I immediately swung my fist back, trying to knock a hole into what I knew would be the skeleton face of Old Roddy, but the kelp was too tight and the helpless sense of déjà vu didn’t help.
Choking for air, the world going black, I looked back to the ground, to Dex for help, but he was lying there lifeless again. Oh shit, oh god no. I was so close, so fucking close!
I kicked back at Old Roddy, fighting for life, determined to win against him again. But I just couldn’t get the leverage, couldn’t find the strength. So much of what had been done to me earlier was starting to take its toll.
Suddenly the wind from the vacuum that Pippa was creating kicked into high gear, spinning me and Old Roddy around and around like we were doing a dizzying waltz, while pulling us to the middle of the room.
Just as I was losing the feeling in my hands and feet, the sense of evil permeating my bones and dragging me under, I was knocked out of Roddy’s grip and flung to the floor. While the world spun and I continued to be dragged away, I looked up and saw a flash of Dex, his hands wrapped around the kelp and pulling it around Roddy’s neck, choking him. Dex’s arms flexed and with one big tug, he snapped the kelp so tight that Roddy’s head went bouncing off and into the black hole.
The next thing I knew was Pippa’s voice was in my head, telling me to run, and Dex was at my side, hauling me to my feet.
“Fancy meeting you here, kiddo,” he said. Blood had dried around his throat but I still heard him clear as day, the sense of awe and relief coming through. Then he grabbed me and pulled me along, the both of us trying to make a run for the stairs. Unfortunately, the hole that Pippa was wielding was blocking the way as she tried to drag the beast who had masqueraded as Michael into it.
“Only one way out!” Dex yelled over the noise, his eyes darting to the window. “Second times a charm, right?”
I could only nod. I had him. I could do anything.
We ran for the window, hand in hand, and jumped through it, the glass cracking all around us. Beneath us the darkness turned to rocks and turned into waves and we were falling stories upon stories.
Just when I thought we were going to smash into the rocks, a wave swept up, lifting us away like cold, wet claws, dragging us out to sea. I floundered in the water, trying to stay afloat, trying to grab onto Dex, but the current was too strong. Then I felt his grip around my waist and I was tugged up and onto shore, rough rocks beneath my skin and the waves crashed at my feet.
Dex pulled me up further until we were away from the shore as he could take us, rocks turning to cool dune grass, and he collapsed beside me.
I wanted to cry but I couldn’t. Not yet. Not while we were still here. I rolled over, grappling for his touch, to feel him, to know I had him.
“I’m here, baby,” he said with a sharp cough, grabbing my hand.
“Dex,” I whimpered, holding on tight and rolling onto my side so I could stare at him, absorb the sight of him moving, seeming to be alive. Please god, let this work.
He tilted his head to look at me, his chest heaving up and down. “Is it just me, or is Hell a million versions of fucked up?”
A shaky smile broke my face. “It’s not just you,” I said, moving closer to him. Pain shot its way through me in bursts but I pushed it aside until I was right up against him.
With effort, he lifted his arm and let me rest my head on his chest. “Cuz if a shitton of coffins holding Chinese lepers suddenly washed up here, I wouldn’t be the least surprised.”
So it had been the same for him.
“I can’t believe I found you,” I said, staring at him in wonder.
His smile faltered, his brows furrowing. “I can’t believe you came to get me.”
“Of course,” I said and that’s all I could say. How could I even begin to explain what he was to me. I would go through Hell for him again and again.
I closed my eyes for a minute, hearing his heart beneath me. It was so steady, so beautiful. I wanted to luxuriate in this moment, in having my love back. I wanted to just breathe it all in. But we weren’t in the clear yet. There wasn’t a second in this world that we could take for granted. We didn’t belong here.
As if to make a point, the lighthouse, which was only half a football field away, started to rock on its foundations, as if explosions were ripping it apart. The top of it went flying off and the light bulb was now just a black hole, spinning violently while gold and black plumes of light battled for domination.
“We need to go,” I said. “We need to find the door.”
Dex sat up, carefully getting to his feet. “What door?”
He grabbed me by my arms and brought me to my feet just as the ground beneath us began to shake. From the lighthouse a crack formed, shooting toward us. The earth was beginning to split.
We exchanged a glance. Fuck.
We turned and started running in the opposite direction, toward the trees. I glanced over my shoulder to see flames starting to reach up from the open fissure and in the distance the lighthouse went down, swallowed whole. My eyes caught a stray beam of golden light as it escaped, jetting off into the ocean, and then I was tripping over a log and falling to the ground.
Dex hauled me up, pulling me along as I could feel the heat of Hell at my back, the flames racing faster and faster, the ground continued to split and shake. The millions of eyes in the sky were now red embers falling to the ground and settling into ash and dust.
“Is this it?” Dex yelled as the earth in front of us carved up into a cliff. It was sheer, rising up for fifty feet and impossible to climb.
I looked around for a door carved in the side, for anything, but there was nothing. Flaming embers landed on our arms, burning our skin and we whirled around to see the ground completely torn open, a jagged, gaping wound of fire. Black beasts were starting to appear in the depths, their horns rising first, then their eyes.
