Chapter 23
Twenty-Three
Payne
"These two are the last ones?”
I caught the sound of Joy’s voice several feet behind me. My life’s mission—a bit of a life chore if you knew Joy—was to steer clear of her. Avoiding her was at the top of my list along with finding out what the hell I was. Two types of torture I didn’t want to get into.
“Yeah, it is,” Maureen replied with a sigh that I was sure we all felt.
Going back and forth between here and the human world to get these children to their homes—places all around the world—had worn us all out.
I used a portal chip, and I was exhausted. I could only imagine how the rest of them felt using up energy as they faded over and over again.
“Let’s rest up before figuring out what we do from here,” Grim told us all as he placed his arm around Melanie’s shoulder.
My spine tingled, and I didn’t even have to turn around to know why. I pretended not to hear her and slid my hand down the front of my jeans where my portal chip rested in my pocket. I could press it before—“Payne,” Joy’s voice was behind me, soft and innocent.
Breathing in, I faced her with steely eyes just as Maureen muttered. “What the fuck?”
I glanced around to see what was going on.
“Isabella?” Kitty called out hesitantly, and I could see why.
Isabella stood at the entrance of the cave dressed in nothing but a white towel.
Her hair was wet and dripping down her tiny shoulders, but it was her skin, ashy and dull, covered in little black lines running rampant beneath it that chilled the air.
Just like Delena’s had been the night she died, and just like Isabella’s had done right before Sebastian had reached out and stopped it.
There was no life in her eyes—they were void, like Sebastian’s witch was vacant inside her own body.
Whatever was happening to Isabella was Harvest’s doing.
Only Sebastian wasn’t with her.
Something wasn’t right. I reached out and grabbed my sword, which rested in its sheath against my back and waited. For what, I wasn’t sure.
“Where’s Sebastian?” August asked her.
“Is that what you were talking about?” Melanie turned to me and I nodded.
“I don’t know what happens when she gets like this, but you can’t touch her,” Maureen warned us, materializing a sword in her hand.
“Maureen!” Joy chided her sister, but Joy hadn’t seen what this little witch was capable of and how different she was when those black lines were all over her body.
“What?” Maureen hissed at her. “Sebastian’s not here and he’s the only one that can stop whatever,” she started waving her arm in circles toward Isabella, “this is when it happens.”
“Barron. Kitty,” Grim whispered slowly. “Go check on Sebastian.” They both nodded and faded in search of their brother.
Joy took a step toward the little witch. “Isabella, what’s wrong?”
I gritted my teeth as I watched Joy’s ponytail sway as she got closer to her. “Joy,” I hissed. This woman. This woman. She didn’t know anything. She fucking drove me crazy. One of the reasons I stayed the hell away from her.
“One bad,” I could barely hear Isabella muttering under her breath as she tipped forward, stumbled a second, then caught herself before she fell. “Six to go.”
“What is she saying?” Prudence asked the million-dollar question.
“What’s on her skin?” Joy mumbled as she continued to venture closer to Isabella. Everyone was silent and still as we watched her go.
“It’s whatever Harvest did to her,” I said hurriedly. “So don’t fucking get too close. She’s in some sort of trance from the looks of it. Check out her eyes.” Only the whites were visible.
Any other time Joy would have taken notice that I had spoken to her, but not now.
“Did you bring the syringe we use on Barron?” Grim threw the question in the air for anyone to answer.
“I got it.” Maureen whipped it out of her pocket and held it up for him to see.
She smirked, one we all knew well, as she glanced toward Isabella.
“We just can’t let her touch our skin. I got this.
” With the roll of her wrists, we watched as she covered herself in black material that hugged the shape of her body and she even materialized a ski-mask that covered her entire face.
Prudence sighed. “There she goes.”
“Joy!” Melanie yelled at her daughter, and I whipped my head forward to see Isabella running toward Joy.
Everyone made moves to get to her, but my feet pounded against the rusted metal of the cave floor before I even knew I was.
Joy faded, then re-faded behind her, but Isabella anticipated her moves and blasted her with a ball of magic.
Joy squalled and retreated, but her feet started sliding forward against the metal ground like she was being pulled forward.
Her eyes widened just as she materialized a sword in her hand.
