Page 190 of Beyond the Blue Horizon
Then I hurtled across the porch, boots hitting hard against the walkway, my breaths salient as I expelled them from my clutching lungs.
Because in an instant, I sensed it.
Evil crawling the air.
So thick that I wanted to choke on it.
My attention darted every direction as I tried to discern where the corruption was coming from.
My gaze landed on Alicia’s door. I hurried that way, running onto her porch before I quietly tapped at the wood. I itched as I waited, guts a tangle of dread, before I finally heard shuffling on the other side.
Could feel her peering out of the peephole before metal grated as she undid the locks.
Worry filled her face as she barely cracked the door open. “Theo?”
“Everything okay inside?” I peered over her shoulder as I asked it.
Alicia’s worry shifted to fear. “I…everything’s okay. What’s going on?”
“Guard found someone hiding on the property. He took off.”
“Oh, God.” Horror filled her features, and that resolve steeled inside me.
“We’re on him. I just needed to check that you were okay. Get back inside and keep the doors locked.”
Alicia nodded frantically before she closed the door and quickly worked through the locks. The second I knew she was secure, I went running for the woods in the direction that Jonah had indicated the fucker had gone.
I could taste the foulness riding on the gusts of wind that whipped through.
Temperature a thousand degrees colder than the thermometer should read.
I ran across the narrow lane that looped around the far side of Alicia’s cabin and barreled into the trees, following the trail of footsteps that Jonah and another set of feet had carved into the snow.
Moonlight streamed down, tossing the ground in shadows as it flowed through the limbs and leaves.
It was enough to illuminate the area so I didn’t need a flashlight.
Heart beating a million miles a minute, I drove myself through the rugged terrain, jumping over boulders and ducking beneath branches that threatened to slow my pace.
The footsteps wove deeper into the forest.
Darkness crowded in as the foliage grew denser, the moonlight blotted out by the concentrated cover of trees.
A frown tugged hard at my brow when I saw a heap on the ground in the distance.
My pulse spiked into disorder when I realized it was Jonah.
I pushed myself harder, then came skidding to a stop when I made it to him. Leaning over, I wheezed, “Oh, fuck, Jonah. Are you hurt?”
He moaned and writhed in the snow, clutching his side with his hand. Blood seeped out between his fingers, staining the white blanket beneath him.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
He violently shook his head, and his teeth gritted as he hissed, “Blade just got me deep enough to drop me to my knees. I’ll be fine. Just get that bastard.”
“You sure?”
“Go!”
