20

SLEEP REFUSED TO WELCOME LOTTIE, and she tossed and turned on the sinking futon. A storm like she’d never seen before raged beyond the screen door, the room quaking with each flurry of wind and rain. Everything rattled—the floor, the wall, the ceiling, her mind—and every time she felt her eyes get sleepy the world would bark at her to wake up again. And every bark sounded the same: a single name in her head, tormenting her. Jamie.

Her phone buzzed next to her pillow, and she fumbled to find it, praying for the sign she was waiting for.

The screen showed Ollie’s name and a childish message she could barely decipher, with a photo of him pretending to be dead. Horrified and furious at the flippant words, she threw the phone to the floor, the screen cracking. Beside her, Ellie turned over, trapped in an unknowable nightmare, but asleep nonetheless.

“I’m sorry. It’s my fault. I’m weak,” she mumbled.

Lottie wanted to wake her up, tell her she was wrong, only the real world seemed even worse. How could everything she’d been working toward have been destroyed in one night?

She wanted to run again, to say to hell with the storm and dance around in it, accepting all the fiery rage the universe had to offer.

Why the princess of Maradova? Why would Ellie be at the center of it all? But the thought only made her want to run even more, to run away from the very idea of it, because if it was true, she wasn’t sure Ellie could handle it.

Her hands reached for her rain clothes, fingers curling around the yellow slicker, but before she’d had a chance to consider putting them on, a mew came from the other side of the screen door. A towering black shadow was illuminated by a crack of lightning, a giant cat pawing desperately at the paper door.

The breath caught in her chest and she did not dare make a sound as the vampire cat flooded her mind, here to punish her for overlooking Jamie. But then she threw off her covers and went to welcome him in.

The screen rattled as she pulled it open, and the wind pounded in. With the wind came the desperate creature, the same oversize black cat from over a week ago, Vampy, yellow eyes wide with panic and fur drenched from the rain. She closed the door again and the cat dived into her arms, its heartbeat vibrating against her as she wrapped her arms around it, warming it.

“Now, now,” she whispered, careful not to wake Ellie. “You’re safe now.”

But Vampy refused to rest, diving out of her arms and landing on her rain clothes, where it began to paw at the yellow material, before moving again to the door, scratching at the screen and leaving marks on the wood. It wanted to go out again.

Thunder growled, the room quaking at the furious weather, and she felt in that moment that something terrible was happening within the school.

“I will be kind, I will be brave, I will be unstoppable,” Lottie said, squeezing her eyes shut before reaching for her rain clothes and an umbrella.

The storm screamed at her when she stepped outside. A paper-thin river cascaded over the edges of the decking, the lake in the center of the school growing and spraying its murky dark water upward.

Lottie stepped clumsily with the cat darting between her legs, careful not to lose her footing. She was cold, and her exposed skin stung from the biting fury of the storm. It nipped and snapped at her ankles, tangling her hair menacingly with each step she took, but she persisted.

The cat took her to the very edge of the forest again, the path covered in mud and dripping debris. All-consuming darkness drifted from between the bamboo, the rain turning silent in the midst of the towering trees. Holding her breath, Lottie prepared for the cat to guide her back into the otherworld of the wood, but instead Vampy turned back, leading her to the narrow path to the overgrown back of the dojo, where it vanished. Tangled weeds and tall wet grass clawed at her legs as she stepped into the clearing. Her feet stopped, frozen, as she saw the large dark figure skulking, a sword extending from his palms.

Miko’s stories of the red-faced, long-nosed tengu, wielding shakujō and holding the power to stir up great winds, filled her mind. But this creature was no yōkai. It turned slowly, leaning on the wooden sword in its hand—not a blade, but a stick to hold itself up—and Lottie could see his face clearly.

Lightning cracked around them, illuminating his damaged, dirty state, and for a split second she thought he’d been attacked. He was soaked through, stumbling from the bamboo trees, hair stuck down to his face like slick oil, eyes gaunt. There was a flush on his cheeks, a dreamy look consuming him as if he were stuck in a fog, and he swayed.

“Lottie.” His voice was slurred, eyes not quite focusing. “You need to get inside; you’ll get sick.”

“Jamie!” She rushed forward, her tears melting into the rain, while the wind continued to whip at her flesh, but she didn’t care—Jamie was in a much worse condition.

“Let me take you back to the dorm,” she pleaded, but his face remained passive, muddled.

“I need to keep you safe.” His foot caught on a patch of gorse and he tumbled into her.

