Fannie was certifiable to think she could control that evil spirit. She reached to open the cap.
I screamed at Artie. “Don’t let her!”
The spirit launched himself at Fannie, striking the tube from her hand.
“Ah,” she gasped.
Fannie scrambled for theSpiritus. It rolled around the lumpy dirt floor, finally stopping not far from Roan.
Fannie clawed the earth. She almost had it.
I kicked my legs, but I wasn’t close enough to keep her away from the trap.
Just as her fingers dug into the earth inches away, a hand shot out of the darkness.
I gasped. Fannie gasped.
Roan scooped theSpiritusinto his hand. “You’re not getting this. Not today.”
He rose.
Are you kidding? He’d freed himself? How the heck had he managed that?
My question was answered when Roan tossed me his pocketknife. He winked. “Think you can cut your binds?”
“Pretty sure.”
I sliced through the rope easily and rose. Roan and I faced off against Fannie.
She glared at us. “You think you’ve won, don’t you?”
Roan and I exchanged a look. “It looks like it,” I answered.
“You’re wrong.” Fannie pulled a pistol from her pocket and aimed it at me. “Now, young man. Hand me that tube or your girlfriend is dead.”
“No, Roan,” I pleaded.
He didn’t even blink. “Sorry, Blissful. But you’re more important.”
He handed theSpiritusto Fannie. She took a step back and cracked the seal.
TWENTY-FOUR
Agreat black vortex flew from theSpiritusand engulfed the cellar. The house quaked. The gale looked to rip the home to shreds.
Roan grabbed me. “Hang on.”
A shifting black mass loomed overhead. This was it. Fannie moved toward the thing, but I pushed her aside.
“Jinkins Hudson, you must leave. You must go to the light!”
Or wherever his afterlife was going to take place.
The mass tightened. The lines sharpened, and a person unfolded from the fog like a blossoming rose.
Jinkins Hudson floated above us. Dark, evil energy filled the room, sinking into my pores and chilling me to my toes.
The spirit stared down at us. “You think you can control me now?”
