Keep them busy, Carly ordered, stepping past Damon to head out the door. She didn’t indulge him by meeting his gaze, but she did get a terrifying chill as she passed. And let me know the second any of them leave the party.
So far, you’ve been playing into his hands, a voice rang through Carly’s head. Don’t do it again.
Carly stopped on the steps of the front porch and turned to meet Abel. Her gaze darted past him into the mess of people in the foyer, and she noted Gabe’s arm around Katia’s shoulders as he spoke to her in rushed whispers.
He’s keeping her busy, just like you requested, Abel added, grabbing onto Carly’s arm. He led her off the porch, away from the bustling mansion, back into the trees behind the house. We need to be careful here, Carly.
She shrugged her arm away. No shit.
Abel rolled his eyes. I just want to remind you that, so far, we’ve managed to keep the skull hidden—you’ve managed it. Don’t lead Damon right to it.
And what about Sharla? Carly challenged. Damon’s feeding off her energy, Abel—I can feel it. He’s using her like a battery, but eventually she’s going to wear out. And then what? Will there even be a body left?
Abel shuddered. Carly—
She didn’t have any time to waste, especially arguing with Abel. Carly couldn’t protect the skull unless it was in her hands, and she couldn’t get it in her hands if she was standing here, delaying the inevitable. So she ended the conversation the quickest way she knew how—she gripped onto Abel’s shoulder and shapeshifted, purposefully pulling him along into the shift and absorbing his essence, making them one being.
Carly surged with power as her white fox paws hit the forest floor. She homed in on Sterling and sprinted south as fast as her legs would allow. She could still communicate with Abel, though she ignored his pleas to turn around. It horrified her to imagine Damon ignoring Sharla in the same manner.
Carly kept her focus as she navigated quiet Sterling streets. Most of the town was currently at her home, so it was easy enough to sneak unnoticed to the Crawford residence. She went around to the back, but hesitated to shift here. She didn’t want to give Abel a chance to stop her until she had possession of the skull.
Carly stared at the door handle, wondering how to open it with her petite paws. But just as she was puzzling over it, as if on command, she heard a click, and the door popped open. How…?
But there was no time to question it. Carly scurried inside, kicking the door closed with her back paws. She hurried through the house, on up to the second floor. Here she paused, staring up at the lever that would release the attic staircase. Could she open it with her mind, too? She shifted human before she could allow herself to find out, overwhelmed by the prospect of telekinesis as a new talent.
“Carly,” Abel gasped as she jumped up to grab the lever to release the ladder stairs.
She didn’t respond, didn’t even look back at him as she raced on up to the attic. Carly tore through the sea of boxes, tossing aside one after another. There it was, the nondescript box at the bottom that housed the most beautiful treasure Carly had ever touched.
“Carly,” Abel spoke again, this time from over her shoulder as she opened the box to reveal the skull inside.
Carly heaved out a sigh of relief. She’d known the skull was here, safe and sound, had sensed it every second of every day she’d been away from it, but it still felt good to confirm what her heart was telling her. She prepared herself for the inevitable overload of energy, and took the skull in her hands.
Except, there was no overload. While she certainly felt an indulgence of power emanating from the object, her relationship with it had changed. Now more than ever, she sensed that she and the skull were equals.
“So, what now?” Abel quipped. “Even if you hand Damon the skull, that’s no guarantee we’ll get Sharla back.”
Carly stood to face him, the skull firm in her palms. She felt empowered, certainly, but also restrained. As if she and the skull were old friends, picking up where they’d left off. The skull seemed to reciprocate her sentiment, and just like an old friend, brought new light to her current predicament.
“Carly?” Abel whined. “Are you even listening to me?”
“I’m listening,” she assured him, though it was to the skull.
“Good, because—”
“Shhh!” Carly warned, and let the skull’s plan seep into Abel’s consciousness.
