WE FLED MARSEILLE in Zarita’s car, but had no real idea where to head. All we knew was that we needed to be long gone before Zarita’s body was found and the theft of her car discovered. In a moment of shared agreement through our grief, we decided to head northwest to flee France as fast as possible. The particular direction of travel didn’t really matter; we didn’t care where the hell the road took us, we just needed to get away.

The guilt of her death still weighed heavily on me, and it was clear Clay’s thoughts had taken a similar path. He’d been the one to organize for her to give us a lift. If he hadn’t, she’d probably be alive and well in her home in Cyprus. Far from the shadow stalking me.

After driving for a number of hours, we needed to stop for gas. During the stop, Clay purchased a throw-away prepaid phone. As soon as we were on the road again, he dialed Ethan’s number.

“I don’t have long, but Evie’s definitely being tracked by a shadow person,” he said in the way of a greeting. He listened to something Ethan said. “She is. Sure.”

He handed the phone over to me, and I looked at it as if it might suddenly combust if I risked touching it. Which was possible with my current stress. Ethan had helped us out of the country, but he’d also tormented me in the car chase through Charlotte. I still wasn’t entirely sure whether or not I could trust him.

“Hello?” I asked in a tone that held little volume or warmth.

“How long have you been seeing the shadow?” His voice was rushed and urgent but little more than a whisper.

“Since Detroit.”

He gave a low whistle. “It’s probably close to the point of killing you then.”

Despite the whispered rush of his voice, the words rolled off his tongue with such casualness. He could have been discussing what the weather would be like next week and not my apparent impending doom.

“He could have tonight, but he didn’t.”

“What do you mean?”

“He was right next to me. He—He had a knife, but he . . .” My voice betrayed me, and I was unable to form a single word more.

Clay’s hand rested on my knee. I met his eyes briefly before he turned back to the road. The sorrow I’d found in them echoed my own. He reached for the phone.

“He killed someone else instead of Evie. No, I wasn’t there. I didn’t see.” He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. “Of course I know it wasn’t. Because it wasn’t.” He sighed. “Just trust me will you?”

I clenched my fists as I guessed exactly what Ethan had asked.

“I’m going to put you on speaker.”

He pushed the button, and then Ethan’s voice issued from the tinny speaker.

“There isn’t much about shadow people here. All I know is they are relentless and they delight in sending people into madness. If you have one on your trail, there are only two ways to be rid of it. To die or to kill it.”

“But how?” Clay said. “So far only Evie has been able to see it, and even then I think that’s only when it allows her to.”

“It—” Ethan’s voice cut off and the phone beeped.

“Fuck!” Clay growled before lifting the phone and tossing it out of the car window. “Out of minutes.”

I watched the phone sail in a graceful arch through the air before smashing against the road and shattering into tiny pieces. “Wouldn’t Ethan have tried calling back?”

Clay shook his head. “He wouldn’t risk it, and even if he did, would you want him to? It would be a trail that could lead others to know we’re in Europe.”

I nodded. It made sense, even though I wanted more than anything to know the end of Ethan’s last sentence.

“He thought I did it, didn’t he?” I asked.

“He doesn’t know what to think.”

“Can I ask you a question?” I asked. Ethan’s automatic assumption of my guilt made me think about the scene Clay had walked into. It had to look bad—worse than bad even. “Why didn’t you?”

“Why didn’t I what?”

“Why didn’t you think I did it?”

He frowned in confusion.

“I had her blood on me,” I whispered as the memory assaulted my mind. “I was the only one in the room. Anyone else would have assumed that I’d done it.”

Without looking at me, he reached his hand to my cheek and brushed it gently. “For the same reason I know you didn’t kill that nurse, or the boy and his mother.”

Tears filled my eyes again. “How can you have so much faith in me?”

“How can you have so little in me?”

I opened and closed my mouth a few times, but I had no response. I couldn’t find the words to reassure him it wasn’t a lack of faith that had led me to ask the question.

He looked over to me again and offered me a small, sad smile. “I didn’t mean it like that. We’ve just got to stick together and have faith in each other, that’s all.”

I brushed away my tears and nodded.

“Try to get some sleep,” he murmured.

“You need to sleep too.”

He shook his head and buried his fingers deep into his mahogany locks. “Not until we’re out of France.”

“I can drive too.”

“I know,” he said, but didn’t make any move to let me.

Still curled into a ball on the seat, the exhaustion of every one of the days and weeks since my reunion with Clay weighed down on my eyelids, dragging them closed even as I struggled to stay awake.

