Page 133 of The Midnight Knock

“But without the eggs, how can we reach the house?” Kyla said. “The door to the city’s over there. And that’s a lot of dark to cross with only one stone.”

“We’ll figure something out,” Hunter said. He rose and looked back toward the motel.

Thomas moaned so hard he threw up a mouthful of bile into the dirt. There was another chorus ofSHRIEKSfrom the dark. Ethan wondered if those things could smell blood.

A hand wrapped around Ethan’s arm. With surprising strength, Sarah Powers dragged him back into room 4 and pointed at her side table. Her jaw was tight, her pupils wide, her hair swirling around her. You didn’t have to be an empathetic genius to see the woman was scared—almost literally—out of her mind. “Please. You have to kill me before that fire goes out.Please.”

Ethan saw a flame burning in a dinner plate, there in the clutter of the table’s junk. Two nights ago, he’d found that same plate coated with a strange silver substance. That silver had been a shard of the mirror from the old house, he realized now.It can burn like wood.

“If the fire burns out and nobody dies, that’s it,” Sarah said. “The ceremony’s over and we risk destroying reality as we know it. Everything, everywhere, could collapse into this hole we’ve carved out of the universe.”

Ethan looked to Hunter, who shrugged. “It’s your call.”

He turned to Kyla. There was fear in her eyes, just like he felt in his own: they hadn’t planned on this contingency. The pair shared one of their silent consultations.

Are you sure?she seemed to say.

Ethan gave a cautious nod.I think so.

Outside, Ryan had finally calmed Penelope down, or at least calmed down the girl in Penelope’s body. He brought her to her feet, took a few steps away to pluck up the Desert Eagle, and hurried back. “Go on inside,” he murmured, rubbing the girl’s back. “Comesit down.” From the back door, Fernanda rubbed her head and asked, “Are you sure this is good idea?”

Sarah gave Ethan’s arm a last, desperate squeeze. “Please.”

The fire in the dish was starting to gutter and choke.

Sarah said, “Please.”

Kyla said, “We’ve just been delaying the inevitable here.”

“Yeah.” Ethan pulled free of Sarah and stepped well out of her way. “Eventually you just have to face whatever’s next.”

“You idiots,” Sarah said. “You fucking idiots.”

Ethan watched the fire burn, feeling the pulse of energy that thrummed through the room. The pulse grew weaker as the flames died. Weaker.

And then the fire went out. The pulse weakened down to nothing. The grooved egg on Sarah’s table gave a last faint shudder and went still.

A last, long silence came over the motel. A lonely wind, a breath from the past.

Sarah sat on the bed. She put her head in her hands. “What have you done?”

Penelope shuffled through the door, her eyes bright with tears. She whispered to herself, “How will I get her back now?”

Ryan stepped through the door behind her. He froze. He swallowed. “Would you look at the time?”

Ethan looked at his watch, the alarm clock on the nightstand, back again. Its hands were flying: 6:55.

8:22.

10:13.

Somewhere outside, from the direction of the road, Ethan heard a low rumble.

Hunter said, “Close the doors. Now.”

Outside, on the horizon, Ethan saw two pinpricks of light from the direction of the road. Headlights. Coming this way.

He recognized the growing rumble for what it was: the approach of an engine.