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You will never lose me,I hear his voice intone, a promise I have no choice but to trust.
I inhale a shuddering breath as he easily pries the knife from my clenched grasp before he says, “Run.”
Then his focus is on the unhinged detective barreling for him.
Devyn takes my hand, and like the raving ones, we run.
* * *
My bare feet hit every divot and bramble trying to slow my pace, the roots reaching up from the muddy earth to grab at my ankles. I refasten my jeans, ignoring the way they stick to my skin as sweat leaks from my pores.
I follow Devyn as we track parallel to the reservoir, using the sparse coverage of the marsh trees to shelter us amid the swampy wetland. “Where the hell are we going?”
“Up the mountain,” she calls back to me. “We have to make it to the top.”
For one petrifying second, I fear I’m succumbing to her delusion, or that I’m delirious from dehydration, because I see the hulking forty-foot structure coming into view against the dusky skyline.
Blinking red lights mark the concrete and slate-black stones of a dam rising up from the reservoir.
“Oh, hell.” The curse is sawed from my lungs. The horrid truth hits me in an instant, what Emmons has done. Ignoring the pain searing my muscles, I push my legs harder.
A white light cuts across the barren branches ahead of us, and a sharp twinge of panic slows my pace. I glance back once to see the beams slashing through the shadowed trees, hear the footfalls beating the ground.
We’re being chased.
I follow Devyn into the thick brush where we’re out of sight, yet a fence barricade of mesh wire halts our advance. Gripping my side, I bend at the waist to pull in a shot of crisp air. Devyn climbs over the top and offers me her hand.
I hesitate as I stare at her outstretched hand. Then I glance over at the ladder leading to the top of the stone dam. A manic laugh slips past my lips, and I swallow the raw burn in my dry throat. “But of course it would be heights.”
The sounds of the pursuit grow closer to propel me past my fear, and I latch on to her hand.
In direct opposition to the wild beat of my heart, the body of water is still and tranquil. The moonlight reflects off the glassy top of the reservoir, placid despite the dangerous current swimming through the air.
Defying my instinct to turn back, I anchor my hands to the cold ladder and hike my body up the rungs, breathing through the constricting fear.
Wind whips at my hair the higher we ascend. I try to pretend it’s just the library ladder, and that Kallum is there below. The thought causes a pang of regret to flare inside my chest, and as a shiver attacks my muscles, I miss a rung. Muttering a curse, I find purchase and pull myself close to the bars.
Don’t look down. Keep your eyes right there.
Hearing his voice, I tilt my head back and open my eyes to the stars dusting the midnight sky.
To further distract myself from the anxiety threading my nerves, I mentally link the details. “You told me Jake Emmons was already dead,” I say to Devyn, my voice shaky. “But it wasn’t from his illness. I read the ME’s report.”
There’s a lengthy pause where I think she won’t answer, then: “Emmons killed him.”
His own brother.
“That was his trade,” Devyn says from up above me. “His sacrifice. For me.” This last part barely reaches my ears, her voice as passive as the body of water below us. “I wanted to believe he did it to offer mercy. Ihadto believe that. But when I found out there was a new treatment option for Jake, and that Emmons knew this…” There’s a tense pause. “I only discovered this before I took you to the mine.”
As we reach the concrete platform, I hold my hands out to gain balance. The drop to the rocky stream below is so far down, the world tilts. I reach for the secure feel of Kallum’s arms surrounding me as his comforting scent envelops me from his shirt, preventing me from toeing too close to the edge.
In the distant marsh, the beams of light flicker through the trees. A mix of hope and dread swirls my bloodstream, unsure if I’m comforted or not by the presence of the feds. I don’t know what Agent Rana will find when she reaches Kallum—the man or the devil.
Devyn hovers in front of me like a specter, her loose layers fluttering around her soft frame. “Colter wasn’t supposed to die first,” she says, anguish hitching her voice. “He took his own life.”
I swipe my hair out of my vision. “A symptom of the disease is hopelessness,” I say, offering some form of logical comfort.
She holds up a hand. “Colter’s will was the strongest. He was never hopeless. I knew then, right fucking then, when I found him in the ravine…” She averts her gaze and drags in a sharp breath. “I’m the one who became hopeless. I’m the one who lost the will. And by doing so, I drove Emmons to this end. When Colter died, it was as if he just snapped. My brother’s death made mine an unavoidable reality.”
