The pounding hooves came to their door and stopped.
For a second there was silence. And then the room exploded with noise as a giant force collided with the door. They watched as the door seemed to bend inward and the furniture in front of it shook. But it held.
“He’s trying to come through,” Quinn said.
There was another moment of silence. Somewhere down the hall, Quinn heard a voice shouting for someone to call the police.
It definitely isn’t our imagination, he thought bitterly.
Kate pointed her gun at the door.
Another loud crash came a few seconds later as the horse collided with it again, but this time there was a cracking sound as well. They could see the door begin to splinter.
Kate cocked her gun.
“Come on through,” she said. “I’ll shoot you, you headless son of a bitch.”
The door shuddered again with another large crash.
“That ought to put the fear of God into him,” Quinn said. “Be sure to shoot him in the head.”
“Well, I don’t see you coming up with any better ideas,” Kate said.
The door bulged in the middle and there was another loud crack as it began to come apart. The horse made another run at it and splinters flew from the door. The furniture reinforcing it fell over and the horse’s nose broke through.
“Well, running away is starting to look like a great option,” Quinn said.
Kate stared at the door. Would a bullet even harm the thing?
“Okay, we need to get out of here,” she said and headed for the balcony. She holstered her gun and put it into her pants. “Come on, Quinn.”
“Where is he?” Quinn said. “The horse is out there, but I can’t tell if the Rider is.”
“It doesn’t matter. Come on!”
Quinn went to the balcony.
“You first,” he said.
Kate grabbed the bed sheet and swung herself around the iron railing. In the room, the horse now appeared to have pushed his whole head through the door. She tested the sheet-rope and decided it would probably hold. Using it, she lowered herself to the balcony below.
Quinn watched as the horse continued to destroy the door. It now had most of its body through. But he couldn’t see the Headless Horseman. The horse was there, but no rider. He didn’t have time to think about it. Instead, Quinn swung his legs around the railing and lowered himself down to the balcony below.
Above, they could hear a loud crashing. The horse was now through. Quinn could hear its hooves on the floor above.
Hanging to the fifth floor balcony, he lowered himself until his feet touched the balcony railing below. He balanced himself and then jumped to the fourth floor balcony.
“Come on,” he yelled up.
Kate followed his lead.
Above them, all chaos seemed to have broken loose. They could hear the smashing of glass and it felt like the roof might cave in.
“We don’t have much time,” Kate said.
“Where is he?” Quinn asked. “I didn’t see him up there.”
Quinn looked down to the ground below, but it was too dark to see.
Quinn swung himself over again and dropped down to the third floor balcony.
“Come on down,” he said.
He helped her down to the third floor.
Quinn felt blind. He could not tell what was happening above and he still had a sinking feeling some other trick was waiting for him below.
He swung himself over the balcony and dangled his legs over the edge again. But this time, when he looked down, he could see him.
The Headless Horseman stood on the ground below the hotel, waiting for him.
“Holy shit,” Quinn yelled. “Kate, start climbing up.”
Quinn could see the Horseman moving now, as if to start climbing the balconies himself.
Quinn tried to balance for a second, before pulling himself up to the third floor balcony. But when he looked down to see if the Horseman was pursuing, he lost his footing and fell the three stories to the ground.
Kate screamed. She watched Quinn fall in slow motion to the ground. The Horseman stood below him, waiting.
He’ll kill Quinn, she thought.
But as soon as Quinn hit the ground with a large thud, everything changed. One minute the Horseman was there, striding toward where Quinn lay.
And then he wasn’t. He disappeared as if he was never there at all.
Kate looked everywhere and she heard nothing from upstairs anymore either.
She scrambled down the last remaining balconies and hurried to Quinn, who lay unconscious on the ground. Kate looked all around her, but there was nothing anymore.
The Headless Horseman was gone.
Chapter 20
“ For those that were chosen, there is always the time of trial, Crowley said. A time when the chosen two’s destinies are not set. It is the most critical point for any Prince of Sanheim. Only by understanding his cennad and himself will he be able to do what must be done. Only by staring wide-eyed into the abyss will he survive.”
— Horace Camden, “The Prince of Sanheim”
Kate was having trouble deciding where to look. She tried to stay focused on the road, but she kept looking at the back seat where Quinn lay.
She should have called an ambulance, she knew. She should never have moved him herself. But she had panicked and did not want to take the chance that the Horseman could come back. There was no time to think about why he had disappeared.
Thank God they were in a big enough town that there was a hospital. They had noticed it on the way into town. It must serve most of the surrounding area-it wasn’t huge, but it would be enough. She wanted him to be okay. She tried sensing something about him-in the hotel room, she was pretty sure she could hear what he was thinking and vice versa. But now she got nothing.
She didn’t know what to tell the hospital and it was only now dawning on her that the hotel would want some type of explanation for a wrecked room and vanished customers.
She shook her head and glanced back again at Quinn.
Please let him be okay, she thought. Please let him be okay.
She was unsure what to think or do. If their problems had seemed bad 12 hours ago, everything now was much, much worse. And she still had only a limited picture of what was going on.
Only a day ago, they had been worried about one vicious killer. Bad-really bad. And now? Were there two? Was one working for the other? Who was she kidding anyway? What kind of being could literally spring out of your dreams and attack you? It was too much.
Thank God Quinn had left his cell phone in the car. She picked it up while still driving and called Janus. She had to trust somebody and he was one of the only ones left.
He answered immediately, sounding wide awake even though it must have been around four in the morning. She remembered Quinn telling her he always sounded ready for action.
“It’s Kate,” she said.
“What the hell is going on, Kate?” Janus asked. He sounded concerned. “I tried to call you guys again last night. The police are out looking for you and Quinn’s place looks like someone ransacked it before leaving.”
