My head swiveled frantically, searching the bridge around us.
“Where are they?” I gasped. “Tell me.”
“No.” From the corner of my eye, I saw him shake his head. “No, Amelia, not here.”
“Tell me,” I demanded, my voice jumping an octave. “Tell me now, Eli.”
“Not here,” he said. The words seemed to crawl their way out of him. “There.”
“‘There’?” I repeated, still hunting for any other sign of movement on the bridge. “Where’s ‘there,’ Eli?”
“The netherworld.”
I whipped my head back around to face him. “If that’s true, then how are you here?”
“I’m not here, either,” he said, still struggling to speak but gaining a little momentum with each word. “Not really.”
I twisted one corner of my mouth into a frown, confused. “What are you saying? That you’re … what? Still in the netherworld right now?”
“Yes. I’m projecting.”
“Projecting?”
He shook his head. “No time. They’ll find me soon, and—”
“So they are on their way?” I interrupted. “Then I guess you won’t mind if I don’t stick around to catch up. See ya, Eli.”
“Amelia, no! Please, wait—listen!”
I rocked forward, ready to jog, run, fly away from here if I had to. But the urgency in Eli’s plea made me hesitate. I paused long enough to see a glint of real fear in those unnatural blue eyes. Then I swore under my breath.
“Fine,” I said aloud. “Whatever you have to say, say it fast.”
He let slip a gravelly sigh that sounded almost relieved. “I’m here to warn you, Amelia.”
“About what?”
Eli’s eyes darted around, searching the bridge as I had. Then he met my gaze and lowered his voice even further.
“They’re weak right now, without a spirit like me to build their ranks. But they are coming, Amelia; and they’re coming for you.”
Something inside me clenched. “All the more reason to get the hell out of here, right?”
Eli nodded again. “Exactly what I wanted to tell you. It’s not going to happen tonight, but it will happen. Soon. I’ve heard them talking. They want you. And this time they’re willing to do their own dirty work to get you.”
“‘Dirty work’?”
“Killing,” he said. “They’ll murder everyone in this town if that’s what it takes to make you help them.”
I heard my own terrified whisper before I had time to think it.
“Joshua.”
Even through the shifting mist, I thought I saw Eli scowl. “Yes, him. And everyone else you care about. The more of your loved ones they take, the better. Think of them as hostages, to force your hand.”
Faces flashed across my mind: Joshua, my mother, Jillian, even Joshua’s parents and his friends. As easy to find in this small town as a Baptist church.
“Oh, God,” I moaned, and Eli responded with a coughing sort of laugh.
“God has nothing to do with these creatures, Amelia. At least, not anymore.”
A panicky sensation began to twitch along my neckline like a quickening pulse. “Then what do I do? What exactly am I supposed to do?”
“You have to get out of here,” Eli urged. “Tonight, if possible.”
“Away from the bridge?” I asked, my voice rising in pitch. “Just stay away from this place?”
I felt a slight twist in my core as I pictured my father’s face. How could I leave him here? But how could I not, if that meant protecting everyone else?
Slowly, reluctantly, I nodded. “I … I could do that. I could stay away. For a little while, at least.”
“No, Amelia, that’s not good enough,” Eli said. “You have to get away from Wilburton. From Oklahoma.”
“Okay. Okay.” I continued to nod mechanically, my mind racing. “I can do that too. We’re leaving tomorrow for Christmas break. That should buy me a few more days.”
“Still not good enough, Amelia. You have to stay away forever, especially from the people you care about. Otherwise, their association with you might get them killed.”
“‘Association’? I … I don’t understand.”
“My old masters aren’t omniscient, Amelia. They don’t know your every move, or every detail about your history. All they can do is follow you, study you, and then act accordingly. Whatever—whoever—they see with you, they will attack. But if you don’t give them anyone to hunt, then … well …”
My stomach dropped. “So you mean I have to leave everyone … permanently? Leave Joshua?”
“If you want him to survive this. If you want his freedom, and yours …”
As Eli spoke, he trailed off, distracted. After a moment of silence, his head jerked to the right. He stared intently behind us, at the empty bridge, as if there was something approaching that only he could see.
Which, I realized, was probably the case.
When he whipped back around to face me, his eerie blue eyes had widened. “I have to go. For your sake, Amelia, I hope I never see you again.”
Maybe I imagined it, but I thought I saw a trace of sadness in all that unnerving blue. “What about you, Eli?” I asked softly.
“Too late for me, I’m afraid,” he whispered. Then his eyes darted once more to the right; and, without another word or glance, he vanished like a puff of smoke in the wind.
I didn’t wait to act. As soon as Eli disappeared, I did, too, materializing back to Joshua’s house instantly.
The next breath I took was a gasp, gulped noisily into my lungs while I hunched, doubled over, in the Mayhews’ backyard. I wrapped my arms tightly around me, but the gesture brought no comfort, no warmth. It just made me feel smaller, and more alone.
What if Eli had lied to me? Tried to trick me into doing something I didn’t want to do? It wouldn’t be the first time.
The difference was, now I didn’t doubt him. Not even for a second. Because everything he’d said made a perfect, horrible kind of sense.
How naive, how absolutely stupid I’d been to think that I’d managed to stay off the evil spirits’ radar. I’m not sure why—too much exposure to Joshua’s blind optimism, maybe—but I’d thought that, with Eli gone, the spirits would stay anchored to High Bridge until another servant willingly joined them.
If Eli told the truth, then I’d thought wrong. Very wrong.
By doing so I’d put everyone in terrible danger. Not that they hadn’t already been just by living in proximity to that horrible place. But now, thanks to me, they were potential targets in some demonic hunting expedition.
It made me sick, the idea that one of them might get hurt because of me. And the idea that I’d have to do as Eli suggested and leave? That idea terrified me almost as much.
Is that really what I have to do? I asked myself. Leave all the reminders of my old life, like this town and my childhood home? Leave the people I love?
Like