Every bit of common sense seems to trickle from her mind, and she swings it like a baseball bat, based on muscle memory alone. The first shadow lunges. She catches it midair, turning the creature to mist that settles like dust around her ankles.
“Get inside,” she says, pushing Liddy toward the door.
Liddy swings it open and Casey rushes in after her, sparing one more glance in Azrael’s direction before slamming it closed. The shadows collide with it, the impact sending her sprawling back. From the floor, she wonders about the stability of the building and how long it will be before the obsii get inside.
Liddy helps her up, but Casey stays on her knees and drives the dagger into the floor, carving around them both.
“What’s going on?” Liddy cries as the space around them begins to pulse.
“Keep breathing,” she says as the crushing pressure closes around her. It’s different this time though, less focused, and for a moment Casey swears she’s being pulled in all directions.
When she opens her eyes, she’s on her knees on her bedroom floor. Casey rubs her face and rolls over to catch her breath. “That was … a little more intense than I planned.”
Liddy winces, dragging herself upright.
“Are you all right?” Casey scrambles to her side, prodding and poking at Liddy. “They didn’t hurt you, did they?”
“No,” Liddy says, an edge of tension in her voice, like she can’t quite breathe deep enough. “I’m fine.”
“I’m so glad.” Casey pulls her into another hug, her throat tight. “It’s so good to see you.”
“It’s good to see you, too,” Liddy whispers, her arms making a weak loop around Casey’s neck. She shudders against her and Casey pulls away, eyeing her warily.
“Is something wrong?”
“I don’t know,” Liddy mumbles, pressing a hand to her stomach. “I feel weird.”
“Weird like how?”
“Like … something’s missing.”
Casey grabs her hand and squeezes. “It’s okay, we’ll figure it out. All that matters is you’re back. And you’re okay.”
“I’m back.” Liddy’s eyes fill with tears and her head drops against Casey’s shoulder. “I don’t ever want to go back there again,” she whispers.
Casey brushes her hands through Liddy’s damp, matted hair. “I won’t let you go,” she promises. “Not again.”
Liddy sobs against her as Casey rubs her hand up and down her back, then her door bursts open and Red’s outline fills the space.
She looks at him, an explanation dying in her throat.
Red’s eyes are fixed on Liddy, but his words are for Casey. “What did you do?”
“I—” Casey takes one look at Liddy, shivering on her bed and they both know there’s no need to say it.
He runs his fingers through his hair, yanking at the strands. There’s an explosive intensity about him that she’s never seen, and though it should scare her, she’s too shocked to be anything but awed. Fiery energy radiates from him, and not for the first time, Casey recognizes some of that unearthly power.
“I know what you’re going to say,” she begins, shifting in place as if to shield Liddy from view.
“This isn’t how it works, Casey! You don’t get to bring people back!”
“Well, there isn’t exactly a rule book written out—”
“Do not give me that! I said you could help people cross over to the light or the dark. Coming back here with souls was never an option!”
She huffs. Some part of her had known it was wrong, had sensed it, but then things spun out of control. And with the obsii in pursuit, how could she let Liddy go again? For her, there wasn’t any other option.
“You weren’t ready to be there on your own yet.” His voice is hard and unyielding.
“Because you say so?”
“Yes! Exactly that! You don’t know everything you need to know.” He bites his lip, pacing before her, his frantic glances landing on Liddy every few seconds. He stops walking and looks right at her, straight through her. “You knew how dangerous it could be.”
“I couldn’t wait any longer,” she protests. “I couldn’t risk losing her again!”
“What if you’d encountered something you couldn’t outrun?” His entire body shakes as he works to keep control of his words. “What if it had been Azrael?”
Casey goes quiet, remembering the image of Azrael on the hill, looking down as Limbo erupted into chaos. “I didn’t think that far ahead.”
“Of course you didn’t. You raced into it all without thinking. Without considering what you would have done had she caught up with you. Had she offered you what every being has sought before you. Unlimited and unyielding power.”
“I never wanted those things.”
“But you must have felt it. Must have been tempted. I know you thought it in that house, when you said it was unfair, the way darkness bent around the rules.”
“That doesn’t mean I wanted it.”
“Did she offer you an exchange?”
“What?”
“Was Liddy the deal?” he demands.
“No!” Casey says, shock pitching her voice. “Of course not! How could you think I would side with them after everything I’ve seen?”
“Because I couldn’t protect you. Because it’s easier.”
“I’m not her, Red!” she yells, partly in anger and partly because she needs him to really hear her. To actually understand what she’s saying. “I’m not Elise.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I know I’m the first person you’ve helped since her. I know that you’re scared of losing me to the darkness.”
His eyes close.
“And you didn’t lose her, Red. It wasn’t your fault. You can’t blame yourself for choices other people make. You told me that.”
“Stop,” he whispers.
“I’m not going to side with the darkness. I won’t stand against you.” She can’t tell if he’s broken or relieved.
“Please tell me you at least sealed the doorway.”
She opens her mouth. Closes it. Crosses her arms and looks away. That’s why the doorway felt so strange. She’d forgotten to seal it.
