She can not save me and the others. No one can.
“Merrick, we might be?—”
“No.”
“We have to try!”
“I won’t allow it. Not this.”
Tears glaze her eyes. She grabs my wrists, nearly pleading. “Listen to me. I want?—”
There’s a horrid crash, footsteps thundering up the tower stairs. A blast of light, and the eldest Bonnivarde tumbles into the room.
“It’s Kate!” Rachel exclaims. “All the dead plants she took from here… they’re alive. And the whole downstairs is covered in muddy footprints and the back door is open and…” She covers her mouth, tears spilling from her eyes.
“Rachel, you need to breathe.” Elizabeth grabs her sister’s wrists, gently drawing her hands away. “Slow down. Tell me exactly what happened.”
Rachel closes her eyes and shakes her head. “Kate’s gone, Lizzy. She’s just… gone.”
thirty
LIZZY
We do a mad dash down to the main floor. It’s just as Rachel said—muddy footprints everywhere, back door swinging on its hinges, banging against the house.
“I’ll check the basement,” Merrick says, and Rachel and I do another search of the main floor, the bedrooms, the porch. Kate’s Prius is still in the turnabout. Her purse hanging off the back of a kitchen chair, phone tucked inside.
Rachel and I grab our boots, but Merrick is back, shaking his head.
“Stay indoors. Keep the house locked.” He shifts into demon form, comically huge in our small kitchen. “I’ll send one of the others back to look after you.”
I shove my feet into my boots. “We’re not going to stand around with our thumbs up our asses while Kate’s out there and?—”
“Elizabeth, please listen. It’s far too dangerous. Iwillfind your sister. I will bring her back to you. But I can’t be worried about you two while?—”
“We can handle ourselves.”
“I know. That’s what worries me.”
“Merrick—”
“Do this for me, Elizabeth. Please.” He holds my gaze another beat, and then he’s out the door, his black shadows trailing swiftly behind him.
“We can’t leave her out there,” Rachel says.
“No shit.”
We give Merrick a two-minute head start that feels like an eternity, then we’re out the door, dashing around the house, scanning for any signs of our sister. It’s raining again, thick, fat drops that turn everything into a swamp, swallowing up any footprints she might’ve left.
“Do you think she went into town?” Rachel asks, peering through the sluicing rain. “Or the woods?”
I close my eyes. Breathe in the scent of the rain, the mud, the decay of autumn leaves. Reach out for Kate with my energy. There’s a faint flicker, a subtle warmth leading toward the woods.
Hoping I’m making the right call, I head in that direction. We can’t risk more than a whisper-shout, but we do our best to call out for Kate.
“It’s no use,” Rachel says. “She won’t be able to hear us through the rain.”
I nod and keep going, trudging along the path. We scan the darkness, hoping against the odds, even as the trees grow thicker, the woods more tangled and slippery, sapping us of strength.
