Chapter 30
Chapter
Thirty
“Mom!” Leo shouts. He starts to rush forward, but Antonio catches him by the arm. Claire looks between us skeptically. I literally just told her we’re trying to escape this woman, and now my brother is calling her Mom.
“It’s not her anymore,” Antonio reminds him, pulling him back.
“Hello, boys,” Vivian says in a singsong voice. Vaelric is trying to appeal to our emotions. Which is almost funny. He’s been inside Vivian’s head for days. He should know better than to approach us with affection. Vivian barely did that when she wasn’t possessed.
“Get behind me,” I tell Claire. I hold out my hand and summon a ball of energy. “If you want her, you’re going to have to go through me.”
Vivian shrugs. She blinks a few times, and I get a better look at her.
Her blue eyes are bloodshot and clouded.
The skin around her lips is dry and cracked.
Her hands are filthy. Demons burn through human bodies quickly.
I always assumed the more powerful the demon, the faster it would destroy its host. Maybe I had that backward.
Maybe the stronger the demon, the more sophisticated it is.
The less it needs to drain just to keep a human body functioning.
“I was going to go through you anyway,” Vaelric says. His demonic voice blends with Vivian’s. “You’ve been very helpful, Florence.” He smiles. “First you released me from my prison.” His gaze shifts toward Claire. “And now you brought me the other half of the key.”
“I’m not going to let you trick her the way you tricked me.” I keep my hand raised. “My family locked you up once. We can do it again.” I stare directly into Vivian’s eyes. “And this time, you won’t have your little group of demon cronies backing you up.”
Something flickers across his face. Surprise, which is interesting.
Maybe he doesn’t know how quickly we killed the chaos demon.
Maybe he thought I would still be dealing with the fallout.
Maybe he assumed the coalition would keep me busy long enough for him to get to Claire first. But all the maybes in the world don’t change what’s happening right now.
“Mom,” Leo says again, his voice breaking. “I know you’re in there somewhere. You can fight this.”
“Vivian doesn’t want to fight this,” Vaelric tells him. And for some reason, I believe him. I take a small step backward, pushing Claire closer to Antonio. He isn’t going to like what I’m thinking. But our best chance is for me to keep Vaelric occupied while my brothers get Claire out of here.
They don’t stand a chance against his power. Honestly, I’m not sure I do either.
“You know,” Vaelric says, “I hate sounding cliché.” He lifts one hand. “So I’ll give you the choice anyway.” His mouth curves into a smile. “The easy way.” He snaps his fingers and Antonio and Leo collapse.
“No!” I scream and instinctively move toward them. For one horrible second, I think Vaelric ripped the life out of Antonio. He brought him back once. I know he can take it away. Vaelric clicks his tongue.
“Don’t worry, little witch.” He glances down at them. “They’re alive.”He smiles. “For now.” My entire body goes cold. “Give me the girl, and they wake up in two minutes.” I suck in a breath and force my shoulders back.
“Then I guess it’s my turn to sound cliché.” Energy builds in my palm. “Over my dead body, motherfucker.” I throw the ball of energy. It slams into Vivian’s chest.
“Run!” I scream at Claire. She turns. Her foot catches on Antonio’s outstretched leg, and she crashes hard to the ground. The blast barely seems to affect Vaelric. Vivian’s skin burns where the magic hit, but he doesn’t even react to the pain.
Fuck.
I can’t fight him like this. Our best option is getting out. But I can’t leave my brothers unconscious on the ground. I gather everything inside me and throw out both hands. A wall of telekinetic force slams into Vivian. Her body flies backward several yards and rolls across the pavement.
I turn toward Antonio and Leo. Maybe I can hit them with enough energy to wake them— Then it hits me. Marie said Vaelric needs a conduit. He has the power. Someone else has to wield it. My heart stops.
If his power can flow through someone else… Then maybe I can take it. The thought is reckless.
Possibly suicidal.
But I don’t have another option. I don’t need enough to kill him. I just need enough to hurt him. Enough to break his hold. Enough to get us out of here alive.
“Stay down,” I tell Claire.
I straighten as Vaelric gets back on his feet. He raises both hands. Dark clouds of magic gather around his palms. Then he throws them at me. I put up my hands and summon a shield.
The black energy slams into it and ricochets toward the ground, sizzling against the pavement before dissolving into smoke. I have no idea how to siphon someone else’s power. I don’t know how to wield dark magic. I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.
All I know is there’s rage inside me. Fear. Desperation. And I let all of it guide me. I throw my hands forward and open myself the same way I do when I summon energy from around me.
Only this time, I reach for him.
Not Vivian.
The thing inside her.
I stare directly into her eyes.
Past her.
Words form in my mind. A spell I’ve never learned. I say them anyway. “Potestas tua, ad me veni. Quod tenes, mihi da. Vinculum frange. Tenebras tuas ad me trahe. Per me fluat. Per me pareat.” Whispers rise around me. Not one voice. Dozens.
Vivian’s body goes rigid. My breath catches. I have him. I step closer. Grab Vivian’s hand and keep chanting. Dark power pours into me. My entire body starts to hum. It feels wrong. Cold and electric at the same time. Too much. Then I feel something else.
A heartbeat. It’s weak, but it’s there. Vivian. She’s alive. Really alive. And suddenly I understand exactly what I’m doing. The power I’m pulling from Vaelric is moving through her. And every bit I take is taking something from Vivian too.
