Inbetween

and heat spilled into the room. My lungs burned and my chest tightened. My head felt fuzzy and my insides tingled. I gasped for oxygen that wasn’t there and collapsed next to Mom.

I blinked against a darkness that had nothing to do with the smoke-filled room and everything to do with the fact that the life was bleeding out of me. I could feel it. Cold. Final. My eyes fluttered closed and hopelessness swept through me. I was going to die.

Chapter 36

Finn I appeared outside Emma’s with a flash. The world around me was white, covered in untouched crystalline snow that was packed around the quiet house. But something didn’t fit. The smell of smoke lingered in the air, growing stronger with every step I took toward the house, igniting a panic that blazed through me to the point of pain. I started forward, but stopped when a glimmer of gold caught my eye. Anaya.

She stood, hand on her scythe, face solemn, waiting. “I’m so sorry, Finn.”

“No.” I stumbled back and Scout gripped my shoulders. I couldn’t…I wouldn’t let her do this. I’d been to Hell and back for this girl. Literally. I grabbed the scythe at my hip. It didn’t burn with cold. It wasn’t being called to be used. But I’d wield if I had to. “I won’t let you take her. I’ll stop you if I have to.”

Anaya narrowed her eyes. “Don’t be a fool, Finn. Don’t get in the way. Think of what he’ll do to you.”

“I don’t care.”

Easton melted up from the ground beside me, his gaze fixed on Anaya. “Go,” he said to me. “Do what you need to do. I’ll stall her.”

“Thank you.” I backed away from Anaya, arm extended behind me, feeling for brick. In my mind, flames licked the insides of my skull, demanding to be seen. I closed my eyes and blocked them out. I didn’t have time for them. Not now. Emma. Emma. Emma. Her name was the only thought running through my mind. I had to keep her safe.

I slipped through the brick wall and stumbled into the room, disoriented by the smoke that billowed around and through me, leaving me saturated in its dangerous scent. The high-pitched whine of the plane rang in my ears and smoke made it hard to breathe-“Where is she?” Scout asked as he seeped through the wall behind me, interrupting the memory.

“I don’t know. Just…start looking.” I pushed my way through the smoke. “Emma? Damn it, Emma, answer me!”

The sound of a window popping somewhere on the other side of the house broke my shouts. I felt my way through the room, running my corporeal hands over what I guessed was the vanity. Glass bottles toppled over its edge in the wake of my clumsy fingers. Cursing, I found the wall, her closet door, the bed… I ventured out into the center of her room until, finally, my foot hit something solid and a muffled moan rose up from the floor.

“Emma!” I sank down, my hands finding her before my eyes with all the smoke. I barely recognized her. Her hair was matted with the blood coming from the busted stitches on her neck. Her face looked pale, and her lips were turning a terrifying shade of blue. She groaned again and her eyes fluttered open for a fraction of a second before falling closed again.

Scout stumbled into the center of the room. “Finn, I can’t—” Seeing Emma, he breathed a curse, and knelt beside me. “What do we do?”

I swallowed through the rage building in my throat and closed my eyes to steady my breathing. “We get her out of here.”

More glass popped, this time a little closer. Maybe the guest room across the hall? I tried to lift her up, shoving my shoulder under her arm, but fear and exhaustion that ran soul-deep swept through me and I dissolved. I couldn’t keep it together.

Scout shook his head. “There’s no way you’re going to make it all the way out of here with her. Hell drained you, man.”

“Then help me!”

“Finn…” Scout hesitated, looking torn. “He’ll know if I touch her. I can’t risk that.”

I knew that. I knew I shouldn’t have even asked. But… damn it! I motioned to the window, trying to gain some kind of control. “Go get help. There’s a kid next door. Do whatever you have to do to get his attention. Get him to look out his window, anything. Just get him over here.”

Scout nodded and took off. A few seconds later, I heard one of Cash’s windows explode.

I turned back to Emma and smoothed the bloody hair from her cheek. “You have to help me, pretty girl,” I pleaded. “I can’t get you out of here by myself, okay?”

Tears leaked from her eyes. “Finn…”

“I’m right here.” I grabbed her hand, feeling like my chest was being torn in two.

“S’okay. Doesn’t hurt anymore.” She blinked, her eyes unfocused. “I love you.” She squeezed my hand and her eyes slid closed.

My lips froze around the words in my mouth. I’d waited a lifetime to hear her say those words, but the way she’d said them… They were a good-bye.

“No.” A breath shuddered on its way out of my lungs. I focused on each part of my body, trying to will my skin into existence, but…nothing. Not even a spark.

Rage like I’d never felt before burned through me. I would not let Maeve take this girl’s life before it was her time. I’d burn for an eternity before I let it happen.

Shaking, I stood up. A violent flash of black curled around me before disappearing into the smoke.

Maeve. And she was on the verge of changing. “Get out here, you coward! I know you’re here, and you have lost whatever is left of your twisted, sadistic mind if you think I’m letting you take her!”

Laughter echoed off the walls, as thick and deadly as the smoke that hid her from me. “What are you going to do, Finn? There’s no way out now. Just face it. I won. You lost. Game over.”

“This isn’t a game. This is somebody’s life you’re playing with.”

“You’re right. It’s my life,” she whispered behind my ear.

I spun around to face her but all I got was a face full of smoke. How could Emma breathe in this?

God knows I hadn’t been able to all those years ago. There were a lot of things that could have killed me in that crash, but the smoke had been the worst. Burning my lungs, my throat, my eyes. Eating up the oxygen until the world went dark.

Hatred coiled in my gut. “I’ll kill you! I’ll freaking kill you the second you’re alive. Do you hear me?” I staggered through the room, head spinning as I searched for Maeve’s shadow, and dissolved through several pieces of unidentified furniture before making my way back to Emma. I reached out and realized there was a body next to her. Her mother.

I stopped, a realization stirring the fear in my gut. It wasn’t the fire I needed to worry about—it was the smoke. Maeve wouldn’t let anything permanently damage the body before she could take it. She couldn’t care less about what happened to the soul inside. But I did. I blinked against the smoke and the heat, refusing to let my fear get in the way. There wasn’t room for that. Not anymore.

“Wake up, pretty girl,” I said to Emma. I managed to push the damp hair away from her face before my fingers fizzled out. Outside, Cash pounded on the locked window. “Help is coming. I swear I won’t let you die like this. I swear it.” My voice faltered as it made promises I wasn’t sure I could keep.

What if this didn’t work? What if she died on the floor of this smoke-filled room? Or, worse, the flames got to her before Cash did?

The silvery outline of Maeve’s shape shimmered in the far corner of the room. “You’re just going to get the boy killed. You do realize that?”

I couldn’t think about that right now. “I meant what I said. The minute her eyes open…” I swallowed. “If those eyes aren’t blue…if it’s you there instead of her, I swear to God I’ll kill you myself. I’ll find the first drunk on the street and use him to rip your freaking throat out. Do you hear me? Are you listening?”

“You wouldn’t dare.” Her voice quivered like water rippling out across a puddle. “They’d send you straight to Hell and you know it.”

“Oh, I would.” The words rumbled, sounding more like a feral growl than my real voice. “See, I just got out