Page 23 of Soul of Shadow
“I had nothing to do with Robbie Carpenter’s disappearance. Nor that of the twins. In fact.” Elias raised one hand and snapped. When he did, the cords around her legs vanished. “I’m trying to find them.”
Charlie didn’t waste a moment. She jumped to her feet and ran for the door.
Before she had taken even two steps, another shadowed cord appeared, this time wrapping around her entire torso and pulling tight until her arms were locked to her sides.
Crap.
She made it to the front door and slammed into it hard, trying to break it open by sheer force. The hinges rattled, but the door stayed in place.
A hand wrapped around her arm and yanked her away from the door. At the touch, visions flashed in front of Charlie’s eyes: a dark tunnel, a lifeless body, spiders crawling out of empty eye sockets…
The images dissipated. Charlie grunted as Shadow Elias spun her around and pinned her to the door. He was strong. Disturbingly so. She struggled against him, but it was no use. He kept her pinned as easily as if she were a stray sheet of paper. In some distant part of her brain, she noticed that his touch no longer burned, the way it had in the cafeteria. That it felt cool, soft, like a light breeze.
Elias tutted. “Charlie, Charlie, Charlie.” He leaned in, drawing so close that the darkness flaking and flickering like black flames where his skin should be brushed up against Charlie’s face. She whimpered; each brush of black flame sent shivers down her spine, a sense of doom pooling at its base. “You think you can escape? You think that opening that door would bring you any safety? I’m anight mare, darling. I know you don’t yetfully grasp what that means, but surely you must have some idea.”
The longer he held on to Charlie’s arm, the more doom built within her, a vat filling with churning water, a sense that sharks swam within.
“We create fear,” he said. “Feed on it. Let it fuel our strength. We sense fear the way humans smell food cooking in the kitchen. Even now, that pounding in your chest, the rush of blood, the shallow breaths in your lungs—I feel it all. And let me tell you—” He leaned forward, inhaling deeply. “It’sdelicious.”
“You’re sick,” she whispered.
“On the contrary.” Elias straightened, loosening his grip on her arm but not fully letting go. “I’m perfectly healthy right now. Disappearing children? Runes carved into trees? This town is in a complete tizzy, which is perfect for a mare like me. The more afraid you are, the better. The stronger I become.”
As his grip loosened, the fear building within her faded; it didn’t disappear entirely, but it became quieter, lower, like a volume knob on terror had been turned down.
“What were those visions?” she asked. “The tunnel. The spiders… How did you do that?”
He lifted a hand, the tips of his fingers flickering like black candles, and placed it gently to her cheek. She was overcome yet again by visions: This time, she saw Sophie. Her body on a hospital bed, her mother weeping, a black-hooded figure descending upon the bed…
Shadow Elias pulled his hand away, and the images vanished.
“One of my mare tricks. Giving visions to our victims to ratchet up their fear, to make ourselves even stronger.” He wiggled his fingers. “I have complete control over the visions. What they see, when they see it, and for how long. The more I do it to one person, the more I learn about what truly terrifies them. I can repeat it again—” He grabbed her forearm, and she saw Mason crashing their car into a tree. “And again—” She saw her mother floating face down in Lake Michigan. “And again.”
She gasped, tearing her arm away. The visions stopped as abruptly as a TV switching off. “What is this?” she asked, doing her best to summon bravery into her voice, even though she felt none. “Is this your big villain speech? The one you give before you slit my throat?”
“Perhaps.” Elias stuck out a shadowed hand. A long sword made of the same darkness materialized, as if it were just an extension of his body. “It wouldn’t be difficult. And the fear that humans experience in the final moments before death…” He drew the sword up, holding it so that its wispy tip hovered only an inch from her throat. “That alone can fuel a mare for months.”
Eyes on the flickering sword, Charlie felt her pulse rise, the blood pound in her ears.
“I can already taste it,” he whispered. “Can feel its presence on my tongue.”
I’m going to die, she realized.I’m going to die, and it’s all because I was stupid enough to follow a suspicious person into a creepy old house.
“The only question is…” He leaned even closer, and Charlie’s stomach rose in her throat. She was going to throw up. She was going to throw up, and then she was going to die, and her mom would never even know why.
And then—
Like a fisherman reluctantly tossing his catch back into the water, Elias released her. He stepped away, lowering the shadowy sword to his side. His chest seemed to rise and fall with heavy breath, even though a creature like him couldn’t possibly have lungs.
“The only question is,” he said, “might you still be of use to me?”
Charlie exhaled. The air rushed from her lungs, pent-up terror she didn’t even know she’d been holding in.
Elias reached out and grabbed hold of her arm again. She felt another flash of sheer horror, as if his touch were filled with every darkest nightmare she had ever dreamed.
She supposed it was.
“You discovered my secret.” Elias dragged her down the hallway toward the dining room. “Nosey little thing that you are. And even though I’d have preferred that my secretremaina secret, there is one benefit to having someone else in on it.”
