I am the sin.
I am the sacrifice.
The words race through my head, over and over, as I burst from the trees, and I see him. I see Finn, and he’s running with the hooded boy, with Death.
I chase after them into Whitley, as I bound up the stairs, as I race to Finn’s room. It’s empty…except for Pollux and Castor. Finn had closed them up in the room, and there’s only one reason. So that they couldn’t follow him.
“Go,” I tell them firmly. “Go find Finn.”
They run from my room, their great bodies so loud as they thump down the halls. I follow as fast as I can, and I slam into Dare as he rounds a corner.
“What the devil…?” he asks, and he’s confused and I shove past him.
“My brother is in trouble,” I yell over my shoulder. He doesn’t ask questions, but I hear him behind me, I hear him running, I hear his breath. But I can’t pay attention to that. All I can do is follow the dogs. I chase them from the house, I chase them through the gardens, and I watch the tips of their black tails disappear through the gates of Whitley.
“Calla, wait,” Dare grabs my arm. “We’ve got to get the car.”
“There’s not time,” I mutter, and Dare yanks me to the side.
“Then the scooters. We’ll never keep up.”
The old scooters are next to the gate and I don’t know why they aren’t put away, but I’m grateful as I grab one and the battery is charged and I go full throttle down the road. Dare is with me on the other one, and we go and go, until the dogs race up a cliff.
Our scooters make winding sounds and lag behind because the climb is too steep and so I cast mine aside and run, my breathing labored, because somethingsomethingsomething is going to happen. I can feel it, I can feel it.
My brother.
My brother.
It’s a chant in my head and I can’t focus, and then I clear the crest at the top and there’s Finn.
He’s standing on the edge and the dogs have skidded to a stop and we all watch my brother.
“Don’t do it,” I plead with him because his face is serious and pale. “I don’t know what this is about, but please don’t do this, Finn. I need you.”
“I need to save you,” he says simply, and his voice is emotionless and there is no fear in his eyes. Absolutely no fear. “It has to be me. I’ve always known. Dare told me long ago.”
His black Converses teeter on the edge and he lifts his hands.
“I love you, Calla,” he tells me. “I’d die for you. It’s got to be me, because it can’t be you.”
Life is in slow motion, and he limply falls back, like he’s falling into bed, but instead, he falls off the side of the cliff.
I race to the edge, and I watch and there’s no sound when he hits the water. No sound at all. How can that be?
Dare grabs my shoulders and I scream and scream and scream, and then two black flashes sail over the edge next to me.
Castor and Pollux.
They dive right through the air with purpose and I remember what Sabine said.
“He’d die to protect you.”
Maybe they’d die to protect Finn, too.
The dogs hit the water and I do hear them, and I turn, racing to the bottom, desperate to reach my brother and when my feet hit the wet sand, I run and the dogs are limping in from the surf, dragging my brother’s limp form between them.
The dogs are bloody and they’re dragging their bodies on splintered legs and they’re broken broken broken, and a wave of familiarity rushes over me and through me and I’ve seen this before,