Chapter 40
LYRA
Grey, Grey, Grey. His name was a mantra I chanted over and over.
I watched in horror as Kenna leaned over his lifeless body, leaving a bloody handprint on the creature’s skull still covering his face. Her lips brushed against it, muttering something I couldn’t make out.
I expected something. Anything to happen. But all I was met with was silence. Not a single whisper plagued my mind. They were there one second and gone the next. I couldn’t tell if they had truly vanished or if my connection to them had been severed.
The air thickened with heat as the flames began to spread, consuming the church with relentless hunger. The wooden beams groaned and popped as the flames danced up the walls.
Wind howled around me, a force conjured by Cal. The vicious storm only fueled his magic as he tried to extinguish the fire before the entire church went up in flames.
“Cal, I need to get to him,” I gasped, stumbling back from the searing wall of heat.
He nodded, closing his eyes and focusing. A strong gust parted the flames, and I took the opportunity to sprint toward the altar.
The floor was slick with Grey’s blood. My shoes left a trail of footprints all the way to the pulpit.
I froze, my heart lurching in my chest as I watched him slip away.
The room seemed to close in around me, the walls pressing down like they were suffocating me.
I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, just stood there, paralyzed by the overwhelming fear that I was losing him.
I wanted to scream, to beg him to stay, but my throat was tight, the words stuck, lodged somewhere deep inside me where they couldn’t escape.
My hands trembled as I reached out, and began trying to perform CPR. I blew into his mouth, but air and blood sputtered out of the deep gashes all over his chest. I tore off my shirt, using it to apply pressure to the wounds. He’d healed before; he could do it again.
Tears blurred my vision, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t look away. I watched helplessly, each second stretching into eternity, knowing there was nothing I could do to stop it. The reality of losing him sank like a heavy weight in my chest.
“Kenna!” I bellowed, anger and confusion laced my tone. She turned to face me, her brown eyes wide with fear before she blinked, and it disappeared. Glass crunched under her steps as she strode to what remained of the stained-glass window.
“Dorothy, Elizabeth, Clara.” Kenna rattled off names I didn’t recognize. “We will soon have our revenge on this town for what they did to us.”
What the hell was Kenna talking about?
She gripped the spellbook, knuckles whitening as her fingers curled around the worn leather. She effortlessly read the Latin scrawled among its pages, as if she’d written the words herself.
Holy shit. All the pieces shifted into place.
“Veda.”
My eyes snapped to Kenna. At the sound of the name, she stepped forward.
“Kenna is possessed.” I looked down at the wounds she’d inflicted on Grey. I was going to kill Veda for this. For every goddamn thing she’d done.
“What?” Eli asked beside me. His shadows and him moved as one, poised and ready to strike. Eli had always struggled to control his power, and I wasn’t sure when or how he had finally mastered them.
“Kenna’s possessed,” I said with a calmness that didn’t match the brewing anger inside me.
My blood-soaked hands brushed the hair from Grey’s brow. “You’re right, she is a fucking bitch.”
I straightened and turned to face the witch.
“Veda,” I shouted, lunging forward, sending us both to the ground. Stinging pain burst from my knees as shards of glass and bone pierced my skin.
She gasped, and for a split second her flames faltered, giving Eli the chance to steady his shadows. It didn’t take long for Veda to regain her composure and flames circled around us once again.
“You’re pretty,” Veda said, looking me over from head to toe.
The voice was Kenna’s but the timbre was different. Cold and harsh. How had I missed it? Even the way she carried herself no longer seemed familiar.
“So, he told you about me.” Her eyes lit with amusement, and a smile I didn’t recognize spread across Kenna’s lips.
Cal’s raspy cough tore my attention from the threat in front of me. Cal and Emory battled the blazing fire, but it was spreading fast. The old wood caught fire easily, creating dark, suffocating smoke.
“And a witch. Grey must’ve hated himself for loving you,” Veda sneered, disgust rolling off her tongue.
I bent down, grabbing a piece of glass. It sliced my palm as I tightened my grip, ready to drive it through her heart like she’d done to Grey. An eye for an eye, or in this case, a heart for a fucking heart.
“I wouldn’t do that if I was you.” She tsked. “You wouldn’t want anything to happen to your friend.”
