We all backed away.
Rhys’s face fell. Tears welled up in his dark green eyes before he ran toward the edge of the corn, blood dripping from his nose in a steady stream.
The corn appeared to open up to let him pass. As he tore through the field, his blood left a scorched trail of disintegrated stalks in his wake.
I could smell the salt of his tears, the bitterness of hurt and betrayal. I tried to go after him, but as soon as I set foot across the perimeter, my body collapsed in on itself.
“Ashlyn,” Dane pleaded. “Step back inside Quivira.”
“What about Rhys?” I gritted my teeth as I struggled to hold my ground.
“We’ll find him. I promise.”
“I can’t leave him.” My body began to tremble with the strain of trying to cross the perimeter.
As Beth tried to help move me back, she accidentally stumbled onto the path of scorched earth Rhys’s blood had made in the corn. When she realized she was standing beyond the perimeter, a huge smile spread across her face. “Look, I’m standing in the corn.”
“You should go,” I murmured through the pain. “If you hurry, you can catch him. He shouldn’t be alone right now.”
“Do you realize what this means?” Beth twirled around. “Rhys’s blood can cut through Katia’s spell. I kept dreaming about it . . . a path that will lead us from darkness. Rhys is the path.”
I never knew what she’d been talking about . . . maybe she didn’t either, but it made perfect sense now. Dane told me the corn was a living, breathing thing. When we first came to Quivira, Rhys fell and skinned his knee and a patch of corn disintegrated around him. His blood had been the key to escaping Quivira this whole time.
“It means the others are free to go, too,” Beth said with a little jump of excitement.
“It also means others can get in,” Dane said. “Once a path is cleared, the protection barrier won’t hold.” For the first time, Dane looked scared.
Beth leapt forward to embrace me. “Rhys hasn’t even begun to realize his full power. He will soon. And we’ll all be together again, but right now, my place is with you.”
I relented, letting Dane and Beth move me back from the perimeter. As soon as I was on the grass once again, the physical pain subsided.
“Rhys will never forgive me,” I whispered, fighting back the tears as I stared out over the corn.
“Never is a very long time.” Dane kissed my forehead.
44
RECKONING
THE COMMUNITY HAD gathered on the front lawn of the meeting house. Everyone was decked out in their finest clothes, staring at the corn in anticipation, waiting for Katia to arrive with Nina and Thomas. They had no idea.
“How are you going to convince them to leave?” Beth asked. “They don’t know you’re the vessel.”
“I’m going to need that knife again,” I said to Dane.
He caressed my fingers as he handed it to me.
Taking in a steeling breath, I made my way to the center of the crowd and cleared my throat. “I have an announcement to make.”
Some of the Grimsby girls started giggling at me. I got a few stern looks from the elders, but most of them just ignored me.
“I’m the vessel,” I said louder.
“Pay her no mind. She’s a conduit.” A lady with frizzy brown hair gathered up her children and whipped around to move away from me, her voluminous skirt nearly knocking me to the ground.
“Oh, sweet girl, you’re in a state,” Lou said as she stepped toward me, shaking her head in dismay. “Did they let you wander off on your own?”
“I said . . . I’m the vessel.” I held the knife high above my head and dragged the blade along the palm of my hand.
Lou stayed put, but the rest of the mob pressed back like whatever I had might be contagious.
“Can someone get a bandage?” Lou called over her shoulder.
“I don’t need it,” I said, trying to hold their attention.
“Sweetheart—”
“Look.” I held out my hand. As the blood dripped down toward the earth, the cut began to close up, surging back together, leaving no scar, no mark—my skin looked flawless.
Lou grabbed my hand to study it, the pity slowly draining from her face. “It’s you . . . ,” she whispered. Then she dropped to her knees and began to pray.
The rest of the community quickly followed suit. A few people fought their way to the front to suck my blood from the dark blades of grass, others reached out to touch my feet. It wasn’t the same feeling I got when the women prepared me for the wreathing ceremony. It gave me the creeps, like they all wanted a piece of me.
“I was Katia’s vessel all along,” I said as I tried to shake them off. “You’ve been lied to and manipulated. Katia killed Marie. She sacrificed Marie to the Dark Spirit in exchange for vessels—for the return of Alonso’s soul.”
“Where’s Spencer?” A man wiped his brow with his sleeve as he searched the crowd.