Twisted Dreams (21 page)

“You need to kill her now if this is going to work,” said Riley, addressing The Bull. Then he pulled me back to him and spoke fast and low in my ear. “Don’t be afraid. He can’t hurt you.”

Bulldog took a couple of steps toward me. I hesitated, looking between everyone here—Riley, Laurel’s circle, even Brooke—and knew I couldn’t run. I couldn’t just leave them all here to face whatever was coming.

Bulldog took hold of my arm. Though I knew I couldn’t escape, I couldn’t resist swinging my elbow back and giving him a satisfying whack in the gut. He coughed and yanked me back harder, hurting my shoulder. “Little bitch,” he said in my ear.

He could insult me all he wanted. It made no difference to me.

Across the pool, a figure stepped from between the trees. Broad shouldered, blond haired.

My heart jumped with happiness. “Flynn!”

“I told you he was trouble, Beth,” he yelled at me. “You didn’t listen.”

“Do something and then lecture me,” I shouted back. “You’re supposed to be the protector of the pools. Where the hell were you?”

Bulldog gave my arm an extra yank. “Shut it, both of you. There’s nothing you can do now. You’ll both be dead in a matter of minutes.”

Russ took the gun away from Dana’s head and waved it in Flynn’s direction. “Should I shoot him, Boss?”

Bulldog shook his head. “No, keep the gun on the girl.”

The funnel of water grew higher. Almost all of the water from the pool was now suspended in the air. The creature I’d spotted before had made it halfway up the inside of the pool, and more movement came from below. I knew without a doubt that these were the things that would start the hell cycle.

“Do something, Flynn!” I cried.

He lifted his hands above his head, as if he was about to dive, but he didn’t jump. Instead, he began to push his palms down in an arch. He appeared to be pressing against a force I couldn’t see, but when I glanced up, I saw the funnel of water Riley had created beginning to get lower. Somehow, he was forcing the water back down.

Riley’s concentration increased, his face taut with focus. With every bit of downward pressure Flynn applied, Riley’s efforts doubled back. They were fighting each other. A battle I could only see by the elements involved.

Riley risked breaking his concentration for a moment to yell over an instruction to Bulldog. “Move closer. You need to hold her over the edge, so when her blood is spilled it pours into the pool. Her blood can’t be spilled on our dirt.”

Bull pushed me forward, the knife held against my throat. He leaned me closer over the edge, so I stared down into its vast, black depth. Dizziness spun over me. Feeling like I was falling already. Was that what he planned? He would slit my throat, and I would die plummeting into those depths. The last things I would ever experience were those strange glassy black walls and the feeling of falling.

I thought of my parents, how they’d kissed me goodbye, never knowing it was for the last time. I thought of the people of Sage Springs, and possibly even the rest of America, how their lives would change forever after this night. How the hell cycle was about to begin.

Several tons of water swirled above our heads. I felt as though I was looking up into an ocean. It was both overwhelming and terrifying. The pool was an empty black hole now, or not so empty. From its depths, more of the creatures emerged, their fingers long and spindly, with long, curled nails, or perhaps claws, protruding from the ends.

The creatures were getting closer, a couple of them only a matter of feet from the top. One reached up, its claws curling around the edge, digging into the grass and soil.

I tried one last time. “Please, Riley. Don’t let him do this.”

But the boy I’d fallen in love with ignored me.

His attention was focused on someone else.

Riley and Flynn exchanged a glance. I had enough time to think, ‘What’s going on there?’ Then Riley shouted, “Now!”

My survival instinct kicked in. I shoved away from Bulldog, diving for the ground. The edge of the blade sliced across my throat with a sharp sting, but I didn’t have time to worry about it. A roar came from above and suddenly ten tons of water collapsed on top of Bulldog’s head.

He floundered, his arms spread out as though thin air could help him, and then the force of the water pummeled him down, his feet flying up into the air.

The water was back in the pool, sloshing from side to side from the motion.

His hand reached out of the surface for help, only for a black claw to reach up out of the water beside him and drag him back under.

“Never trust anyone,” Riley said, addressing the water as he stood over the pool Bulldog had vanished into. He shook his head, sadly. “You taught me that, Bull.”

