“Not yet.” Priest hopped up next to her, buzzing with excitement. “So check it out. I got my mark after I destroyed Millicent’s spirit in the well with the bolt I made, right?”
Lukas continued without missing a beat. “Mine showed up after I took out a Lady in White whose patterns I had tracked for months.”
Alara fidgeted with her eyebrow ring. “And my mark manifested because I used protective wards to take out the dybbuk—holy water to drive it into the cabinet, and fire to destroy it.”
“But I drew the Wall,” I countered. “I helped.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Priest said. “The fire’s what actually destroyed it. Think about it. The bolt I made, the spirit Lukas tracked, Alara’s wards…”
Jared’s eyes lit up. “It makes sense.”
“I’m glad it makes sense to someone,” I said.
“Weapons isn’t your specialty,” Priest continued. “The mark didn’t show up because you shot the vengeance spirit with a gun.”
“I don’t understand.”
He turned to Jared. “How’d you get yours?”
Jared closed his hand around the place where his mark lay dormant. “A cold-iron rod. Had the spirit in a headlock, and I drove the rod through his rib cage.”
Alara rolled her eyes. “We wouldn’t expect anything less.”
I might still be one of them.
“But I don’t have a specialty.”
Alara raised her eyebrows. “You’re kidding right? You drew the Wall from memory.”
My eidetic memory didn’t seem like an impressive weapon in a battle against deadly spirits.
Priest shook his head. “More than that, the ability to draw symbols is directly related to invocation. Summoning and commanding angels and demons.”
“I can definitely draw, but I can’t summon anything—let alone an angel or a demon.”
Priest looked right at me. “Then you’re in luck because you don’t have to invoke a vengeance spirit. You just have to kill one.”
CHAPTER 24
The Only One
I stood outside the coffee shop and watched Lukas through the window as he paid the barista. After sleeping in the van all night, I would’ve killed to sink into one of the leather armchairs inside. But the shop was tiny, and even though we were fifty miles from Sunshine, we decided the possibility of someone recognizing me was too high.
Standing out here was still better than being stuck in the van.
Priest and Jared had headed into town to pick up supplies as soon as they woke up, while Alara pored over the journals, searching for a clue that might lead to another piece of the Shift. She had only lasted twenty minutes before she insisted on a caffeine run, and we jumped at the chance to see something other than the inside of a journal.
Lukas came back out with a cardboard drink carrier and handed me a steaming cup. “This one’s yours.”
“Thanks.” I took a sip. “You put cinnamon in it.”
He shrugged. “I remembered you like it.”
Of course he did.
Lukas walked down the street and I fell in step next to him. “Is everything okay?”
He gave me a weak smile. “You mean besides almost getting killed and setting a store on fire?”
“It feels like you’re mad at me.”
Lukas took his coin out of his pocket and rolled it over his fingers a few times before he answered. “I’m not mad. Just disappointed. I didn’t think Jared would have a chance with you. You’re not like the girls who usually fall for him.”
My stomach lurched.
How many girls was he talking about?
Heat spread through my cheeks. I walked faster, hoping Lukas wouldn’t notice me blushing.
“Kennedy!” Lukas grabbed my arm and yanked it so hard that it felt like my shoulder was coming out of the socket.
A car horn blared and tires skidded.
Lukas pulled me back onto the sidewalk, and I slammed against his chest. He folded his arms around me. For a second, I was too scared to move. He pushed me away gently and held me at arm’s length. “Are you okay?”
I nodded, watching as the coffee seeped out of the cups and into the street.
Lukas shook his head. “I’m a jerk. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“You’re not the jerk.”
He pushed the hair away from my face. “I just don’t want to see you get hurt.”
I couldn’t look at him. “Don’t worry. I won’t.”
His silver coin was lying on the sidewalk. I bent down to pick it up, studying it for the first time.
“It belonged to my dad. It was the one thing he gave me instead of Jared.”
In the center of the coin, a dove perched on a limb with five branches. A phrase was stamped around the circumference of the coin, in a language I couldn’t place.
“It’s Italian. It says, ‘May the black dove always carry you.’ ”
I turned the coin over so I could see the other side.
It was exactly the same.
After a second coffee run, we finally made it back to the van. Jared was sitting on the hood sorting through a bag from the sporting goods store with Priest.
“You guys were gone a long time.” Jared tried to hide the edge in his voice. “I thought someone recognized you again.”