Finally, the light dimmed enough so that I was able to lower my hand in time to see the wraiths break apart, flying back across the road and away from the protective white glow around me.

Once they cleared, I could finally see Eli, waiting in the same spot he’d been standing earlier. He had his arms folded casually over his chest, and he wore an expression of near boredom. Waiting for his servants to finish his dirty work, no doubt.

But when he saw his minions scatter and flee over the side of the bridge, his expression changed. He frowned at them, his scowl deepening as each one disappeared. Only after the last black shadow had left the bridge did Eli look up at me. Now he looked savage. Vicious.

Meeting his furious eyes, I felt the ghost of a grin skitter across my lips. “What else have you got, Eli?” I murmured.

With a deep, wrenching snarl, Eli lunged at me.

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

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Chapter

Twenty-Nine

I should have been scared. And I was. But instead of cowering, or even lunging to meet Eli head-on, I closed my eyes.

I may not have known the source of the supernatural light around me or how to control it, but I knew one thing that could certainly stop Eli. So, with my eyes shut tight, I pictured a series of images: the chair in the library flying back, away from me; the jagged crack that now marred my headstone. I pictured the bridge, bending under the force of my anger.

Then I pictured it breaking in half.

At the sound of metallic groaning beneath me, my eyes opened. I looked down and saw the fissure in the bridge widen. Above me, the metal cables between the girders began to swing wildly, and the bridge groaned again, shouting under the strain of movement.

Turning my attention back to the road, I held out my arms and braced myself.

Eli, however, was caught unprepared. The moment the bridge itself began to shake, he stumbled and fell, midlunge, to his knees. I locked my eyes on Eli, still concentrating as I watched the road crack and buckle around him. I gave a tiny flick of my head, and the asphalt split into a gaping hole through which I could see glimpses of the river below.

Eli scrambled to get on his feet but couldn’t. As he struggled against the shaking road, his eyes met mine. Finally, I saw in them what I’d been seeking: fear.

At this, my most powerful moment, our surroundings plunged into total darkness. The darkness hovered, heavy and thick, before lightening to reveal the familiar colors of the netherworld forest below me.

Here on the bridge, however, things were much different from what I’d expected. I’d never seen the netherworld version of High Bridge this closely, and the sight momentarily shocked me. Upon the bridge, and so close to the evil black hole beneath it, the colors of the netherworld were almost violent and wild. Bloody reds against glittering blacks; livid purples blossoming on top of bruised grays. The place looked stunning, beautiful. But also horribly wrong. Like an enormous, wounded animal.

The structure of this netherworld bridge looked worse for the wear, too. Its girders angled unnaturally together; and its surface showed deep, irreparable cracks. Whatever I’d done in the living world, it must have altered this bridge as well.

I frowned, ready to shake this place into glittering rubble, when a hissing sound made my head shoot up, toward the bent girders. High above me, two black shapes swooped and circled the girders, moving nimbly around the structure of the bridge. Their movements hissed softly into the darkness.

At first I thought they must have been more trapped souls, forced by Eli to confront me. As I stared harder, though, I realized that they weren’t black but a deep, arterial red. They also moved too deftly, too freely, as if they, unlike Eli’s minions, had their own wills.

I glanced down at Eli to gauge his response to these creatures and blinked back in surprise. He now looked even more terrified than he had before. He had actually curled up into a ball and ducked his head beneath his arms when, with a quiet sort of whoosh, they took form and landed on either side of him upon the cracked surface of the bridge.

Now where the two creatures had hovered stood two people. At least they looked like people.

Both of the figures wore dark clothing: the man, a well-cut black suit; and the woman, a stylish black dress. They both had white-blond hair: his cropped short and hers long and free across her pale shoulders. Something about them gave off a sort of funereal air. Creepy, certainly, but no creepier than anything else I’d seen tonight.

It was their eyes, though—their eerie, inhuman eyes—that made me gasp and take an involuntary step backward across the cracked road. Those disturbing eyes, black and pupilless, studied me for a moment longer; and then, simultaneously, both figures smiled.

“Well, isn’t this an interesting little thing?” the male mused.

“Eli,” the female purred without taking her eyes from me, “where have you been hiding this treasure?”

Eli kept his head ducked as he answered her. “I’ve been trying to claim her for you, I have, but—”

“Stop making excuses.” The woman cut him off, her voice suddenly sharp. “Are you telling me she isn’t under your control yet?”

Her eyes landed on him; and, although Eli couldn’t see her with his head down, he still shuddered. “I didn’t . . . she hasn’t . . . ,” he stuttered, but couldn’t finish the protest.

“I think Eli is telling us exactly that, my dear,” the man said, still watching me. “And so I suppose, like his predecessors, Eli has outlived his usefulness.”

The man twitched his head toward the woman. “Take him away.”

Upon hearing her counterpart’s command, the woman smiled again. I too shuddered at the sight. Despite her cold, beautiful features, she looked dead. More dead than Eli and I ever could.

Eli raised his head from his arms, and his eyes briefly shot to mine. Seeing the unadulterated horror in them, I felt something clench in my chest. Despite everything he’d done tonight, despite everything he’d done to me in the past, my heart suddenly ached for Eli.

“Don’t—!” I cried out, but I was too late.

In one swift motion, the woman melted back into a reddish black shape and enveloped Eli. Before another word escaped my lips, they disappeared together over the side of the netherworld bridge. For a few seconds I heard a primal, wrenching shriek. I realized, with a jolt, that the sound was Eli as he cried out in terror. Then, abruptly, the scream cut short.

I spun back around to the man. “Where are you taking him?” I demanded, my tone forceful in spite of the very real danger I was obviously facing.

The man lifted his eyebrows in mild surprise. “To our home, of course.”

“‘Your home’?” My eyes flickered briefly to the edge of the bridge as if I could see through the ruined surface to the dark, gaping expanse below.

As I did so, the man watched me closely. When I looked back at him, he tilted his head to one side. Studying me, even when he spoke.

“I’m referring to the place where my companion and I live, obviously,” he said. “The entrance to it lies beneath this bridge.”

“Why there?” I asked, still not sure what had given me all this courage. “Why live in that darkness?”

The man laughed without smiling. “You could hardly expect us to live up here with those pathetic, shadowy creatures. Or with the living in their world. Besides, we prefer to remain among our kind.”

I tried not to shudder, imagining what kind of beings would choose to live in that vile blackness. Although I kept my expression impassive, I had to swallow fear as it started to well up inside me.