Page 49 of Back in the Hunt

“Bryn will find me,” he repeated, the mantra calming him until Everly heard a sizzlingPop!behind him.

He turned slowly and bit back a yelp when he saw the broken dead boy. It was watching Everly from the sidewalk, abouttwenty feet away, its dirty pajamas fluttering in the breeze. Its glasses were askew, its giant black eyes unblinking and locked on Everly.

“You have to stop,” Everly called to it, then screamed when the creature rushed at him, its limp limbs dragging and flailing at high speed, knocking Everly onto the pavement. He scrambled back on his bottom as it lurched after him, its jaw stretching wide. Its gray skin was chalky and mottled with black veins and Everly muffled a horrified yelp when a spider crawled out of its eye socket.

A terrible shrieking, keening sound rose from it and Everly wascoldand his strength was fading quickly. “Youwill stop!” Its snakelike hiss was giddy and high as it loomed over him, its head bobbling loosely and tipping to the side as the night grew black around them.

“Everly!” Bryn’s roar cut through the darkness, warming Everly and making him stronger as two massive smoke hounds leapt at the anti-Everly. There was a deafening growl that shook the ground before the largest hound’s head slammed into the changeling and sent it flying.

It disappeared with a loudcrack!and both hounds dove, following it into the Nothing.

“There he is!” Nox called as he skidded around the corner. “We’re coming, Everly!”

Merlin wasn’t far behind but he was red-faced and winded as he raced after Nox with his bag in his arms.

“I have to go,” Everly shouted as he wiped the road dirt from his scuffed hands, afraid of what was happening on the other side of the veil. He ran at the spot where Bryn and Arawn had vanished, his heart seeking its other half as he jumped.

“No! Everly, wai—!” Nox’s shout was cut off as Everly tumbled into the cold, dark slow of the Nothing.

His body was gone and Everly’s head swung as he checked himself out. He was made of bright blue smoke and he had paws and a little blue puff of a tail. He heard wild dogs barking through the fog and took off after them, bouncing along and using his own glow to light the way. There was nothing but frosted ground beneath him and he couldn’t see anything except darkness and fog. But the sound of demon birds behind him had Everly hopping as fast as he could.

Then, there were flaming flashes in the mist and he heard banshee shrieks and hounds snarling and Everly ducked when one of the twins rolled toward him. The giant dog came to a skidding halt, its claws creating sparks as they dragged on the frozen pavement.

“Get out, Ev! We’ve got this!” Bryn commanded, giving his great smoky body a shake and his head a toss before galloping back into battle. There was a pained canine yelp and Everly saw Arawn crash to the ground.

Bryn let out a mighty roar, his glowing fangs and claws slashing at a tall, rippling shadow. It repelled Bryn, sending him flying as Arawn sprang at it with renewed fury. Both hounds took turns, charging at their enemy until Bryn leapt into the churning, bubbling blackness and disappeared.

The other hound stopped, drawing back as it searched and waited. Everly stopped breathing—stopped existing—his gaze fixed on the menacing black shadow. A tremendous roar shook the Nothing and Arawn put his head down, picking up speed as he ran at it. He was thrown back when a blazing, bloody body was hurled at him, half smoke hound and half man.

“Bryn!”Everly hurried through the soupy coldness, terrified. “Please don’t be hurt!” he begged when he reached Bryn.

“It’s…just a flesh wound,” Bryn managed as he got onto all fours, his limbs and head fading into spectral smoke. “Get it?”He shoved Everly back with his snout, swelling until he was large and terrifying again. “I’ll be alright. Go back and wait with Nox.”

“I won’t leave you!” Everly called but Bryn had already raced back into the fight.

Overhead, dozens of sluagh had gathered, swooping and circling, their haunted cries adding to the chaos. Everly’s heart stopped again when Arawn was sucked into the darkness and spit out a moment later, bloody and smoldering as he slammed into Bryn and sent them tumbling.

“Stop!” Everly shouted and ran at the shadow, attempting to distract it. “You’re hurting them!”

He heard a sick, tickled giggle as he became painfully cold. “I’m going to break them and eat their souls!” it sang, taunting Everly as he was pulled into its darkness.

“No!” Everly couldn’t let it have them. The twins would die and Fletcher would be heartbroken. All the souls that the Abhartach had stolen would be lost forever, including Everly’s. “No!”

There was too much love inside of Everly for him to give up. He felt the love that Bryn had given him, the love that made Everly feel real and believe he could be anything. He felt Nox’s warmth andgoodnessand remembered everything he and Merlin had said about intention and transformation. And Everly thought of Fletcher and Nelson and their kindness and loyalty.

The anti-Everly wasn’t loved and didn’t have friends who were willing to fight and die for it. That was why it was the anti-Everly and thathad tomatter, or else it wouldn’t be so determined to destroy all the good people the actual Everly loved, Everly reasoned.

He mustered all the good, powerful, healing love his friends had given him and Everly opened wide, letting out the loudest sound his little body had ever made. It came from him as a great blue beam, blinding him as he blasted it right at the rippling,spreading darkness. A song as loud as a thousand golden harps swelled from Everly, sending the sluagh fleeing into the emptiness of the Nothing.

The boiling, black shadow let out a deafening shriek as it stretched, spreading and struggling to contain Everly’s radiant blast. But Everly wasfullof everlasting love and the shadow began to rip and fray as glorious light punched through its holes and tears. Everly called forth the ecstasy of touching Bryn’s body, the soul-changing beauty of the water as it spilled through the hair on his chest when they showered, his profound gratitude when Bryn said he loved him, and Everly burst, blazing even brighter with rapturous joy.

His love was infinite and too brilliant for the anti-Everly and its evil emptiness. It let out an agonized roar, exploding into smoking bits that fizzled in the misty ether.

Arawn was the first to recover and howled victoriously. “You did it, Everly!” He ran to Everly, circling proudly when Bryn joined them.

“I told you, we were handling it,” Bryn said before swinging his head and knocking Everly right off his feet and sending him flying.

“Wait—!” Everly called but he crashed back through the veil, spilling onto the street at Nox, Merlin’s, Nelson’s, and Fletcher’s feet.

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