Inbetween

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 of Hell, and I’d go back in a heartbeat if it meant saving her life, but don’t think for a second that I won’t take you with me.”

“Emma!” Cash’s muffled voice shouted from the other side of the door, followed by a round of ragged coughs. He tried to open the door, but Rachel’s unconscious body was in the way.

How was he in the house? I could feel the heat of the flames pouring through the door. He got it open enough to slip through the gap and felt around for what was blocking his way in.

“Shit…Rachel?” He knelt down and touched Emma’s mother’s face, then shoved his arms underneath her and carried her out.

“No! Come back, you idiot!” I shouted, ready to smash my fist into something.

A few minutes later he stumbled back into the room.

“Emma?” he managed to wheeze between the coughs that made him double over every few steps.

Crap. Maeve was right. All I was going to do was get them both killed.

When he found her, he collapsed to the floor and pulled her into his arms. He struggled to stand, gathering her close, and backed out of the room in stumbling steps. I stayed behind them, whispering to Emma as he walked, but the second he made it to the doorway, a black blur darted in front of me and slammed Cash into the wall. He grunted and collapsed, his head slapping the floor with a final-sounding thud. Emma rolled out of his grip.

“No. Get up. You have to get up.” I knelt over Cash, whose face had already faded to an ashy gray color. The red spot under his head grew quickly, sticky and wet. Blood.

Down the hall, flames licked the living room ceiling. At least she’d started the fire on the opposite end of the house. If it had been closer, there would be no way out of this. As it stood, there was only one way out of this. I had to get it together. Find the strength. If I didn’t… If you don’t, she’ll die in this fire. She. Will. Die.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, feeling gravity take hold of my body, and pulled Emma up into my arms. Her skin was pale and slick with sweat, little wisps of crimson-stained honey-blond hair stuck to the side of her face. All I could think about was our last moment together. Kissing her until I couldn’t breathe. Telling her I loved her and then disappearing.

My fingers gripped her tighter as the pain overwhelmed me, drowning me in desperate waves of regret. I looked over at Cash, limp and alone. Would he die because of me? Emma would never forgive me for that. Never. From the color on his face and the growing puddle of blood beneath his head, he didn’t have much time. I couldn’t see his chest moving anymore, couldn’t hear the reassuring wheeze of his labored breathing. Death lingered like a stale stench in the air. It was so close, I could taste it.

Emma gasped, shuddered, and fell limp beneath my fingertips. The world ground to a sickening halt. I crawled over her body and pressed my ear to her lips. Her heart. It was still beating but only barely. She was so still. So empty. I focused on staying solid as I pressed my fingers to her neck to try to stop the bleeding. “Stay with me, Emma. You can’t leave now. I won’t let you. You want to be alive, remember?”

“Finn, stop,” Easton said from behind me.

I pressed harder and the blood slowed. “You stay the hell away from her,” I choked. “Forget Maeve.

I can do this. I can save her.”

Easton gripped my shoulder, his touch burning, and jerked me off of Emma’s limp frame. Pain blinded me. Rage consumed me. I reached for my scythe, but Scout grabbed my other arm. The flames crawled closer. It was too hot. Too much… “She’s going to die if I let her go!”

“She won’t, I swear it. We can save her and take out Maeve, but you need to calm down and let me do my thing,” Easton growled against my ear. “Remember the plan you and Scout came up with? I’m here to do my part.” He stepped back and pulled his scythe out from his belt and looked at Scout.

“You’re going to have to hold him.”

Scout sank down behind me, gripped my arms, and locked me in place. “Do it.”

Easton raised his scythe and swung, ripping through Emma’s soft flesh. I choked. Scout held me tighter as Easton peeled Emma’s soul away from her flesh.

The world stopped. She blinked at me, shimmering, beautiful, and confused, looking totally out of place next to Easton.

“You guys need to move,” Anaya gritted out. “I can’t hold out much longer. I’ll take her. I won’t be able to stop.”

“Finn?” Emma’s mouth moved around a whisper and I scrambled to get to her, but before I could, a screaming flash of black ripped between us. The shadow hovered over Emma’s empty body, twisting and writhing with need. Maeve’s face broke through the shadow’s oily surface, and with a screech, she dove into the lifeless flesh.

“She’s in!” Easton shouted. “Get Emma out of here, Scout. She doesn’t need to see this part.”

