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I couldn’t believe the police hadn’t shown up already. I’d heard Allison’s screams from the front yard when I pulled into the driveway. “How are we going to explain this?”
He shook his head, his jaw set in determination, but he looked dazed and in shock. “I don’t know, but we can’t just run off, Ellie.”
I knew he was right, and if we were in Manteo, I would have felt better about the whole thing, especially since Tom knew there was something supernatural going on there. But the police here didn’t know anything about me, and David’s reputation could be on the line. I climbed to my feet and tugged his arm. “You have to go.”
He looked up at me, his eyes wide with bewilderment. “What are you talking about?”
“You’re her ex-boyfriend. You’ll be a suspect.” I continued to pull his arm, but he resisted.
“Are you crazy?” he asked in dismay. “I can’t just leave. And I won’t be a suspect, Ellie. She just died. There’s no sign of trauma, no blood.”
“What do you mean ‘no blood’? Her body is covered in claw marks! There’s a giant hole in her chest!”
“There’s nothing there, Ellie!”
“The wounds are magical.” When I looked down, Tsagasi was standing next to me, staring at Allison’s body. “Only those who belong in the spirit world can see them.”
“So you can?” I asked.
“Yes.”
David sucked in a deep breath and released it. His eyes looked vacant. “There’s no reason to worry. There’s no sign of foul play. Just like with the other victims in Manteo.” His voice broke. “I’ll call the police.”
“You and the police might not see the blood, but there’s no hiding the fact that her heart is missing. And this room is trashed, David. You have to leave.”
Tsagasi turned to David. “The Curse Keeper is right. You must go.”
He shook his head. “How am I supposed toleave? I can’t do that.”
“She’s already gone,” Tsagasi said. “There’s nothing more you can do for her.”
I pulled on his arm again, crying. “David. Please.”
“What about you, Ellie?” David asked, pulling out of my grasp. “Do you really think I’m just going to leave you here?”
“You both will leave,” Tsagasi said.
“There are too many things tying us to what happened,” I said. “David needs to go home, and I’ll clean everything up.”
Tsagasi crossed his arms with a scowl, his feet shoulder-width apart. “I may have been locked in hell for hundreds of years, but I’m capable of cleaning this up.”
I wavered. I didn’t want to send David home alone, but I wasn’t sure I could trust Tsagasi either.
The small man stepped closer to me, lowering his voice. “You cannot leave him alone. The Raven Mockers might return for him. He is a target now.”
The image of the Raven Mocker reaching for David’s chest filled my head. He was right. “David, let’s go.”
His body stiffened in anger. “You’re just going to trust him? What if he’s evil, Ellie? What if he’s setting you up?”
“He helped me, David. He helped me kill the Raven Mockers. He was the one who told me they would be here. He was the one who told me which sword to use.”
“But it wasn’t enough, was it?” he asked bitterly. “He didn’t save Allison.”
I was the one who had failed to save her, but I wasn’t sure bringing that up would be a good idea. Still, the guilt was overwhelming, and my shoulders sank under the weight of it.
“You can’t save them all,” Tsagasi said, looking up into my eyes. “This battle has only just begun. There will be many deaths on both sides. But each time you must move forward, not back.”
David cradled his ex-girlfriend’s head in his lap, his body shaking as he fought tears. His grief was my undoing, and not because I felt jealous or threatened. I knew he still cared for her. He just hadn’t loved her enough to commit his life to her. I couldn’t expect him to get up and brush off his hands and pretend this meant nothing.
