Chapter Fifty-Five

The hours tumbled by. The Darrow family packed clothes and Christmas presents, and researched places to stay. Adrian and Zoe, who stuck around to guard them, conferred with them about their options and agreed it was probably safe to stay in a remote cabana in Baja California, and certainly more comfortable than camping in the spirit realm. Adrian would come along to keep watch, just in case. Sophie even dared to let herself become a tiny bit pleased, looking forward to swimming in the warm sea with him in the tropical night.

But organizing it and getting ready was taking all day. Soon it was 4:00, and the sun was setting in the dim December sky.

Sophie checked in with Tab, who was still deeply shaken about the attack, and uncertain about even setting foot in the living world. Zoe agreed to spend the evening near her, though Freya was already there—maybe because Freya was already there, Sophie thought. It tired her to sort out the romantic complications among those three. Meanwhile, Niko remained in living-world Seattle, searching for any other would-be killers, though he reported no success so far.

Liam was done packing, and was bouncing off the walls in excitement about the sudden secret trip to Mexico. Sophie smiled dryly as she pictured how much more excited he’d be when he realized they were taking a supersonic spirit horse bus instead of a passenger jet.

Liam wanted to dash down the road before leaving and pick up a present from his buddy. Since the others were still getting ready, his parents let him.

Sophie watched him bop away in the fading light, and immediately worried about his safety. She decided to send Adrian after him if he didn’t come back within half an hour.

Adrian had prowled from window to window most of the day, taking breaks to look at computer screens and messages, and to eat when Sophie reminded him to.

At the moment, her parents were still up in their room, packing and squaring away details by phone or email.

She found Adrian in the study. “Come on, have some leftovers. We should eat them up before we go.”

“Suppose so.” He went to the window facing the field behind the house, and looked out into the twilight gloom. He frowned. “Do you see someone out there?”

Sophie looked too. “No, but it’s getting dark. Wait.” Her stomach dipped in alarm. “Yeah, by the fence—I did see—”

The flash of fire sliced across her words. Adrian flung himself at her and seized her. The sounds of glass shattering and a roaring explosion vanished to silence within a second, and instead of hitting the floor they fell a foot or two through space to the wet, cold ground. The landing bruised her hips and elbows and made her grunt in pain.

Sophie flailed free of him in the muddy dead leaves and scrambled up, staring around the spirit realm in panic. “What happened? Oh my God, what happened?”

“This way.” Adrian leaped up too, and grabbed her hand, pulling her along. “I switched realms to get us out of the way.”

“I know that, but what is happening in the other realm right now?” she shrieked.

His body and voice trembled as he rushed her between trees, counting off paces. “Something not good.”

“Is the house burning? Adrian! My parents!”

Rather than answer—and surely he had no answer, any more than she did—he wrapped his arms around her and switched realms again.

Flames bloomed up into the sky, filling her vision as she turned. She and Adrian stood in the field beside the house, far enough away to be out of danger, but even from there the heat licked at her face. The whole house was burning, collapsing, almost unrecognizable already as the humble wood frame gave itself up to the fire.

She screamed, the sound raw and tearing into her lungs. She lunged forward, but Adrian confined her against his chest, holding her as she struggled.

“No!” he said. “You can’t go in, don’t you dare, don’t even try.”

“My parents!” She fought with all her strength. “We have to get them out!”

“Sophie, I’ll try, but a fire like that…” His voice sounded shredded and broken.

Somewhere in her distraught mind she remembered Kiri had been around the house, not to mention Pumpkin and Rosie. At least Liam was out, but the dogs, her parents…this couldn’t be happening.

People were shouting and calling. A car or two had stopped on the road, and Phil Shenk, the retired man who lived in the next farmhouse over, was running toward them.

Adrian looked at him. “Are you safe with him? Do you know him?” he asked rapidly.

Sophie nodded, returning her horrified gaze to the fire.

“Sophie! My God!” Phil said, gasping for breath as he reached her.

