Soulstice (29 page)

“I wish I knew for sure,” Reggie said. “Part of it is in our minds, I think. But our minds are powerful things.”

Reggie felt relief wash over her. Quinn was almost free. But then he pointed above them.

“What’s that?” he asked. A tremble had crept back into his voice. Reggie looked up, but she could see only the whiteness all
around them.

“What’s what?”

“That.”

“Quinn, I don’t see anything.”

“A black spiral, like a road. Far off. You can’t see it?”

Reggie shook her head. Quinn’s eyes sparked with worry.

“It’s okay,” Reggie said hastily. “This is the way out.”

As she stepped down inside the dugout behind Quinn, Reggie chanced one more look back. But there was only white, empty space.

What had the boy seen?

  
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A huge plume of smoke erupted from Quinn’s body; it seemed to flow out of every pore, and a ghastly face formed in its roils.
It rushed at Aaron, and he closed his eyes tightly as it broke apart over his skin. Then it was gone.

Reggie lay still, but her breathing was even. Aaron cringed at the sight of her. Half her skull had been shaved, and electrodes
were glued to her scalp. He examined the needle sticking out of her forehead. He was afraid that if he pulled it out, it might
do irreparable damage to her brain, but they all had to get out of here soon before the whole place caved in.

Gripping the needle with his thumb and forefinger, Aaron gingerly slid it out of Reggie’s head. He had to pull harder than
he would have liked, since it had pierced the bone, but finally he managed to extricate it. Moments later, Reggie shifted
on the slab. Her eyes fluttered open.

“Reggie?”

She tried to move, but her limbs were numb.

“Are you back?”

“Yeah,” Reggie murmured. “Good to see you.”

“We gotta go.”

He undid the cords around her wrists and the straps on her ankles. She grabbed him for support, and he helped her stand. She
wobbled for a second, then took a step forward. The paralysis was beginning to wear off.

“Eben.” She dropped to the old man’s side. He looked up at her, black drool dripping from his lips. “We need to get you out
of here.”

Quinn started to awaken.

“Hold still,” Aaron said, removing the needle from his head like he had from Reggie’s. Quinn shuddered but stayed silent.
His eyes were dazed, not registering his surroundings. Aaron noted that the black scars on his cheek seemed to be fading away
already.

Another tremor rocked the chamber.

Aaron grabbed Quinn’s arm and threw it around his shoulder, hoisting the boy to his feet. He dragged him toward the cave exit
where the lucky Vours had managed to escape.

“This way!” he shouted back at Reggie, who had helped Eben up and was now supporting him forward.

“Hold your breath,” she said to the old man as the smoke billowed around them.

They reached a place where the fallen dirt formed a ramp up into the open forest. Aaron and Reggie struggled with their charges,
and Reggie felt especially weak. Adrenaline alone pushed her through. Finally they were up and out of the inferno; a warm
summer breeze tickled their skin, and the dark sky above was giving way to the solstice dawn.

In the fiery trenches below, they did not notice Dr. Unger fade back into the shadows at the other end of the cavern and escape
into the underground tunnels. He smiled to himself, for he had seen something the others had not.

He had seen where the essence of Quinn’s Vour had gone when it had left the boy’s body, and he found it very interesting.

Leaderless, the Vours had scattered into the woods.

“Come on,” said Aaron, leading the way. “I saw where you parked Machen’s car. I think we should drive that one back, since
it’s more borrowed than stolen.”

“Stolen?” Reggie asked. Aaron shook his head.

They had only stumbled along a short distance before Eben collapsed in a horrid coughing fit. He bent forward on his hands
and knees, hacking black phlegm into the dirt. The sound was so awful Reggie thought his throat might crack open. She knelt
beside him and patted his back tenderly. Aaron let Quinn sink to the ground and joined Reggie by Eben’s side.

Finally his coughs subsided, and he sat back, resting against a tree. His breaths came in ragged starts, and he closed his
eyes.

“We have to keep going,” Reggie said gently. “The cops’ll be here soon. We’ll get you back to the hospital right away, Eben.”

A smile played about Eben’s lips, and he shook his head.

“No more hospitals for me.” He opened his eyes and looked around. The sun was just peeking through the trees, a candle atop
a pink icing sky. “No, I think this is the perfect place.”

“The perfect place for what?” Reggie asked anxiously.

Eben turned his kind gaze on her. He took her hand.

“Regina, my body has turned over more years than is possibly good for anyone. So many I stopped counting, in fact. I’ve been
kept alive by a poison that devoured me. But I don’t regret it, because these last few years brought me to you. You’re a miracle,
Regina Halloway, and I never saw many miracles, though I’ve been looking for over a century.”