To protect it from those creatures.
“I didn’t think to,” she says quietly. “I went in with Liddy on my mind and by the time I realized the mess we were in, there wasn’t time. We just ran.”
“I told you there were two rules.” His voice is like ice. “Only two.” Red kneels down and picks up the dagger from the floor where she dropped it. “This is very, very bad.”
“You don’t need to tell me that,” Casey snaps.
“I do.” For once the look on Red’s face truly scares her. “Because you have no idea how bad.”
SEVENTEEN
HER PULSE JUMPS beneath her skin. Casey can see it beat against the curve of her wrist as she lays a towel, a change of clothes, and a new toothbrush on the counter. She tucks her arms against her chest, keeping the panicked flutter contained.
She’d changed out of her damp clothes, but she can still feel the chill of the ocean against her skin.
Red hovers in the hallway. She catches his scowl in the bathroom mirror.
“I think that should do it,” she says, faux calm, her voice just the tiniest bit too high.
Liddy sits on the closed top of the toilet lid, staring at her, something about her expression vacant. There’s a sad uncertainty drawn into her features. “So, this guy just showed up in your bedroom…”
“It’s not like that,” Casey hurries to say.
“You sure?”
“Absolutely. If you need anything else,” Casey says, “just call. I’ll be right outside.”
“Okay,” Liddy says, standing to run her hand over the soft plum towel Casey has picked out for her.
“I know it’s not up to your usual standards. I’m sure my loofahs and body butter are sorely lacking, but there is coconut oil i
n the shampoo, so I haven’t failed you completely.”
A part of Liddy seems to connect then and she giggles. “I tried so hard to mold you. Where did I go wrong?”
“Nowhere, it’s in my DNA. I like flip-flops and baggy jeans.”
“And you don’t like to brush your hair or make your bed.”
“Hey, I brush my hair! It’s supposed to be this way.” Granted, it’s sporting a bit more foliage than usual. Casey picks a dead leaf from her ponytail. “That’s the style I’m going for.”
“Whatever you say.” Liddy crosses the room and fiddles with the taps in the shower, sighing as the warm water rushes over her hands.
“All right, then, I’ll leave you to it.”
Casey slips out of the bathroom and closes the door behind her. In the hallway, Red leans against the wall. He’s shrouded in darkness, so she can’t make out the look on his face, but she doesn’t need to. She can feel the furious energy coming off him.
They wait, stubbornly squared off in the hallway, until they hear the sputter of the shower.
“She isn’t supposed to be here,” he hisses. “You know that.”
“I didn’t have a choice,” Casey whispers.
“You should have waited for me.”
“I couldn’t. You were gone, fighting the obsii, and I couldn’t wait.” Casey takes a step toward Red. “Besides, isn’t it better this way?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You had nothing to do with this. It’s all me. So you didn’t break any rules.”
“What?”
“Your wings, earning them back.”
“Is that what you think of me? After everything, you assumed I wanted my wings more than I wanted to help you?”
“Admit it. If you want to get your wings back, you’re bound by the rules!”
“And you think you’re not?” Red gives his head a hard shake before stalking away.
“I never said I wasn’t.”
“This isn’t a game, Casey.”
She follows him down the hall with her arms crossed, face set in a look of defiant rage. “What are you doing?” she snaps.
“Trying to fix this irreparable mess.”
“Don’t be so dramatic.”
“I’m not. You should know me better than that.”
The look on his face shifts from anger to disappointment. Red hasn’t been in her life long, but he’s wormed his way into the darkest and hardest part of it. Into the place her fears live. And, in a way, she’s come to know him, too—his fears, the trials he’s faced, the sacrifices he’s made. She understands parts of who Red is, of who he’s worked to be, and so she does, in fact, know that he isn’t just being petty. She doesn’t think he’s capable of petty.
Her initial anger at him makes her feel ashamed, more potent than anything she’d felt moments ago.
“I’ll fix this, okay?”
Fighting with Red isn’t going to help either of them. Regardless of her good intentions, she hadn’t exactly been oblivious to the consequences of Limbo. Did she know all of these specifically terrible things could happen? No. But did she know that bad things could happen by messing with a world she didn’t completely understand? Of course. Saying anything to the contrary is a lie.
“I’ll do whatever I have to do in order to keep Liddy safe. I promised her.”
Red steps close, his voice a resigned whisper. “And what exactly was that promise, Casey? She’s been dead for weeks. Her parents buried her. How does this end well?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“Of course you don’t, because this is not how it’s done.” He glances once down the hall, checking to see that Liddy is still in the bathroom. “You don’t get to bring people back to life.”
“Well—”
“Not ‘well,’ Casey. You can’t. Bring people. Back. To life.” He smacks his hands together, punctuating the words. “Part of them will be missing.”
She frowns.
“Her body, Casey. Her physical vessel is a corpse. Decaying in the ground. Without it, you can’t stay here in the physical world. You can’t exist!”
Casey swallows hard. Liddy had said that much already, that she felt like something was missing.
“All you’ve done is bring her soul back. And that is infinitely worse.”
