My breath hitched in my throat and I started for the door, but Maeve stepped in front of it again and shook her head. “Do you actually believe I’d let you out of here?”
I balled my hands into fists at my side, trying to think. I didn’t know what to do. Where to go. Yeah, she was in a body…but it was my mom’s body. I couldn’t hurt my mom. And she knew it.
Something thick and heated tainted the air and I scrunched my nose. The dark smoke billowing under the crack of my door drew my attention to the floor.
“Y-you started a fire?”
She sighed. “Well, yeah. But I’m not going to burn you to death. I’m aiming for the smoke to do the trick.”
I shook my head furiously. It was all I could do, because the words wouldn’t come. I didn’t want to die. Not yet. I hadn’t even gotten a chance to tell Finn I loved him, or to make up for what I’d done to Cash.
“Just think of how close you are to going to Heaven!” Maeve leaned against the door. “You’ll get to be with your dad. Oh wait… That’s right. He’s not up there.”
My breathing hitched, then stopped altogether. My dad was in Heaven. Finn told me he was. He’d watched him go.
“Oh, Finn didn’t tell you?” She touched her mouth in mock surprise. “Finn always was good at keeping secrets. And lying. But you already knew that.”
“No…” I gripped the bedpost to support myself. Blood rushed to my head, making me dizzy. She was lying. She had to be.
“Poor Daddy,” Maeve said. “How many times do you think he’s burned over the last two years? It’s got to be thousands. Maybe that’s why Finn lied. He wanted to spare you the pain.”
“You’re lying.” I slid along my mattress until my hip hit my nightstand. The smoke was so thick my eyes watered. My lungs burned.
“Am I?” She raised a brow. “Or is Finn? He’s lied to you before.”
I coughed and sucked in another lungful of smoke, feeling dizzy and off-balance. My hand curled around the lamp. I had to get Mom out of here. Even if that meant hurting her.
“What’s the matter, Emma? You look a little pale.” Maeve giggled, and it sounded so wrong coming out Mom’s mouth that it made my stomach turn.
“I don’t blame you for being mad,” I said to her. I stood up and dragged the lamp off the nightstand with me. Maeve’s eyes darted to the lamp and back to my face. “I’d be pissed, too. But I didn’t choose this. I wouldn’t have taken this from you. I never would have chosen myself over you.”
I took a shaky step closer, the lamp cord dragging behind me, and Maeve tensed. “And now?”
“Now…” I stopped to cough again. The room was starting to fade around the edges. “Now you’ve involved my mother, and I won’t let her die for this. Not for you. Not for me.”
I didn’t wait for her to answer. I lunged forward with as much force as my stitched leg would let me, the lamp raised above my head.
Mom’s body collapsed.
The lamp clattered to the floor, forgotten. Coughing and sputtering from the smoke, I knelt down and pressed my fingers to Mom’s throat. She was alive. Thank God.
Something fell to the floor and shattered behind me, and my hand froze against Mom’s neck. Her pulse beat against my fingertips. Fear as thick as the smoke choking me swirled inside my chest.
Maeve. She was still here.
We weren’t safe yet.
Slowly, I stood and something brushed the stitches on my neck, feather soft. Cold crept along my skin even after the touch was gone. And then…pain.
The stitches along my neck ripped open in one swift tug. My knees buckled and the side of my face hit the hardwood floor with a sickening thud. Pain spread across the right side of my face, and tiny incandescent lights floated at the edges of my vision. I ran my tongue along the sides of my teeth to make sure they were still there and tasted blood.
The room was a nightmare around me. Glass shattered. It sounded like the walls were splintering, tearing in two. Or maybe that was just in my head. I reached out and dug my fingers into the floor, crawling forward until I reached Mom’s leg. Her limp body was blocking our only escape. I had to get her out.
“Mom…” I croaked, grabbing onto the edge of her dress to pull myself forward. “Please wake up.
Please.”
She didn’t move, so I forced myself up onto my knees, vaguely realizing the pain was starting to fade, and reached for the doorknob. My fingers were wet with blood and slipped on the knob, but it opened an inch. Smoke and heat spilled into the room. My lungs burned and my chest tightened. My head felt fuzzy and my insides tingled. I gasped for oxygen that wasn’t there and collapsed next to Mom.
I blinked against a darkness that had nothing to do with the smoke-filled room and everything to do with the fact that the life was bleeding out of me. I could feel it. Cold. Final. My eyes fluttered closed and hopelessness swept through me. I was going to die.
Chapter 36
Finn I appeared outside Emma’s with a flash. The world around me was white, covered in untouched crystalline snow that was packed around the quiet house. But something didn’t fit. The smell of smoke lingered in the air, growing stronger with every step I took toward the house, igniting a panic that blazed through me to the point of pain. I started forward, but stopped when a glimmer of gold caught my eye. Anaya.
She stood, hand on her scythe, face solemn, waiting. “I’m so sorry, Finn.”
“No.” I stumbled back and Scout gripped my shoulders. I couldn’t…I wouldn’t let her do this. I’d been to Hell and back for this girl. Literally. I grabbed the scythe at my hip. It didn’t burn with cold. It wasn’t being called to be used. But I’d wield if I had to. “I won’t let you take her. I’ll stop you if I have to.”
Anaya narrowed her eyes. “Don’t be a fool, Finn. Don’t get in the way. Think of what he’ll do to you.”
“I don’t care.”
Easton melted up from the ground beside me, his gaze fixed on Anaya. “Go,” he said to me. “Do what you need to do. I’ll stall her.”
“Thank you.” I backed away from Anaya, arm extended behind me, feeling for brick. In my mind, flames licked the insides of my skull, demanding to be seen. I closed my eyes and blocked them out. I didn’t have time for them. Not now. Emma. Emma. Emma. Her name was the only thought running through my mind. I had to keep her safe.
I slipped through the brick wall and stumbled into the room, disoriented by the smoke that billowed around and through me, leaving me saturated in its dangerous scent. The high-pitched whine of the plane rang in my ears and smoke made it hard to breathe-“Where is she?” Scout asked as he seeped through the wall behind me, interrupting the memory.
“I don’t know. Just…start looking.” I pushed my way through the smoke. “Emma? Damn it, Emma, answer me!”
The sound of a window popping somewhere on the other side of the house broke my shouts. I felt my way through the room, running my corporeal hands over what I guessed was the vanity. Glass bottles toppled over its edge in the wake of my clumsy fingers. Cursing, I found the wall, her closet door, the bed… I ventured out into the center of her room until, finally, my foot hit something solid and a muffled moan rose up from the floor.
“Emma!” I sank down, my hands finding her before my eyes with all the smoke. I barely recognized her. Her hair was matted with the blood coming from the busted stitches on her neck. Her face looked pale, and her lips were turning a terrifying shade of blue. She groaned again and her eyes fluttered open for a fraction of a second before falling closed again.