I didn’t lower the glass. Instead, I drove it straight into her shoulder.
Kenna would just have to forgive me later.
Her scream reverberated through the church.
A flailing elbow caught the corner of my chin, knocking me to the ground.
A salty, metallic taste filled my mouth, and a searing pain tore from my upper thigh.
A chunk of glass was embedded deep into the flesh.
Kenna yanked the glass from her shoulder, ignoring the blood flowing from the wound. I threw up my hands, bracing for the blow, but Kenna brought the jagged piece of glass to her own throat.
“I’m so sorry,” she mouthed. “I can’t hold her off for long.” Tears rolled down her cheeks.
“No!” I screamed, trying to stop her, but my leg gave out beneath me. Pain radiated from my thigh, and all I could do was watch in horror as she slit her own throat. Blood spewed from the gash, spilling down the front of her chest and to the floor.
The glass clanked on the ground, and Kenna followed.
I tried to rise to my feet, but putting any pressure on my left leg was excruciating. Each movement caused the glass to shift, allowing it to slice deeper.
I looked around. Cal had done a good job at keeping the smoke and flames at bay. Without Veda’s influence, the fire reduced swiftly to embers.
A beautiful red-haired woman came to stand next to Kenna’s spirit. Freckles dusted her nose and cheeks. She seemed so much younger than I imagined. Probably in her early twenties, no older than any of us.
Veda took in the chaos she had created. I took a step toward her, and Veda tensed.
“Don’t you dare touch me,” she hissed, but before she could escape, I reached out and clasped her hand tightly.
“Rest in peace, bitch,” I murmured, watching her spirit flicker and dissolve, forced to pass beyond the thinning veil, fading into nothingness.
The spell had weakened the veil, a wrongness tugging between the worlds.
Power rippled from the entrance. A dark figure stepped through as if it were nothing but a mere doorway, shadows and darkness folded around him, the air frosting in his wake. Death answered to him, not violent or cruel, but absolute. Final.
The hooded figure crossed fully into this world, and the veil shuddered, closing behind his passage. I felt the balance be restored from the damage the spell had caused.
Beside him drifted Kenna’s spirit, hazy and pale, tethered loosely to the body she no longer belonged to. She hovered there, uncertain of which direction to go. Souls often hesitated before crossing the veil, but I refused to help guide hers to the afterlife.
He loomed over Kenna’s body. His hood hid most of his face, but I caught his eyes when he lifted his head. They were black as a starless void, flecked with honey. Ancient eyes that had seen every type of ending.
He wrapped a large, bony hand around Kenna’s throat. His touch was gentle, not meant to kill but to remind her soul where it belonged.
My chest tightened as he glanced at me and gave a curt nod.
A command.
Do your duty.
I scrambled through the wreckage, trying to get to Kenna’s body, my leg protesting with each step.
“What are you?” I asked. My magic hummed in his presence. Like death itself stood before me.
He didn’t answer.
I took Kenna’s still warm hand in my sweaty palm and reached out to Kenna’s spirit with the other.
Her spirit hesitated, her eyes locked onto my outstretched hand.
“Trust me, please,” I urged softly, my voice steady but laced with desperation. I wouldn’t force her, not like I had with Veda, but I needed my best friend to trust me.
She smiled, one I recognized, and took my hand.
And then the impossible happened. Kenna’s spirit passed through me and back into her body.
Kenna’s eyes flew open as she gasped for air. Only a scar remained from where she had slit her throat.
But she was alive.
A sob tore from my throat, my body shook at the sight. Holy fuck, it had actually worked. I threw my arms around her shoulders, making sure she was actually here. Then, another set of arms wrapped around us, squeezing just as fiercely.
“Here, take her.” I struggled to my feet, desperate to get to the altar. To Grey.
“The place is going to collapse,” Cal grunted, summoning one last gust of wind to extinguish the remaining flames.
“Lyra, we have to go.” Cal gave a quick glance at Grey's lifeless body.
I shook my head, refusing to leave him. Not like this. I wiped at the blood on his face, only smearing it more. Hot tears streamed down my cheeks.
“No, please no,” I sobbed, violently shaking his shoulders. “It’s yours. My soul, my heart, everything. Take it all,” I begged, willing him to wake.
But Grey was dead.