Chapter 36
Chapter
Thirty-Six
Tia and I split up, and now I’m heading back toward the quad when my phone chimes yet again. I tug it out of my pocket, expecting a text from Chase, who’s in Paris right now organizing squads of Hunters. Instead, it’s from Professor Valdez.
Miss Lyte, are you near campus this afternoon? I was hoping to have a quick chat with you. Could you meet me after my last class today? I’ll be heading to my car at four. I realize it’s short notice, but perhaps you could walk with me?
I read it twice, but I don’t have any more of an idea what she wants to talk about on the second go-round. But I do know that Finn used to talk with her about Mom, so maybe I’ll learn something. For that matter, maybe Mom didn’t really trash the journals, and Valdez found one and wants to share.
A girl can dream.
Since it’s bad form to blow off people who grade your tests, I reply that I’d be happy to meet her, then shift my trajectory toward the Science Center. I pick up my pace, too, because her class should be letting out right about now.
And, sure enough, she steps through the south doors right as I’m approaching the building. I catch the moment when she sees me, and I wave.
“Thanks for meeting me on such short notice,” she calls out as I head toward her, and I’m about to tell her it’s no problem when I see movement over her shoulder.
And then, as I watch with horror, a woman comes out of nowhere to stand right behind Valdez.
Tall and cloaked with a hood thrown forward so I can’t see her face.
Kali?
And then there’s a blade. And then there’s blood. And then I’m screaming and then Professor Valdez is nothing more than a rag doll, motionless on the sidewalk, and all I hear is the sound of my own lingering scream, and the hard, horrible pounding of my heart.
I only realize I’ve fallen to my knees when a guy on his cell with 911 helps me to my feet. I turn in a circle, my face wet with tears, but the woman is gone—and Valdez is dead, her throat slashed wide open.
Then I’m running and trying to call Chase, but it’s too much, and I collapse in the faculty lot against a silver Toyota, and idly wonder if maybe it belonged to her.
Oh, God. What is going on?
I hit the speed dial button again, then glower at my phone. “Dammit, Chase, pick up, pick up, pick up—”
Voicemail.
The second it beeps, I blurt out everything, though I have to start over twice because my throat is too clogged with tears.
“I’m heading to Griff’s now,” I finally manage to say. “Meet me there.” And then I hang up and go back to running.
My route from the Science Center to the Griffin’s Nest will take me through the quad and past the Widow Maker, and I keep my eyes open for mares crossing over, but I don’t see any.
A random attack on Valdez? Why?
I don’t know, and I’m too winded to delve deep. By the time I’m approaching the cordoned-off Widow Maker, I’m gasping, but it’s worth it, because I see Tia and Mr. Griffin across the quad, probably coming from the Griffins’ Nest, and warm relief courses through me.
I try to call out, but I’m too winded, and so I racewalk toward them.
I’m about to try another shout when Griffin reaches into the front pocket of his jeans and pulls out something small.
I can’t see what, but he presses it into Tia’s hand, folds her fingers around it, then says something I can’t hear but clearly causes a teary-eyed Tia to capture him in one long hug.
Then Mr. Griffin starts heading in my direction, so I reach up, frantically waving him over, and I clock the exact moment that he notices me. At first the corners of his eyes crinkle with his growing smile, but then that smile turns flat—he must have noticed what a mess I am.
Then he’s running toward me, and I try to take a step toward him, only to realize I can’t because something warm and wet is wrapped around my ankle, and Mr. Griffin is screaming my name.
A cold shiver cuts through me, and I yank my leg forward. Or I try to. I can’t. And when I look down, panic spreads through me as I see why—the dead growth that’s been spreading has not only begun to rot, but that rot is alive. And now it’s wrapped around my leg and squeezing like a python.
It’s cold and hot at the same time, and though I try to pull my leg free, I can’t.
I try again, and it tugs harder, knocking me down and then dragging me toward the dark gaps formed by the Widow Maker’s twisted roots, and I scream and scream and scream.
“Cora!” Tia’s answering cry seems to set the air on fire, but not enough to burn away the rot.
Then another coil snaps around my waist, and I’m on my knees, and I’m being dragged toward the maw.
I grab at the grass. I try to get a purchase on the dirt. I try to just leave and send myself to another realm. Any realm.
But I can’t. All I can do is twist and wriggle and fight—but it’s useless. I’m trapped, and I know it, and I don’t have a clue what to do next.
And then—as if that horrible feeling of helplessness wasn’t enough—I see it.
The breach at the Widow Maker has grown from a sliver to a gaping maw, deep and black and oddly glowing. Except it’s not the maw that’s glowing—it’s what’s coming through it.
Creatures.
All sorts of creatures.
So many moving so fast that I can’t make them out, but this is where the Threnir crossed, so I’m not too keen on meeting what’s barreling toward me.
The maw widens. And then mares—terrifying, horrible, toothy mares—pour out through the twisted roots of the Widow Maker, brushing past me and making me shudder as they scatter across the quad in a black, snarling flood.
No. No. No.
I claw the grass, desperate to get free, but it’s still no use, and despite fighting and pulling and bracing my legs against the massive tree’s roots, I’m still being pulled toward that dark cavern amidst the roots that just barfed out an army of mares.
Then I remember Chase pulling a keycard from the sky and telling me that one day, I could, too. And I remember a battle on dragonback and the word that had come to me. The word that had saved our lives.
And I call upon it again, willing whatever power is inside me to burst free. To protect me. And then I thrust my hand out and cry “REVERTI,” just as I had in the Nightmare Realm.
