Banishing the Dark
Page 77

“What the hell is that?” Lon said, striding behind me.
Barking.
“Foxglove,” I said, recognizing the dog’s glow-in-the-dark purple collar bounding down the road toward the shed.
“What the hell is she—” But Lon never finished, because between the Labrador’s sharp warning barks, Jupe’s voice carried in the wind. He was shouting at Foxglove, then answering someone. A girl’s voice. As she cleared the trees and came into sight with Jupe, both of them running as if the devil himself was at their heels, I heard what the girl was shouting.
“Up!”
Up? I swiveled around and tilted my face to the sky. A black shape was falling, picking up speed, getting bigger and closer and—
“Lon!”
The shape knocked him sideways and hit the ground hard enough to shake the soles of my shoes. As Lon scrambled to right himself, I rushed to help him and cried out when I spotted what lay on the ground a few feet away.
“No, Jupe! Get back!” I shouted as his long legs picked up speed and carried him straight for what had fallen out of the sky. But he wasn’t listening, concern for his father giving way to horror as he skidded to a stop behind the fallen shapes.
Two figures, one female, one male, untangled their limbs as Foxglove barked furiously, hackles up. The female was riding on the back of the male. She unwrapped her arms from the choke hold she had around his neck and squatted next to him.
“Get up!” she shouted at him, and my heart shriveled inside my chest.
Priya whimpered and pushed himself up. Blood streamed down his face and chest. One of his wings was broken and wouldn’t retract. He cried out in pain when the woman jerked his arm to pull him in front of her like a shield.
Her hair was tangled and wild; the toga-like gown she wore was bedraggled and dirty. Dark symbols were painted over every inch of her bared skin—magical armor, glowing softly with Heka. And from the way the symbols dripped in places, I had a feeling she’d used Priya’s blood for paint.
“Ma petite . . . lune,” she said between labored breaths. “I got your message, yes? Thank you for being thoughtful enough to send along transportation with your invitation. I’ve been trying to catch this little bird for weeks, and quelle surprise! He appears right in front of my eyes.”
“Run, Mistress,” Priya said hoarsely. I could barely hear him over Foxglove’s barking.
A shotgun racked near my shoulder. “She’s not going anywhere.”
My mother roughly twisted Priya’s head to the side. “Tsk, tsk, Kerub. You’ll have to kill the bird to get to me.”
“No!” I shouted. “Don’t do it, Lon.”
“I’m sorry,” he murmured, bracing the butt of the shotgun against his shoulder.
Jupe took another step closer to Priya, waving his arms. “No, Dad, no!”
“Get back!” Lon bellowed to Jupe. “Run!”
Quick as lightning, my mother reached back and snatched Jupe’s hair. His scream shattered my heart as she exchanged hostages, dragging Jupe against her and tossing Priya’s broken body to the ground. He yelped in pain and balled up on the ground, clutching one shoulder while my mother jerked Jupe’s arms behind him.
“Struggle, and I’ll snap your neck,” she calmly told Jupe.
“No!” I shouted. “Let him go right now, or so help me God—”
“You’ll do what? Use your new powers? My powers,” she corrected. “Go on, Sélène. Try. I’d like to see them in action. You, too, demon boy. Just know that this symbol will prevent any of you from using your demonic abilities on me.”
That’s when I saw the truth in what she said: not symbols painted on her but one symbol, repeated. I’d seen it once before on Rose Giovanni’s signet ring, the one she’d used to deflect Yvonne’s knack at Christmas.
Oh, God. She’d made herself invincible? What the hell was I going to do now?
“Dad,” Jupe moaned.
“Stay still,” Lon said.
“Listen to your father,” my mother chirped. “If my daughter had listened to hers, she wouldn’t be putting your lives at risk. But now he rots in the Æthyr, and I am forced to fend for myself.”
“No one to do your dirty work,” I said, trying to waste time as my brain desperately analyzed my options. I could see Lon slinking away from me, trying to get a better angle as he edged toward Priya, but my mother’s sharp eyes were noticing, too. She swiveled Jupe in Lon’s direction as a warning. “I know you had Dad kill my brother.”
“Your brother was a walking corpse. Your father performed a mercy. He was softhearted that way. And now I’m about to show you an even bigger kindness. I will let all of your filthy little friends live, and I’ll let you live, too. All you have to do is agree to let me transfer my soul to your body.” She grinned, as pretty as pie, behind Jupe’s corkscrew curls.
But something in that smile faltered, and a strange fuzziness blurred her face for a moment. I’d seen that before, when Priya couldn’t hold his corporeal body on this plane. She was feeling the same tug. Something must have happened to her when she crossed the planes, which meant . . .
She couldn’t remain here without borrowing an earthly body.
All I had to do was wait it out, let the clock run. She’d eventually lose her hold and zap back up to the Æthyr.
And then what? She’d terrorize Priya or some other guardian and catch another ride down when I didn’t expect it? Or she’d continue to puppet me until I ended up hurting Jupe or Lon?