Without delay, Sylous reached for his hand and gripped it tight. Energy surged up Jamie’s arm and he gasped. The power buzzed over his skin and rippled down to the soles of his feet, a biting charge of raw current that felt like electricity.

“Receive my strength,” Sylous said. “Let me protect you.”

Jamie’s back arched under the increasing energy.

“Say it!” Sylous said. “Receive me!”

“I receive you!” Jamie rasped.

Jamie felt the power mushroom inside his chest, then rage up his neck and into his brain. For a moment, he was sure it had actually lifted him off the ground.

The world around him began to dim. Sylous’s final words sounded far away as Jamie’s consciousness faded.

“I need you. I need all of you.”

Chapter
Nine

MY LEGS ACHED AS I RAN, BUT AFTER HOURS OF PAIN, I first accepted it, then ignored it. I used pictures of Jamie slumped against the tree to motivate me as I raced. The thought of him dying before I could get someone back to him pushed me past any concern for myself. My lungs were on fire and felt as though they would burst, but still I plunged forward.

I was forced to stop twice, both times to vomit, before quickly catching my breath and moving again. Keeping my eyes ahead, watching for markers, praying I was still going the right way. The air cooled as the sky dimmed. Dusk already. There was no way I was going to make it!

But somehow I did. Standing like the gates of heaven, the tall wooden doors to Haven Valley came into view. I nearly collapsed from relief the last hundred paces.

Daylight gone now, I reached the gates and pounded. “Help me. Please! Open up!”

It occurred to me that I could just as easily run along the short wall and enter over the red perimeter, but I had been cast out. Didn’t I need permission to enter again?

“Help!” I slammed my fist against the wooden door. “Please!”

Two large spotlights attached to the top of the wall blazed to life, and I backed away, squinting up. I had been heard and found. Now I would beg them to listen.

The doors creaked and slowly swung inward. Ralph, the oldest of the guardians, poked his head around, joined by Morton, his twenty-year-old son. They saw me drenched in sweat, panting, and exchanged glances.

“Tell Rose I’m back,” I gasped. “We have to hurry, Ralph! Jamie’s—”

“Wait here,” Morton interrupted. Without further explanation, they closed the door. I hoped they’d been instructed to find Rose in the event either of us returned.

Overwhelmed by fatigue, I dropped to my knees and rested my palms on the dirt, head hanging, trying to get my lungs to fill with air.

The door opened again minutes later. Harrison and Rose walked out accompanied by Ralph and Morton, both armed with powerful flashlights.

“You’ve returned,” Rose said.