Jack drops several containers he’s carried from the attic onto the countertop, then lights a stick of sage placed in a simple wooden incense holder with intricate designs carved into the surface. Dipping below the counter, he rummages for a small saucepan then places it on the stove. He takes a bottle of spring water from the pantry, adds it to the saucepan, then twists back and forth from counter to stove, adding whatever is in the canisters to the pot while whispering an incantation in soft tones. A plume of orange smoke shoots into the air. Waving it away, he removes the pot from the burner, takes down a large glass from the top cabinet, and pours the contents inside. With a wave of his hand, the steam coiling from the top of the cup disappears as the drink rapidly cools.
He holds the neon orange concoction out to Sebastian, who wrinkles his nose at the awful foot smell it gives off. “It tastes better than it smells.”
Sebastian casts him a dubious look but reaches for the glass anyway.
“Ludivkas has Evan,” I blurt. “He wants to meet with me in three days.”
Jack’s grip on the glass slips, leaving Sebastian to catch it. The contents slosh over the side, splashing Sebastian’s hand and dripping onto the countertop. “Absolutely not. No way in hell, Indi. He wants you dead, and we are not equipped to face him on our own.”
“I know, but…” I pull at my shirt, needing its strangling hold off my skin. “If I don’t go, he’s going to kill Evan, and everyone else I care about.” The image of Evan bloodied and tied to a chair fills my mind. How am I supposed to leave him there like that for three days? How am I supposed to let the same fate befall everyone else in my life?
And why three days? Why not now? To torture me by torturing Evan? Because if that’s the plan, it’s working.
The room starts to sway, and I stagger to the sliding door. There is no air in here. I yank the neck of my shirt down, wipe the moisture from my hands onto the back of my jeans, and then shove the door open. Cool air hits me in the face, but no matter how much I try, I can’t inhale any of it. All I can do is suffocate.
Sebastian wraps his arms around me and sits us both down at the breakfast table. He flips my hand over and begins rubbing circles over my palm. “Just breathe.” He takes a deep breath in, motioning for me to do the same, then exhales. “Again.” We breathe together until the panic locked around my lungs lets up bit. It doesn’t completely go away—not with everything going to hell. But at least I can catch my breath.
“What are we going to do?” I ask no one in particular.
Hard determination mixed with something more primal and foolhardy darkens Sebastian’s eyes. “Now, I go get Evan back.”
His declaration should give me comfort, and in some small way it does, but he also said I and not we. He has no intention of letting me come, and I need to. It’s my fault Evan was taken, making it my responsibility to get him back.
“We,” I say, putting emphasis on the word, “can’t leave him to be tortured by monsters for the next three days. I think we should get him now. Tonight.”
“I agree. It’s too dangerous to wait. Especially after what happened at the gym. I don’t trust Peter not to retaliate. I’ll call Chester and get the team together. We’ve been scouting the club for months, looking for the best way in since Ludvikas closed ranks and beefed up security after I pulled you and Liv out. As awful as it is, Evan being taken works in our favor.” Sebastian slips his phone from his pocket and pulls up his contacts. “Jack, Liv,” he says, addressing them but keeping his gaze locked on me. “I’m trusting you two to keep Indi safe while I’m gone. Make sure she doesn’t leave the house. We still don’t know who spelled her, and the three of you are safest here within the protection wards.”
“You have my word, she won’t step foot out of the house,” Jack says, earning a hard glare from me.
I cross my arms over my chest and narrow my eyes at Sebastian, giving him my best I will not back down stare. “Nu-uh. You are not benching me. I’m coming with you.”
He matches my stare, the worry in his seeking to destroy the defiance in mine. “No, Indi, you’re not. You swore if I trained you, you’d follow my rules and not engage until I deemed you ready. You are not ready for this kind of mission.”
“I’m ready enough.” I heave myself out of the chair, unable to sit still. I don’t care what I promised. I can’t just stand around and do nothing. “Besides, with me, we have the ultimate element of surprise. I can whoosh us in, we can grab Evan, and then I can whoosh us out without anyone ever knowing we were there.”
