By the time my father dragged me to his SUV, the hallucinations had stopped. But they left behind an exhaustion so intense I thought I might pass out right there in the passenger seat. My eyes were heavy, every part of my body ached.
What was happening to me?
Groaning, I clutched my head in my hands and pressed my forehead against the window. The glass was blessedly cold on my hot skin.
“…try not…fight it, Everly. It’s only…blessings…the pain will…”
His voice kept fading in and out. But the calm acceptance in his tone made my panic rise, killing my desire to sleep, even as exhausted as I was.
When we arrived at the house, my heart was beating so hard it hurt. This was my last chance, I had to run, I had to…somehow…
“Don’t fight it.” My father opened the passenger door, catching me before I could fall. My muscles refused to work how I expected them to, my arms locking up while my legs were nearly limp. “When the second sacrifice is offered, you will feel God’s presence even more intensely. Let it happen.”
It was already happening. I was being overtaken. And Raelynn…Jeremiah had said they were going to kill her tonight…
“Oh no…” My voice caught on the words as my father shushed me, helping me walk into the house. I was too disoriented to struggle as I was guided to a chair at the bar in the kitchen, where I could see Meredith and Jeremiah seated on the couch in the living room.
More words I couldn’t understand swirled around me. Staring at the white carpet until my brain stopped spinning, I poured all my tired effort into clearing my head. Going limb by limb, muscle by muscle, I reminded myself that I was in control. Curling my fingers, my toes, rolling my shoulders.
A subtle scent of woodsmoke filled the air. I thought it was Callum. I thought the demon had come for me after all. He wasn’t a liar, he hadn’t abandoned me, I wasn’t alone —
But it was only Leon, called here by my father.
There was something different in the way his golden eyes moved over us, assessing the humans before him one by one. My father gave him orders, showing him pictures of Raelynn and ordering him to orchestrate her disappearance. Kidnap her. Dump her car off the coast. Make it all look like it was just an accident.
Gripping the edge of the countertop until the marble dug painfully into my fingers, I tried to maintain my focus. I could find a way out of this. I could stop them before they killed her.
But then, Leon did something he’d never done before. Something he’d never been able to do, because my father carried the grimoire and would cause him pain if he dared to step out of line.
After staring at the photos of Raelynn for several seconds in silence, the demon lifted his gaze to my father’s and said, “No.”
My eyes widened as I shifted in my seat. My father sputtered, lifting his voice as he demanded Leon obey. But he had no power to enforce his commands. My father couldn’t use magic without spells, his tongue couldn’t recall the words to weave enchantments without the grimoire in his hands.
He was powerless. Only the talisman around his neck protected him now.
The rest of us weren’t so lucky.
The demon snatched Jeremiah from the couch, gripping him by the throat as he hoisted him into the air. Meredith screamed, and Father began to shout as Leon squeezed, claws digging into my step-brother’s throat. His face was vicious, contorted with fury as he snapped his sharp fangs.
My father sounded panicked as he yelled, “Put him down! Obey me! Obey at once!”
“Obey or what?” Leon’s voice was strong enough to rattle the windows and shake the walls. “What will you do? What will you do without your precious grimoire? Did you really think I wouldn’t figure it out? That I wouldn’t notice?”
Jeremiah wheezed, clawing weakly at the demon’s hands. His face was reddening, his lips turning blue.
“After all these years, did you really think I’d let you slip up for even a second, Hadleigh?” Leon roared. His eyes kept darting toward me. Me, the only person present who could theoretically stop him, was also the only person who had no desire to do so.
If he slaughtered us all, perhaps it would be better that way. Perhaps that was how this could all be brought to an end. Even if he couldn’t kill my father, if he killed the rest of us…
Our eyes met. His bright with fury, mine stinging with tears and exhaustion. It was only the briefest of moments, but I saw fear in the demon’s eyes, and I knew it wasn’t fear for himself.
It was Raelynn. He was…afraid for Rae? Did he care about her?
Was he saving her?
Turning away from me, Leon said, “Dismiss me. Now. And I’ll let your son live.”
