With a final nod, I dove into the darkness, running through the rock-lined throat. My gaze darted all around as I kept an eye out for that red son of a bitch. From what I could tell with my bouncing phone light, everything was the same as before, including the corbel arches. I thought about taking a picture of one to show Doc, but I didn’t want to stop.
As I neared the fork in the path, I shined the light down into the other tunnel, gearing up for something to come rushing out at me. There was nothing there, though. I glanced behind me to see if Jane was following—or if the lidérc was—and stumbled on the uneven ground. I reeled for a moment and slammed my injured arm into the jagged rock wall. Pain shot up to my shoulder, but I shoved off the rocks and ran faster.
My side ached by the time I caught my first glimpse of light coming in through the hole at the other end, although it was more dim than before. I huffed like a locomotive leaving the station. Sweat coated me from head to toe. Prudence would undoubtedly shame me about my lack of athletic prowess if she could see me.
As I neared the opening, I tried to listen for something else hiding in the tunnel with me over my own pounding heart and gasps for oxygen. I half-expected a hand or claws to reach out and snag me, but I made it to the other hole without mishap.
The opening was narrower than it had been when I was here on the other plane. Crates mostly blocked the hole with slices of light shining through the slats. I pushed the crates aside and hoisted myself up and squeezed through, my hips scraping on the rough edges of concrete as I wiggled out into the courthouse basement. My palms took the brunt of my sliding partway down the concrete wall. My hands were scraped and burning when I made it to my feet again, but I was still alive. At least for now.
Jane was waiting for me on the wooden walkway that ran between the opposing doors the lidérc and its sharp-toothed friend had hidden behind. Her body seemed paler, more transparent now. Maybe her strength was ebbing. Or maybe she faded the farther she got from her home base.
She waved me to follow her, leading me toward the stairwell door that I’d exited to escape the lidérc last time.
I started to follow her, but then an idea hit me. I stopped and looked back at the hole in the wall. What if I …
Jane moved into my line of vision, waving again for me to follow. When I shook my head, she pointed at the hole and then drew her finger across her neck, pretending to slice it.
I got the gist of what she was trying to tell me. “The lidérc is coming?”
She nodded.
“How much time do I have?”
She closed her eyes for a moment and then held up both hands with her fingers spread wide.
“Ten minutes?”
She held her hand out and teetered it back and forth.
“More or less, got it. Good, that should give me enough time to prep.” I tapped on my phone, pulling up the picture of the ward from the Sugarloaf Building again.
After one last look at the hole in the wall, I ran toward the door where the sharp-toothed creature had waited for me in the shadows. It was unlocked. I opened it, my heart pounding, and turned on the light. Fluorescent bulbs flickered to life. The room was filled with racks of boxes—old files from the looks of it, along with several cardboard tubes. There was no other door or window. There was no sharp-toothed fiend whispering my name either.
“This will work,” I said, propping the door open with one of the cardboard tubes. I set the steel bar on a shelf near the door and my phone next to it, leaving the picture of the ward still showing on the screen.
Jane appeared next to me, her hands raised, questioning.
“I’m going to try to trap it in here using blood wards like those at the Sugarloaf Building until Doc comes with the mirror.”
If he comes, a doubt-filled voice whispered in my head. I stuffed a sock in its big mouth and returned to sharing my plan with a ghost, which added even more qualms about what I was about to do.
“If I manage to lure the devil in here,” I said, carefully rolling my torn sleeve up over my knife injury, “you need to close the door with it on the inside.”
She nodded.
Before I could chicken out, I pulled apart the skin around the wound. Blood welled up from the cut. I winced at the renewed stinging pain that shot up my arm. “Here’s the tricky part,” I said, and rubbed my fingers in the blood, smearing it over my skin. “I think it’s going to need to be attached to me in order to get it past this first ward and into the room.”
Jane frowned, shaking her head vehemently.
“There’s no other way, Jane. Once I have it stuck in here with me—or rather inside of me—you need to find Doc as fast as you can, unlock the doors leading down here, and show him where I am. He and Cooper should be coming to the courthouse soon.” At least I hoped that was the case.
After checking the picture of the ward on my phone again, I frowned at the blood on my fingers. This might not even work, but I had to try.
“Okay. Let’s do this.” I started to recreate the ward on the wall next to the door exactly as it looked in the Sugarloaf Building—the eye, the triangles, the rectangle, the whole deal. It took several presses and pulls on my wound
