Page 58 of Safe in Shadow
Mud and mulch slipped and sluiced down the remnants of paths and clearings. Nyx could see a black plastic bag poking out from under some loose earth, and he doubled his speed. Normally, he would have been able to catch The Stranger easily, but his earlier activities with Grace had weakened his ability to stay solid.
There was an almighty crack, and the woods and grounds of Hilltop House filled with three screams, his, Grace’s, and The Stranger’s, as two jagged bolts of lightning struck. One hit the tallest birch in the back of the forest—sending an orange glow across the night as its thin branches caught fire.
The other hit the house—just above the bedroom window where Grace was standing.
Everything sped, but backwards.
He was being pulled, sucked in, back into the house.
To the portal.
Hilltop House was finally burning. Dying. Being destroyed—and he would go with it.
GRACE GRABBED HER LAPTOPand the boxes in her closet, thankful now that she hadn’t taken the time to unpack andorganize many of her personal things since she was so focused on the guest areas of the bed and breakfast.
The bed and breakfast that was now on fire and burning fast. She’d seen those ads about fire safety, showing living rooms going up in something like 11.7 seconds or something, and some idiotic part of her had thought that was just for show.
Not that she had to worry. There were sprinklers in the downstairs refinished area, and it was raining. The fire would be put out. The house would be saved.
Now, she, on the other hand, might not be—going out of the fire into a different, creepier fire outside with a murdering psychopath and the police moving slower than the flames.
“Grace!” Nyx came shooting back towards her, a ghostly comet.
“Nyx! We have to get out. I have to get out!” Grace shook her head to cut off whatever argument he was about to make about her going outside. “Lightning!” she coughed as the smoke began to spread, and a dreadful realization occurred.
No power. No sprinkler.
House in flames.
Nyx destroyed.
Her hand shot out and grabbed him, letting her laptop fall. “Come on! Come on, come on, get out,” she panted, couching low. “You owned more than just this house. You have to be okay!”
Please. Please let him be okay. I can’t love him just to lose him.
“I’ve always been bound here. Not to the woods. Not to the road. Not to the land. Here.” Nyx hurried with her, pushing her along, grabbing everything he could carry in his wake.
“I don’t want you to go! Do you... Do you want to go?” she half-gagged, half-sobbed as the reality set in. Her home wasburning. Her dreams were going up in smoke, and so was the first—and maybe last—man she’d ever loved.
“Not really—but you’re going to be safe. That’s enough. I chased him through the woods—and the woods are on fire. I don’t know where he is, but I should be able to stay here and protect you until the house completely goes. I think.”
“Don’t talk like that!” Grace grabbed her keys from the reception desk as she fled.Even if it’s true.
The world was in flames now—the woods. The house. The rain seemed to be gone, but Grace wasn’t sure if it was only because it was being turned to steam by the fire. Sirens blared in the distance.
“Get in my car.”
“Grace, it won’t matter. I can barely make it to the town’s edge before I’m back here. The farther I go, the fainter I become until I’m simply gone. I love you. I’ll stay, you go.” Nyx cupped her cheek and kissed her. He smiled and nodded, a brave smile that just made her fall even more in love. “Youmustgo.”
“But you’re my hero. You and Nana,” she whispered in a tiny, miserable squeak.
“Heroes don’t live forever. But thank you for letting me leave thinking I am one,” Nyx whispered, thumb catching her tears. “Grace, you’ve got to move. Cars have gasoline, and gasoline and fire do not mix!”
“Please! Please, just get in the car with me so we can be together for a few more minutes. Please, Nyx. I love you. I don’t want you to go!” Grace didn’t care if she was sobbing. She had held it together when Nana died. She was always holding things together.
She was sick of it.
Nyx threw her things in the backseat and squeezed into the front, shifting forms as he went. Grace wiped her eyes and shoved the key in the ignition. She drove pell-mell out throughthe gravel drive and across the lawn, and kept going even when the police sped past her, heading towards Hilltop.