Chapter

24

I
lifted my hand to my throat, expecting at any moment to start choking on my own blood from where the blade had punctured my windpipe. But when I brought my hand away, my palm was clean, and the choking never came. I frowned, confused. I’d felt the blade slit my skin and enter my flesh. Why wasn’t I hurt?

Then I noticed the symbols Riley had drawn on me, all glowing in the dark, just like the time I’d seen them on Brooke in our room.

Riley crouched beside me and took the hand which I still stared at, perplexed. “I did a protective spell on you back at Bulldog’s trailer,” he said. “I didn’t use the symbols to prepare you for the afterlife.”

I managed to tear my eyes away from my palm and looked up at him. “You didn’t?”

He gave a small smile. “You can’t actually think I would ever let anyone hurt you?”

I opened my mouth and shut it again. I didn’t know what to say. I had thought he was going to let someone hurt me. I’d thought he’d served me up and handed me to Bulldog Mackenzie on a platter.

A groan caught my attention, and Mitch started to shift, coming around. Russ reached down to help his friend to his feet. He tucked the gun back in his belt and lifted his hands in defense.

“We don’t want no trouble,” he said. “We were only doing what Bulldog told us. We ain’t got no beef with all of you.”

My first instinct was to kill the pair of them. They deserved to go the same way as Bulldog. Anger built within me, the familiar red haze descending on my vision. All of my muscles tightened, and I realized the herb they’d fed me had completely worn off.

I started forward, but Riley’s hand on my arm stopped me. “Leave them,” he said. “They’re not worth it.” He raised his voice. “Get out of here, or we’ll get the cops onto you for abducting a college girl.”

“You ain’t no innocent in this either, Riley,” Mitch yelled back. “What proof have you got that you weren’t involved?”

Riley glanced to me, and I nodded.

“Witnesses,” he replied. “I’ve got witnesses. What have you got?”

Russ and Mitch exchanged a glance and then turned their backs and ran off into the forest. I had to hold myself back from taking after them and hunting them down.

“Let them go,” said Riley. “They don’t have the brains to cause any more trouble.”

Flynn approached us.

Without saying anything, I put my arms around him and squeezed him tight. He was warm, solid muscle beneath my touch, and I felt eternally grateful to have him here. I might not have the same feelings for him as he had for me, but without him, we wouldn’t have won.

“Hi, Beth,” he said, his face in my hair.

“Thank you,” I told him, letting him go so I could stand back beside Riley.

He shrugged. “It wasn’t just me. And anyway, it was his idea.” He nodded toward Riley.

I looked between them, and frowned. “It was? But don’t you hate him?”

“Just because I don’t like him, doesn’t mean I won’t work with him. We’re the same, remember?”

Riley gave a nonchalant shrug. “We knew Bulldog would need to believe everything was going to plan, and that he was winning. We couldn’t make him think it was too easy. To be honest, though, we didn’t think you’d be involved. We thought it was going to be Brooke.”

Brooke heard her name. “Thought what was going to be me? What the hell are we doing out here anyway?”

Inspiration hit me. “You’re sleepwalking, Brooke.”

She blinked in surprise. “I am?”

“Yeah, you’re a terrible sleepwalker.” She looked horrified. “Don’t worry, we’ll keep it between us,” I said with a smile.

She breathed out a sigh. “Oh, thank you. I’d hate for everyone to know.”

Melissa let out a groan and started to open her eyes. Dana, Laurel, and Kayla were already at her side, and they helped her to sit up.

“Is she going to be okay?” I asked.

Dana nodded. “Yeah, now the Convergence is over, everything will go back to how it was.”

I remembered the alignment and glanced up. The stars had passed across the back of the moon and had come out the other side. The moon itself was already smaller, and the blood red was only a tinge of color. I expected in another hour the moon would look almost normal.

“How did you guys know to be here?” I asked the circle. “Were you in on this plan Flynn and Riley had?”

Dana shook her head. “When you didn’t come back, we went to the carnival, but the place was being broken down, and no one had seen you. Time was running out, and we figured that if what you’d told us about the Convergence was right, then this would be the place you’d be.”

I smiled. “Thank you. It meant a lot to me seeing you all here. Sorry it might have gotten you killed.”

“Well, you were right about the Convergence. Something bigger than a few spirits getting through was happening.”

Suddenly, I remembered something. “Did any of them get out?” I asked in panic.

