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But he’s weak and broken and his grip doesn’t hurt as much as it should.
I’m able to knock his hands away.
Jonas hauls him off of me right as I kick and he goes sprawling backward into the barn.
Immediately, his skin catches flame and I watch in horror as it melts from him like he was a wax figurine.
“I can officially say I hate it here.” Jonas helps me up and Julia inspects my throat.
I shiver as I think about how easy it would have been for any of us to cross that threshold.
“We’re going back to the house.” I nod at my own words. Saying out loud has solidified my determination. “I don’t know where else to look, and the longer I keep you here, the more chances you have to be stuck here forever.”
I grip Jonas’s chain tighter and take Julia’s hand. Once they’re safe, I’ll come back and search alone.
I have to find him.
We getinto the orchard and Jonas shivers, rattling the chain. It tugs in my hand, but he’s not trying to go back.
“I don’t remember this,” he says.
“You would have been in a trance.” Julia says and Jonas looks even less happy. “Hell had you, like a fish on a line, and it was reeling you in.”
“Let’s get you out of hell and then you’ll never have to think about it again.”
He grimaces. “I don’t think I’m going to forget it again.”
He will. I’ll take it away from him when we’re back.
The house looms ahead of us, a solid shadow, too dark to be a beacon.
It doesn’t pull at me physically, but I have never wanted to get anywhere quite as much as I want to get back to that house.
The beetles and bees buzz and click around us, and Jonas swats at them to no avail, but I ignore them the way they ignore Julia.
We just have to get back so I can look for Dylan without having to worry about them.
Jonas starts walking faster once he can see the porch, and I don’t blame him. Heshouldwant to leave.
But when I go to follow him, I hear a thudoutsidethe house.
I turn too quickly and nearly fall off the step when I see Dylan disappear at the side of the house.
Dylan!
“Oh thank goodness.” I tug on the chain and get Jonas’s attention. “Dylan’s here, let’s grab him and go home.”
He looks toward the side of the house, warily, but he comes with me.
Julia has already floated to where she can see Dylan, she doesn’t look pleased that we’ve found him.
But she didn’t like him in the first place.
I hurry over, but Dylan doesn’t notice me when I get close. He doesn’t respond to his name.
He just stares at the cellar door, walking a sloppy figure eight path, like a cat waiting for a mouse to come out of a hole.
“Hey,” I say as I reach him, grabbing and shaking his shoulder. “You in there?
