“Look, I have to go,” I said.
He looked up at me with those kryptonite eyes, confused. “Where are you—” He clutched his hip and his words choked off into a groan. His face paled.
“Hey are you okay?” I reached out and he jerked back from my touch.
“I’m…fine. Maybe…you should…find Cash…now.”
I realized he was shimmering. Every second that passed, his face twisted with more pain and he grew a little more iridescent. I backed away, and for reasons I couldn’t place right then, grabbed my camera and snapped a picture of him.
He glared at me in disbelief. “Wh-why did you do that?”
I shrugged, playing nonchalant when really I was terrified. “Why not? I need pictures for the yearbook.”
He groaned again and for a split second, he flickered out of existence. “Emma… go.”
Hands shaking, I lifted the camera up to look at the display. He wasn’t there. I blinked, hoping the image would change, but it didn’t. He…he wasn’t there. Just an out-of-focus white cylinder of smoke where a cute boy with amazing green eyes should have been standing.
An orb.
“Please. I don’t want you to see this.” He gripped his knees.
I stared at him, everything blank within me, and realized I wasn’t breathing. With a crash, the reality of what was happening fell down around me. I inhaled a deep, shuddering gasp of air and my knees nearly gave out. Something in me said to stay. Something in me said to run. And every inch of me wanted to touch him. To grab hold of him and not let him disappear again. He was my proof. If he disappeared, so did any hope I had of convincing myself I wasn’t crazy.
“Go find Cash,” he choked out. “Don’t leave his side. Go home and don’t stop until you get there.
Do you hear me?”
I nodded dumbly, gripping my camera. A gust of wind rushed between us, and in one blinding flash, he was gone. There wasn’t any denying it. He was…he was…
“Oh, God.” I stumbled back, unable to breathe. Fear pulsed through my veins until everything went fuzzy. My head spun with so many thoughts, I couldn’t keep track of them. But the one that stood out from the rest was his voice.
Go home and don’t stop until you get there.
He sounded afraid. And if he was afraid, then something told me I should be, too.
I didn’t think about it anymore. I turned around, refusing to think about the things that lurked in the shadows around me, and ran.
Chapter 8
Finn My feet hit the sand and I stumbled. It was soft and grainy, a bright white under the moonlight and the stark black night. The pull was so strong, my head throbbed and my thoughts slammed together inside my skull.
It had been too close. I’d almost lost her. Maeve had…she’d pushed her. Sent her over the edge of a freaking ravine! The panic was still so fresh in my chest, it burned. I leaned over and gripped my knees until the world decided to stay in one place. If that soul I’d peeled off US 395 had asked one more question, I would have lost her.
She had seen me. Talked to me. She’d taken a freaking picture of me. I groaned, wanting to bury myself in the sand and burrow my way to China. If I’d thought it was actually possible to hide from Balthazar, I might have tried it.
Behind me, a girl screamed, the sound shrill and filled with terror. It was all I needed to hear to know I was in the right place. I stood up and made my way down the beach. White frothy waves washed up onto the sand, then receded back into the darkness. I made sure not to touch them, staying a few feet out of the water’s reach to avoid it grabbing me and pulling me into a memory I didn’t have the time or energy to relive right now. Not after what had just happened with Emma.
“He’s not breathing!” In the darkness, the girl looked like a shadow beating on another shadow’s chest. “Oh God, Brett. He’s not breathing.”
“Move!” The other kid shoved her out of the way and pressed his mouth against a boy’s blue lips.
There wasn’t a breath in his chest except for the artificial one his friend was forcing in. He was already gone. Waiting for me. I cocked my head to the side and watched it all unfold. What was Balthazar up to this time?
“Come on, Justin,” the boy gritted his teeth and wiped a tear from his cheek.
Damn it. I did not want to know his name. Names were personal. There was no room in my head for personal. The glow from the bonfire made it easier to make out their faces now that I was closer. The lifeless boy in the sand was still, his glassy blue eyes fixed on the starry sky. His skin looked like ash, an awful, final color against his vibrant orange swim trunks.
As bad as he looked, he probably looked a hell of a lot better than I must have looked after I’d died.
At least this kid was still in one piece.
I shuddered and focused. The girl sobbed over his body, but the boy she called Brett kept shoving her away so he could pump on the lifeless chest that was beyond any kind of help he could offer. I couldn’t watch this anymore.
With one swift motion, I gave him death, swinging the scythe over my head to bring down enough force to get a good hold on the soul. He was ready. I only had to pull once and he came stumbling out onto the wet sand, falling to his knees. A faint shimmer made his blond hair glisten and his blue eyes glow. Slowly, he turned his head to the side and watched his friend try to work the life back into him.
“Brett,” his voice wasn’t anything more than a cracked whisper. “Stop. Just…stop.”
Sheathing my scythe, I stood next to him. “He can’t hear you. You’re dead.” It seemed obvious, but some of them didn’t get it. God…my job sucked.
He looked up and glared at me, a cold hate in his eyes. It was obvious that Justin wasn’t one that needed reminding. “Yeah,” he said. “I got that.”
“He said he could swim.” The girl shuddered, wrapping her arms around her knees. Her wet brown hair hung in ropes around her face. “I thought you guys said he could swim.”
“I thought he could…” Brett’s voice trailed off into a pained whisper as his palms stopped pumping and came to a rest against Justin’s chest. “Try the cell again.”
A phone call wasn’t going to help this kid. I looked at him, then back to the girl, still trying to figure out the riddle Balthazar always wove in.
Her fingers trembled around a little glowing screen. “I still don’t have any service.”
Brett stood up and snatched the phone from the girl, wiping more tears onto his arm. “Then I’m going up to the car. We need to call for help.” When she started to stand with him, he pinned her with a wet stare and shook his head. “Don’t you dare think about leaving him.”
She nodded and sank back into her imprint in the sand, tears making a mess of her pretty face.
“Could you swim?” I asked.
Justin stood up and started to brush the sand off his knees. His fingers passed right through and he stopped, shaking his head. “No,” he said, softly. “Not very good anyway.”
“Then why did you tell them you could?”
Justin didn’t respond. Instead, he watched the girl with willowy arms, who was sobbing again.
“Because when the girl you’ve been in love with since the fifth grade asks you to go for a midnight swim with her, where she’s going to be wet, and in a bikini, you do it.” He sank down into the sand beside her. “I…I never even told her how I felt about her.”
And there it was, like a slap in face. One stupid mistake had cost him everything. Separated them forever before they even had a chance. One stupid mistake had cost me everything. Balthazar was never going to let me forget it. How many mistakes was I going to make before I got it right? By this point, I didn’t know what was right anymore. What was wrong. If Balthazar was trying to make me doubt myself, it was working. I hated him for it.