Abel stared back at her with frustration, but it faded to respect. There was indeed a way to free Sharla of Damon’s hold—and the skull itself had provided the key. “Do you think it will work? Do you think it will actually play out like that, Carly?”
“There’s only one way to find out,” she replied, holding out the skull.
Abel marveled at the talisman much in the same manner he admired Carly. “I can’t.”
“You have to, Abel.”
His dark eyes flicked to meet hers. “I don’t have the control you do.”
Carly was happy to remind him of the grace with which he’d broken up with her. “Considering that we’re still friends after all that, I’d say you’ve got more control than you think.”
Abel flinched.
“Please,” she begged, holding out the skull again. “It’s what it wants.”
Abel dared to meet her eyes, but not to question her. Carly knew she sounded crazy, but all of this was crazy. So much for being a normal teenager.
Abel conceded, and accepted the skull. There was a visible change in him as he held it in his hands, but as Carly had suspected, the skull sussed out the best parts of Abel versus the worst.
“It can sense your intention,” Carly explained. “It can sense Damon’s, too.”
“But ultimately, it belongs with you.”
Carly flushed, as if Abel had walked in on a secret she wasn’t ready to admit to herself. Much in the same way that her relationships with Abel and Sharla had intensified once Carly had shapeshifted with them, her relationship with the skull had deepened as well. If she and the skull made it through the night, there was no way she could abandon it again. No, they belonged together, Carly and the amethyst skull. She was as certain of that as she’d ever been of anything.
“We need to go,” Carly determined, heading for the staircase.
“Carly,” Abel said as he followed after her. “We’re not in any hurry.”
Damon’s on the move! a chorus of voices broke through Abel and Carly’s thoughts. Crystal added with urgency, He’s heading south!
Carly glanced back at Abel, her gaze landing on the skull in his hands. It was guiding her now, telling her what to do next to keep them safe. And that’s when she realized the skull longed for her just as much as she longed for it. But why? What could such a rare treasure require of her?
“Don’t bother with an ‘I told you so,’” Abel said as they raced downstairs. “Apparently, you’re two steps ahead of me.”
“It’s not me,” Carly admitted, trying to make him understand. She hurried on through the kitchen to the back door, pulling it open. “Let’s get into the trees, and then we’ll shift. Follow my lead.”
Abel snickered. “At this point, I wouldn’t know what else to do.”
twenty-eight
Carly sprinted north, her fox feet flying over snowy forest floor as the skull guided her. Abel bounded along in his primary form as a brown bear, circling on up ahead. Carly wasn’t sure where she was going, though she soon realized where she was.
Snow fell around her as she stopped at the narrow stream which led to the mouth of the caves. Carly paused to stare into the glassy water, the sleek face of a small, white fox staring back at her. The image was familiar, but not just because she’d grown accustomed to seeing herself in her primary form. She’d seen her reflection like this before—in the recurring dream she’d been having for months now.
Carly sniffed at the air, and Gabe’s familiar scent slammed into her. Her heart raced as the large, gray and white wolf came int
o her periphery. Gabe had broken away from the party, but was he alone?
She didn’t have time to ponder as a rustling in the trees stole her attention. Carly watched as Abel lumbered back to meet them and morphed from bear to man, the amethyst skull secure in his hands. She was fully aware of how exposed the skull was, but—
Trust, Carly.
A chill washed over her as the amethyst skull whispered to her thoughts. For months, Carly had been wrestling with dreams of Gabe and Abel and the skull—events that had just unfolded before her very eyes. But now that they had—
Warmth flooded through her, the skull communicating with emotion this time. The amethyst skull had been feeding Carly the premonitions, a simple sequence of images that didn’t mean anything at the time but meant everything now. The dreams had been the skull’s way of establishing trust, of showing Carly that it would guide her not only through this moment, but through every moment to come for as long as she lived.
