Page 132 of 1001 Dark Nights: Bundle Forty-Two

Sia, wait.

Benji! she fairly shouted to him.When he didn’t answer, she concentrated hard, trying to get him back. Whereare you? Are you okay? Wait for what?

I’m sorry. He’s just too powerful, and I can’tlive with that kind of terror.

What are you talking about?

I’m sorry.

She whirled around, glancing out of the windows, trying tofind something he would have to apologize for. That was when she saw him. Thetall, masked man from her vision stood between her car and Donovan’s truck,staring at her, his head angled slightly. Only instead of a machete, he carrieda gas can in one hand and a lit match in the other.

She scrambled to get out of her car, but the man dropped thematch before she could manage it. Panic took hold, and she bolted out the door,falling forward onto the asphalt and scraping her palms on the gravel. Shetwisted around to watch her car go up in flames, only the trail of fire went the other direction.

“Donovan?” she said softly. A microsecond later, the truckexploded with a deafening bang.

A blast of heat washed over her, followed by rainingmetallic debris. Her instincts should have taken hold. She should have huddledagainst the explosion. Protected her head and body the best she could, but shecouldn’t tear her gaze from the fire billowing thirty feet into the air.

“Donovan?” she whispered again before stumbling toward thetruck. The heat refused to let her get very close, and the next few minutesplayed out like a slow-motion movie.

People circled the truck from a safe distance, yelling ather to get back. But they sounded like they were underwater, their warningsnothing more than muffled pleas.

Why was she seeing this? She was wearing theiron bracelet. Kursch shouldn’t have been able to get into her head. So why wasshe seeing this?

I’m sorry.

She tried again to get closer, but the wall of heat held herback as though it were made of molten steel. So, she walked around to thedriver’s side, looking in the back seat for Donovan. Maybe he’d gotten out.Perhaps he’d gone inside the truck stop for a restroom break or for snacks.

She turned and searched for him in the crowd, but he wasn’tthere.

“There was someone inside!” a woman shouted, and screams andchatter followed her statement. But Sia didn’t see anyone. No. He wasn’t inthere. That woman was wrong.

Sirens blared in the distance as people rushed to move theirvehicles lest they go up in flames, as well, but Sia couldn’t move. She staredinto the fire until her eyes dried out from her efforts.

“Donovan?” she whispered yet again, as though he would beable to hear her even if he wasn’t in the truck.

Finally, one man braved the heat and rushed forward to pullher back. She fought him tooth and nail, but he held firm until he got her farenough away from the truck for another onlooker to help wrestle her to theground. “If someone was in there, they’re gone, sweetheart,” a woman said toher. “You have to stay back.”

This wasn’t happening. She looked at her wrist to make surethe bracelet was still there. It was. This couldn’t be real. This was justanother of Kursch’s warped visions.

Then she saw him. The tall man, only he no longer wore themask. He stood staring at her from the other side of the truck, the flamesdistorting his elongated face. But there was no mistaking that smile foranything other than the wicked thing it was. Even the fact that his mouth waspartially decomposed, exposing his teeth on one side.

She heard them before she saw them. The man and woman stillheld onto her arms, keeping her locked to the ground as first responders rushedinto the lot. But she could hear their growls, low and guttural, even over thesirens. One came up on her left and the other on her right. The thin man’ssmile faltered when he saw them, but he quickly locked it back into place.

Sia smiled at him and whispered, “Kill.”

They bolted forward, the hellhound and the Rottweiler takingoff after the man like rockets. He stumbled back and tried to run, but theywere on him in an instant. His screams mingled with the vicious sounds of theirgrowls as they dragged the entity out of the body he’d stolen and proceeded torip it to shreds.

While she didn’t doubt for a second that their love biteshurt, she did doubt their ability to kill him. He’d been feeding off the energyof the ka-zhouah for eons. It would take more than agood dismembering to take him out.

She rose to her feet, shaking off the strangers’ holds, andwalked toward the fight. The human’s body lay crumpled on the ground, and thesoul eater lay in pieces all around it. The dogs were still snarling andripping when Sia found what she was looking for. The dark center. The heart ofthe entity known as Kursch.

The dogs stopped to watch her. King Henry growled whenever apiece moved, knowing it would try to reassemble itself. Artemis bounded up toSia, something that resembled an arm hanging out of her mouth.

“Good girl,” Sia said, patting the adorable Rottweiler onthe head. Then she looked at Henry, pointed at the dark center, and said,“Fetch.”

Firefighters were now spraying down the truck, but shecouldn’t think about that right now. She couldn’t think about what she’d lostbetween one second and the next.

Henry gathered the dark center into his mouth, trotted over,and dropped it at her feet.