With a scream, Margaret launched herself without warning on Victor, pummelling his chest. ‘It's your fault,' she yelled. ‘You told him! You told him.' She collapsed sobbing to the ground. ‘I could have saved him,' she cried.
Lucas took Evie's hand and pulled her backwards, glancing nervously at the crowd building up on the sidewalk and now starting to stare in their direction.
‘Evie, don't turn your back on me. You can't just walk away!'
Evie took a deep breath and, still clutching Lucas's hand, turned to face Victor.
‘The fight's over, Victor. The way through has closed. It's done.'
Victor stared at her open-mouthed and then, quick as lightning, he strode towards her. ‘There are still unhumans in this realm to kill. We don't stop until the last one is dead,' Victor hissed, staring at Lucas.
‘It's not my fight anymore,' Evie growled. ‘I would have given my life, Victor. Now, I just want it back.'
Victor opened his mouth, then shut it once more.
Evie started walking backwards, tugging Lucas with her as she went. Lucas cast one last look back at Victor. It was strange. He no longer felt any kind of anger towards him. He didn't need revenge and the loss of that feeling was unexpected. Revenge had been such a part of him and of his existence for so long that he'd feared its loss would change him irreversibly, would empty him of all feeling, but what it did do, which he'd never anticipated, was carve out a new space inside him, which filled all at once with hope as clear as glass and with a lightness that could have lifted him off the ground. The past didn't matter any more. Not now he had a future – one that he could choose freely.
Chapter 47
Through the crowd gathered on the sidewalk Evie thought she saw a familiar white head and behind it two more familiar figures, one dark-haired and moving furiously, shoving people aside, batting them like flies, the other shimmering wildly. They were sprinting towards them. It was Flic and, following just behind, Jamieson and Issa. Evie tugged on Lucas's arm and pointed.
As they got nearer Evie could see they were yelling something, but from this distance, with the fire alarm still blaring, she couldn't make out what. And then it dawned on her. They were screaming Lucas's name. They were yelling a warning to Lucas. She turned at once towards Lucas and the whole world slowed. Lucas was half-turned towards Flic, his expression moving from surprise to a frown, and then his hand slid from hers suddenly and he staggered sideways. Evie grabbed for his arm.
‘NO!'
Lucas dropped his gaze to his chest and Evie followed it. Lucas's black shirt was sticking to his chest. He pressed his hand against his abdomen and then lifted it away, palm outward.
Evie stared at the blood lacing his fingers. Lucas's eyes flew up to meet hers and they gazed at each other for several beats before Lucas took a half-step towards her and then fell. She caught him, sobbing his name, her knees smashing into the sidewalk as she broke his fall.
‘You should have killed me back when you had the chance.'
Evie looked up. Victor was standing over them, his lip curled in a sneer. And then he vanished, backing off into the encroaching crowd.
Evie blinked, her breathing coming thick and fast and choking. She started to stand, her fingers closing around Lucas's shadow blade, when she felt Lucas tugging at her arm. She dropped back to her knees, letting the blade fall from her fingers and clatter to the sidewalk.
The world was closing in on her. She ran her hands frantically over Lucas's abdomen, pressing down hard, her fingers shaking, sticky and thick with his blood. She was sobbing, she realised, and she heard Lucas suck in a breath beneath her hands. She heard herself uttering prayers she'd never known she knew the words to, begging him to stay, pleading with him to hold on.
Because he was fading, she could feel it. He was slipping through her fingers. She was losing him.
‘Lucas,' she said bending over him, her hair falling in a curtain over their faces, shielding them from the others who were pressing in – Flic, Jamieson, Issa, their voices screaming over the top of her head, their hands tugging and pulling. ‘Don't leave me,' she whispered. ‘I need you. I choose you.'
He reached a hand up and his fingers traced lightly over her lips. ‘Shhh,' he whispered. His lips were bright red, the rest of him so pale. So, so pale, almost translucent. He stroked his finger along her eyelashes. She closed her eyes for an instant and felt his hand fell away.
Evie kept her eyes closed, squeezed them shut tight until she could see stars flying on the backs of her lids, until she thought her heart might burst out of her chest and explode into a million little pieces.
Because she knew that Lucas was gone and if she opened them there would be nothing more to see.
THE END