The tears welled in Reggie’s eyes.

“Eben, I’m sorry I was so angry. It was stupid—I didn’t mean any of the horrible things I said.”

“I wouldn’t blame you if you did. Sometimes we old folk lose our wits. I was wrong not to tell you the truth long ago.” His
voice was faltering, but he gazed eagerly at Reggie. “Your heart gives you your power, Regina,” he murmured. “Follow it, fight
with it, and you cannot be defeated.”

With his last strength he squeezed her hand, then his eyes closed, and his head slumped to the side.

“Goodbye, Eben.” Reggie threw her arms around his neck and sobbed quietly into his shoulder. She heard his feeble heartbeat
slow and then stop altogether.

Aaron stood above them both, tears sloping down his cheeks. The sun had risen another half a foot, and in the distance he
could make out the sound of sirens. He touched Reggie lightly on the shoulder.

“Come on, Reg. We’ve got to go.”

Reggie nodded and wiped her eyes. She kissed Eben’s forehead, then rose to her feet. She and Aaron helped Quinn the rest of
the way to the car, and soon they were on the road to home, passing a series of police cruisers on their way.

Reggie had finally gotten a look at herself in the side mirror of the sedan. The vision was shocking—a hole in the middle
of her forehead, all the hair on the left half of her head shaved completely off, the rest a dark tangle. Her scalp riddled
with welts from the electrodes. She ran her fingers along the bald side of her head.

Aaron grabbed her hand.

“It’ll grow back.”

He parked the car on an isolated cul-de-sac near Reggie’s house. Quinn had fallen into a deep sleep, his breathing slow and
even. Aaron and Reggie stood beside the BMW’s rear door and looked in at him. Reggie reached through the open window and found
Quinn’s weak and fluttering pulse. He stirred, but didn’t wake.

“I think he’s just exhausted,” Aaron said.

“It might be worse than that.”

“Well, we can’t take him to the ER in town, and I don’t want to risk any local phone calls,” Aaron said. “I’ll drive him to
Boston.”

“That’s over two hours away. And we can’t just dump him in the city—”

“I know, Reg.” Aaron sighed. “I’ll bring him by a homeless clinic or a shelter, then call in a report to the cops that he’s
there.”

“What about the car?”

“Park it in the school lot? Look, I’ll take care of it. Right now, you need to go home. Get cleaned up. Check in on Henry.”

She nodded and hugged him before he clambered back in the car.

“Aaron?”

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry… about everything. I was horrible, and so stupid.”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“Thank you. For saving my life. Again.”

Aaron grinned at her.

“I’m getting pretty good at it, aren’t I? I’ll call you tomorrow, okay? Try to get some sleep.”

The car sped away, kicking up a cloud of dust. The morning was already getting hot and sticky against her skin. Sparrows and
magpies argued in the brush. She needed to get home.

Reggie cut through the woods and came out in her backyard. Treading stealthily, she came up onto the deck and opened the sliding
glass door. Unlocked, thank God. She entered and closed it behind her without making a sound. With any luck, Dad was still
asleep. She definitely needed to do something about her appearance. Maybe he hadn’t even noticed she was gone.

She tiptoed across the kitchen and out into the hall toward the stairs. But as she passed the living room Dad called out to
her.

“Reggie.”

He was sitting alone on the couch in the dim light. Reggie had no choice but to go to him.

“Have you been here all night?” she asked meekly.

“I have.” His eyes widened at the sight of his daughter, and he jumped to his feet. “Reggie—oh my God! Your head—what happened
to you? Are you hurt?”

Reggie felt so tired, so weary. She had no more lies left in her, no covers. She sank onto the sofa next to her father, and
she could not stop the tears.

Dad put his arms around her.

“Please, Reggie. Did someone do this to you?”

She nodded, sniffling.

“Tell me. Whatever it is, we’ll get through it together.”

Reggie hesitated only a moment more, then launched into the story of the Vours, from the first time she’d picked up Macie’s
journal to Eben’s death less than an hour ago. Dad listened attentively, nodding and only asking the occasional question as
she spun the tale of Sorry Night and told him the dark side of Cutter’s Wedge. It all came out in a rush, a torrent of words—but
it felt so good to finally speak the truth that she couldn’t stop.

Dad was silent for several minutes when she had finished. “So Mr. Bloch… he’s dead?”

Reggie’s face constricted. “Yes.”

“And Henry?”

“I think he’s going to be okay, Dad. He’s strong.”

“He sure is. And so are you.”

“I don’t know what’s going to happen next,” Reggie said. “They’ll come after me again. This isn’t finished. I don’t know how
to keep fighting—”