Alice Worth, Tome 5 : Heart of Shadows

ALICE

PRESENT DAY

Keep walking.

The highway stretched out in front of me in a seemingly endless track of asphalt lined with fence and trees. In the distance, the tall, dark shadows of mountains loomed on the horizon. The sun blazed overhead in a cloudless sky and the road shimmered in the heat.

My chest felt hollow, as if something had been ripped out by the roots, leaving an aching emptiness. My heartbeat echoed inside my ribcage like reverberations in a deep, dry well. I was incomplete, fractured, broken. I didn’t know how I’d come to be this way or what was missing—only that I’d once been whole but now was not.

A handful of cars and trucks had passed me in the last hour or so. Other than those few signs of life, I might have been the only person in ten square miles. I hadn’t seen any houses, gas stations, or other buildings since I started walking. The only sounds were wind in the grass, the far-off lowing of cattle, and my boots on the pavement.

My legs grew tired and my feet hurt with every step. I wiped my forehead with the back of my hand. My pace slowed.

Keep walking and don’t look back.

The command drifted through my head. The voice was familiar, though I couldn’t attach a face or a name to it.

I realized I was walking quickly again. My feet hurt as if my boots were full of razors. My socks squished wetly with every step. I wasn’t sure why, since I hadn’t walked through any high water…at least, not that I could remember. The fact I was completely dry otherwise supported that assumption, so my wet socks were a mystery.

As was the small object clutched in my left hand. I vaguely recalled grabbing it and hiding it from someone, but I wasn’t sure when or why. Still, I couldn’t bring myself to drop it beside the road. My hand wouldn’t open and let it go. My fingers cramped from holding it so tightly.

I walked on.

Hours passed. The sun crossed overhead and descended, slipping behind the horizon to my left and plunging the distant mountain peaks in front of me into darkness. The moon was bright enough in the clear sky for me to easily see the road. The pain in my feet was white-hot now, but I couldn’t stop. I dragged myself on, putting one foot in front of the other, with that strange voice replaying endlessly in my ears.

Keep walking and don’t look back.

Behind me, a truck engine rumbled. The sound grew quickly, as if the vehicle was moving very fast. I quickened my pace.

Bright headlights illuminated the highway in front of me as the truck crested the hill I’d just walked over. Tires skidded and brakes screeched as the truck pulled to the side of the road behind me. I kept walking.

The truck’s doors opened and someone shouted, “Alice!” The male voice was a strange combination of relief, fury, and worry.

Footsteps pounded on the asphalt behind me. Suddenly, two dark-haired, muscular men with glowing golden eyes appeared in front of me. They wore jeans, long-sleeved shirts, and hiking boots.

The larger of the two grabbed me. “Alice,” he said again, his voice growly.

I stabbed him.

—Or at least I tried to. My fingertips rammed into his hard stomach and I felt a sharp pain.