once. She reaches out one small, pale hand toward the creature.
“Naomi!” Liam croaks, pushing past Campbell.
He’s too late. The creature wraps itself around her hand. It weaves through her fingers, over her palm, around her wrist, up her forearm. Around her neck. It’s in her hair, weaving through her clothes, coiling around her like a snake devouring a small white mouse.
The worst part is that we’re powerless to stop it. It’s horrible to watch.
Naomi leans her head back, closes her eyes, and opens her mouth wide. Her chest rises high and full as she draws in a deep, consuming breath. A breath full of frigid, cold air, warm South Pacific sunshine, and misty black, demon madness.
It delves into her mouth. Into her eyes. s. The creature goes willingly, almost happily. It curls around her, following the line over her body to her face where she continues to inhale, her eyes opened wide in welcome.
I didn’t see the being come out, but judging by the reactions of everyone else on the boat, it was nothing like the way it’s going back in. This is oddly intimate. Like watching a piece of her return home. Like she’s being made hole.
We all watch in silent amazement as the last bits of the being fade away into Naomi’s body. She finally releases the breath she’s been inhaling and with it comes the sun and the warmth of the world. The heaviness, the anxiety, the ice – it’s all gone. It’s as though it never existed.
And when she turns her small, fragile frame to face us, her blue eyes glowing with an electr
ic brilliance that makes even me uncomfortable, I think that it is the absolute freakiest of the freaky things I have seen lately. She looks more alive, more animated than I’ve seen her so far. This was her moment. Her Slipping, her stones, her implosion, her fireball. That nightmare – it’s her high. Her power. And it’s only the tip of the iceberg.
I look warily at Campbell to find his face surprisingly shadowed, troubled, and I hope that he was wrong.
I hope this girl is not my nemesis.
∞
Early morning light trickles through the branches of the trees above us that mesh and mingle into a canopy of deep greens and bleached yellows. The water of the river laps against the side of the honey-colored rowboat. Alex lies back against her side, her head tilted toward the sky and her fingertips dragging lazily through the surface of the water. She looks peaceful. Rested. A far cry better than she does in real life.
After an afternoon of giving life to another woman’s nightmares, Slipping into the Boss’s castle, banishing her to a prison in her own mind, Slipping back to my sinking ship, entering the void, and calling me back from the River Styx, Alex was spent. When we all recovered from watching Naomi’s demon feast and realized my ship was a lost cause, she had to Slip the two of us out of there while Liam got everyone else. She did it running on empty, looking pale as an albino ghost, and I couldn’t help her. Not with that bullet in my stomach.
I’m still in the hospital now, in fact. A small one recommended by Liam hidden away in the countryside of the United Kingdom. I couldn’t go back to America, not with a warrant out for my arrest for going AWOL. I could turn myself in, get a medical discharge for going insane, and be free and clear but how would I explain the bullet in my gut? Who shot me? Where did it happen? How did I get out of Kandahar? Why did I get out of Kandahar?
There are too many questions to be answered, ones that we can’t even begin to fabricate plausible lies for, so Liam sent us here for me to be treated. Questions will come up about my passport or a visa, but I gave a fake name and as soon as I’m healthy enough to move, Alex will Slip us both out of here. But we won’t go far. Brody and Beck are here too. They’re in a house close to London, one with two extra rooms. One for Alex and I. One for Campbell.