Ben turned to me. “Is that Latin?”
I shrugged. It could be Little Women, backward.
“It’s Latin,” Gage said. “He’s invoking the spirit of Joe Hard to rise and join us.”
I stared at him. “You awesome little freak. You constantly amaze me, you know that?”
He grinned. His moustache was crooked now, too.
The lights flickered. The crowd gasped. Beside us a guy yelled, “Fake!” He grinned at his friends, but he was afraid. I could see it. I could feel it. I was surrounded by fear and excitement. And hunger. Oh, such hunger. It wasn’t human, it was dead.
And it made me angry.
“Repeat after me!” Gretchen yelled, and began reciting from the book again. The crowd chanted back. It was kind of creepy, all those voices in sync with each other. On the stage, a figure began to take shape, flickering in and out of sight like a bad connection. Joe. He wasn’t beside me anymore.
The chanting grew louder and more frantic. I glanced behind us. Out of the darkness, a lone figure approached. It was Noah—I knew it without having to see his face. Of course he was going to want to be right in the middle of everything when the energy peaked.
And of course he was going to come for me.
“Guys,” I said, making sure I had my friends’ attention. “Go get our stuff.” And they did. They didn’t even notice I wasn’t with them. But I didn’t want Noah anywhere near them when things went down.
He stepped up beside me, straight and tall. When the light hit his face I noticed red veins creeping out along his cheekbones. That was new.
“Hey there, Masterpiece Theatre,” I said.
The insult was lost on him. “Miss Noble. Don’t you look plebian tonight.”
Or maybe it hadn’t been lost at all. “Enjoying the show? Sorry that Joe’s going to steal some of your thunder.”
Noah smiled. “There will still be plenty for me. Can you feel it?” He closed his eyes and tilted his head back, a blissful smile on his face. “Haven Crest is about to awaken.”
I felt it—the second it became midnight. It was like a click inside my chest. On the stage, Joe Hard appeared, and Gretchen fell to his knees, mouth hanging open. I guess he hadn’t expected it to work.
Beside me, Noah shuddered. His eyes, now wide, began to glow. Heat emanated from him as he began to absorb the energy around him. How was he doing that?
I didn’t think, I just acted. I pulled one of the iron sticks from my hair and rammed it hard into his chest. The light in his eyes blinked and dimmed as he doubled over. Warmth spread over my fingers. It wasn’t blood—it was energy.
I leaned close to his ear. “Being tangible sucks, doesn’t it?” I gave the spike a final shove, pivoted on my heel and took off running toward the building he loved. The building where his bones were kept.
I didn’t know if my friends had seen any of that. I didn’t look. Right now they were safer away from me, and none of them would be foolish enough to go after Noah, but Noah would come for me. After all, he couldn’t have his revenge without destroying both me and Wren.
Where was my sister?
And then I felt her, calling out to me. I looked around and saw a light in the distance. It was her. I knew it.
Security was too busy with the crazed crowd to pay much attention to a freaky white-haired cat-girl running in the opposite direction. In fact, no one paid me any attention at all until someone stepped right in my path. I barely managed to stop, the soles of my boots gripping at the grass.
Woodstock.
“Hey, Sweet Meat,” he crooned. “Thought we might pick up where we left off.”
“You are seriously beginning to piss me off.”
I slid the other stick from my hair, the bun unraveling as he approached. I waited until he was almost on me, and I could smell the sweat and patchouli and grave rot that clung to him. I whipped my fist up hard. The iron stick plunged deep into his good eye. I felt it pop and give under the force of my strike. He screamed, his eye sizzling from the iron stuck in it.
For a moment, I just stood there, watching as ichor oozed between the fingers of the hand he’d slapped over his eye. He tried to pull the stick free with the other, but the damage was done.
He unraveled as he was sucked into the Shadow Lands. He wasn’t destroyed, but he was out of my way for now, and that’s what I needed.
I ran, continuing on toward the beacon of light ahead of me. Toward my sister. Toward Wren. I thought my lungs might explode, but I kept running. And then I saw her, standing in front of that building, dressed entirely in white, shining like a freaking angel.
If angels had veins of tar running through them.