I chased after them, clouds of dust kicking up at my feet. They zipped around the corner and I put on an extra burst of speed to catch up. Closing the distance, I flung my magic at them, scooping them up in my electric net.
“Kids!” Eddy skidded to a stop, his voice an anguished howl. He dropped his yellow tool box and sledgehammer.
“Back off, demon,” I snarled at him.
“Nava!” Leo’s face had drained of all color. “What have you done?”
The kids thrashed and screamed in my net.
Really terrified, really human screaming.
I’d just attacked human kids.
I carefully set them down on the ground with shaking hands, shutting down my magic. “I’m sorry,” I babbled.
I’d been so sure.
The kids were ugly crying with snotty sobs. Eddy ran toward them but Leo reached Tony and Clea first, trying to calm them down.
I’d been so wrong.
I ran my thumbnail hard enough over my cuticles to rip them off. Blood welled up in half-moons.
Tony grabbed the diamond out of Leo’s hand, right as Clea kicked her in the shins. Leo yowled and ran after the little spawn, but they remained two steps out of reach.
“You little assholes!” I blasted the kids, who’d morphed wings and were zigzag running trying to get lift-off. I whirled on Eddy, convinced I’d find papa demon, but he was still human, his expression glazed with pain.
“You don’t understand,” he said. “They’re just children.”
“They’re demons.” A ball of magic danced in my palm. “How about you?”
He held up his hands, cautiously stepping forward. “They’re not evil. They’re just scared.”
Was he for real?
Leo snagged Tony by his leg, his blue outfit shredded over his bird body, and brought him crashing down. He tossed the diamond to his sister.
“Riddle me this,” Leo said. “What’s up with the purple magic?”
Tony snarled and called her a bunch of names that were troubling when said in a clear, high voice.
Clea clutched the diamond to her chest and flew to the top of a bright green engine hoist.
“Answer me.” Leo raised her bloody hand. Still struggling, Tony turned his still-human, little boy face to hers, his eyes pooling with tears. Leo hesitated and the demon yanked free.
Eddy rushed me, knocking into me like a roaring bear. His ball cap sailed into the dirt.
“Quit it!” I twisted left, stumbling over my feet and barely avoiding frying the guy, my magic going wild to scorch the hoist Clea was on.
“Daddy!” Clea flew down to Eddy.
Winding my current around the boy demon’s leg like a lasso, I swung him high into the air. Clea gasped but I only had eyes for Eddy. “Tell one of them to answer the question or they’re toast.”
Eddy wrapped a protective arm around Clea, sledgehammer at the ready. “I’ll kill you before you hurt another feather on either of them.”
I used every ounce of willpower to keep up my tough-girl bravado when with each of the little guy’s cries as he dangled there, my heart broke into smaller and smaller pieces. My expression hardened. “You sure you can?”
Clea tugged on Eddy’s sleeve. “Make her put Tony down.”
Eddy glanced down at her, seeing the diamond for the first time. He blinked and reached for it. “Clea, give that to me.”
“No, Daddy.” She hugged it tightly, hopping away on needle-sharp talons.
Eddy lunged for her so I shot the ground at his feet. “You. Stay.”
The kidling demons were starting to molt in distress, blond feathers drifting down to the ground.
I swallowed past the lump in my throat. The demons were the only leverage I had, so I increased the voltage pouring through Tony. Silver-blue sparks danced through the air.
He screamed.
“I’ll answer!” Clea cried.
I released my magic and Tony plummeted to the ground. He hit, rolled twice, and lay still. If I could see him, he wasn’t dead, but I still felt like a fucking monster.
Panting, I brushed stinging sweat from my eyes. “Purple magic.”
“Witch and demon magic,” Clea said a voice strung high with fear.
“Thanks. I’ve used crayons before. A partnership or coercion?”
“No true demon would willingly help a human,” she spat at Leo.
“I’m special.” Leo waved a bloody hand at Eddy, who’d been edging closer to the diamond. “You really want to listen to your kids and stay back.”
He stopped, holding himself in check with visible effort.
“Less insulting my friend. More answering.” I planted myself over her brother’s body.
“Forced,” she sneered. “Magic isn’t crayons, it doesn’t automatically combine. One magic must become submissive to the other for that to happen.” Interesting.
“Binding demons.” I checked Tony’s chest. Still breathing. His eyes fluttered but stayed closed. “I want to know who, why, and how.”
She inched closer to Tony. “I don’t know.”
I blocked her. “You’re lying. You zizu are oracles. What have you seen?”
“Let me be with my brother.” Clea trembled.
Grr. I was the biggest fool in the world. But I was also a twin. I stepped aside.
Clea knelt down and touched Tony, but he didn’t stir. Her eyes turned milky and her head jerked back.
“Tick tock, goes the clock, blood to rule the might.” She spoke in a singsong voice that caused goosebumps to break out along my skin. “Tick tock, speed the clock, the lovers reunite.”
Peachy. Creepy nursery rhyme prophecies starting with a clock metaphor always boded so well for a happy ending.
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” I braced a hand against a school bus, heat and magic overuse making me dizzy, but she didn’t answer.
Whatever. I had at least a partial answer to my questions and we were all going to walk out of here alive.
Eddy rushed Clea, swiping the diamond from her hand, and holding it aloft. His face was bathed in wonder.
Leo and I both sprinted for him, but Clea got to him first.
“Mine, Daddy!” She swiped the diamond away with one of her talons, slicing his flesh open. Blood was everywhere, on the ground, on the engine hoist, on dead husks of cars.
Eddy paled, clutching his arm, and crumpled to the ground.
Clea ducked her head. “Sorry.”
Eddy started convulsing.
“Poison.” Leo dropped to her knees beside Eddy, placed her hands on him, and shuddered.
“What are you doing?” I said.
“Drawing out the poison. Cool, huh?” She was sweating, a milky ooze bubbling out of his skin and over her hands.
“Die on me and you’re so dead,” I said.
She was coated in the toxin. Could there be residual effects for Leo? Some slow poisoning where we’d think she just had the flu and then bam! She’s dead? I had to trust she knew what she was doing, but I wanted to knock her aside and hose her down, because in the scheme of Leo versus this guy, there was no comparison. If that made me selfish, so be it.
“All good,” she said in a shaky voice. “You should get your cholesterol checked,” she said to Eddy, scrubbing her hands with dirt to remove the toxins.
He turned his head and vomited.