For half a second I see him considering my plan, but the subtle shift in the way he approaches says he will not yield. “There’s no guarantee you can whoosh in. The wards surrounding the club aren’t like the ones around the center. These ones are layered in the darkest of magic. The best way in will be through the front door, and it won’t be by you. Ava is a genius when it comes to glamours. She can pose as you without anyone knowing she’s not the real deal. Once inside, she’ll dismantle the club’s protections, allowing the rest of us to infiltrate.”
“I can’t just sit on my ass and do nothing, Sebastian. This is my fight too.” I jerk away from his reaching hands, my own fisted so tightly my nails dig into flesh.
Why can’t he see I need to do this? I’ve already taken so much from Evan as it is. His rightful feelings when I manipulated his emotions. His sense of self when everything became twisted. Even his peace of mind since he knows something happened to him but he can’t remember exactly what that something is. I can’t be responsible for his loss of life too. “I’m coming with you.”
He tucks my hair behind my ear with gentle fingers, his gaze caressing the contours of my face. The calm tenderness of his touch disarms my defenses, and I look up at him in confusion. I was expecting him to argue back, not passively undermine my anger. “Please don’t fight me on this, Indi. Your safety is my top priority, and there are far too many players on the board between the vampire and witch attacks for me to keep you safe and rescue Evan. I understand why you want to come. I do. But you are not ready for this kind of fight. I promise you, I will bring him back. Please, let me bring him back for you.”
His emotions bloom within my chest, a raging force of love, fear, and determination threatening to bring me to my knees. Whatever anger I’m still desperately trying to cling to drains out of me.
I press my hand to my chest. “That’s not fair, you know. But, fine. I’ll stay.”
“Thank you.” His lips meet mine in a soft kiss. “I’ll be back before you know it. I promise.”
“Indi, you’re seriously starting to make me dizzy.” Lounging on my bed with one of Aunt Claudia’s romance novels open on her lap, Liv tracks me with her eyes from one side of the room to the other.
I shoot her a glare and continue pacing. I never should have let Sebastian go without me. I know I’m not as skilled as he is, and that I’d more than likely be more of a liability than an asset, but still, the irrational part of me is champing at the bit to do something other than wait.
I stare down at my phone for the umpteenth time, checking the hour and for any texts or phone calls I may have somehow missed, despite holding the device in an iron grip since Sebastian and his team left for Night Life hours ago.
“Indi.”
“If I’m making you dizzy, stop watching me,” I snap. She holds her hands up, and guilt fills my gut. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be an ass. I’m just…” I trail off, my hand clenching and unclenching at my side.
“I know. I’m worried too.”
“Distract me. Go over the sigil spell, or better yet cast it on me if you’ve already got a design in mind.” I flop onto the bed beside her.
“Lucky for you, I did come up with a design.” She scans over my room. “Do you have a Sharpie? I need something to draw with.”
“A Sharpie?”
“Why not?”
“I think I have one in my backpack.”
She rolls off the bed and deposit
s herself onto the floor. Stretching forward, she yanks my backpack to her lap and rummages inside. “Aha.” She holds up a purple Sharpie with a wave. “Found one.” Climbing back onto the bed, she tucks her knees beneath her. “Where do you want it?”
“Um, I don’t know. Probably somewhere where Aunt Claudia and Uncle Caleb won’t see it. So maybe here?” I lift my shirt and point to the lowest rib on my left side.
“Okay. Lay on your side.”
I do as she says, and she angles herself beside me. The tip of the marker glides over my skin in careful strokes, each line coming together in a complex yet beautiful design. Setting the marker down, she covers the sigil with both hands and closes her eyes. A soft bluish glow shines between her fingers, heat infusing into the sigil with every soft word spoken.
“It’s done.”
I run a finger over the shimmering lines. Magic hums against my skin from the energy held inside. “Thank you.” Now I just need to figure out how to best visualize a mental block when someone’s trying to mess with my mind, though how I’m supposed to practice the effectiveness is beyond me. I lower my shirt and lay back on the bed for all of two seconds before I’m back to checking my phone.