Just over a year ago, Jamie had fallen into her arms and plummeted them both into an ice-cold pool. Now Lottie planted her feet firmly in the muddy ground and embraced his weight. His face brushed hers as she held him up, his skin scorching hers. He was sick and delirious, running a dangerously high fever.

“Let me go. I need to warn you all. They’re coming,” Jamie growled, but the sound came out as a desperate plea. A moan seeped from his lips and he slowly sank into her arms, the full force of him nearly overwhelming her. She needed to get him out of the storm—now.

His weight was crushing. Every bone in her body screamed against the burden, telling her to let go, to drop down and give up. Conjuring images of Liliana, she roared, drawing up a strength she didn’t know she had. Another flash and growl came from the sky, the bellow growing around her.

“I won’t let him go again!” she shrieked into the storm, marching Jamie’s slouched form toward the dojo. The entrance came into view and through the aching of her body she howled, kicking open the huge doors. The tempest swirled, blowing open her clothes and carrying her hat away. Long tangled hair whipped about, like coiling snakes on a gorgon.

Ignoring the cold and discomfort, her crying bones and muscles, Lottie gripped Jamie tighter, shouldering him on her back as she stumbled inside. The pain was unbearable, but she wouldn’t let him fall hard, holding his slouching form close and gently placing him on a soft mat.

With his body splayed she could see the damage. There was a purple tinge to the skin on his ribs where the yukata lay open and bloody scratches on his face and left arm, which he held painfully to himself, and he smelled sour, like he’d fallen in rubbish, his garment covered in grubby smears that made Lottie’s nose sting.

“What happened to you?” She tried desperately not to cry.

“I fell.”

“You fell?”

“Yes, I fell, off the roof, and then it started to rain.” He winced, his breath catching before he continued, but he was hardly making sense. “I walked back to the woods.”

He’d walked all the way back in this state?

Lottie rushed over to the closet and grabbed as many kendo robes as she could, placing them over Jamie and balling them up under his head like a pillow. “I’m going to get help. Don’t move.” She lay the last blanket over him.

When she stood up to leave, his hot fingers curled around her wrist, pulling her down. Blinking eyes stared up at her, dark circles building beneath them like bruises. Jamie looked entirely lost, like his worst nightmares were coming true in front of him, and she had no idea how to pull him out of it.

“Lottie, please,” he begged. “Don’t go.” It sent another stabbing pain through Lottie’s heart. “They’ll get you!”

Something in his voice made Lottie pause, turning back to him with a creeping chill in her bones.

“Who, Jamie? Who will get me?”

“Leviathan.”

Lottie shook her head; he was delusional. “Leviathan aren’t here. You’re safe in the school now.” She cringed at the lie, but she needed to get help. Moving to pry off Jamie’s fingers, Lottie yelped as his grip tightened painfully.

“No, the Goat Man.” His voice was rising, terrified. “He’s waiting for me, for us.”

“Jamie, that doesn’t . . .” She trailed off. “I need to get help.”

“No, Lottie, you need to run; you’re good at running.” He jerked her toward him with all his remaining strength, nearly pulling her over. “You have to run as fast as you can. Or he’s going to steal your soul. He’s going to take everything good about you and swallow it.”

“What? Jamie, please. You have to let go!” But his grip remained like a vise on her tiny wrist, bruises already forming underneath.

“You are good and he is evil. And he’s going to eat you up if he finds you. I need to keep him away or he’ll steal me too.”

“Jamie, you’re hallucinating.” She yelped once more, his fingernails digging into her skin. “There is no Goat Man, and Leviathan aren’t here; you’ve escaped them. You’re sick and I need to get you well again.”

“No, he is Leviathan; the Goat Man is Leviathan.”

Lottie froze. A sickening dread built up in her, terrified of what he was going to say next.

“I met him on the roof.” Jamie’s eyes were wide as he let go of her wrist, and then he spoke the words she prayed he wouldn’t. “I met the Master of Leviathan.”

Lightning crackled around the dojo, and with one final groan Jamie drifted into unconsciousness.

“Jamie?” She tried desperately to jolt him, but there was no response.

Panic started to crawl up her, her throat tightening, knowing she couldn’t do this on her own. She needed someone. She needed help.

With another great crash the door blew open, and in its wake, hair billowing like black smoke, stood a girl in a white nightdress, illuminated in the light of the storm, a fat ginger cat at her feet. “That’s a very good Partizan you have,” she said.

“Sayuri!” Lottie screeched, relief flooding through her. “Help me . . . please.”