Rhyn's Redemption (Book III, Rhyn Trilogy)

Chapter Ten

Andre continued without any sign of slowing, until Katie stopped.  Her head spun and she felt sick again.  She was too tired to continue.  The phantom appeared before her, pointing. She shook her head and slumped against a tree.

“You may have endless energy as a dead man, but I don’t,” she told him. “I need a break, Andre.”

The phantom shook his head in silent objection.  Katie ignored him and cradled her forehead in her hands.  She ate another food cube and sighed.  When she looked up, Andre was gone.  Since they’d left the demon-Gabriel, Andre had disappeared twice before, but not for long.  She rested her head against the tree behind her and waited.

The moons appeared through the branches in the jungle, almost alone in the dark sky except for a wisp of clouds floating beneath them.  She watched the clouds pass.  More came, quickly blocking the moons and stealing most of the light from the jungle.  Katie sat up and blinked until her eyes adjusted to the new level of darkness.  The sky took on an eerie silver glow, like it did in Maryland the night before a hard snow.

Andre didn’t return.  Katie waited longer, until the chill of the night dried the sweat that’d covered her since they began running earlier.

“Andre?” she whispered into the darkness.

He didn’t appear.  Unease filled her, and she wondered if the phantom would leave her there alone, even knowing she was helpless without it.  Katie ate a water cube and rose, starting off in the direction Andre had been headed. She walked for half an hour, until rain began to trickle through the jungle overhead.  Andre didn’t reappear.

He’d left her there.  She cursed herself for insisting on resting and paused, looking up at the cloudy sky visible through the overhead canopy.

The rain was cold, and she was alone without as much as a jacket.  Katie shivered and tried to quell the panic within her.  She wore the same clothes she’d been wearing several days ago, when she walked into the ocean.  Before that, she didn’t think it was possible for her life to get worse.  Then she’s come here.

Pain streaked through her, the kind of pain with no physical source.  Katie began to cry, unable to see an end to her ordeal that would mean she – or her baby – lived.  She hugged her stomach and sobbed for the loss of Rhyn, her own life, their child’s.

Life isn’t supposed to hurt this much, she thought and sank to the ground. Her thoughts went to Rhyn then Hannah then the past few weeks as she sought to figure out where she’d gone wrong. She was alone and soon, she and her baby would be dead.

A strange sound pierced her sorrow.  She ignored it, not wanting to exert the effort needed to leave the dark place where she’d fallen.

The sound came again, the cry of someone who was hurt.  Katie wiped her eyes.  She was drenched with rain and curled against the large root of a tree.  The birds of the jungle made screaming sounds, but this was different.  This was human.

“Hello?” she said.  “Is someone there?”

“Please help me!” came the faint response.

Katie started in the direction of the woman’s voice.  She stumbled over fallen, slick wood and brambles she couldn’t see.  Whatever magic that had cleared a path for her was gone.  She struggled through the jungle before calling out,

“Can you hear me?  I can’t see much.  You’ll have to say something, so I can find you.”

“I’m here.  You sound close.”

Katie angled herself towards the voice once again.  The woman was close.  She continued and then stopped suddenly, nearly tripping over the small form in her path. She looked at the woman closely in the limited light to make sure it wasn’t a demon or some other kind of under-worldly creature out to eat her. The woman looked human enough.  Her features were hard to make out in the dark, but she at least had two arms and two legs.