Alara wrapped her jacket around it and tried to pick it up that way, but the heat burned right through the fabric and she dropped it. “It’s too hot.”
“We have to go. Now.” Jared shoved them toward the door, dragging me behind him.
Priest stood outside the cell, frozen. All the color had drained from his face. He grabbed Jared’s arm and pushed the heavy metal door shut.
Pieces of concrete rained down on us, but no one moved. The letters that had spelled DARIEN SHEARS the first time we saw his cell door had rearranged themselves to spell something else: anDraS is here
“Move!” Lukas yelled.
Lukas and Alara ran for the stairwell with Priest on their heels. The railing vibrated violently, and the shaking intensified as we navigated the stairs.
I slipped and my knees slammed against the metal steps.
Jared hauled me to my feet, and we tore through the cell block. The deafening rattle of the bars rose up around us. Spirits flickered in our path, awakened by the sudden disturbance in their environment. But they weren’t full body apparitions, and we passed right through them. Each time, I felt the revolting sensation of a cold hand tugging at the back of my neck, marking me in a different way.
Lukas burst through the door to the yard first. Instead of stepping into the afternoon light, there was nothing but darkness.
The black sky pulsed and churned like it was alive. Lightning cracked and illuminated thousands of beating wings, blocking out the sun.
Crows—hundreds and hundreds of them.
Black rain, pouring from the clouds with no end in sight.
Alara stopped, fixated on the sky. She shouted something before taking off in a dead run. But I couldn’t hear anything over the thunderous din of lightning flashing and feathers flapping.
It felt like the end of the world, the sky falling one dark wing at a time.
And it’s my fault.
The van was only a few yards away now, the roof and windshield covered with more crows. They scattered when Lukas opened the back doors, ascending to meet their own legion.
Priest tore open the duffel bags and unearthed the EMF detectors. He lined them up on the floor of the van and flipped them on. The needles jerked all the way to the right, pushing into paranormal overdrive. Red bulbs flashed and the devices beeped, lighting up the floor like a pinball machine.
My heart pounded. “Does that mean there’s something in here?”
“No.” Priest stared through the window at the sea of black. “It’s out there.”
The lights of EMFs flashed faster and faster, blinking like the timer on a bomb.
“What’s happening?”
Priest shook his head. “I don’t know.”
The EMFs exploded, wires and plastic ricocheting against the walls. I covered my head as sharp pieces of flying plastic sliced my arms, until the debris stopped banging against the van’s interior.
A thin trail of blood ran down Alara’s cheek. She winced, but instead of reaching for her face, she clamped her hand over the inside of her wrist.
Priest seemed confused for a second then shook his own wrist, inhaling sharply. “My skin’s burning.”
Lukas nodded. “Mine, too.”
Jared pulled up his sleeve. The mark that usually only appeared when he rubbed it with salt was already carved into his skin. But the indentations weren’t filled with dark lines. The mark was completely white, swollen red skin surrounding the outline. Lukas, Alara, and Priest revealed their marks one at a time. Theirs had reacted the same way.
I didn’t have to check my skin to know it remained unmarked.
Alara shook her arm, trying to cool it. “What does it mean?”
We all knew, but no one wanted to say it.
So I did. “He was telling the truth.”
Darien Shears—the spirit who tried to protect us from ourselves.
“No.” Lukas rubbed his hands over his face. “The journal said—”
“Either the journal was wrong or we misinterpreted something.” My voice faltered. “Look outside. Does it seem like I put together a weapon to protect the world, or used one against it?”
Real rain battered the roof, the sky still ink-stained from the clouds and the crows and whatever was coming next.
“It isn’t your fault,” Jared whispered, rubbing his thumb over my palm. “We decided together.”
I was the only one in that cell. I snapped the pieces of the Shift together. It didn’t matter if they had wanted me to do it or not.
In the end, I decided.
I had failed in too many ways to count, the proof destroying everything around us. Burning itself into everyone’s flesh except mine—the one who didn’t belong.
In a single moment, I had unleashed a demon their ancestors had spent over two hundred years defending the world against. One their families died trying to destroy.
CHAPTER 33
Black Dove