 

 

“HEY THERE, sleeping beauty, it’s time to wake up.”

The light of the sun through the windshield flittered across my eyes as Clay’s voice pulled me from my sleep.

“Where are we?” I asked with a sleep-strained voice as I lifted my head from the seat and tried to figure out our location based on what was just outside the car window. Only it looked more like we’d driven into a fairytale than any real location.

“We’re in Germany. I’ve found somewhere for us to stay for a night or two.” He held up a set of keys, jingling them before closing his palm around them. “It’s a small two-bedroom, but we’re here alone. It’s off the beaten track, so I don’t think anyone will find us.”

“How heavily did I sleep?” I wondered. How had Clay organized a house while I rested?

He stroked my hair gently. “You needed it after the last twenty-four hours.”

I reached my hand forward to brush along the heavy black rings around his eyes. “You need sleep too.”

He nodded. “We’ll have to ditch the car before we move on, but I think I can risk getting some shut-eye first.”

“There’s no think about it, you’ll be resting before we go anywhere else. Even if I have to make you.”

He raised an eyebrow at me. “Yes ma’am.”

“That’s more like it. Now, if you don’t want us to take the car when we leave, I should probably take care of it while you head inside.” I held out my hand for the key.

His eyes widened. “No!” he cried. He reached for my hands and wrapped his fingers around mine. “You can’t go anywhere alone. Not now.”

“Clay—”

“Evie, please?” he pleaded as his fingers squeezed mine. “I can’t have you go anywhere right now but inside with me.” He held my hands so tightly it was as if he wanted to wrap me up and never let me go.

“I’ll be okay.”

“We can get rid of the car together, later.”

I sighed. Even though the holiday house was set back from the road and fronted by trees that stretched on for what seemed like forever into the sky, I thought that leaving the stolen car parked out front was a danger. When I glanced at Clay though, I saw that he needed me with him. I also couldn’t entirely blame him for his reluctance to leave me alone after Zarita’s death and the confirmation I had a supernatural stalker.

I nodded. “Okay.”

He visibly sagged in relief. “Thank you.”

It wasn’t long before I realized that Clay was far more tired than he was letting on. He wandered into the house practically dead on his feet. I guided him into the shower, where he rested his head against my shoulder and drifted between consciousness and sleep. I helped him sluice away the worst of the grime in his hair and beard before helping him into the bed. He didn’t even notice that I didn’t climb in beside him. Within minutes, his soft snoring confirmed that he was getting the sleep he needed after being awake for almost two whole days.

Throwing on a fresh outfit, I grabbed our bloodstained clothes before tossing them into a metal trashcan I found in the kitchen. I headed out the back door and tossed a handful of kindling on top of the clothes and then buried my fingers into the depths and forced a spark into my hand. Almost instantly, the fire took hold, so I placed the trashcan on the ground and turned to head back inside.

Before I’d even reached the door, a presence watching me from the depths of the forest made itself known. I couldn’t see him, but I’d experienced the tingling that crept along my spine like icy fingers often enough to know that the shadow was nearby. He’d found us already.

Pretending not to notice him, I continued through the door before turning and locking it behind me. It hadn’t helped at Zarita’s house, but it made me feel marginally better. I raced to the bedroom where Clay had left his handgun on the bedside table. I skidded into the room and then stopped at the sight of Clay fast asleep on the bed. My heart ached at how innocent and young he appeared in slumber. On seeing his peaceful, resting face, I no longer wanted to just defend myself if the shadow broke in. I wanted to stop the asshole from having the chance to hurt Clay. If the shadow thought he could intrude on us here—if he thought he could get to Clay the way he’d gotten to Zarita—I would teach him a lesson he wouldn’t soon forget.

I grabbed the gun and flicked off the safety before checking it was loaded. My fingers trembled so much that I almost dropped the magazine. With a shaky breath and one last look at Clay, I headed to go outside again.

Pushing the door open, I scanned the backyard before shifting my gaze to the end of the forest. Worried that I was maybe making the biggest mistake of my life, but knowing I didn’t really have much of a choice, I risked one more glance back at the house. Once I’d reminded myself that Clay was inside, that he was the reason I was willing to do this, I took a step toward the forest. The feeling of a watchful gaze raking my body crept across the back of my neck again, and I moved my finger to rest beside the trigger. It had been years since Dad had taught me to shoot, but it was coming back to me fast with the weapon in hand.

“I’m here!” I called out hoping it would be loud enough to gain the shadow’s attention without waking Clay. “If you’re going to attack me, just come at me already!”