“She’s pulling me forward somehow,” Joy panicked as she looked up at Isabella’s outstretched hand.
Grim jumped in front of her, Maureen came up around Isabella with the syringe along with August, but she sensed them and swatted her hand to the side and both of them went flying backward.
My feet skidded across the floor as I moved in beside Grim and scooped Joy up in my arms. She gasped against the side of my neck and I was quick to create space between us the moment we were away from Isabella.
I placed her on her feet. “See why you shouldn’t just jump into things?
” I scolded her, and her cheeks burned red.
Joy lifted her sword, morphing it into a green rope as she took off like a bolt of lightning toward Isabella. “We can’t use anything that will hurt her,” she screamed. I swore following her.
Everyone was covered head to toe in black, even their faces by the time I stopped chasing Joy. Isabella’s dark magic flowed around her fingertips as she dodged every attempt made at her. No one was trying to hurt her. We just needed Maureen to get close enough to use the syringe.
Joy stopped in front of me, materialized something in her hand, and tossed it at me before she started moving again. “There.” Since I didn’t have all the handy powers they had, she lobbed a pair of gloves at me along with something to slip over my face since my arms were covered by my jacket.
Once I slipped them on, I glanced up. We looked like a bunch of robbers bouncing around the room from one tiny chick.
Isabella disappeared, most likely she was using a portal chip. “Where the fuck is she gonna pop up?” August said, glancing around like the rest of us.
There!
“Prudence!” Maureen screamed just as Isabella tossed a ball of magic at her, burning the fabric of her clothes.
She hissed and faded. Isabella turned on Maureen.
Only not really. Her eyes were on Maureen, but it was Prudence who she waited for the moment she faded behind her, the witch turned around so quickly, touching the burned part of her hand.
Prudence dropped to the ground. Sebastian wasn’t here to make her stop, and she wasn’t going to let go of Prudence.
Maureen ran up to her, grabbed Isabella by her naked shoulders, and yanked her off of her sister.
The strength of her throw sent Isabella several feet into the air.
Her towel fell somewhere in the process.
She stood back up almost mechanically, and I took in the sadness that was Isabella.
That thing wasn’t her, and we couldn’t keep idling around.
“That’s not her anymore,” I muttered what we were all thinking. “Sebastian’s not here.”
“It’s all over her.” There was sorrow in Grim’s voice.
“Maureen…” Joy said in a hushed tone. “She’s coming for Prudence again.”
Maureen lifted her head up, eyes murderous as she saw Isabella going after Prudence who was thrashing on the ground in pain. “Fuck this!”
“Wait.” Joy faded, and I knew where the hell she was going. To stop Maureen. “Sebastian would never forgive you,” Joy told her the moment she faded in front of her.
Maureen pushed her aside. “I can live with that. We can’t let that kind of darkness run rampant, especially when another entity is after our power!”
Maureen bent down and pulled daggers out of her boots, tossing several at once. Isabella evaded every single one of them with magic as she walked forth.
Everyone moved in on Isabella at once. I sprinted toward Joy whose gaze was locked on Maureen. A powerful wave of magic scattered us everywhere, and once again, Isabella vanished with a portal chip while we were all picking our asses off the ground.
Hell’s bells. We couldn’t get close to her at all.
I jumped to my feet, only to find her next to me. Up close, the black veins crawling beneath her skin were harsher and uglier. Seeing her like this, I was overcome with grief for her and for Sebastian.
Because he was never going to forgive us.
“We have to do something!” Maureen yelled, but it was me she was looking at since I was closest to her.
I brought my hand up to my shoulder slowly, making my way to the shotgun that rested in the harness on my back. “Don’t!” It was Joy yelling at me because she saw what I was doing.
Isabella used her portal chip again, and I let out a silent, relieved breath that I wasn’t the one that had to take her down.
“Who is she going for?” Maureen said quickly, circling around trying to look for her. “Prudence again?” Just as she said it, her eyes bounced over to her sister lying on the ground, but Isabella wasn’t there.
“Shit!” August swore as Isabella’s magic singed his clothes to reveal burned skin for her to touch.
He looked at her, barely jumping in time.
“What did I say about you keeping a distance from me? Your touch doesn’t work on me like it does Sebastian.
” Isabella wasn’t present to respond to his words. I didn’t know what stood in her place.