Liv takes it from me and puts in on the nightstand. “You’re driving yourself crazy.”
“What else am I supposed to do? Sebastian’s been gone for so long, and I don’t know what’s happening, or if he’s found Evan yet, or if any of them are hurt.”
“We could talk about this morning.” A tiny smile plays at her mouth. “I can’t believe you burned down the gym. I mean, you were bound to burn something down someday. I just figured it would be the house with all those fireballs you’re so fond of tossing around in your sleep. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think it would be the school gymnasium.”
An irrational laugh slips out, and then another until I’m laughing so hard there are tears running down my face. Liv laughs too, which only feeds my hysteria and makes me laugh harder. But I shouldn’t be laughing at all. Not when the reasons for why the gym burned down are so wrong. And definitely not when the world is falling apart all around me—classmates turned into vampires, Evan taken, no word yet from Sebastian.
Liv’s laughs cut off, and she pulls me into a hug. It’s not until she wraps her arms around me that I realize I’m no longer laughing. I’m crying. She rubs her hand over my back. “Everything will be okay. You’ll see. Sebastian is a chaser. He can take care of himself, and if he says he’ll bring Evan back, he’ll bring him back.”
Knuckles rap at my door, and I pull back from Liv’s embrace to wipe my eyes. Jack sticks his head in a moment later. “Dinner is ready.”
Liv’s belly growls at the mention of food, and I let out a garbled laugh.
“You should go eat,” I tell her.
She scoots to the edge of the bed, and I lay in the warm space she just vacated.
“Aren’t you coming?”
“I’m not hungry. My nerves are too frazzled to eat anything right now.”
Liv and Jack share a look that doesn’t take a genius to decipher. They don’t want to leave me alone. One of them has been with me since Sebastian left to infiltrate Night Life.
I roll my eyes. “Seriously, guys, I’ll be fine while you eat dinner. I’m not going anywhere, and I doubt evil witches or bloodsucking fiends are going to burst through the protection spells to kidnap me in the short time you’ll be downstairs.”
Liv hesitates until her belly growls again. “Are you sure you’ll be okay? And you promise you won’t leave?”
I raise three fingers. “Scout’s honor.”
She narrows her eyes. “You’re not a scout.”
“I know, but I still promise.” I pat the bed and hug a pillow to my chest. “I won’t leave this spot.”
Ditching the half in, half out thing he’s got going on, Jack fully enters the room. “I can sit with her while you eat, Liv.”
I throw my head back and stare at the ceiling. “I know you guys are just trying to keep your word to Sebastian, but I’m not an infant. You don’t have to babysit me. I promised him I would stay here, and now I’m promising you. So go eat. Both of you.”
“I don’t kn—”
“Go.”
“Fine.” Jack reluctantly closes the door behind him after Liv steps out into the hall, and I roll onto my side, alternating my stare between the darkness outside my window and the minutes ticking by on my phone.
Just when I’ve reached tunnel vision from lack of blinking, and I’m about to fall into a nightmare induced sleep with my eyes open, something thumps above me, and I shoot into a sitting position, my gaze glued to the ceiling.
I slide to the edge of the bed, my neck craned back, ears strained for any other sounds. There’s nothing, which is somehow worse. Striding to the door, I open it slowly and pause before sticking my head out into the hall. I stare at the stairs, tempted to get Jack or Liv before quickly shooting the idea down. If I can’t investigate a sound on my own, how am I ever supposed to stand my ground against much scarier forces than random thumps in the attic? No wonder Sebastian was so dead set on leaving me behind.
I pause at the base of the attic stairs. “Seth?”
My heart beats double time, as I await an answer I’m half terrified to receive.
Silence is all I get.
