Page 126 of Into the Mist

“Get down the bank!” Ford said.

“It’s steep. And there are brambles everywhere,” said Stella as she touched Mercury’s face and smoothed her hair back. “It’s okay, Acorn. You’re gonna be okay.”

“Where the fuck are they?” Amber’s voice was shrill and entirely too close.

Mercury’s blurry gaze lifted to see a lantern bobbing behind them like a specter.

“Doesn’t matter. We have to get down there. Now,” Ford said. Without waiting, he tightened his grip on Mercury and they dropped over the side of the steep bank. She moaned as she jostled against him. Brambles tore at his jeans and sliced his skin, but Ford kept going until he reached the rocky bank.

Karen slid down the incline behind them. Stella followed her more slowly—then she stopped about a third the way down, her focus on the ground.

“What are you doing?” Ford hissed.

Stella’s gaze went to him. “Her blood—it’s making the brambles grow.”

Mercury blinked and managed to clear her vision enough to see that Stella stood in the middle of an expanding thicket of thorns. Then her best friend smiled fiercely. She bent and lifted a thick branch tipped by nasty-looking barbs. Quickly, Stella sliced across her arm, then shook it all around her so that blood rained on the brambles. In a voice filled with intent, Stella Carver commanded,“Grow!”Then she slid the rest of the way down the incline to them.

As Ford and her two friends rushed away along the creek, Mercury gazed over his shoulder at the incline, where huge, spiked plants were spreading all along the bank like water loosed from a dam.

CHAPTER

38

“MERCURY! DON’T YOUfucking dare die! Stay with me, Mercury Elizabeth Rhodes!

Mercury wanted to open her eyes and tell Stella to hush so she could sleep, but even that effort was too much. She’d just take a little nap. It felt good to relax—to give into the darkness and… Mercury screamed in pain as someone pressed fire into her back.

“Okay, hold the shirt on the wound. I’m going to try to wrap my belt around it to keep pressure on it. If we don’t slow this bleeding we’re going to lose her.”

Mercury thought Ford sounded terrible. His voice was raw with emotion, and then she couldn’t think about that as her body exploded in pain again. Her mind was a fog, and her vision had tunneled to shades of gray and black. And she was cold. So, so cold. Ford lifted her into his arms and continued to move forward.

Stella’s voice was close beside her. “You hold on, Mercury Elizabeth! We are going to get you to Gemma before you fucking die.”

Mercury tried to answer Stella, but it was impossible to formulate words. She could hear what they were saying, but they seemed far away from her—like Mercury had already drifted from their world toward another.

“Wake up!” Stella snapped. “I’ve lost everything. I’m not losing you too!”

“Please—don’t—die!” Karen said between sobs.

Mercury slitted her eyes open. Her vision had gone from grays and blacks to preternaturally clear. The newly risen sun was painting the dove-colored clouds with fuchsia and peach, and Mercury realized it was raining softly, like the sky was crying. The pain in her back was there, but she was detached from it. She was still cold, though her teeth no longer chattered. Her breath wheezed. She coughed—and was shocked to see blood and spittle wet Ford’s shirt, which was already plastered to his body with rain and sweat.

“We have to move faster,” Ford panted. His chest heaved as he gulped air, though he kept jogging along the rocky edge of the creek.

Mercury couldn’t speak. She was barely able to breathe.

“They’re here!” Imani’s shout echoed from ahead of them. “They’re here!”

“Finally! Imani, start the truck! Get the kids into the bed—now! And tell Gemma to get out here!” Stella cried.

Imani’s voice lent Ford a burst of speed, and Mercury had to close her eyes tightly and press her face to his shoulder as he jostled her so badly that her vision grayed again.

Ford staggered to the slab of cement as Gemma rushed up to them.

“No! Mercury!” Gemma cried.

Ford gently placed her on the concrete.

“What happened? What’s this wound from?” Gemma spoke frantically.