Jeremiah was twitching limply in his grasp. Meredith was screaming at my father to do something. So he did. He dismissed the demon, and Leon vanished with a sound like a bubble bursting.
A long gap of silence followed Leon’s disappearance, punctuated by Jeremiah’s gasping breath.
I slipped awkwardly out of my chair, stumbling into the kitchen so I could seize a glass from one of the cabinets and fill it from the sink faucet. As I gulped down the tap water, I was certain I was going to be sick.
Something struck the back of my head, startling me so much the glass slipped from my fingers, shattering on the floor. I whirled around, arms flung up defensively, creating a burst of heat that exploded in Meredith’s face, sending her stumbling back with a shriek.
She had her arm upraised to hit me again. Her eyes were wide, practically bulging with fury. Jeremiah was still on the couch, clutching his throat and groaning. Father was in the doorway, watching me with a heavy frown.
“Everly…” He said my name as a warning, but the buzzing in my head blocked him out. My arms were aching, my skin burning beneath the cuffs. Wedging my fingers against the glass, I tried to tug them down, desperate for relief.
“You wretched girl,” Meredith hissed. “You couldn’t even manage to defend your own brother. You’ll go teleporting all over creation, but you won’t raise a hand to protect your own family?”
As if I could. As if I, after being locked in cuffs against my will, my magic stifled, my power denied to me, could possibly do anything to protect my family, let alone myself. Staring at the shattered glass on the floor, I willed myself not to say anything.
Just keep your head down. Don’t talk back. Don’t argue.
“Do you have nothing to say for yourself? You ungrateful, selfish, stupid little —”
Her hand whipped toward me, another slap coming straight for my face. Much to Meredith’s surprise, I didn’t let her hit me.
I caught her wrist mid-air.
“Don’t fucking hit me.” Shoving her hand away, I braced myself dizzily against the counter, trying again in vain to tug the cuffs off my wrists.
“Go to your room, Everly,” my father said. He was clearly trying to remain neutral between us, but his voice was tight with impatience. “We’ll discuss this later.”
“There’s nothing…nothing to discuss.” I grit my teeth, willing myself to stay conscious despite the agony in my veins. “Get these…get these things off me…”
But Meredith didn’t stop. “We’ve sheltered you, we’ve fed you! I let you into my house, you little bastard bitch!”
She tried to hit me again. This time, she barely managed to lift her arm.
She was flung back, her body slamming into the cabinets so hard she bounced off them before falling to the floor. My arms were extended, palms toward her, fingers curled. Around the edges of the cuffs, blood was welling.
They were all staring at me. Eyes wide, mouths agape. My father’s hand was outstretched, and he moved slowly toward me, like one would approach a frightened animal.
“Calm yourself down,” he said firmly. “We can talk about this —”
“You said she couldn’t use her damn magic, Kent!” Meredith shrieked, sitting on the floor and clutching her side, as if she was grievously injured. “And now she — Deep One, help us — her eyes…”
When I reached up to rub my eyes with the back of my hand, it came away bloody. Holy shit…that wasn’t good…
“Stand down,” my father said calmly, daring to take another step toward me. But I backed away rapidly, stumbling toward the front door, keeping my hands outstretched. “Don’t make any rash decisions. The more magic you attempt to use, the worse it will get.”
But I was beyond his orders. I’d die if I stayed here.
My father couldn’t stop me. The moment I was outside the house, I ran. Despite the blood blurring my vision, despite the sharp and deadly cold in my lungs, I fled into the dark.
Underneath the trees at the edge of our yard, beneath the tangled roots of a massive blackberry bush, I dug my few possessions out of the soil. Using my bare hands, clawing at the earth until it was packed beneath my fingernails, I could have cried with relief when I unburied the precious contents of the plastic bag. Callum’s sigil and my hand-drawn map to House Laverne. I kept them both clutched close to my chest and kept moving.
As I hugged the edge of the road, my breath formed clouds in the cold air. It wasn’t raining, but little droplets of moisture kept hitting my face, warning me there was more to come. Every time I saw headlights approaching, I scrambled into the shadows beneath the trees to hide.
