Page 83 of Circle of Death
Suddenly, a shaft of moonlight pierces the water. Through cloudy green ripples, I see figures heading toward me.Dozensof them. Getting closer. I can see what they are now. Bloodsucking murderers! The Voodoo Master’s mind slaves! The same ones I faced all those years ago. They’re moving along the river bottom like a phantom army. Pale, expressionless faces. Scaly arms. They’re coming for me! Reaching for me! Then, in an instant, they’re gone—dissolving in a cloud of bloody bubbles.
Peace washes over me.
The monsters aren’t real.
Nothing can hurt me now.
I’m dead already.
CHAPTER 103
“LAMONT!”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The pain comes in shocking bursts. Someone is pounding on my chest—like hammer blows. My back arches. I feel water frothing out of my mouth.
I cough. I spit. I gasp.
“Lamont! Breathe, dammit!”
My eyes blink open. Maddy is leaning over me. She’s soaking wet, her hair dripping onto my face. I feel hard ground underneath me, and see the cliff looming above. I’m lying on a narrow strip at the river’s edge. I roll to my side and vomit on the sand. I can hear the water lapping against the rocks a few feet away. My guts convulse. I take in a gulp of air. Then another. I turn and look back at Maddy. My God! She’s real! I grab her arm. “Where’s Margo? Where’s Jessica?”
“They’re all right!” Maddy says. “They’re alive. Margo and Grandma. They’re safe. The guards took off the second you and Khan vanished. They just ran.”
“But how did you…?”
She lifts my head and rests it against her leg. “Dache told me where to find you.”
I wipe the water and snot from my face. My memory starts to come back in small flashes. “Dache? He said he wouldn’t interfere.”
“He didn’t,” says Maddy. “Lamont—the fight’s over. It’s done.”
I’m trying to make sense of what happened. I must look as confused as I feel.
“Wherever you went,” says Maddy, “you’re back.”
The shock is wearing off and the pain starts shooting through every part of my body. My head. My ribs. My leg. I stare into Maddy’s face and squeeze her hand. “If I’m alive, andyou’realive… then Khan is…”
Maddy nods toward a shelf of granite peeking above the water near my feet. “He must’ve hit the rocks. Then the current carried him off.”
ONLY ONE CAN SURVIVE,Dache said.
It was me.
Itisme.
I pull Maddy close and feel her heart beating against my aching chest. My whole body is trembling. “Are you ready?” she says. “I’ll help you up. Let’s go home.”
As soon as I put weight on my right leg, sparks shoot up my spine. I start to crumple. I reach for Maddy’s shoulder for support. “Wait. Stop,” she says. “You can’t even walk!”
I ease myself back down to the ground and tip my head back to look at the beautiful night sky, open and welcoming. “No,” I tell her, “but I bet I can fly.”
CHAPTER 104
TWENTY-FOUR HOURS LATER, I’m feeling almost totally back to life.
My bad leg is stretched out under the dining room table in a homemade splint and I’ve got a bandage on my head. I’m sore and achy, but happy. It’s one of those times when even the hurt feels good. For our celebration dinner, Jessica is serving up her famous lasagna, paired with a few special bottles of wine from the cellar.