Her life.
What Marie said the Crone did: death magic. She stole life for selfish reasons. For power. For immortality. I’m doing it to save us. To save Claire. To keep the Crone locked inside the Bellamy prison. But that doesn’t erase the cost.
Vivian’s pulse weakens beneath my fingers.
I know I should stop. I don’t. I let go of her hand and stumble backward.
Dark clouds of energy swirl around my body.
I spread my arms and let it build. Then I throw everything forward.
The force slams into Vivian’s chest. Her body arches violently, like she’s been struck by lightning.
The smell of sulfur fills the air. She convulses once.
Then collapses. But Vaelric doesn’t fall with her.
A dark, smoky shape tears free from her body.
For the first time, I see him without a human face. Not clearly. Just an outline. Something massive and wrong. I take whatever power remains inside me and throw it at him. I bring my hands together and then rip them apart, like tearing something open from the inside.
The shadow bursts. Black smoke explodes around us, and the smell of sulfur becomes overwhelming. Vaelric lets out a screech that seems to vibrate through my bones.
Then he disappears.
Vivian lies motionless on the ground.
“Is he dead?” Claire asks.
Her voice is barely above a whisper.
“No.”
I stare at the empty space where he stood. “Just gone.” My hands fall to my sides. Then I look at Vivian. Claire follows my gaze.
“She died?” she asks quietly. I don’t answer immediately. Because she saw. She saw everything.
“Yes.” Behind me, my brothers start to move. I immediately drop to my knees beside them. My body is shaking like I just downed twelve shots of espresso. For some ridiculous reason, part of me thinks I can get them awake and out of here before they see Vivian. Obviously, I can’t.
Leo wakes first and he sees her. My heart hurts for him and guilt ripples through me.
“Mom?” He scrambles across the pavement and pulls Vivian into his arms. Claire’s eyes dart toward me. Then toward Leo.
“The demon killed her,” she says quickly. I look at her, eyes wide. She’s lying on my behalf. “Wren tried to stop him.”
Leo cradles Vivian against his chest and starts crying.
Antonio is slower to sit up. When he sees her, something in his face goes completely blank.
For a moment, he just stares. Then the leader in him takes over.
Probably some kind of coping mechanism. It’ll hit him later. Right now, we need to survive.
“Vaelric isn’t dead,” I say. “He turned into smoke and disappeared.”
Antonio blinks rapidly. I catch the tears in his eyes before he looks away. “We need to go.”
“And just leave her?” Leo chokes out.
Antonio’s expression cracks. “Yes.” His voice breaks. “The Order will find her.” He swallows hard. “They’ll give her a proper hunter’s funeral.”
Claire gets shakily to her feet and moves behind me.
She looks at me differently now. Maybe with awe.
Maybe fear. Honestly, both would be reasonable.
I hate that she had to see any of this. But more than anything, I hate the Order for putting all of us here in the first place.
Antonio hooks an arm around Leo and forces him to his feet.
Then we run.
No one says anything.
We don’t stop until we’re several blocks away where Antonio calls for the car.
We go straight to the airport. Claire, who just watched me fight the demon that’s been tormenting her for weeks, has apparently decided she trusts me.
Or she’s terrified of me. Again, both are fair.
We board the plane as quickly as possible.
I stare out the window at the tarmac while we wait to leave. Every passing second feels like the Pittsburgh police are about to race onto the runway and drag me off in handcuffs. I don’t really breathe until we’re in the air. The flight home is the most tense, uncomfortable plane ride of my life.
Nobody talks much. Leo stares out the window. Antonio keeps rubbing his hands over his face. Claire eventually falls asleep. And I sit there with Vivian’s last heartbeat still echoing in my head.
I don’t know if I killed her. No. That’s a lie. I do know. I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do with that knowledge. We’re descending toward Charlotte when something slams against the side of the plane.
Claire jumps.
“What the hell was that?” Antonio asks.
A moment later, the pilot’s voice comes over the speaker.
“Sorry, folks. Looks like a bird flew into us on approach.”
“Jesus Christ,” Antonio mutters, pinching the bridge of his nose.
It feels like another hour before the plane finally comes to a stop. The door opens.
And Xavier is there, waiting for me. My heart leaps painfully in my chest at the sight of him.
I turn toward Claire and offer her my hand as we descend the stairs.
“Oh.” Claire suddenly tugs me sideways and runs to the bird on the ground. “It was a goose.”
I follow her gaze. A mangled bird lies on the pavement several feet from the plane.
“I’ve heard about geese hitting airplanes before,” she says. “I’ve just never actually seen it happen.”The poor thing is very obviously dead. “Do you think we could take it to a vet?” Claire asks.
I look at her.
The girl was attacked by a demon less than a few hours ago, and somehow she’s worried about a goose.
“I don’t think there’s much a vet could do.
” I step closer and bend down. Without thinking, I reach toward it.
Dark blue energy shoots from my fingertips.
The goose jerks. Claire screams and jumps backward. I stumble away.
The bird’s wings flap violently. Then it pushes itself upright. For one impossible second, it just stands there. Alive.
Then it takes off.
Claire and I stare after it. Neither of us says a word. My blood turns cold. That goose was dead. There is only one kind of magic that brings back the dead. Necromancy. I look down at my hands.
What have I done?