Dana frowned. “Any of what?”

“Those things! Those awful creatures with the claws and the long, skinny arms.” I knew my description was barely brushing the surface of what they’d been. Something terrible, total darkness.

My friends exchanged worried glances. Dana put her hand on my arm. “I didn’t see anything else, Beth.”

“Maybe you weren’t close enough. Could you even see into the hole from where you were?”

“Well, maybe not deep, but I could see some, yeah.”

“But one of them was pulling itself out as the water came down. You must have seen it.” They exchanged that glance again, and my shoulders sagged. “You didn’t see it, did you? None of you did.”

Riley shook his head. “Sorry, Icy.”

Dammit.

“Look, we need to get Melissa home,” said Dana. “Brooke, too. I guess we’ll have to talk about the whole ‘vampire’ thing another time.”

My cheeks colored. My secret was out. “Sure.”

With their arms around each other for support, they walked away from the pools and back onto the trail.

Flynn looked between me and Riley. “Can I trust you to get her home safely?” he said to Riley.

Riley scowled. “Of course.”

“Hey,” I admonished. “What have I told you two about me not needing a babysitter?”

The corner of Flynn’s mouth turned up. “Sorry. Well, as much as I enjoy playing gooseberry to the two of you, I think I’ll make sure the other girls make it back to campus.”

“Okay. And thanks, Flynn,” I said again.

He shrugged. “No problem.” And he turned his back and disappeared off after the girls.

Riley turned to me. “That all—”

I didn’t give him a chance to finish. Instead, I shoved him in the chest, pushing him backward with my strength. He staggered back, his blue eyes wide with surprise.

“How could you do that?” I cried. “How could you betray me like that? You told Bulldog to kill me!”

“No, I didn’t tell Bulldog to kill you because I wanted you dead. I was trying to buy time. If I hadn’t given The Bull a reason to keep you alive, he would have killed you there and then.”

A glimmer of light sparked my heart. Had Riley been planning on betraying Bulldog all along? But then I remembered something else. “But what about Brooke? You’d been preparing her for a sacrifice. You’d been doing magic on her.” The idea that he might have seen Brooke naked, had touched her body in order to draw the runes on her skin, sent an absurd stab of jealousy racing through me.

“Bulldog told me no one would die. It was supposed to have been a little bloodletting spell to tie us to the magic in the pools at the right time. Bulldog wanted his own power. When I realized how far he planned on taking things, I turned to Flynn for help.”

“It’s still bad enough,” I said, shaking my head, tears trembling in my vision. “That you would hurt anyone is bad enough.”

“What, like you’ve never hurt anyone?” he challenged me.

I didn’t know what to say. He was right. “I only hurt people who were asking for it.”

“And you get to make that decision? Brooke and her family are far from innocent. They plunder the earth, tear nature to pieces in order to make their money. It’s partly the mining that’s caused the instability of the pools. She’s tied to the land, she’s part of it. She isn’t so innocent, you know.”

“Brooke’s not responsible for her parents.”

“No, you’re right, she isn’t.” His voice grew softer. “So what about me, Icy? Bulldog and the others practically raised me. I did what I did because they asked me to, and I wanted to help them. It was only when you came on the scene that I started to ask myself if what they were doing was right. And then that night Jordy attacked you, I realized I cared about more than just the other carnies now.” He looked at me, his eyes so deep, my tears mirrored in his own, pool-like depths. “I would never hurt you. I love you, Elizabeth. I’ve loved you from the very first moment you stepped onto the midway, when you caught my eye right before the accident. It was like you reached inside my chest and claimed my heart for your own.”

“You love me?” My voice was a nervous stutter.

He nodded, his face utterly serious. “With every inch of my being.”

I could hold back no longer. I threw myself in his arms.

“I love you, too,” I managed, a muffled cry. He lifted my face and kissed me, ignoring the wet and the salt, kissing my pain away.

But then I remembered he was still leaving.

“What about the carnival?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Now Bulldog’s not running things, people may disband. Join other carnivals, I’m not sure.”

“What about you?”

He reached out and stroked my hair from my face. “I’m not going anywhere. My home’s right here with you.”

My heart sung. Here we were, neither of us normal, neither perfect, but we’d found each other in this imperfect world.