“Well, I’d say you got your wish. Nice job, Styles.”
“Nice job?” I jerked my head around to look back at my classmates. “Maggie, this is not okay. I don’t know how to fix it!”
“I think it’s an improvement, personally.”
I groaned and threw my hands up in the air. I glanced around again trying to figure out a way to undo . . . whatever it was I had inadvertently done, but I wasn’t sure what to do and I was beginning to panic.
“Just take a deep breath and relax, Lainey,” Ty’s calm voice whispered in my ear. “Your magic reacts to your emotions, remember? Just take a deep breath and focus on the sounds you heard before the silence.”
I nodded, grateful for a game plan. I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths. After a few minutes, my heart rate slowed. Relief rushed through me when the silence suddenly broke and the loud sounds of the cafeteria flooded in on me again. Pain shot through my temple, but I was so thankful that the spell was lifted, I hardly noticed.
“Thank you,” I said to Ty. “I don’t know why this keeps happening. I’m definitely not doing it on purpose.”
“Maybe you should talk to Serena,” Maggie suggested. “Maybe she knows why your powers are going all haywire on you.”
“That’s not a bad idea, actually.” I reached into my bag for my cell phone. As soon as I pulled it from the zipper pocket, it began to vibrate and chirp in my hand. Serena’s name appeared on the caller ID. “That’s a weird coincidence.” Swiping my finger across the screen, I answered the call.
“Hello?”
“Lainey!” Serena’s exasperated voice came through the speaker. “Where are you?”
“I’m at school. I was just getting ready to call you, actually. I—”
“Lainey!” Serena shouted into the receiver. “You have to get out of there now!”
“What?” I gripped the phone tightly as a cold shiver ran down my spine. “Why?”
“You’re in danger, Lainey! You have to leave right now!”
“What are you talking about?” I stood up, throwing my backpack over one shoulder, and headed toward the double doors of the cafeteria, beckoning Ty and Maggie to follow me. “Serena, what’s going on?”
There was a long pause. Finally, Serena exhaled sharply and started talking. As she spoke, all the blood drained from my face.
“We’ll be right there,” I managed to whisper, hanging up the phone.
“Lainey, what is it? What’s going on?” Maggie yanked on my arm, trying to get my attention.
“It’s the Guard. They’re coming.”
Ty and Maggie began talking over one another, asking me questions, but the only thing I could focus on was the rapid pounding of my own heartbeat.
“They’re coming . . . for me.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Serena paced back and forth, muttering to herself.
I sat with Ty and Maggie on one of the blue couches in Serena’s shop and drummed my fingers against my knees. With so much adrenaline pumping through my system and the frustrating lack of information, I was like a caged animal waiting to pounce.
“Hey,” Ty leaned over and whispered in my ear. “Breathe. It’s okay.” He nodded at my hands. Tiny green sparks were shooting from my fingertips.
“This whole mood ring power situation is getting old,” I said, forcing my hands to lie flat.
“Just take a few deep breaths now and then,” Ty said, grabbing one of them in his own. He smiled at me—the crooked smile I’d grown to adore—and despite my mood, I managed a small smile back.
The front door flew open with a bang, and Gareth rushed in, his face red and eyes wide. “What is it?” he demanded. “What’s happened?”
Serena dashed over and gripped Gareth’s arm. “Nothing yet.” She looked over at me, her face pale. “But I had a vision about the Master. He knew about Lainey, knew who she was. He wants to use her to unlock the Grimoire. He sent the Guard after her.”
“Wait, let me get this straight.” I held up a hand. “The Master knows I’m alive, knows that I’m the last remaining Keeper, and is coming after me.”
“If my vision is correct,” Serena swallowed, “then yes.”
“That’s impossible,” Gareth said. “Everyone who knows Lainey exists is either in this room or dead.” He scanned the room, landing on Ty. He coughed and straightened his shoulders. “That is—”
“This is Ty,” I said, trying not to roll my eyes at the overprotective uncle routine. “The guy I told you about last night.”
Gareth narrowed his eyes. “Praetorian, right?”
Ty nodded, standing up to shake Gareth’s hand. “Pleasure to meet you, sir.”
Gareth shook hands, but still looked wary.
“I’m afraid there’s more,” Serena said, pulling Gareth’s attention back to her. “I also saw Scavengers.”
The word didn’t mean anything to me, but Gareth swore under his breath and Ty stiffened in his seat.
Maggie leaned forward on the couch. “What’s a Scavenger?”
“A traitor,” Gareth spat. “Supernaturals from all different factions who earn money by rounding up Supernaturals who either oppose the Master or who they think might be of interest. He gives them a reward for every one they capture.”
“Like some kind of supernatural bounty hunter?” Maggie asked.
“Exactly. They can sense magic,” Gareth said. “They track it like a bloodhound on the hunt.”
“And they’re coming here?” I asked.
“Yes.” Serena nodded. “In my vision, I saw you through their eyes. I could smell the magic emanating off of you, could feel how it fueled their urge to hunt—”
“But it makes no sense,” Gareth said, waving his hand to cut her off. “They can’t be sensing her, so what trail are they following?” He raked a hand through his hair and started to pace.
Oh. My stomach did a somersault. Of course. I cleared my throat. “You’re wrong.”
“The storm,” Ty said, reading my thoughts. “And today in the cafeteria.”
Maggie was just as quick. She leaned forward and snapped her fingers. “The rosebush! And the dryad! At the cemetery.”
“The clock,” I said, nodding my head. “And the streetlights—that was all me.”
Gareth and Serena were quiet, staring at us like we’d failed to deliver the punch line of a joke.
“It is me. The trail they’re following is mine,” I explained, quickly pouring out the details of all the strange occurrences . . . what I now knew were pulses.
Serena sank down on the edge of the couch. “We knew our cloaking spells were failing, but—”
“But we underestimated one very important thing,” Gareth finished. He looked at me. “You’re a DuCarmont. And more powerful than even we realized.” Emotion flashed in his eyes, but he blinked it away. “Power like that . . . of course they’d be drawn to it.” He sank down next to Serena. “How long?” He looked at her with a face that had seemed to age at least ten years.