Scout hurried over and wrapped his arm around Emma’s willowy shoulders. They stirred and turned to vapor at his touch. She opened her mouth, flailing for words as Scout pulled her away. Away from me.

I clenched my teeth and jumped up to go after them but Easton’s voice stopped me. “The sooner I get Maeve out of there, the sooner I can take her and the sooner you can put Emma back in.”

He nodded to Emma’s body. I gritted my teeth and I waited for her chest to start to rise and fall.

And then it happened. Emma’s chest rose with an unsteady breath, then fell.

But it wasn’t Emma inside. No…this was Maeve.

Her eyelids twitched and another breath filled her lungs.

Easton lunged forward. “Now!”

I scrambled back, watching him rip Maeve out of the girl I loved. Watched the fire eat the walls.

Turn them to ash. My mind was a jumble of memories. My flesh melting. Charring. Eating me alive. I gripped the sides of my head and groaned.

A scream ripped through the air. Emma’s back bowed, then collapsed to the floor as Easton tore Maeve from the flesh, her shadowy form twisted around Easton’s scythe. A puddle of shadows gathered around his ankles.

“Scout!” Easton shouted. Screams erupted from the oily surface beneath Easton’s feet. With a grunt, he grabbed Maeve’s wrist.

She screamed. “No. No, no, no way. I’m not going with you!” Easton spared me one glance that told me to finish it, and then he was dissolving into the sulfur-scented shadow beneath him, a screaming Maeve in tow. I turned my head away and squeezed my eyes shut, my stomach churning, as the screams funneled away like bathwater down a drain.

“Finn,” Scout said, pulling Emma into the room behind him. “She’s ready.”

It was time to get the girl I loved back where she needed to be. I jumped up and grabbed onto Emma’s hand. She looked horrified, staring down at her body.

“Hey.” I touched her chin. “Wake up, okay? Wake up because…I need you. No good-byes. Not yet.”

She nodded. I kissed her once, then knelt with her beside her body, guiding her back into her flesh.

Slowly, her soul melded with skin as each part of her gave in. She blinked two shimmering eyes at me and then they were gone too, replaced by warm, closed eyelids. I hovered over her body, holding her shimmering shoulders to keep her inside. After taking life for so long, giving it back was…beautiful.

Once I was sure she was in, I pulled my hands away.

And then there was just Scout and I staring at her chest. Waiting. Praying.

“What if she doesn’t—”

“She will,” I snapped.

Her chest rose with a wheezy breath, then she coughed and I was drowning in relief. Scout laughed and slapped me on the back.

“She made it.” I rubbed my hands across my face and smiled.

A fireman sprinted up the hall and crashed through the bedroom door. Shouts echoed, muffled by smoke and sirens. Then Emma was in his arms, being carried away.

I was only dimly aware of Anaya. She knelt over Cash, a prayer on her lips, as his soul rose from his body. Anaya placed her palm over his chest and pressed him back into his flesh.

“Anaya!” Scout bellowed. “What in God’s name are you doing? Take him already.”

Anaya ignored him, tucking one of her braids behind her ear and tilting her head to study the unconscious boy. She smoothed the hair back from his head, something I’d never seen her do, and whispered another one of her prayers.

“Aren’t you going to take him?” I asked.

She shook her head and smiled. Touched the tip of his nose. “No. Not this time.”

To my amazement, Cash began to cough. His lungs began to fight for air. I glanced up at Anaya.

She had the strangest look on her face. “What did you—”

“We have another one over here!” a fireman shouted, distracting me. By the time he scooped Cash into his arms, Anaya was gone.

I sighed, feeling sweet relief wash through me as I floated out onto the lawn. Emma was there, a bloody, frail body melting a hole into the melting snow. She didn’t stay there long, though. Within seconds, she was loaded onto a stretcher and shoved into the back of an ambulance.

Police cars and fire engines littered the street, casting a blue and red glow across the white snow.

Rachel was lying on her own stretcher. Before I could see anything else, the world began to spin. I felt like a toy top, spinning so fast the world melted into a quiet blur, my existence fading right before my very eyes. Memories poured down like rain. Mom standing at the kitchen sink crying, Pop running the tractor through a swaying mass of golden wheat the color of Emma’s hair, the Inbetween sitting gray and empty, and Emma—always Emma—bright and full of life. The memories unraveled so quickly, I couldn’t hang onto them. They spun away like a ribbon into the distance until there was nothing else left. Only darkness.