Lightning cracked around them, illuminating his damaged, dirty state, and for a split second she thought he’d been attacked. He was soaked through, stumbling from the bamboo trees, hair stuck down to his face like slick oil, eyes gaunt. There was a flush on his cheeks, a dreamy look consuming him as if he were stuck in a fog, and he swayed.
“Lottie.” His voice was slurred, eyes not quite focusing. “You need to get inside; you’ll get sick.”
“Jamie!” She rushed forward, her tears melting into the rain, while the wind continued to whip at her flesh, but she didn’t care—Jamie was in a much worse condition.
“Let me take you back to the dorm,” she pleaded, but his face remained passive, muddled.
“I need to keep you safe.” His foot caught on a patch of gorse and he tumbled into her.
Just over a year ago, Jamie had fallen into her arms and plummeted them both into an ice-cold pool. Now Lottie planted her feet firmly in the muddy ground and embraced his weight. His face brushed hers as she held him up, his skin scorching hers. He was sick and delirious, running a dangerously high fever.
“Let me go. I need to warn you all. They’re coming,” Jamie growled, but the sound came out as a desperate plea. A moan seeped from his lips and he slowly sank into her arms, the full force of him nearly overwhelming her. She needed to get him out of the storm—now.
His weight was crushing. Every bone in her body screamed against the burden, telling her to let go, to drop down and give up. Conjuring images of Liliana, she roared, drawing up a strength she didn’t know she had. Another flash and growl came from the sky, the bellow growing around her.
“I won’t let him go again!” she shrieked into the storm, marching Jamie’s slouched form toward the dojo. The entrance came into view and through the aching of her body she howled, kicking open the huge doors. The tempest swirled, blowing open her clothes and carrying her hat away. Long tangled hair whipped about, like coiling snakes on a gorgon.
Ignoring the cold and discomfort, her crying bones and muscles, Lottie gripped Jamie tighter, shouldering him on her back as she stumbled inside. The pain was unbearable, but she wouldn’t let him fall hard, holding his slouching form close and gently placing him on a soft mat.
With his body splayed she could see the damage. There was a purple tinge to the skin on his ribs where the yukata lay open and bloody scratches on his face and left arm, which he held painfully to himself, and he smelled sour, like he’d fallen in rubbish, his garment covered in grubby smears that made Lottie’s nose sting.
“What happened to you?” She tried desperately not to cry.
“I fell.”
“You fell?”
“Yes, I fell, off the roof, and then it started to rain.” He winced, his breath catching before he continued, but he was hardly making sense. “I walked back to the woods.”
He’d walked all the way back in this state?
Lottie rushed over to the closet and grabbed as many kendo robes as she could, placing them over Jamie and balling them up under his head like a pillow. “I’m going to get help. Don’t move.” She lay the last blanket over him.
When she stood up to leave, his hot fingers curled around her wrist, pulling her down. Blinking eyes stared up at her, dark circles building beneath them like bruises. Jamie looked entirely lost, like his worst nightmares were coming true in front of him, and she had no idea how to pull him out of it.
“Lottie, please,” he begged. “Don’t go.” It sent another stabbing pain through Lottie’s heart. “They’ll get you!”
Something in his voice made Lottie pause, turning back to him with a creeping chill in her bones.
“Who, Jamie? Who will get me?”
“Leviathan.”
Lottie shook her head; he was delusional. “Leviathan aren’t here. You’re safe in the school now.” She cringed at the lie, but she needed to get help. Moving to pry off Jamie’s fingers, Lottie yelped as his grip tightened painfully.
“No, the Goat Man.” His voice was rising, terrified. “He’s waiting for me, for us.”
“Jamie, that doesn’t . . .” She trailed off. “I need to get help.”
“No, Lottie, you need to run; you’re good at running.” He jerked her toward him with all his remaining strength, nearly pulling her over. “You have to run as fast as you can. Or he’s going to steal your soul. He’s going to take everything good about you and swallow it.”
“What? Jamie, please. You have to let go!” But his grip remained like a vise on her tiny wrist, bruises already forming underneath.
“You are good and he is evil. And he’s going to eat you up if he finds you. I need to keep him away or he’ll steal me too.”
“Jamie, you’re hallucinating.” She yelped once more, his fingernails digging into her skin. “There is no Goat Man, and Leviathan aren’t here; you’ve escaped them. You’re sick and I need to get you well again.”
“No, he is Leviathan; the Goat Man is Leviathan.”
Lottie froze. A sickening dread built up in her, terrified of what he was going to say next.
“I met him on the roof.” Jamie’s eyes were wide as he let go of her wrist, and then he spoke the words she prayed he wouldn’t. “I met the Master of Leviathan.”
Lightning crackled around the dojo, and with one final groan Jamie drifted into unconsciousness.
“Jamie?” She tried desperately to jolt him, but there was no response.
Panic started to crawl up her, her throat tightening, knowing she couldn’t do this on her own. She needed someone. She needed help.
With another great crash the door