“Why is that worse?”
“Because souls move easily through the barriers between worlds. And a soul without a vessel to contain it makes room for other things to follow in their place. You left the doorway open and now you’ve created an entrance into the physical world through Liddy. So, yes, this is worse. This is about as bad as it can be. If Azrael really is looking for a way to bridge the gap between Limbo and the physical plane, you’ve given her a way to send herself here.”
Casey’s breath catches up in her throat. “I didn’t … I didn’t know.”
That makes Red pause, the expression on his face saddened, but not exactly that. It’s almost like he feels sorry for her.
“I know,” he says quietly. “How could you know?”
And that’s it. They’ve both just accepted their own role in this mess. Their own faults.
They’re both guilty of things: her not trusting Red with Liddy, and him not trusting her enough to share these parts of Limbo with her.
The tentative apology is there on the tip of her tongue, but she doesn’t have to say it. Red looks at her and she looks at him, both of them sorry.
Now they have to fix it.
“Where exactly did you enter and exit Limbo?” he asks.
“My bedroom.”
“Then we need to try and seal the doorway from our end, at least.”
Liddy steps into the hall, wearing borrowed clothes from Casey’s closet. Her wet hair is twisted into a braid that hangs over her shoulder.
“You,” Red says, pointing at her. “Come with us.”
“Okay, bossy,” Liddy huffs. “And who are you, by the way?”
Red guides Liddy to Casey’s bed and sits her down. “Red.”
“Like … just Red?”
“Just Red,” he says.
Liddy crosses her legs, holding her bare feet with her hands. “What’s happening?”
Casey blinks at her, once, twice. She’s never been so happy to see Liddy and yet … it’s all completely wrong. “I did something I wasn’t supposed to do,” she says.
Liddy’s lips pucker in understanding. They’re together again after all this time but one of them doesn’t belong. “I thought so.”
“I’m sorry,” Casey whispers.
Liddy shakes her head and flips her braid over her shoulder. The edge of her mouth curls from a line to a smile. “I don’t think I made it easy for you.”
A bubble of laughter nearly escapes her. It’s nice to see that some things never change, no matter how many times they both died. “No, you didn’t,” Casey agrees.
Liddy leans back on her hands and flicks her chin at Red. “So, you’ve been helping Casey with this new hobby of hers?”
“This is his area of expertise,” Casey says.
“Chasing souls through Limbo?”
“Cleaning up messes.”
Red looks over at her for a second, then away as he pulls the feathers from the chain at his neck.
Liddy looks at Casey pointedly and Casey gives her head a shake.
“Glad to know I haven’t missed that much,” Liddy says.
“You haven’t,” Casey promises. “Now, I know it’s utterly impossible for you, but try not to move.”
Liddy closes her eyes. “Fine, I’ll sit here and meditate while you two carve up the walls.”
Red clears some of her furniture away from the walls, moving it to the center of the room. He pulls down photos and tack boards and anything else in the way.
When he’s done, he closes her bedroom door and on the back carves the same symbol he uses to seal the doorways inside Limbo. “Copy this exactly onto each of the four walls.” He passes Casey on
e of the daggers. “I’m going to do the other side of the door.”
“What the heck am I going to tell my aunt when she sees this?”
“I think you have bigger things to worry about. Namely her,” he mutters, pointing at Liddy. “I am so going to hell for this.”
“Don’t say that!”
“I’m serious. It’ll be the only place that will take me when they find out.” Red closes the door on himself.
“Well, he’s dramatic,” Liddy says.
Casey climbs onto her bed and carves into the wall. “Maybe he’s right.”
“He’s going to hell?”
“No, just that … this is a much bigger problem than I thought it would be.”
“Did you know what would happen?”
“Honestly, I wasn’t even thinking about it. I just knew what would happen if I let the obsii get ahold of you.”
“The what?”
“Those black, shadow creatures.”
“Oh.” Liddy shivers in response. “Maybe you shouldn’t be so hard on yourself,” she says. “Doing the right thing means there’s always someone who gets hurt.”
“Does it, though?”
“Yeah. Or it wouldn’t be such a hard decision to make.”
Casey drops her arm, halfway through carving.
The door swings open a moment later.
“We can’t keep her here,” Red says, caught up in his thoughts. He paces through the room. “Not when she’s supposed to be dead. I can veil a lot from your aunt, but this … this is too much. We have to find somewhere to hide her,” he continues. “Somewhere close, where we can regroup. And we need more people.” He looks at Liddy in a way that makes Casey really nervous.
She climbs down off the bed. “Why?”
“Just … trust me. We need the help.”
* * *
THEY SNEAK LIDDY into Casey’s car under the cover of darkness and drive across town to Evan’s place.
Every glance in the rearview mirror washes Liddy out, a paler reflection than the moment before. Under the glow of the streetlights, Casey swears Liddy has turned a chalky shade of gray, the blotches under her eyes becoming more pronounced.
When she pulls into Evan’s driveway, she parks right beside his truck. She hopes his parents aren’t supposed to be returning home anytime soon, or else this is about to become very complicated.
The Dark In-Between Page 19
