Page 42 of Insidious Monsters
Who was this guy?
A fist hit my chest and the spirit realm was sucked away from me.
I hit the ground, jarring my tailbone, which sent fiery pain lancing up my spine. I fell onto my side as useless as a limp noodle, body still in the grip of the dead mystics. They tore at the robed figures. Only five left now. The others must have fled.
Where was Archie? My breath came shallowly, and my sight dimmed. I had to cut ties now.
Time out. Let go. Let me go.
But if the dead mystics heard me, they didn’t let on. They held fast, bloodlust coloring their morality.
I tried to push them off, but I was tapped out. Panic made what little breath I had come shorter.
“Nandi, Nandi!” Archie pulled me into his lap. “Oh, fuck. Nandi, speak to me.”
He was fading. I was fading, and there was nothing I could do because I could feel the mystics’ intention. They weren’t leaving until the robed figures were dead. Only problem was, they’d be killing me too.
“Nandi, what’s happening?” Archie’s head whipped up. “Telarion!”
My eyes drifted closed on a symphony of death screams and the sickening crunch of bone.
* * *
AUGUST
I jumped out of the car and ran for the station before Lothos had parked up properly. Down the steps and onto the platform, skidding on entrails. “Shit!”
The coppery scent of blood filled my nose and carnage assaulted my vision.
Telarion appeared beside me, grabbing my arm to steady me. “Nandi is dying,” he said flatly.
For a moment I thought I must have misheard, but then I spotted Archie on the floor by a pillar, Nandi clutched to his chest like a comfort blanket.
I crossed the distance and fell to my knees before them. “What happened?”
Archie shook his head. “I don’t know. I think she went into the spirit realm and then the dead mystics came out—”
“Mystics?”
“Yes, they’re dead. Margie’s head of some cult and they killed the mystics, and then Nandi powered up the ghosts to attack and…and then she went like this.”
I touched her brow, cold like ice. Was she breathing? “Oh, God, is she breathing?”
“Barely,” Telarion said. “She’s dying.”
“Stop saying that!” I curled my hands into fists. “We need to do something. We need to get to Celine. She’ll know what to do.”
“She doesn’t have that much time.” Lothos joined us.
I looked up at him. “How do you know?”
“I can feel it.” He crouched beside me, his handsome face colored with confusion. “I can feel her… What is she?”
“You know what she is. You met before. Years ago, remember? It’s Nandi, my best friend. She’s a necromystic.”
He glanced at me with doubt, then back at Nandi. “The spirits drained her of energy, and she isn’t producing it fast enough to maintain the operation of her internal organs. But I can help her. I can give her a boost.”
“You can?”