“You brought it here?” Gabe gasped as he shifted human. He lunged at Abel like he might steal the treasure, but instead, balled his hands into fists as he spun around to face Carly. “After everything you’ve done to hide it, why would you bring it here, out in the open like this?”
But there was no time to explain that this was how it all had to happen—that despite Gabe’s insistence of the contrary, fate was absolutely a factor that had brought them both here to this very moment.
Something flicked in Gabe’s eyes—understanding. He was able to see into Carly’s jumbled thoughts and make sense of the mess without her having to explain. If only he’d been able to see the hawk swooping down at his head.
Carly pushed her back legs off the forest floor and jumped at Gabriel, hitting him in the chest with her front paws. The action both knocked him to the ground and propelled her petite body up into the air, just high enough to grab the hawk’s tail feathers in her muzzle. She had hold of Damon and knew there was only one way to keep him under her control.
Midair, Carly shapeshifted, and thudded to the ground in her human form. Her right wrist hit first, her bony frame falling in on top of it. She let out a shriek as she flopped over on her back, but it wasn’t just her throbbing wrist responding to trauma.
When Carly had shifted, she’d captured Damon in the supernatural transformation and was now holding him hostage. Somewhere inside of Carly, or perhaps outside of her in some other realm, Damon Phillips was her captive. But Sharla remained his.
Though Carly had Damon seemingly restrained, she couldn’t dig through all the layers of him to Sharla. She couldn’t even see if Sharla was still in there. But she did stumble upon something else—Damon’s direct link to Katia—which was how Carly was able to sense Katia coming before the shifter came into view.
Carly fought physical exhaustion and forced herself to her feet. She was aware of Gabe and Abel’s panicked pleas. She was aware of Damon draining her with every second that ticked by. She was aware that it might already be too late for Sharla. But she was also aware of the blonde bitch sneaking up behind Abel, who still had possession of the amethyst skull.
“Stop!” Carly commanded, throwing up her palm. Just as the word crossed her lips, a bolt of white lightning exploded from her hand, arced over Abel, and hit Katia right between the eyes. Katia’s frail body flung back into a birch tree, and she let out a whimper as she hit the ground.
Carly noticed Katia wasn’t moving, but the shifter didn’t have her attention long. Damon wasn’t letting up his fight, and Carly’s world swam black. But not before she locked eyes with the skull.
You know what to do, the amethyst skull sang to her. So, do it.
Carly nodded in agreement, tuning out Gabe and Abel and even Damon’s dominating darkness. If she took the time to explain, it would take too long to act. And right now, acting was of the utmost importance.
Carly raced past Abel, but not before plucking the skull from his hands. As she braced the talisman in her own, its power flooded through her and revealed more than just how to get out of this godawful nightmare. With the skull in her hands, Damon was forced to drop his guard—and that’s when Carly was finally able to make out Sharla’s muddled cries for help.
Sharla! Carly called back, sprinting along, letting the skull guide her. Hang on!
Carly! Sharla begged.
It won’t be long now!
Wait! Sharla instructed. Don’t do anything until he tells us where the skull is!
I have the skull, Carly assured her, veering east toward the crashing waves of the Great Lake. She’d wandered far enough north that Grant Manor wasn’t far away. Which also meant the steep cliffs overlooking Lake Superior and jagged shore beneath weren’t far away either.
Not the amethyst skull, Sharla blared as Carly broke through the trees, racing over rock toward the top of the cliff. The drop would mean death, but Carly didn’t let that distract her. There are more crystal skulls, Carly—four including the amethyst—and Damon’s been hiding a diamond one for years.
But before Carly could process what Sharla was telling her, before she could really analyze what that meant, Carly reached the edge of the cliff, and jumped.
twenty-nine
Carly shifted into her primary form as the small, white fox as her feet left the ground, encompassing the essence of the amethyst skull in the transformation. With the skull working through her, Carly forced Damon to shift at the exact moment she turned into a fox. Damon was booted from the mystical ether in his human form, and Sharla was simultaneously released in hers—all midair.
