As I stand gaping, the ground beneath me shakes and a blinding light pours through the crack in the wall.
“Get out of the way, something is coming through.” Hades warns, brushing his muscled arm in front of me, pushing me behind him as a familiar scream tears through the veil. I push my father out of the way running as fast as my weakened body will allow me.
“Salem! Watch out!” I hear Hades’ warning a moment too late before I’m thrown back hard, head cracking against the rock floor as I’m smothered by a large body. My consciousness flickers precariously before I succumb to the darkness pulling me under.
CHAPTER4
Chapter Four
LUKAS
SONG: BE A HERO BY EUPHORIA
Skye thrusts her hands up, emitting a bright white light that wraps around those of us sprawled out on the beach. I can feel the demon being ripped out from me, trying to bring me into the veil with him. My father’s limp body lays crumpled against the rocks. I feel nothing, not one ounce of sympathy for the man, as I take in his still form.
“Don’t you dare leave me!” Skye says, body shaking with the effort to keep us from being sucked into the veil.
It feels like a million knives are slicing into my chest, carving my soul from my body. I see Walker get sucked in first as beads of sweat trickle-down Skye’s horrified face. I don’t have time to contemplate where she’s discovered this newfound power and what that means because I feel myself slipping backwards. Graham wraps his arm around my bicep, his fingers digging in to keep me from going next. My shoes strain against the sand, pulling against the grains of sand and rock as my body inches closer to the gaping hole that threatens to take us all.
Emmet goes flying past my head with a scream, almost taking me with him. Graham grips me even harder as Sloan grabs onto Graham forming a chain between all of us.
Garrison is too far for us to reach. I see the moment he realizes that he can’t fight against the power pulling him in. His eyes hold a sad acceptance as he disappears into the veil.
“Fuck!” I yell out, feeling tears prick against my eyes.
“I can’t hold it for much longer!” Skye cries out, tears and sweat flowing freely. Her clothes are ripped and covered in sand.
A low growl comes from the demon dog, who’s prowling closer to where the four of us are left. Five if you count my useless father.
“Skye. You can let us go. Get away from the hound.” I say, determined to keep her safe from the beast.
She shakes her head, arms vibrating with the effort to hang onto us. “I’m not leaving you.”
The sound of multiple screams fills the air, and I’m suddenly dropped mere inches away from the veil. I’m knocked down, taking Graham and Sloan with me. The demon snaps back into me like a taught rubber band. It burns.
“What the hell?” I say spitting out a mouthful of sand.
Skye crumples to her knees and stares up at the flickering of ghostly bodies emerging from the same hole that Walker, Emmet and Garrison had all been pulled into just minutes before.
The disembodied souls shriek and shout as they fly frantically off towards the town. The hellhounds see them too and take off running after them at full speed.
“Oh fuck.” Graham exclaims, pushing me off him. “That can’t be good.”
“What did the headmaster say about releasing souls from purgatory?” I ask, trying to remember, panic clawing at me as the souls move just out of eyesight.
“Salem opened the door. She let them out.” Skye whispers, looking down at her hands in disbelief.
“We need to warn them.” Sloan says, pushing off the ground and taking Skye’s hands into his, helping her off the beach floor. The demon in my chest roils with anger, urging me to get the hell off this beach.
“I think I know someone that could help us.” I say, remembering Walker talking about Madame LeRoux and how she’d helped him and Salem. “We need to get moving.”
“What about your dad?” Skye asks, taking in his slumped body. I shouldn’t give a fuck about this man who shares DNA with me. He’s been a shitty ass father my whole life. But I can’t leave him here on this beach to die- I want him alive. I want to see the look on his face when his world implodes. Death is too easy of an out for him.
“Fuck. Okay. Bring him with us.” I say racking my hands down my face. Sloan, Graham and I grab him. I note that his chest is still moving as I lift beneath his torso. Blood gushes from his gaping wound where the demon dog tore into his arm.
“You need to get a tourniquet around his arm!” Skye says, ripping at her already frayed shirt. She ties the fabric around what’s left of his flayed limb as we make quick work to bring him up the hill. I have a sinking feeling we won’t be able to help anyone tonight. Not our friends who were sucked into the veil, not the townspeople who have fucking evil souls and hellhounds descending upon them, and not my unconscious father who’s still losing heaps of blood as we walk.
CHAPTER5
