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But this was different. This was a sense of being watched from inside.
The feeling that there was someone else, not just inside your mind, but inside your body.
I had never known fear like that before.
To know my soul was halved and quartered. Compromised beyond my own hand.
After that everything went black, a blur, until I found myself in Sleepy Hollow again.
But tonight, now, I’m already in Sleepy Hollow.
I just know I’m about to find myself somewhere else.
I can feel that darkness, that blackness, that blur, waiting to take me there.
There’s a knock at my door and with it I sense death. I almost laugh. I know it’s not Crane. I want it to be Crane. I want it to be Crane and Kat, I want to tell them I’m sorry.
But it’s not them.
It’s my destiny.
I get up from my bed and walk over and open it. It’s just a formality anyway. He would have axed open the door and let himself in.
On the other side is the horseman himself.
Eight feet tall, no head, cloaked in black.
I stare at him, at where his head should be, and I resolve to not show any fear.
That isn’t how a hero should die.
“You’re here,” I say to the monster.
You called for me, the Hessian says inside my head. You know what you must do.
I nod, swallowing hard. “I know. Give up my soul.”
The Hessian walks into the room, sucking in all the air and energy, his axe dragging behind him. He spins around to face me, darkness hanging off his cape like growing shadows, waiting to smother me.
“But we have a deal,” I tell him, squaring my shoulders. “And you must keep this deal. It’s the only thing that will redeem your own soul by the end of it.”
The Hessian laughs. You know nothing of my soul.
“No. But I know mine. And ours will be one and the same.”
I stick out my hand, as if shaking hands with an evil spirit is a normal, polite thing to do. I hadn’t ever cared about being polite, about formalities, until this last moment. How fitting.
You have my word, then, the horseman says.
Then the Hessian reaches out and shakes my hand.
And then I feel him from the inside again.
I feel the world go black.
Chapter 34
Kat
I don’t know how long I stand there in Ms. Choi’s bathroom, staring at the bathtub of blood with my mother’s corpse submerged, but it’s enough that I’m sure Leona and Ana must be out of the building by now. Perhaps they’ve gone down to the basement—to Gorrun’s den. I can’t help but shudder at that thought.
But I can’t wait any longer. There’s no time to grieve the complicated loss of my mother. There’s only enough time to find Crane and retrieve Brom from their grasp.
I run out into the hall, forgetting my candlestick behind, but there’s enough light to see from the moon as it slices through the windows. I run all the way to Crane’s room, even though I don’t expect to find him there, not after Leona and Ana already paid him a visit.
Still, the door is open and I walk over the line of salt and into the middle of his room, looking around frantically for any signs of him. At the very least, maybe I can use his gun. The witches aren’t immortal yet. They won’t survive a bullet to the head, I’m sure of it.
“Kat,” I hear Crane whisper and I whirl around to see a shadow moving off the wall, looking exactly like the shadow version of himself in the glen that first ritual night. I almost scream until the shadow dissolves and turns into Crane.
“How did you do that?” I exclaim. “When did you learn shadow magic?”
He grabs me, pulling me in to his arms, holding me so tight that I can’t breathe. “I didn’t. I borrowed it from you. Oh, thank god you’re alright.”
“But I just used the magic myself. I thought when you borrowed it, you took it from the person.”
He pulls back, his gaze flicking anxiously over my face. “I suppose when it comes to us, from the way we’re bonded or perhaps by the rituals, we naturally bestow it on each other.” Then he gives his head a shake. “What happened to you? I woke up just as I heard Leona and Ana outside the door. Managed to get my body into the shadows under the bed. They searched under there but they didn’t see me.”
“They have Brom,” I cry out softly.
His eyes nearly bulge out. “What?” he hisses, squeezing my shoulders. “How do you know?”
“I was in Ms. Choi’s bathroom. My mother was there, she was bathing in blood. That’s what she does under the full moon. Bathes in the blood of those they sacrifice so that she can stay alive.”