A rustling wind whipped around me, and I almost dropped the gun but was able to hold tightly to the handle regardless of my shaking fingers.

“At least show yourself, you coward!” I taunted at the empty air.

Underneath one of the towering fir trees, a black figure flickered in and out of existence. The man stared at me for a moment before his lips—the only feature I could see on his covered face—turned up into a grin that stretched out across his face to give him a sinister, otherworldly appearance.

He lifted his gaze and met mine and, for the first time ever, I got a good look at his features. His eyes were milky-gray and lifeless, appearing to bend the light around them as though they could absorb everything bright in the world and replace it with darkness. The loose black robes covered his body entirely, making him appear formless.

When I raised the gun, he turned and walked into the forest with a casual pace. It was as if he was declaring that he didn’t believe I posed any threat to him.

He’d underestimated me though because I wasn’t about to let him get away with everything he’d done. He’d killed a friend—someone who’d meant a lot to Clay—and he knew where we were now. If I let him disappear, he would probably continue to hunt us. I couldn’t allow him to pose any further threat to us. It had to end or Clay and I could never be free.

The beginning of an understanding over Clay’s words in defense of his family, and the deeds they’d done, seeped into me. When he’d tracked me down in Charlotte the first time, I hadn’t known about things like wendigos and shadows. I hadn’t appreciated just how dangerous others could be. Clay’s instincts were to protect people and the ones they loved.

That desire, I could understand.

Now, I was going to do the same thing. I intended to kill the shadow before he could hurt anyone else. The innocent deaths had to stop. Because I was the only one that had ever seen the creature, it had to be me to end it.

There was almost no light in the forest, the sun barely filtered through to cover the top third of the trees. The covering of pine needles crunched under foot with every step I took, but I couldn’t hear any other sounds. I walked in the direction I’d last seen the shadow heading, glancing side to side as often as I dared just in case the creature had circled around behind me.

I stopped walking a few hundred yards into the forest, but the crunching sound continued to my left. I raised the gun steady and moved in that direction. Laughter filled my head and then he was visible again—right in front of me. It was like looking at someone through a gauze filter, the features not as refined and clear as they should be. Without allowing myself to second guess my choice, I aimed in his direction and pulled the trigger.

The crack of the gunshot echoed louder in my ears than I’d expected it to and caused me to scream. In my hand, the gun kicked back harder than I’d thought it would, sending a violent shockwave coursing along my arm. The shadow disappeared an instant before the bullet sailed through the spot he’d been standing a fraction of a second before.

“Show yourself!” I demanded again.

A fluttering wind whirled around me, whipping up the pine needles and sending them crashing roughly against my legs.

“You coward!” I screamed.

Footsteps ran across the bracken, rushing away from me. I raced after the sound until I caught sight of the black, menacing figure standing a few yards away. He stood motionless, as if daring me to try again. I lifted the gun and pulled the trigger again and again as I fired into the spot where he’d been standing.

Three times.

Four.

Each shot missed him, and he laughed again, the sound flooding the area around me. I twisted around, firing shots in the direction of the sound. The last one I fired connected, cutting off the laugh. The noise morphed into a pained howl, which was so loud I had to press my hands against my ears to block it out as I fell to the forest floor in pain.

Revealing himself again, his mouth stretched open to form a gaping chasm as he issued the high-pitched keening, he walked toward me with his hand pressed over a wound in his side. When he was close enough, he kneeled before me and lifted his free hand to reach for the gun in my hand, but I pulled it away at the last second, raising it in both hands instead and firing three shots into his stomach in rapid succession. The final kickback was amplified by my awkward kneeling position and it sent me toppling off balance. The shadow clutched at his stomach and fell to the ground in front of me. The wind whipped up again, lifting the debris and sending it hurling around my body and into my face. Ignoring the screaming that still issued from the man, I steadied myself, holding the gun out in front of me steady in both of my hands, and aimed squarely at the shadow’s chest.

I fired again.

Everything stopped.

The wind, the noise, everything.

Is he gone?

I glanced around at the silent forest, not willing to believe it could be over so easily.

Did I kill it?

I pulled myself up onto my feet and took a step toward the place where the shadow had been. There were drops of blood on the bracken, so I’d definitely shot him. The sensation of being watched was gone, replaced with an absolute stillness.

A footstep on the bracken sounded behind me. I twisted around and instinctively pulled the trigger before realizing as the gunshot cracked through the air that I’d shot at Clay.