Images of Crowe, venemon snaking from his fingertips, his eyes dark and forbidding, filled my head. He could rain destruction on the people in this festival if he wanted. He could curse us with plague. He could boil our blood in our veins. He could carve his initials on our hearts with the brush of his thoughts. Somewhere in a dark corner of my mind, a rebellious thought held its own, though. No.
“N-no,” I mumbled.
Killian’s grip on my hand tightened. “Stop him,” he begged. “You’re the only one who can.”
I tore my hand from his, feeling like I was swimming through rapidly hardening cement. Every step was a chore. The crimson threads of Killian’s magic were wrapped around my throat, my face, but now all I could smell was cinders and ash, not copper and salt. Killian made a desperate sound and bashed himself in the face with the flashlight. “Don’t listen to me!” he shouted. As he staggered backward and dropped the light, the threads of animus fell away like he’d taken a pair of scissors to them.
I sucked in a breath—and I ran.
FIFTEEN
“NO!” KILLIAN SHOUTED. THE SOUND OF THRASHING and unsteady footsteps followed, but I was powered by pure terror. I practically flew through the forest, dodging trees, branches scraping against my arms and cheeks. I ran, blundering through the darkness with my hands out, my breath squeaking from me in desperate bursts, until my head spun and my side ached. Finally, I had the wherewithal to pull out my cell phone and use the flashlight app to light my way. But the farther I went, the more confused I was.
Killian, who had been nowhere to be found for most of the day, had just ambushed me while pretending to be Flynn. He’d told me that Crowe was going to destroy everything.
He’d also seemed completely unstable and insane. He’d beaten Boone and left him bleeding and unconscious. He’d hit himself in the face, too, for God’s sake. All while exuding animus magic streaked with black. It definitely hadn’t looked that way last night.
A chime from my phone brought me to a stop just as lights in the distance told me I was about to reach the festival grounds.
It was a text from my mom: Come home. I need you.
With trembling fingers, I replied. What’s wrong? Are you okay?
Just come home.
I frowned. Mom was no alarmist, and if she needed me, it was probably serious.
But so was what had just happened. Either Killian was convinced Crowe was up to something terrible, or Killian himself was using other kindled powers, just like his brother had.
I recalled the scent of ash in the air. A kind of magic I’d never before sensed—until this morning when Katrina had been surrounded by it as she hurled a terrible curse at Crowe. Had Killian been behind that, too?
Nothing was making sense.
Using my cell phone light, I made my way back to the spot where Killian had attacked Boone, but Boone wasn’t there. Blood on the leaves told me I was at the right spot, though. He must have gotten up and gone back to the festival, maybe to get Crowe. But a shaky mistrust filled my head when I thought of seeing Crowe, so I texted the one person who might be able to shed some light on what I’d just experienced with the president of the Deathstalkers—Darek.
Hey. Just saw your pres in the woods and he was acting super weird. Can we talk?
I had just hit Send when I remembered that Darek’s phone had been destroyed. With a groan, I pulled my keys from my pocket and staggered to my car. Confusion ruled my thoughts, and all I wanted to do was make sure Mom was okay. Then I’d decide who to talk to first and figure out what the hell was happening. Dad was at the top of that list, considering figuring this out was literally his job, but I was too frazzled to deal with him at the moment.
Gravel popped under my tires as I sped down the road. I was home in less than ten minutes. Mom’s car was there—but so was another, parked right next to it. Darek was leaning on its trunk as I pulled the car into the driveway.
“What are you doing here?” I asked as I got out, realizing as I did that there was a blue thread of magic wound around me, spiraling up into the sky like a beacon.
I knew immediately what that meant.
Darek was talking, his head hung, his eyes hidden behind aviator sunglasses despite the heaviness of the night. “I came to say good-bye and—”
“Someone is tracking me with a locator spell,” I said, cutting him off. His words barely registered. “Have you seen my mom?” I peered behind him, at the house. Warm light glowed in the windows. “She just texted—”
A roar of motorcycle engines hit our ears.
“Shit. That must be Crowe.” I couldn’t see the riders yet, but I was guessing Crowe was at the front, leading the pack.
“When he catches me with you…” Darek started.
“I know. I know.” I sighed and scrubbed at my face. Crowe had already done enough damage. I wasn’t going to allow him to do more. “Come on,” I said, and grabbed Darek by the hand, the minty scent of my magic immediately hitting my nose.
The drone of the engines grew louder, and headlights shone up the road toward my house. I yanked Darek toward the front door, fumbled at the doorknob for what seemed like too many minutes, and finally got the door open enough for us to slip inside.
Two Harleys swerved onto the front lawn as I ran into the living room, wondering if I could get away with hiding Darek in the coat closet.
Footsteps crashed through the garden, and the kitchen door banged open a bare second before Hardy charged into the living room and saw Darek and me frozen on the other side of the couch.
“Jemmie…” he and Darek said at the same time.
Footsteps in the kitchen and the smell of honey and smoke told me who was about to join us.
“Go!” I yelled, and pushed Darek down the hall.
Hardy leapt over the couch behind us.
Darek and I stumbled into my room, and I slammed the door shut. Locant magic burst from my palms in frenzied waves—a weak barrier spell.
“What now?” Darek asked.
“Window,” I said, but as I turned toward it, more headlights flashed outside.
Darek chuckled. “Hell is empty and all the Devils are here.”
I spun on him as Hardy pounded a fist against my door, threatening to shatter the reflexive barrier I’d covered it with. “Come here.” I held out my hand. Darek took it, and I gritted my teeth, calling on all my power and muttering an incantation my dad had made me practice all those years ago, when he still had hope for me.
The protective shield burst out in an orb around us, cascading down around Darek and me like glittering rain. Mint stung my throat, my eyes, but I stood firm as Hardy tore my door off its hinges.
By the time he reached us, though, the bubble had closed. The hair on my arms rose on end, the air suddenly charged with electricity.
“Where is she?” Crowe yelled as he stormed down the hall. “Jemmie!”
Hardy stared at me through the fractured light of the barrier. “She’s in here,” he called, keeping his eyes locked on me, nostrils flaring.
Crowe barged into my room and froze when he caught sight of me, standing there inside a barrier bubble, Darek safely beside me.
“What the fuck is this?” shouted Crowe.
“I win,” Darek said simply. “And you lose.”
The calm, cold sound of his voice chilled me. I looked up at him as he slid the sunglasses off his face.
His perfect, unbruised face. He gave me a smile. “A little of your friend Flynn’s inlusio goes a long way. And when you cloak it under locant? You don’t even know it’s there.”
“Boone’s gone,” Hardy said to me. “We had your dad do a locator to find you. He said you were here.”
“She came here because I asked her to,” Darek said.
“Where’s my mom?” My voice was so thin I’m surprised he heard me.
“Snug as a bug in a rug,” he said with a wink.
“You’re helping him,” Crowe said to Darek, amber ropes of magic sliding over my barrier, looking for a way in. “You’re helping Killian gather kindled to do the cruori.”
Darek laughed. “Nah, you big idiot. You’ve got it all wrong.” He set his hand on the back of my neck, his fingers curling around my throat. “Let me make it all perfectly clear.”
A lance of pain shot up my spine. I cried out. Darek squeezed harder as the air left my lungs. Smoke and honey and ash filled my nose. Gold and black streaked my vision. Venemon. This was Alex’s magic! Mixed with…