Page 22 of Lifebound

Even so, I couldn’t stop myself from pedaling as fast as my legs could move.

People in the streets—the same people I’d seen at least once in my life. They were all from Lavender Hill, and logic said that seeing them should have made me feel safer, given me a sense of familiarity. It didn’t. I continued to look back every few seconds while I rode my bike, and I almost crashed half a dozen times into cars and fences.

People called me names, but for once I didn’t even care to understand what they were saying. For the first time in my life,for real,they didn’t matter.

It took about ten minutes to get back home, and by then the sky had turned completely dark, and my heart was still hammering. There was not enough air in the world for my burning lungs.

The bike ended up on the side of the driveway—I could put it in the garage later. I looked around at the houses, most lights on everywhere, and the lampposts illuminated the street, too.

Nobody there, nobody there, nobody there…

Only Dad’s truck was in the driveway in front of the garage door, no other. The lights were on in the kitchen and in the living room—everything wasfine.I could see it.

But even so, my hand shook when I reached for the handle and opened the door.

I felt it even before I saw it—that same shift in the air. The energy waves that crashed onto me.

All wasnotfine, and I realized it even before the door opened all the way, and I saw the face of the man standing in the middle of my foyer.

seven

My heart tripped allover itself. My lungs squeezed and my mind screamed, emptying of all other thoughts.

There was a man standing in the foyer, just three feet away from the door.

Not only was he a stranger I had never seen before, but his ears were pointy and his eyes were made of molten gold and the coat he wore that fell down to his knees was made of green velvet and decorated with silver threads.

Every instinct in my body wanted me to run, except my muscles were locked in place, and even if they weren’t, the thought of Fiona and Dad being in here with this man stopped me all on its own.

The entire house could have caved in around me, and I still couldn’t have made myself move. I stepped inside and looked behind me—two other men dressed in green and silver were standing near my bike.

Two men with pointy ears and golden eyes and hair.Goldeneyes, not yellow. The same eyes I’d seen at the cemetery.

I drew in a deep breath with the last of my strength, and I prepared to call for Dad with every bit of voice inside me, when…

“Nilah.”

My dad was right there, standing behind the man in the foyer, watching me with wide, unblinking eyes.

Fiona was there, too, right by his side. Both pale as ghosts. Both alive and well, standing on their own.

“Dad, what…” I shook my head, unsure whether this was a dream still.

“Shut the door, Nilah. Someone’s here to see you.”

Half my mind was made up to call for help, scream it at the top of my lungs. The look in Dad’s eyes, though. It was the same look he’d given me the night before—pleadingwith me. Begging me not to do anything rash.

“Just…just come inside,” he added because he could see the war going on inside my head.

My eyes fell on Fiona, her pale cheeks and glossy eyes, and she nodded. She didn’t want me to scream for help, either.

I leaned back, grabbed the door and swung it shut behind me.

A dream,my mind insisted. There was no way this wasn’t a dream. Yet everything felt so real—every step I took, the sound the hardwood floor made, the way the air shifted once more when the man dressed in green and silver stepped to the side to let me through to my family.

Even the prickling of tears in the back of my eyes was so very real.

My hands shook. Dad and Fiona went deeper into the hallway, toward the doorway to the left that led into the kitchen. The dining table was visible through it, the kitchen cabinets and appliances behind—and the three men standing between them, watching me.

---