Jared and Lukas struggled to pull the rope up. But even their combined weight was no match for the spirit of a mother who had witnessed her child’s murder.
The spirit tightened her hold around Priest’s neck. He sputtered and coughed, choking on the sloshing water.
“I won’t let you take anything else from us,” she hissed.
Priest was drowning in a putrid sewer of rot, and I was the only one who could help him. There was nothing to think about—not the darkness or the depth or the murderous spirit.
I wound the rope around my arm and climbed over the side.
Jared’s fingers clamped down on my wrist, his blue eyes wild. “What are you doing?”
It wasn’t the same fear I saw when Priest hit the water. This fear was for me.
“He’s drowning. Just tell me how to stop her.” Bile rose in my throat as Priest gagged and thrashed below us.
Millicent looked up at me, a milky film coating her eyes like cataracts. “They took what was mine. Now I’ll take what is yours.”
The spirit tightened her withered arm around Priest’s neck. Her nails dug into his skin as she forced him under with her.
“Jared, you have to let me do this.” I eased my hand from his grip and started sliding down the rope.
“Wait.” Jared held out a long iron rod like the one Priest had taken with him. “If you stab her with this, it’ll destroy her.”
My hand closed over the metal, but he didn’t let go.
“Don’t get hurt.” It was a plea, not an order.
The well grew wider about halfway down. I lowered myself into the water carefully, aware that Priest was somewhere below me. There was no way to predict the depth—until the slimy liquid rose to my chin and my feet still hadn’t touched the bottom. I treaded water, reaching out blindly for Priest.
Something grabbed my waist.
Priest’s head burst through the surface again. He gagged and coughed up water, his skin turning blue.
I managed to pull him toward me without going under myself. “Priest? Can you hear me?”
He only nodded.
A cold hand touched my leg and brittle hair brushed against my neck.
“I can hear you,” Millicent whispered.
I thrust the rod behind me, and it slid effortlessly through the water. How would I know if I hit her? Would she feel solid?
Millicent wound my hair around her arm and yanked hard. The rod slipped out of my hand. I tried to grab it, but my head snapped back. Priest shouted something, but I couldn’t hear him over Millicent’s breath and the blood pounding in my ears.
Rancid liquid filled my mouth as the curtain of water closed above me. The world swayed with the ripples, shapes distorting and disappearing.
Until I ran out of air.
I fought the instinct to breathe, but it was impossible. Water filled my lungs, and the pressure hit me like a fist. Millicent slid one arm around my neck, and my body bucked against her.
Voices echoed above me.
My thoughts tripped over themselves and my vision blurred.…
Without warning, the vise grip released me.
I shot up to the surface, the light getting closer and closer until I broke through.
My body convulsed, the water forcing its way back out of my lungs in violent bursts. I gasped, desperate for air.
“Kennedy?” Priest held the collar of my T-shirt, trying to keep my head above water. He shoved me behind him, and I clung to the stones, my hands slipping down the sludge-covered walls.
I coughed, the air coming in huge gulps.
A hand emerged from the water, long nails dragging across the stone.
Priest raised his arm above his head. Something gleamed in his hand, thin and sharp at one end. He drove it down into the spirit’s neck.
Millicent let out a tortured wail before she exploded just like the girl in my bedroom. A spray of filthy water rained over us.
Priest wrapped the rope around my waist and pulled it tight, tethering us together. “Are you okay?”
“I think so.” My throat burned, every word tearing at my vocal cords. “How did you stop her?”
“I still had one of the bolts I made for Lukas’ crossbow in my pocket. It took two hits to take her down.” His voice swelled with pride. “I can’t believe you came after me. That was Legion all the way.”
“You saved my life.” I could still feel the water in my lungs, the pressure, and her arm around my neck.
He smiled. “I am the high priest, remember?”
“I’m pulling you guys up.” Lukas’ voice sounded shaky, or was it Jared’s? I couldn’t tell over the echo of the sloshing water and our ragged breathing.
“Take Kennedy,” Priest said. “I need to look for the disk.”
My stomach roiled at the thought of staying in the well for another second. But we had risked our lives to find the disk, and I wasn’t leaving Priest down here alone.
“I’m staying.”
“You’re both coming up,” one of them barked.
“Give us a minute.” Priest ran his hands along the slippery walls. “Check between the cracks.”
We worked our way around the inside of the well until my legs started to go numb from the cold. Priest even dove to the bottom a few times, but he came up empty-handed.
“Maybe it’s up there around the perimeter of the well somewhere,” I said.
“We’d better get out of here anyway. Your lips are turning blue.” He retied the rope, leaving us only a few feet apart, and signaled to Lukas. “Okay, pull us up.”
I watched Priest rise above me, moving closer to the gray sky. My body rose out of the water slowly, grime running down my arms. As my feet lifted out of the water, I felt a tiny hand close around my ankle.
It was impossible. I had watched her explode. Then I remembered.
She wasn’t the only one who died in the well.
The boy’s spirit looked like he was standing on top of the water, but his feet were just below the surface. The dark water splashed against his shins as if it was only inches deep.
“Wait.” His voice was tiny. The boy’s fingers uncurled from my skin as he reached into his pocket with his other hand. He pulled out a muddy silver disk, exactly the same size as the one we found at Lilburn.
“Lower me back down,” I said.
“No way!” Lukas yelled. I could see his black jacket at the edge of the well. He tugged the rope harder.
“I’ll untie myself,” I threatened.
Lukas hesitated, then lowered me a few inches.
“A little more.” I held out a shaking hand.
The boy dropped the disk in my palm.
“We’re supposed to look after it, but I don’t wanna stay here without Mamma. I’m scared of the water,” he said. “Don’t tell her I gave it to you.”
“I won’t.”
The boy smiled and he faded away.
Lukas hauled me over the side and untied the frayed rope. He pulled the last end free and paused, his hand lingering on my waist. “You scared the crap out of me, you know that?”
“Sorry,” I whispered.
Jared stood a few feet behind his brother, watching us. For a split second, I held his gaze, wishing I could be braver.
Not the kind of bravery it took to climb into the well, but the kind it would take to act on what I was feeling right this second—to run over and throw my arms around Jared until everything else disappeared. But I wasn’t that