We had seconds left.
I grabbed Dex’s hand and kissed it hard and we stared into each other’s eyes, quick but deep. The look said it all. We were going down and we were going together. We didn’t win in the end, but together, we couldn’t lose.
“I love you!” I yelled at him, the growl of the demons and the thunder of the flames growing louder.
“I love you!” he yelled back. “Always have, always will. Always.”
I managed the saddest smile. He returned it.
We turned back to face our fate.
And the air in front of us shimmered and waved like a brilliant sea.
The door.
To walk through it would mean falling right into Hell. But we were half-way there anyway. The flames licked at our feet.
I looked at Dex and squeezed his hand. He squeezed it back.
Together we stepped forward.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
I felt like I was burning alive. All I felt was the impossible pain of fire and numerous hands that grabbed at my ankles, calves, waist and wrists. I must have screamed and I only took in dust. The air around us began to warp and swirl and all sound was sucked away.
Suddenly my brain was squeezed into painful oblivion and my lungs and heart felt like they were being wrung out like a dirty dishcloth. There was a loud pop, like the cork off a bottle of champagne and I stumbled forward into the basement of his Dex’s old house.
The shimmer evaporated and everything came into color. Dex was no longer at my side but at my feet, slowly blinking life into his physical body, one hand at his throat, face twisted in pain. I wanted to drop to my knees, to help him, but I couldn’t.
We had come into the middle of a battle. While I couldn’t tell what had been going on from the other side, it was easy to see now.
I wished I didn’t.
There were giant spiders, at least a dozen of them, scattered through out of the room, some of them sliced in half, others just missing legs or heads.
And lying on his back at Dex’s feet was the large body of Maximus. In one hand was Dex’s sword. His other hand was missing. A slaughtered spider bleeding black goo was sprawled on his chest.
Maximus’s throat was absolutely ripped out, his head nearly severed.
I cried out and turned away as the contents of my stomach rushed out of me and onto the ground, unable to handle the sight of him, dead.
I didn’t know if Maximus would have been here when we got back, but I had hoped he would have been. He did his duty. He protected Dex until the end. And now Dex was alive and Maximus was dead.
I was tired of people dying. So fucking tired.
I heard a high-pitched cough from beside me and I quickly wiped my mouth and composed myself. This was no time to lose it, not now after everything. I had Dex back and I had to keep it that way.
Dex was trying to sit up, having difficulty breathing. I could see the bubbles of blood coming out from the slice on his throat, though to my surprise, it looked better than when I had left him. Maybe Dex was already healing. Maybe we would be okay.
But Maximus was not and now Dex was realizing what had happened. He gave out a pitiful cry, his eyes glued to the horrific remains of who once was his best friend. My heart cracked for him. When I found out that Dex had sacrificed himself for me, it almost made his death more painful. Now, he was grappling with that over Maximus. The guilt was heavy as sin.
“Shhh,” I said, even though I could feel myself wanting to cry again. “He knew what he was doing.” I hunched down beside Dex and tried to be there for him. I grabbed his hand, my eyes trained to his body instead of the other one.
Dex turned his head to look at me with hurt eyes, wincing as he did so. He couldn’t speak, not yet, not with that throat, but I could hear him in my head.
He died for me. You almost died for me.
I gave him a quick, sympathetic smile. “You died for us. And now you’re here. Dex, we have to go.”
We can’t leave him.
I gripped his hand harder. “Dex, you need to go to the hospital. This wound killed you before, there’s no reason it shouldn’t be able to do the same now.”
He died protecting me! he yelled and his eyes began to fill with tears.
I sniffed and tried to breathe in deep. “I know he did. But it’s what he wanted.”
You think death is what any of us wants? He said, his eyes blazing. I fucking died for you and I would do it again and again, but it’s not what I want. It’s not what he wanted. I want you forever. I want to live. He had Rose, Perry, just as I have you. To know you’re losing that…
He closed his eyes tight and a tear rolled down his cheek. I wanted to comfort him, to be there for him, to take all of this away. Lord knows I was just going through the same thing ten-fold.
But I couldn’t do anything until we were safe. And until we were out of that house, we weren’t safe. I don’t know what Pippa did to Michael in there. It worked, but who knew for how long. Who knew if he was gone for good? We couldn’t stick around to find out. If we did, it had to be on our own turf, in our own world, not this crazy slice of hell.
I pulled lightly on his arm before straightening up, wiping tears away on my sleeve. “Please, Dex. Please, I can’t handle this anymore. Let’s just go. We have to go,” I pleaded.
He shook his head and muttered. I can’t leave him here, he deserved more than this. But he still let me help him to his feet. Neither of us wanted to leave him here. It wasn’t right. He was our friend.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
He nodded reluctantly, his hand rubbing lightly at his throat. I let go of his hand and headed for the stairs.
A spider launched itself out of the darkness, hitting me square in the chest and knocking me on my back.
I screamed as its claws sank into my side, its snapping pincers grazing my chest. I stuck my hands under its furry underbelly, trying to push it off of me, to keep its teeth from sinking into my skin.