“Please, Nell,” Swann begged. “I can’t let you do this, it’s too dangerous.”
“Hurry,” Wally said.
She found the road they’d been on and glanced quickly north up the route, her gaze racing toward her destination.
“I have it,” she whispered. “Almost there . . .”
Before she knew what was happening, Swann had lurched forward, his arms so long he didn’t even need to take a step, and snatched the map from her.
Nell gasped. He’s going to rip it in half! The last copy, their last hope of ever getting inside.
“No!” Wally roared, jerking the gun from Felix to Swann so wildly that the others all cowered. “Put the map down now!”
“Wait, just wait!” Nell pleaded, at the same time that Felix was yelling, “Don’t shoot!”
She put a hand on Swann’s shoulder, willing Wally not to lose control. She was so terrified, she didn’t know if her knees were going to hold her.
She tried to keep her voice as even as possible. “What are you doing?” she whispered.
“What your father asked me to do,” Swann said, his eyes fixed on Wally. “Protect you. If there’s no map anymore, there’s no danger either. There’s nothing for Wally to take from you.”
She edged closer to him, reaching slowly for the map. If she could get it back, everything would be all right, somehow. “But if we destroy the last copy, we can never go inside. We can never . . .”
Swann nodded grimly. “I know. But I knew your father, Nell. How much he loved you. How he would do anything to keep you safe, at any cost. He would want me to do this.” His voice was quiet and tender. “Both of your parents would want me to.”
“Don’t,” Wally threatened, frantic.
But Swann whipped the map above his head, each side of it gripped in one hand.
“Swann!” Nell shrieked.
A strange force shook her suddenly, drowning out her words in a dull boom.
Nell blinked. Everything felt strange. Her insides had been rattled. Her ears hurt.
Someone—Felix?—was screaming, over and over.
Swann was still holding the map over his head. But his arms were sinking, his fingers loosening their grip, as if the world was suddenly happening in slow motion.
Then she saw the red stain blooming steadily across his back.
“No!” she cried.
Swann collapsed backward into her, and together they sank into the grass.
“I’m sorry,” Wally said. “It’s the last copy. There was no other way.”
The blood was hot, so hot. It was pouring into her lap, like a sickening bath. Her hands searched his chest, but she couldn’t find the place where the bullet had entered.
“Call an ambulance,” she said to the others, but Wally was pointing the gun at all of them now, and they could do nothing.
“William, please,” Felix begged. The gun didn’t waver.
“Just hang on,” Nell said to Swann, digging in his pockets for his phone, but he put a palm on her scrambling hands and patted them gently.
It didn’t matter. An ambulance would never arrive in time, even if she’d called it before Wally and Felix had appeared. Swann would be dead in moments.
He looked at her from somewhere far away and tried to touch her cheek. “Save . . . ,” he whispered hoarsely.
Her tears splattered against his face, but his eyes were already going dull, and he didn’t seem to notice.