Chapter 22
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The hair on the back of my head was damp. My skin was covered in a sticky film from the heat. I rubbed my forehead and sat up.
What woke me?
Bear wasn’t at my feet. I squinted through the dark to the other edge of the room.
“Come here, boy,” I said to the dark thing in the corner. But Bear didn’t move, didn’t even grumble in annoyance. I flashed my phone at him.
Bright pupils stared back at me, strange and alien-like in the artificial light. He flicked his tail once, then turned his back to me.
I lay back down, and it all came back in flashes. Another nightmare. One eerily similar to the day I’d had.
I was at Maritza’s cottage with Dani, just like earlier in the day. Max was there, too, and Maritza in the corner. Everything felt hazy somehow, the way dreams feel liquid and warm, shadows of the real thing.
We walked over to Dani’s bed. A thin line of ants preceded us, crawling up the dangling sheets and over her nightgown.
I reached for her hand. Only this time, her eyes weren’t closed.
They were open and staring straight at the ceiling.
When I touched her hand, her head snapped toward me, and her fingers clenched around mine.
I startled, drawing back. I tried to wrench my hand from hers but couldn’t.
Let go, I tried to say. Let go of me.
Panic rose in my chest, but when I opened my mouth to scream, nothing came out. I kept trying to scream. Help, someone! Please! But even as I fought, the only thing that came out was a choked whisper. It was barely enough for even Dani to hear.
She leaned in, the trail of ants still marching up her neck and into her mouth through the corner of her lips.
A voice whispered in my head, twisting and curling. Go on with your Magic spells and sorcery. Perhaps you will succeed, perhaps you will cause terror.
Dani held fast to my hand.
“Dani? Is that you?”
She released my hand and leaned back, her face nearly black with hundreds of squirming ants. I looked at Max, who wasn’t moving. He stared at the place where our hands had been.
“What does it mean?” I asked, and he didn’t look up.
“Max?”
My voice felt watery and dark. An echo, one very far away.
“Max?”