I reached the pyramid and slowed to a gasping stop. Rounding the stones would bring me to the imperial guards, but going up would at least let me see the battle before I entered.
So I dug my heels into the first step and tucked in my head, and I charged up the pyramid. Each step brought more sounds into focus.
Boom! A pulse bomb detonated.
Which meant the mummies were to the final line.
I moved even faster. I pushed everything I had into my legs. My strength, my magic, my life—I had to get to the Spirit-Hunters. To my friends—my family.
I crested the pyramid. The battle crashed over me.
And the truth did too.
We were losing. Three of the copper lines had been dug up and smashed apart. The mummies scurried over . . . and toward the final line.
Beside the obelisk, Joseph was doubled over. The crystal clamp shone in his hand, but he wasn’t able to squeeze. Daniel and Jie flanked him, pistols and fists at the ready. . . .
And beneath his balloon, waiting like a cat beside a mouse hole, was Marcus.
I jumped. In a leap that carried me two levels down, I rocketed through the air and drew the world’s magic to me. My feet slammed down; my knees crunched. Onward I moved, gathering in the magic of the stones, of the night, of the sand. I called it to me just as I had two days ago, and I damned the consequences. I just inhaled . . . and ran.
But then light exploded, sand flew, and thunder crashed over me. Mummies flew back—only to be instantly replaced.
The final copper line was finished.
And a single mummy darted through, spear out and aiming for Joseph’s back.
“No!” The scream ripped up my throat. “No!” I lashed out with my magic, aiming for the mummy, trying to sway its spear. . . .
But I was too far. Too slow.
The spear cut through the air.
And Daniel stepped into its path.
CHAPTER TWENTY
With a single twist of his body, Daniel blocked Joseph from the spear.
And the spear impaled him.
Right through his heart, until it thrust out the other side.
Screams blistered inside me and tore out, rattling and unearthly. I ran and dived as fast as I could. I threw my magic at the mummy—at the spear. At any goddamned thing that would stop this moment.
But nothing stopped it.
The guard wrenched back his spear, and it yanked free from Daniel’s chest. Daniel spun around, limp but reaching.
His eyes locked on to mine. His lips parted.
He hit the obelisk.
His body slid down.
And he stopped moving.
Jie reached him, tumbling to her knees. Her screams melted with mine as Joseph’s electricity exploded into the lines of mummies.
I hit the sand and hurled myself forward. All I saw was Daniel. All I thought and felt and shrieked was Daniel. My Daniel.
I dived at him, Jie’s sobs meaningless to my brain. My hand grabbed his face. Blood was everywhere. I tried to gather it up, as if I could push it back into his chest.
But he wasn’t breathing. His eyes were still. His lips frozen.
He wasn’t dead, though. He couldn’t be dead. I shook him. I screamed at him.
And all the while, electricity sizzled and held the mummies away.
“Daniel, Daniel, Daniel.” Jie’s cries sounded over and over. She rocked back and forth, and I wanted to screech at her to stop!
Because he wasn’t dead. I wouldn’t let him be dead. There had to be some way to change this. Some way to go back. Some way to bring his soul here, where it belonged.
I clutched the side of my face. It was warm with his blood; the sharp stench seeped into my skull.
And my eyes landed on the obelisk. Like me, it was streaked with Daniel’s blood . . . and as I stared at it, it shifted and swayed.
It shimmered golden. Like a sunray trapped in moonlight and covered in blood.
By blood and moonlit sun.
Suddenly the phrase made absolute sense. I could cross the curtain. These obelisks—which had reminded me of sunbeams each time I looked upon them—were gateways to the spirit dock. But they had needed blood and moonlight to open. . . .
Now this obelisk had both. Sprayed with Daniel’s blood, I could cross into that realm.
I shoved to my feet, roaring at Jie to hold Daniel. Keep him safe. Then I staggered to the obelisk and slammed my bloodied palm against it.
I fell through the curtain.
Instantly, Joseph’s electricity and Jie’s sobs vanished. Everything was silent. Too silent after all the violence bursting in my chest.
The dock spanned ahead of me, empty.
Where was Daniel? He should be here. He had just died, and he should be here.
“Daniel,” I screamed into the stillness. “Daniel!”
Nothing.
So I kicked into a run. The wood thumped beneath my boots, and the slats smeared beneath me. I swung my arms and drove my knees high. I ran and I ran and I ran.
Until a silhouette appeared before me. An ambling stride. A lanky build.
He paused, his head cocking as if he heard me. . . . His lips twitched up.
But then he blinked and resumed his unhurried stride.
“Daniel!” I shoved my body harder, but for every slam of my heels, he stayed the same distance ahead.