Adrian handed her over to him. “Stay here,” he told her firmly. Then he jumped the wooden fence, sprinted to the house, and slammed through the side door. He disappeared into the flames. Sophie crammed her hands over her mouth to keep from screaming again. How could she have sent him in there? But how could she not send him in there to save her parents?

“What happened?” Phil asked in hushed horror.

Sophie only shook her head to indicate she had no idea. Though of course she did. Thanatos. Grenades. They did things exactly like this. And right at the moment when they must have spotted Adrian in the window…

An animal’s silhouette wriggled into view between her and the flames. Kiri! She was pulling someone: a dark body on the ground. Sophie and Phil climbed over the fence and rushed forward.

After one look, a look that stretched forever though it only lasted a few seconds, Sophie spun away and threw up into the bushes by the fence.

Her mother. Burned like a fireplace log. Dead.

Sophie staggered back and dropped to the muddy ground on her knees, her whirling head bent over her lap. Soft dog fur settled against her side. Kiri whined softly. She reeked of burning hair, and Sophie fought the need to scream or vomit again.

New shouts made her look up in dread. Someone had leaped out a second floor window and went tumbling across the garden: Adrian, clothing aflame, holding another body in his arms.

Phil and a woman from one of the cars ran forward to them. Adrian had let go of Terry, and rolled across the ground until the flames were extinguished. But Sophie’s father lay still. She didn’t wish to go any closer, not when she saw how the other people cringed and covered their mouths and said, “Oh, my God.”

Sirens howled. Red lights flashed against the treetops, competing with the flickering fire. An ambulance and a fire truck pulled into the driveway.

Adrian tottered to Sophie and collapsed to his knees before her. Kiri whined, scooting over to place her chin in his lap. He bent over the dog and hugged her, and buried his face in her singed fur. “I’m sorry, Sophie.” Smoke or tears, or both, had roughened his voice into unfamiliarity. He lifted his head, and in his face she saw the bleak answer to her hope.

“No. They can’t both be dead, they can’t be.” She couldn’t breathe; she squeaked out the words past paralyzed lungs.

He turned his head suddenly, glaring into the fields past her. Soot grimed him all over. “Whoever did this isn’t far.” He leaped to his feet. “I’ll find them and I’ll throw them into that fire.”

“Don’t,” she begged. “They were trying to get you. Don’t go straight to them.”

“I’m stronger and faster than them, and they need to die.” He dashed for the fence, startlingly quick, and in seconds he was over it and out into the dark of the fields. Kiri barked and ran after him, leaping the fence and vanishing.

Betty Quentin watched the fiery orange glow light up the sky from across the field while she waited in the nondescript van they had purchased yesterday. Excitement and hope beat in her chest. She exchanged a glance with Landon, behind the wheel, who once again sat ready as the getaway driver. They were parked on the quiet rural road half a mile behind the farmhouse, on the other side of the field. At dusk, Krystal, dressed in full camouflage, had snuck through the tall grass with her grenade launcher. After several silent, tense minutes, the twilight had bloomed loud and bright with the explosion.

That meant Krystal had seen Adrian: identified him positively, and fired. It meant that, as Betty and her companions expected, Terry and Isabel had allowed Adrian into their household and were harboring him.

Betty drew in a long breath, and sighed. “Pity about the family. I did try to warn them.”

Landon echoed her sigh in answer, sounding uneasy.

Betty’s cell phone rang. She glanced at it to find Krystal’s code name, and answered. “Hello?”

“He didn’t die!” Krystal kept her voice carefully quiet, but still conveyed intense annoyance.

“He didn’t die?”

“Neither did Sophie. I just saw them both. He tried to save her parents, but he survived. I think they’re dead, whatever good that does us.”

“Where is he? Can you still get a shot at him?”

“Too many people around now. I’d get caught.” She seethed out an infuriated breath. “Great, and now he just disappeared into the field on the other side. Probably looking for me. Wish he’d come this way.”

“Don’t wish that,” Betty said. “Without the element of surprise on your side, he can too easily win. Just go to plan B. Are you ready?”

“Yes.” Krystal cleared her throat. “Yeah, with him out of the way, that should be pretty easy, in fact.”

“We’ll bring the van around front.”