“Sharla!” Abel yelled, hanging over the side of the cliff to hook his arm in under hers. He managed to get a hold of the petite shifter and pull her to safety, but gravity had other plans for Carly.
Time was falling away from her, and so was Damon. Carly locked eyes with him, confirming the skull had him transfixed. The talisman’s sting wouldn’t waver before Damon hit his doom below, which meant Carly had to act fast.
“Carly!”
She ignored Gabe as she dove down into Damon, her paws pressing into his chest. Carly didn’t have much time, but hoped she wouldn’t need it as she groped into Damon’s mind. She saw flashes of four crystal skulls—amethyst, diamond, hematite and ruby. Four crystal skulls of equal power that somehow worked together and balanced out one another. Four skulls that had been mere legend for centuries, though the existence of two was now confirmed. One skull, the amethyst, was currently morphed into Carly’s manifestation as the small, white fox, and the other, the diamond, was—
Carly had just gotten a hold of the edge of Damon’s thought when talons tore into the back of her neck, pulling her up and away from both Damon and his knowledge of the diamond skull. If she had bothered to blink, she would have missed Damon meeting his demise. But her eyes remained locked with his as he hit the frothy field of jutting rocks below, a satisfied smirk at his lips as he passed right along with his secret of the diamond skull.
No! Carly cried, pain ripping into the scuff of her neck as she floated away from Damon. It didn’t register at first that someone had hold of her—that someone had presumed it their duty to intervene.
She writhed around to get a look at the giant bald eagle—at its pale blue eyes. What the hell was that, Gabriel?
I was waiting for you to shift, but you didn’t shift, he telepathed in defense as he dropped her at the edge of the shore.
Carly shifted now, spinning around on human legs to confirm what she’d seen from the air. There, several hundred yards down the shore among a cluster of protruding rocks, lie Damon’s body. Maybe he’s still alive, she thought, and sprinted toward him.
“Carly!” Gabe called out, racing after her in his human form. “Carly, wait!”
But she was faster, and soon reached Damon’s splayed corpse. It was obvious that the fall had robbed Damon of his life, but Carly couldn’t just walk away from him. She navigated over the few rocks that separated them and managed to take Damon’s hand.
Nothing.
Nada. Whatever life force had once resided in him was now long gone.
“Carly!” Gabe begged from behind her.
“Why did you do that?” she growled, letting go of Damon’s hand. She traversed back to the shore and stood to look Gabriel square in the eye. “Why did you stop me?”
Gabe slinked back from her, fear shading his gaze. “Because if I hadn’t, you’d be on those rocks right now with him. And I just couldn’t…” He looked away, but just for a moment. “Carly, where’s the amethyst skull?”
thirty
Carly couldn’t blame Gabe for asking. It was a very good question—where was the amethyst skull? Here, she thought it was obvious. But it took Gabriel a moment to catch up.
“It’s a part of you now,” he breathed in realization.
Carly managed a small smile of confirmation as she looked away. It was the skull who’d resisted leaving her, the skull who’d shown her that it didn’t have to. The amethyst skull had pried open a new dimension in her heart, a home to rest while Carly searched out its siblings.
“There are other skulls,” she told Gabe. “Damon had possession of one that’s pure diamond. I would’ve figured out where he was hiding it if you hadn’t stopped me.”
Gabe nodded back toward Damon’s motionless body, the water washing red around it. “Should I have let those rocks stop you instead?”
“I just needed two more seconds—”
“And if you’d had them, you’d be dead! And then it wouldn’t matter if I had all the crystal skulls on the planet or none at all. Don’t you get it, Carly? None of this matters if I lose you.”
“Katia’s gone,” Crystal announced as she broke out of the tree line. “Vanessa, too. Though I can’t say I’m surprised.” Her gaze drifted to the body in the water, and she shivered. “What do we do about that?”
Legends: Bloodline Book 2 Page 26