It works!
I feel the strands of rot around my legs loosen. And for just a moment, the dragging stops. I manage to roll over and get on my knees, then tug my leg free.
Then I’m pushing myself up, and I’m about to sprint free when the coils snap back, tighter this time, and I shout the word again. And again. And then once more.
It’s no use.
I have magic—I felt it all through me.
I just didn’t have enough to get free. And now I don’t feel that magic at all.
Oh god oh god oh god.
Terror cuts through me as I scramble and dig my heels in and claw for purchase at the rotted earth. This is it. This is the end. And for a moment, I’m actually jealous of Professor Valdez. Her death, at least, was fast.
There’s a sharp tug, and I’m suddenly jerked toward the maw, and I scream for Chase, who isn’t even here. Who probably doesn’t even know yet. And then I see Mr. Griffin, surrounded by mares that he’s slicing down with a speed and fury I’ve never seen before as he tries to battle his way toward me.
But it’s not enough. It’s miles away from enough.
And then, just as my feet are dragged into the breach, I gasp at the sight of gangly limbs, a lean, gaunt face, and onyx eyes full of determination as his blades fly in battle against the mares.
And then More Hunters appear from thin air behind Whistler—six, eight, ten of them, their weapons up as they spread out, battling the mares as I struggle against the snake-like rot even as relief floods through me with so much intensity it almost hurts as I watch Whistler and his team hold the line between the mares and the rest of the world.
He takes a mare down with one stroke and pivots to the next, and that’s when I realize—the mares aren’t interested in me anymore. Instead, they’re holding the breach point open. Protecting it.
Which means they know what’s coming through next—Kali.
I suck in a sharp breath as I see her emerge, standing inside. Not coming through. Just watching. The silver in her black hair catches the light as she steps from the maw, then turns to watch me being dragged toward her.
And then, from behind her, something else comes through.
The Threnir.
It doesn’t touch me. It doesn’t need to.
It just watches as terror seems to climb up my body like spiders, and everything is black and pain and fear inside my head, and I am breathing too hard, and my hands are clawing the grass and I’m making a sound I don’t recognize because there is nothing in my head anymore but the fact that this terror inside me is only the beginning. And when it ends, I’ll be only a shell.
The Threnir tilts its head, watching me like I’m the best thing it’s seen in forever.
“CORA!”
I twist to see Tia running flat-out across the quad, her hair flying, her face white with terror.
And behind her, breaking off from where Whistler and his Hunters are still slicing through the press of mares at the breach, I see—
“TIA! Behind you—”
She turns just enough to see it.
A mare. Coming for her.
I scream, but it’s not going to be enough, it’s too fast, she’s too close, and—
Mr. Griffin is there.
He doesn’t hesitate. Doesn’t even slow. And I watch in a horrible mixture of horror and relief as he throws himself between Tia and a mare armed with terrifyingly long fangs and a long obsidian blade.
In an instant, the mare turns away from Tia and lunges for Mr. Griffin, who reacts with a level of speed and grace I’ve never seen in him, and I mentally cheer when his blade lands, slicing across the mare’s throat.
The creature drops, and the tension in my body starts to drain—and then I go cold when I see what I’d missed before—that somehow as the mare fell, its blade landed, too. A blade that now protrudes from Mr. Griffin’s chest.
“No!” I scream the word, then cry his name as his eyes find mine for one short beat.
Then he crumples onto the path, and it feels like my heart’s exploded.
“No—NO—” I try to stand—to go to him—I’m still trapped on the ground by the rot, but then Chase appears, and I see the grief hit him, his face going harder and harder as he surveys the scene.
When his eyes land on me, I think he’s going to shatter, but then the Hunter takes over, and he’s moving toward me with both blades out.
Three mares race to meet him, and he cuts through the first one without breaking stride, and I watch and pray and struggle to loosen the damn rot that’s keeping me bound. To pull up more magic. To do something—anything—that will get me free.
But I can’t.
I can’t conjure anything.
All I can do is watch helplessly as another mare rushes at the man I love. Chase pivots and takes it down with a solid kick, but now there are five mares between him and me, then six, then more, and as he tries to battle his way toward me, the rot yanks me another foot toward the maw.
“CHASE!”
I see his face the moment he hears me. Every muscle in him is throwing itself toward me through bodies that aren’t letting him through.
Fight, Cora!
I twist around to find Tia on her knees, and I have no idea how her voice is in my head. She’s looking at me, her nose bleeding as she tends to Mr. Griffin. And though her lips don’t move, I hear her as clear as a bell. Fight! We’ll find you! Don’t you dare give up—
Tia? How are you—?
Later. Just stay alive.
I want to answer, but fear fills my head as the dragging speeds up, and once again, the Threnir approaches. It looks at me, and I feel an icy, horrible chill. Then it chitters something, and though I have no idea what that language that was, I somehow know what it said. Soon.
And then it steps out of this realm. Gone, yes. But it feels like it left the terror behind.
Once again, the rot tugs at me, drawing me closer to the breach, and though I clutch at the dead grass and dirt, nothing I do slows it down.
I cry out for Chase, who’s barreling toward me as he strikes down mares, one after another.
He’s close. He’s so damn close.
But the maw is closer.
And the last thing I see before the cold dark of the breach closes over me is Chase in motion, his blades out, and his face completely wrecked as he cuts down another mare and another and another, not stopping, not even slowing.
Running for me.
But not fast enough.
Then the world goes dark, and the last sound I hear is Chase in agony, screaming my name.