It would take me all night to reach the house. Hours and hours of walking through the cold, the dark. I kept stopping as I doubled over, dry-heaving, the pain around my cuffs growing worse and worse.
The night was quiet, the air heavy with dew. Fog lay thick beneath the trees and crept along the twisting road. As I neared downtown Abelaum, I stuck to the roads on the outskirts. The streetlights were a comfort, and within the yellow glows of light, I felt safe.
But as the road curved along the lake and plunged into the trees, that feeling of safety vanished.
The night was utterly silent now. The chirping of crickets stopped. The occasional hoot of an owl could no longer be heard, the clicking of fluttering bats was absent. The only sounds remaining were my footsteps as they crunched on the dirt beside the road, and the subtle rattle of the wind through the autumn-dry leaves.
Snap.
I went still. Patchy clouds drifted over the moon, covering the only illumination I had. The trees towered over me. The air smelled of pine, loamy soil, damp leaves…
And rot. A sickeningly sweet, cloying stench prickled in my nose.
A low growl emanated from the darkness beside me. I turned toward the sound. The darkness was impenetrable, but I didn’t need my eyes to know what lurked there.
I was being hunted.
There was more rustling, snapping branches and crunching leaves. As I backed away, standing in the middle of the vacant road, the beast stepped out of the shadows. Its long boney limbs stretched toward me, claws clicking and grating upon the asphalt. Putrid saliva dripped from its jaws, sharp teeth jutting from its rotten jaw at all angles, like shards of glass growing from the blackened bone.
More beasts crept out of the darkness. Heads low, white eyes fixed upon me as they advanced. They came from every angle, surrounding me, giving me no choice but to retreat toward the trees on the opposite side of the road.
I couldn’t fight them. I couldn’t hide.
One of the beasts lunged for me, its long limbs easily launching over the distance between us. Its jaws audibly clipped together as I spun, nearly losing my footing as I dodged its attack. My moment of clumsiness was exactly what the rest of the pack was waiting for.
With a chorus of horrific yelps and shrieking cries, they attacked.
Their teeth snapped at my heels as I plunged into the woods, sprinting through the dark. The sounds of them were all around me, loud enough to drown out my own panting breath and pounding heart. I feared that if I slowed even a little bit, I would lose my momentum and collapse entirely.
They would eat me alive.
Blackberry thorns tore at my clothes and branches whipped my face. My arm was outstretched, my only defense against the massive trees I couldn’t see until they were too close.
One of the beasts clawed my leg, tripping me. I was sprinting so fast it launched me forward, tumbling end over end and knocking the air from my lungs.
Gasping and coughing, I scrambled onto my hands and knees. I was surrounded. The beasts’ eyes glowed unnaturally in the dark with a pale green luminescence. Rotting gray tongues eagerly licked their dripping maws. Their ragged breath was quick and ravenous as they sniffed the air.
My circulation had been gone for so long my limbs were like dead-weight. But my fingertips were hot and tingling. My swollen veins looked like they were going to burst through my skin.
The cuffs were supposed to prevent any and all magic. As if they were punishing me for even thinking about it, blood seeped from beneath the glass.
I lifted my hands. My fingers were like claws, trembling in agony.
Sparks cascaded around my fingers, illuminating the snouts of the beasts as they closed in.
I wasn’t going to die like this.
The darkness was overtaken with blinding white-hot light. It seared through my body, tearing me apart, crackling through my arms. A cacophony of screams and animalistic cries surrounded me, and there was a terrible sound of snapping.
The light died. Embers remained.
A blackened forest swayed before my fading vision. I collapsed, the dirt warm beneath my cheek as I stared at the charred corpse of a beast. Flaming pine needles rained around me, a storm of embers that I couldn’t even feel when they landed on my skin.
It was so hard to breathe.
No one could hear me. No one knew where I was. No one…except…
My papers lay beside me, covered in ash. Dragging my arm through the dirt, I unfolded them. The paper tore under my weak hands.
His sigil. The one thing I needed to summon an archdemon, my demon.
He’d promised me his help. He promised…
Laying my bloody hand over the mark, my throat was too raw and my mouth too dry to give voice to the words. But I mouthed them anyway.
“Come to me, Callum.”
