Chapter 36

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The door pulses with light. When we stumble through, everything seems as it was. The

river sings sweetly on. The sunset is still a gorgeous spill of colors. Flowers float by.

"You see?" Felicity says, eyes shining in triumph. "There's nothing amiss. I told you she

only wanted the power for herself."

I ignore her, listening for anything out of place.

They glide down into the meadow ahead of me, walking toward the garden, hand in hand

like a trio of paper-doll cutouts from a doily.

The wind shifts, bringing the scent of roses and that other, unfamiliar stench, which sends

me running after them.

"Wait! Felicity, please listen, I think we should go back."

"Go back? We just got here," she says, mocking me.

Ann's face is a stone. "We're not going back without the power to cross over by

ourselves."

The huntress is suddenly by our sides. It startles me. Odd that I never heard her approach.

I can't help thinking of her offering me the berries. It makes me cold all over. She wipes a

ringer across Felicity's bloody face, rubs the stain with her thumb. She brings the finger

to her mouth, tastes it and smiles.

"You've made a sacrifice, I see."

"Yes," Felicity says. "Will you grant us the power to enter the realms?"

"Didn't I promise that I would?" She smiles but there's no warmth in it. "Follow me."

I grab Felicity by the arm. "This is wrong. We shouldn't go," I whisper.

"No, somethings finally right," she says, breaking away and running after the others.

I follow them under the silver arch, into the grotto. My mother is nowhere to be seen. The

smells of my childhood waft by. Curry. Pipe smoke. And something else. There it is

again. That unpleasant stench.

We've reached the Runes of the Oracle, the heart of everything.

The breeze shifts. The smell is back. Underneath the memories is something pungent, like

meat rotting in the sun. Does no one else smell it?

"What do we do now?" Pippa asks.

"Use the magic to take me through to the other side," the huntress says.

"If we join hands and take you through, you'll give us the power we need, to come and go

as we please?"

"Not me. My mistress. She will give you what you deserve."

Wariness steals inside me and takes its perch.

"Your mistress?" Felicity is confused.

Everything in me is screaming to run. I've got my hand on Felicity's arm, and as if she

can feel my terror, she backs slowly away from the circle. The huntress seems to grow

taller. Her eyes go black; her voice becomes a hiss.

"Come to me, my pretty ones."

The sky opens into a churning sea of dark clouds. Quick as rain, she rises before us, a

towering, screeching wraith, carrying the souls of the damned inside her unfurling black

cape. Felicity can't break away, can't stop staring at that skeletal face, the eyes rimmed in

red with swirling black ovals for centers, the sharp, jagged teeth. The thing clamps a hand

onto her arm. Felicity's mouth stretches into a ghastly O. Like ink, the black floats across

her eyes, till they're bottomless.

"No!" I scream, barreling headlong into Felicity, the two of us sprawled on the ground.

She's shaking all over, her eyes still black. Screaming, Pippa falls to the ground,

scrambles down the hill, toward the river.

"Ann! Help me! We've got to get her back now!"

We're on either side of Felicity, running for the river. We have to find Pippa. We have to

leave. A storm wind is blowing. It rips blossoms, leaves, and branches from trees, sends

them flying over us. A branch narrowly misses my head and scrapes the side of my cheek,

drawing blood.

The dark wraith grows another pair of arms and another. She slinks toward us, ready to

crush us in her embrace. Felicity is coming out of it now, stumbling, then running. We've

reached the river, but where is Pippa?

Ann's scream rips the air apart. "Help me!"

She's staring into the river, tearing at her hair. Her reflection has turned. She's covered in

hideous boils. Her hair falls out in thick clumps and sores bubble up on her scalp. It's as if

her skin is melting from her bones.

"Stop looking at yourself, Ann! Stop!" I scream.

"I can't! I can't!"

She's leaning closer to the water's edge. I slip my arms around her chest, but she's heavy

and won't budge, and then she's free, falling back in the grass, thanks to a hard tug from

Felicity. The gray of Ann's eyes has returned.

"Where's Pippa?" she screams over the wind.

"I don't know," I shout.

Something slithers over my hand. Snakes wind through the tall grass as it shrivels and

dries up. We jump onto a rock. Pears fall from a tree and rot at our feet. Ann is

whimpering, watching her skin dissolve into ugliness.

"Help me!" Pippa's scream tears through us. When we stumble across the brittle grass, we

see her. She has taken a large boat, a bier, onto the river, where the wind has pushed her

out into the wide deep of it. The wraith paces the bank, forcing us to keep our distance.

"Yes, that's it… come for her…" it laughs.

"Please! Help me!" Pippa cries. But there's nothing we can do. She's cut off from us. We

can't let it capture us. I'm so afraid, I can think only one thing—I've got to get us out.

"Through the door—quickly!" I shout.

The wind whips Felicity's hair across her pale face. "We can't leave Pip!"

"We'll come back for her!" I scream, pulling her hand.

"No!"

"Don't leave me!" Pippa moves onto the bow of the boat. It tips under her weight.

"Pippa—no!" I scream, but it's too late. She jumps into the river and it closes over her

grasping hands like ice, entombing everything but her watery, strangled cry. I remember

my vision the day of Pippa's seizure, of her pulled down into the water. And now, with

great horror, I understand at last.

Outraged, the thing howls and the dark races toward us, shrieking,

"Pippa! Pippa!" Felicity shrieks till she's hoarse.

"Felicity, we've got to go—now!"

The wraith is nearly upon us. There's no time to think. I can only react. I reach the door

and pull us through into the caves as the candles flicker and cough with the last of their

light. We're all here, safe and accounted for, it seems. But on the floor, Pippa's body has

gone rigid. It seizes uncontrollably.

Ann's voice is fluttery. "Pippa? Pippa?"

Felicity is sobbing. "You left her there! You did it!"

The last candle sputters and dies.