The sound of the stag’s front hooves beating the air drew Mia’s attention back to the sad task ahead. She aimed her knives at the spot under the exposed ribcage. When they joined, Mia jumped up and pulled them down hard, splitting open the belly of the creature as gravity took her. The stag fell to the ground. It spasmed and expelled from its stomach a gelatinous bag. Mia sniffed back the snot and tears of horror at what she had just done and used her knife to open the bag.
Out crawled a woman. She was tiny, half the size of Mia. But as she stood, she grew in size until a full-grown Ute woman stood naked before Mia. She lifted her arms, and the hide of the stag became a cloak. She wrapped it around herself. She freed her long black hair and looked down at Mia with her very human brown eyes.
“I’m sorry. It wasn’t my choice to kill you,” Mia said.
“No, it was mine. Thank you for freeing me. I go to my mothers now. The deer-woman will live on through someone else. I’m sorry the reapers will take you, but there is no other way.”
Mia watched the woman change into energy and disappear before she looked around her and contemplated her next move.
Murphy rushed through the forest. The reaper was gaining ground. Murphy reached up for a branch. As he caught it, the momentum brought him up and around the branch, landing him behind the reaper. He watched the beast continue down the trail obliviously hunting Murphy. He turned and rushed back to help Mia.
Burt stumbled past the wall and called out, “Cid! Cid Garrett!”
“Who’s calling?” Ted answered.
“Burt Hicks, Mia sent me.”
Ted popped out of the culvert under the bridge. “Is she okay? Why haven’t you broken the candle?” he asked. “Didn’t it work?”
“Cid has my candle. I have to break it. I must snap it in two. Where’s Cid?”
“Here!” Cid called from deeper in the culvert. “Ted shoved me in here. I’m not sure I can get out.”
“Do you have the candle?” Burt asked.
“Yes, it’s in my pocket. I can’t reach it. Ted, get me out of here!” Cid pleaded.
Murphy stopped when he reached Ted and Burt. “Have you found Cid?”
“He’s stuck inside the culvert under the bridge,” Ted said.
Murphy summoned energy and yanked the corrugated pipe out from under the bridge. He took his axe and chopped at the end of the culvert, splitting the rusted metal. As soon as the flakes of metal hit him, he screamed in pain. “Iron,” he managed before he disappeared.
Mia saw a reaper descending the right stair and another moving out from the dark hallway to the left of her. “They always come in threes,” she reminded herself.
When the third moved through the broken doors behind her, Mia dropped her knives and sighed. There was no way out this time. She knew she was headed for the Dark World. Maybe Ted and Cid would grow up, meet Angelo, and the three would go in search of her. “Hey, it could happen…”
Burt and Ted pulled the culvert apart where Murphy had damaged it. Cid jammed his hand in his pocket, pulled out the candle, and thrust it into Burt’s hands.
Murphy used the last of his energy to reach Mia. She held on to him as the large hand opened and scooped them up. Mia cradled her friend as his energy was sucked out of him. Mia’s heart hurt. She was dying. There would be no one to resurrect her now.
Chapter Twenty-three
SNAP!
Mia opened her eyes. It was dark. She wasn’t surprised. She had expected the black emptiness Father Santos, Angelo, Ted, and Cid had spoken about. She heard a sound. Wait, there’s not supposed to be any noise. Unless you have super hearing like Cid, you’re not supposed to be able to hear anything in the Dark World. She put her hand down and felt a softness.
The clouds moved away from the moon, and the room was bathed in its light. There was a lump beside her. She rolled over, and as her eyes adjusted, the lump became Ted. Ted? Ted!
She got up and flipped on the light. Ted blinked, putting his hand between his eyes and the bright light.
“Thank God! Oh My God!” she said. She jumped on the bed, knocking Ted over, and gave him the biggest longest kiss she had in her. She then squirmed out from his confused arms and ran down the hall, opening up Dieter’s door. He was there. She ducked her head in the nursery where Luke dreamt and Varden snored. Varden gave a small cry as Mia pulled him from the crib. Next, she stumbled into Brian’s room where she climbed into his toddler bed and pulled him to her. Varden ran his hand over Mia’s face, making sure he hadn’t been kidnapped by a madwoman.
“Mom, what the fuzzy bunny?” Brian asked sleepily. “Have you been drinking again?”
Ted stuck his head in. “Mia, we have to have an intervention. You can’t kiss me like that and then hide in the kid’s room.”
Mia looked at him, her eyes full of love. “I’ll make it up to you.”
Orion walked in the room and cleared his throat. “You woke Luke up. Audrey’s pissed.”
Mia got up, handed Varden to Ted, and kissed her grandfather on the cheek. “Thank you for saving me,” she said and squeezed by him and ran down the hall.
Ted heard the front door open. He walked into Dieter’s room and looked out the window.
“Dad, what’s going on?”
“Your mother has lost her last nut. She’s running up the hill barefoot in her pajamas.”
Burt was heading down the