I place a foot on the bottom step as dread fills every inch of me. Old habits are hard to break, and old wounds are hard to heal no matter how hard I will myself to be strong. But if Seth is waking up, he might freak out, gain the attention of my aunt and uncle, and bring forth a ton of questions for why there’s a dude wearing a hospital gown hiding out in the attic. I am in no way equipped for those kinds of questions right now. Which means I have no choice but to check on him.
I take a deep breath in. You got this.
Forcing the solid lump of my heart in my throat back into place, I move up another step. But for every one I take, panic creeps into my bloodstream, rushing through my veins with whispers of nightmares. And with the next, I shove them back into a flimsy box with a weak lid, hoping they won’t burst free again. And then repeat. By the time I reach the doorway, I’m a bundle of nerves ready to explode, but at least I made it.
I dart for the light switch the moment my eyes adjust to the darkness enough to see shapes take form in the shadows. Light floods the room and I squint, keeping my gaze straight ahead. “Seth?”
He doesn’t answer, and I approach the invisible barrier glamouring him from prying eyes, mindful not to smudge the containment markings drawn onto the floor. I mumble the incantation to dispel it under my breath. The barrier shimmers and dissolves. Seth lies on the cot exactly how we left him, except for his arm is now hanging over the side, the back of his hand flat against the floor. His arm falling over the edge of the cot must have been what I heard.
I kneel beside him and poke him in the shoulder, sighing in relief when I get no reaction. With hesitant fingers, I bend his ear forward to check on the sigil. It’s at least fifty percent lighter than what it was before, but not gone. Letting go of his ear, I lift his arm and place it back beside him on the small cot, then recast the spell to hide him.
Turning to go back to my room, a box with a name scrawled across it in black Sharpie catches my eye.
Abigail.
My mom.
I pull it off the shelf and take a seat on the floor, where I slowly remove the lid. A picture of her with her arm draped around Uncle Caleb’s shoulders stares up at me. She couldn’t have been much older than me when this was taken. She looks like me, or I guess I should say I look like her. Something metallic catches my eye, and I shift the picture and a few other miscellaneous things to the side.
The moment I touch the rings, memories hit me like a tidal wave, and I’m six years old again, watching her slip them from her back pocket and onto her fingers as the angel backs us down the hallway. Then I’m crushed in my uncle’s arms, screaming, crying, and reaching out for her as she se
nds the band of metal rings sailing from one attic to another and closes the portal.
I turn them over, studying them from every angle. Inside the rings, I find several etchings that look nothing like any sigils or runes I’ve ever seen. I run the tip of my finger over the carvings. Ancient magic—angelic magic—infused inside the metal ripples along my skin. I slip them over my fingers. Foreign words tumble from my mouth, igniting the symbols in a blaze of blue.
Defend and protect.
I fold over at the waist, smashing my hands against my sternum as intense fear suddenly slams into my chest, shredding my lungs, and stealing my breath.
Sebastian.
38
Jack and Liv enter my room just as I’m undoing my braid and tying my hair back into a high ponytail, my bangs parted and pushed to the side. They both pause in the doorway, taking in my all-black outfit: fitted black t-shirt—cropped to show a bit of skin—stretchy black skinny jeans, black and white Chucks, and leather jacket.
Liv’s gaze slides from me to the row of stakes laid out on my bed. “Um…?”
I steel myself and reach slowly behind me for one of the stakes, ready to whoosh out without it if I have to. I’ve already wasted too much time, anyway, trying to dress the part of club goer to blend in at Night Life. “Sebastian’s in trouble. I know he has a team of chasers with him, and I’m vastly under qualified, but he’s in trouble.” I press the palm of my hand into the center of my chest against the pain and fear radiating there. “If there’s a chance I can whoosh in and help him, I have to try.”
Jack closes the door and sets down the plate of spaghetti with a side of garlic bread on top of my dresser. His expression gives away exactly what he’s planning to do. He never did get the whole poker face thing.
I hold up a hand to stave him off. “I know you’re going to try to stop me, and I’m begging you, don’t. I have to go, and you have to let me. Sebastian’s life could depend on it.”
Of Darkness & Light: Blood Descent Book 2 Page 38