“Calm down. I was just joking,” Drea said. She peered at Em. “Do you want a drink? Or some air? You look like you’re freaking out.”
Em shook her head. This was all wrong. The Furies weren’t here—just a bunch of pleasure-fiending weirdos who were probably on drugs. The fake IDs, the money spent—all for nothing.“I think we should just get out of here,” she said.
“Already?” Drea looked thoughtful. “We basically just got here. I haven’t even had a chance to ask around—”
“Fine, then I’m going out for some air,” Em said, realizing that she needed out. “I’ll either find you down here or wait for you up there.”
She fought her way back up the stairs, fidgeting as the bouncer moved the Dumpster to let her out, and gasping for clean air once she stumbled out into the parking lot. She paced, holding her arms and watching the way her breath fogged each time she exhaled. The feeling of dizziness started to dissipate.
And then, out of the shadows, a female voice: “Looking for someone?”
Em squinted. A girl was emerging from the darkness between two Harleys. Even before she stepped into the light, Em knew who it was. She recognized the lilting, taunting tone. Em was familiar, too, with the crawling sensation in her skin, as though a thousand snakes were writhing underneath it.
Ty.
Bitterness surged through Em. “I know everything about you,” she spat out. “I know who you really are. You died in Ascension, and now you’re back. For revenge.”
Ty raised an eyebrow. “That’s quite a theory,” she said, her voice like a placid lake—no ripples, no waves.
“You’re the reason that bad things are happening in Ascension. You’re evil, and you’re bringing evil to this town. You killed Chase,” Em said. Then she added, “And I’m going to stop you.”
“Em, evil feeds on itself, you know,” Ty said, letting the words roll out of her mouth like she’d said them a hundred times before.
“What are you talking about?” Em felt the flames of anger blistering through her, and she decided to bluff. “I know your secret,” she said. “I’m going to undo this—undo you.”
Ty made a show of clamping her lips together and shaking her head coyly, as though vowing to keep a secret about a high school crush. Then she spoke in the merry-go-round singsong that made Em’s blood curdle. “You can’t just undo it, Em. And you shouldn’t have tried. I almost felt sorry for you, back there at the cemetery with that poor snake. We made a deal. Don’t you remember?”
Something in Em broke apart then, and she felt her muscles fill with adrenaline. She leaped at Ty blindly, more enraged than ever, attacking her with a fury that came from somewhere deep and hidden.
“Why don’t you just leave? Leave me, and leave Ascension, alone!” she yelled as she struck Ty, knocking her backward. When their bodies collided, Em felt a momentary surge, like a shock. Ty stumbled, but regained her footing. She came back at Em with her teeth bared, grabbing a handful of Em’s dark, straightened hair, yanking it hard.
Em whipped her body back and forth to free herself from Ty’s grasp. She kicked at Ty’s shins, making contact, and in the process tumbling them both to the ground. Em felt the gravel stab through her jeans into her knees. Ty’s hands felt like ice on her face, her neck, her wrists. All Em could think about was how badly she wanted the Furies out of her life. Now. The strength of that thought gave her conviction, and the conviction gave her power; she began to overcome Ty, who struggled and squirmed beneath her.
Then Em had her pinned to the ground. She dug one knee into Ty’s bony chest and clamped both of Ty’s wrists in one of her hands, pressing them into the frozen dirt.
She wrapped the other hand around Ty’s long, slender neck—so like her own—and squeezed.
As she had at the Behemoth a few months ago, Ty started to waver in and out, like a picture on an old television. But she did not appear to be hurt, or gasping for breath, no matter how hard Em pushed on her windpipe. And then Em felt it—her grip on Ty’s wrists getting weaker, their power reversing, then Ty’s fingernails digging into her arm, breaking the skin, slicing into her.
“Shit,” Em said, pulling away, gasping. Her arm was stinging, and tiny drops of blood began to bubble at the place where Ty had stabbed her.
“Don’t look down, Em,” Ty said tauntingly.
Of course Em did. The swinging sense of vertigo returned, along with a stomach-dropping sensation of airlessness. It took her a second to understand what was happening. She and Ty were both hovering about three feet off the ground.
Em jerked backward, breaking the spell and hurtling to the dirt below. Ty landed more gracefully, laughing as she taunted Em. “That was fun, wasn’t it?”