Looking sideways at Seiji, I wait until his eyes leave the undead and find me. He is shaken up, no doubt, but I need him to do this before we lose the window.
“When we lower the barrier on your side, take August and Grace with you andrun.”
“But—”
With a shake of my head, I don’t let him argue. Eyes still on Anisha or what’s left of her, Angel and I lower the barrier behind Seiji.
“Now!”
As soon the barrier drops, he is running with one hand on August and the other dragging Grace behind him. Angel holds up the barrier surrounding us on his own when my Divine seeks out those running away to protect them until they cross the portal.
Visha’s undead doll catches the movement, but before she can run after Seiji, the portal collapses, vanishing like it never existed.
“Portals don’t glitch. And they surely don’t disappear like that. Something is wrong, Conquer.” Hazel puts my shock into words.
To distract Anisha, Harvey moves closer to the barrier, placing his hand on the electrified wall protecting us from the rabid zombie.
“Anisha,” His whisper seizes her attention. A flash of emotion crosses her eyes before they turn vacant again.
Harvey moves like he wants to step out, but I grab his arm before he can. His eyes fill with unshed tears when he looks at me, but I can’t let him go to her. He doesn’t know who—whatshe is.
“That’sAnisha. She’s—”
“Dead.” Forcing the bile down my throat, I keep a firm grip on his arm. The horrified look in his eyes slashes my soul.
We didn’t get many opportunities to become familiar with the other prisoners, but Anisha was one we met doing chores around the coven. After Harvey left, it wasn’t the same.Things got worse every day. The prisoners weren’t living beings anymore.
What happened to Anisha and the others was something I wanted to take to my grave. Harvey has enough guilt about his escape as it is that I didn’t want to add more, but with her standing right in front of us, the secret is out.
Anisha falls to her knees, calling out my name with such agony the stinging in my throat becomes unbearable. She’s not her. This is not Anisha. I don’t know what Visha did to her, but this is not her. If Visha thinks she can manipulate me with the dead pieces of my past, she is sorely mistaken.
When Anisha stirs on the ground, a movement inside her chest makes my blood run cold. Looking closer, I see the moment her skin stretches forward before going back to normal.
What have you done, Visha?
Snapping her neck sideways like she sees things that we can’t, Anisha sniffs wildly before abruptly standing straight like someone is holding her like that. After blinking rapidly, her eyes turn soft, and tears fall down her slashed cheek when her eyes land on me.
“Nevaeh? Everything h-hurts.”
Harvey tugs harder, but I hold on. My heart is breaking to pieces too, but no matter how convincing she is, I know that’s not Anisha.Not after I watched her die.
Her wails get harder to ignore, and my grip on Harvey becomes bruising. He is breaking in front of me, wanting to help someone he once knew and shared pain with, but there is no way I can let that happen.
Harvey’s head snaps to me, and the anger in his eyes stuns me. “She’s in pain. You have to help her!”
“Help me, Harvey,” Anisha screams at the same time.
“Help who? That’s not Anisha! She is dead, Harvey. Iwatchedher die. This is just another one of Visha’s games.”
When Anisha sees that Harvey won’t be coming to her after all, the softness in her eyes hardens into something sinister. Anisha’s body snaps like her bones are breaking, and her wails melt into deranged cackles.
I don’t have enough time to gauge her next move before she’s running at us with a speed someone as battered as her shouldn’t possess.
The pushback this time is so brutal I think it will finally get her to stay down, giving us an opportunity to run like hell. But she stands back up in no time.
Her shoulder is bent at an odd angle, her forehead dented on the left side like her skull is empty on the inside. With a loud cry, she slams her head on the barrier repeatedly as we stand there, stunned by the force.
Hazel tries to move, probably thinking another distraction will help us find a way out, but in an instant, a replica of Anisha is in front of her, clawing at the barrier on her side. Only when Hazel shuffles back does the replica fade.
