The Shadow Prince

“Don’t,” Haden says, with an almost imperceptible shake of his head.

 

Simon’s mouth starts to form the word one, and I can see Lexie cringing, her finger on the trigger.

 

“Stop,” I say. “Take it. Take the Compass. Take me.” I hold the Compass out to him in my left hand, as far as I can, with Garrick gripping my shoulder. “Just take it, okay?”

 

Simon steps away from Dax and reaches for the Compass. I swing my right arm as Tobin’s grip on me falls away, and I slam my fist right into Simon’s already bleeding nose. He stumbles backward, clasping his face. “Why, you little bi—”

 

At that moment, a burst of lightning combusts from Haden’s petrified arm. He twists his hand just enough to send the bolt into the fluorescent light above Simon’s head. Glass and shattered plastic rain down on us.

 

 

 

 

 

chapter fifty-five

 

 

HADEN

 

 

Lightning swirls and builds in my chest—threatening to explode through my rib cage if it doesn’t find a place to go. When Daphne hits Simon, his hold on me weakens enough for me to channel the energy into my frozen arm. Brim, still clinging to my shoulder, yowls in protest, but I twist my hand enough to aim the bolt above Simon’s head.

 

The force of the bolt’s recoil throws me backward as the light fixture above us explodes. Tobin grabs Daphne, pulling her out of harm’s way as shards rain from the ceiling. Simon covers his head and shrieks, “One!” just as Lexie drops the gun.

 

It clatters to the floor.

 

His hold on us is broken.

 

A large hunk of plaster from the ceiling hits Joe, and he sinks to the ground. Garrick runs for the door.

 

Simon scrambles for the gun, crawling over plastic shards to get to it. Dax goes after him, but Simon sends his elbow back, slamming it into Dax’s neck. Dax rolls over onto his side. “Stop breathing,” Simon says, glaring into Dax’s eyes.

 

Brimstone yowls from her perch on my shoulder, her claws sunk deep into my skin, but it’s enough to get me moving again. I push myself up from the floor in response to her protests, in time to watch Dax clutch desperately at his own breathless throat and Simon reach for the gun. I go after him. But I’m too late. His hand closes over the handle as I lunge at him. He thrusts the gun against my chest.

 

“No!” Daphne screams.

 

Simon shrieks with pain and yanks his hand back, dropping the gun—a small gray cat is attached to his wrist by her teeth. Brim, who had leapt from my shoulder when I went for Simon, has sunk her tiny fangs into his arm.

 

He shakes his arm violently and sends Brim flying. She hits the top of the table—hard—and rolls a couple of times across the surface, then lands on her four little feet next to Sarah’s finger paints. She hisses and spits, turning in a circle and baring her minuscule teeth in anger.

 

“Are you an idiot?!” I rasp. “You’ve made her angry.”

 

“I’m not afraid of your kitten,” Simon says, sucking the blood from the small puncture marks in his wrist.

 

Brim shakes and growls. The noise grows deep and fierce.

 

“She’s a full-grown hellcat, you harpy mouth. Do you have any idea what happens when you get a hellcat really mad?”

 

Simon’s eyes widen. He goes for the gun, but I kick it under one of the couches. A crack echoes through the room as the table Brim stands on collapses under her weight. Lexie shrieks and cowers in the far corner of the room—with good reason. A giant paw, bigger than my own head, swipes at Simon’s back, sending him crashing into Sarah’s easel. A great, hulking, three-headed panther—almost as large as my car—glares down at me. She huffs huge breaths simultaneously from her three mouths, making my hair float up for a second before settling back down around my ears. A swift movement catches the corner of my eye.

 

“Watch out,” I shout to the beast as Simon takes a swing at her with a piece of wood from the broken easel. The wood cracks and splinters against the panther’s back.

 

The beast’s three heads roar in pain. Simon has only made her angrier. Turning her attention away from me, she pounces on him.

 

I try to rouse Dax, who lies in a faint in the middle of the floor as Simon’s screams fill the room. Daphne runs for Joe and tries to pull him up. She still clutches the Compass tightly in her hand. The beast has Simon by the throat now. She shakes him violently back and forth. His limbs flail in the air like he’s made of nothing but bloody rags. The panther releases him, and lets him try to crawl away before she pounces on him again, flips him over, and tears at his stomach.

 

Hellcats always play with their prey before killing it.

 

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