The afterimage burns in my eyes. The outline of a girl made of light.

“They’ll still trying to claim you.” Her voice comes to me through the glowing blur. “They’ll use tricks. They’ll use everything they have. Just don’t—”

Something dives out of a tree a few steps ahead of us. Something with long, clawlike feet and a bent, bony back and a bald black head full of teeth. It opens its mouth—too, too wide—and hisses.

Then it lunges.

So does Thea.

She’s faster. She strikes the creature in midair, and even though it’s far, far bigger than she is, she sends it streaking backward. The course of her motion slashes across my vision like the tail of a comet. The two of them land on the wet ground, near the riverbed, many feet away. The dark thing disintegrates into wisps, like floating ash, and then into nothing.

But more are already coming.

They’re falling from the trees all around her. They hit the ground without any noise. The silence is eerie. Thea whirls around, burning hair, burning face, burning eyes. She’s a blur smashing into a knot of crawling shadows.

The creatures fall backward. Their bodies collapse. But this time I see them pulling themselves together again. Black scraps knitting with other black scraps. They crouch and slither back toward the light.

And I’m just standing here like an idiot.

My body makes a jerky move to the right, like it’s actually going to do something. Be part of this. But what am I going to do? Pick up a rock? Swing a big stick? This is so much larger and stranger than anything I expected, back when I silently agreed to let this girl protect me. And now here I am, watching her take on an entire throng.

The creatures must know I’m no threat. They’re only focused on her. For all the attention they’ve given me, I might as well not be here at all. I don’t have time to think about why before Thea charges forward. Her palms are open, her arms straight out in front. They smash through a knot of creatures like a battering ram.

But the things keep coming back, more and more of them. They scuttle out of the trees. They crawl up out of the muddy riverbed.

I glance up into the trees again. Mom and Dad, Jezz and Patrick and Frankie are all still dangling there, the glow coming from them faint, but steady. I have to do something. I lurch toward a nearby tree. Maybe I can climb high enough. But before I can even touch the trunk, a black silhouette drops in front of me. Its cold, slick hair brushes my skin. I shudder, leaping back. But the thing doesn’t even glance at me. It springs toward Thea instead, joining the swarm.

They’re closing in. Their bodies writhe between me and Thea’s blinding light. There are too many of them.

She’s fast, but soon they’ve got her surrounded. She can’t gain enough ground to pick up speed. I see one of them reach up and grab her throat. A dark limb lashes out from somewhere in the crowd and reaches down into her gasping mouth. The light raging from inside of her dims.