Read Online Magisterium by Jeff Hirsch - Free Book Online

until it was only inches from Kevin’s side and sniffed at the wound.
    “What are you doing?” Glenn asked.
    It turned to scan the woods around them. What is it looking for?
    “We have to go back. Listen to me. We —” But before Glenn
    could finish, it was gone, crashing through the undergrowth. What was it? Glenn wondered. And how could something so big move so fast?
    Glenn sat frozen. Soon the noise of its movement faded, leaving only the sound of water flowing over rocks and Kevin’s slight breathing.
    Glenn listened for any other movement in the trees. Nothing. She braced her hands on the slimy rock beneath her and got up into a low crouch, looking down at an undulating black streak of water. The thermals in her clothes kept her warm enough, but she wasn’t sure she’d survive a dip in the icy water. Kevin lay across from her, his chest barely moving. Glenn extended one slippered foot out in front of her and across the space between the shores. Once she was safely on the other side, she dropped down by Kevin’s side and lifted his head into her lap.
    “Kevin?”
    His skin was cold and damp. His clothes were cold too — his thermals really weren’t working. Glenn lifted him up and stretched her arms across his chest, pressing her body into his, trying to share her warmth. She wiped the cold sweat from his cheek. As she did, the red jewel of the bracelet glinted.
    Why didn’t I give it to Sturges? Glenn thought bitterly. If I had handed it over to him when he’d asked, Kevin would be fine.
    Glenn wondered if she could carry Kevin back over the border herself and get to a hospital. She tried to piece together the route they had taken to get there. If she could find a place where the woods were thinner and keep her eyes on the stars, she thought she could keep them heading east, which would bring them to the border eventually.
    Kevin moaned as Glenn gathered him up into her arms.
    “Put him down.”
    The creature loomed in the darkness behind the trees. Its chest was like an iron gate blocking her way. Glenn remembered the rock-like feel of its arms, and the sound of the agent’s scream.
    “I have to take him back,” Glenn said, even as her stomach
    churned with fear.
    “You won’t make it with him in your arms,” it said. “We’re miles from the border.”
    “Then take us back!”
    “Even if I did, the trip would kill him. Please. I have medicine.”
    “He’s been shot!” Glenn said. “He doesn’t need medicine. He needs surgery.”
    Kevin’s head fell into the crook of her arm with a groan. She could feel his blood on her skin.
    “Let me help him,” the thing said. “If you don’t he’ll die.”
    Already Kevin was weighing on her. She wouldn’t make it a mile if she tried to carry him. She had run out of options. The only thing she could do was put Kevin down and back away. The great shadow flowed out from the trees and enveloped him once again. Glenn couldn’t make much out in the darkness, but she thought the creature was arranging several small piles on the rock next to him, things it had brought back from the woods. When it was done, it crushed them together with a stone and then lifted out handfuls of water to make a paste.
    As the thing worked, Glenn strained to get a better look at it, but it was still little more than a shadow mixed in with the deeper shadows around the stream. Glenn remembered seeing what looked like claws at the end of its finger, but surely she was mistaken. A delusion borne from fear.
    “How did you know my name?” Glenn asked.
    The creature drew Kevin up into its lap and began smearing the paste it had made on Kevin’s side.
    “I asked you —”
    Instead of answering, it lowered its head and began a soft chant over Kevin’s limp body. Glenn drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, watching it. The deep notes of its voice rose and fell as the forest around them rustled in the wind, and the dark stream trickled by.
    “We