by Diana Paz
She checked inside and underneath before shooting Angie a glare. “Where’s the freaking jewel? Where is it?”
Angie’s gaze dropped to her hands. Julia’s gasp cut the silence.
“You have it,” Kaitlyn yelled. Her vision burned red. The little witch had tricked her! All that pulling was to get the jewel loose from the rim of the cup.
“The goblet must have been a hiding place for this,” Angie said, staring at a circle of jewels in her hand.
“Put it on!” Julia yelled.
Something twisted inside Kaitlyn. She threw aside the empty cup, enjoying the sound as it crashed into the screen and knocked it down. “Give it to me. Now!”
Angie slipped the golden circle onto her wrist like a bracelet. She lifted her face like a little girl, like a baby caught with something that wasn’t hers. Except Angie’s blue eyes were as cold as ice chips in her white face. “These jewels are mine.”
Kaitlyn wanted to scream. Angie acted all innocent, but she knew. Indira must have told her the truth, that once a Jewel of Time was worn, no one could take it off except the person wearing it. The magic came from the Fates themselves. Not even Indira could take them by force.
Unless that person was killed.
Angie stood up, her eyes never wavering from Kaitlyn’s.
Was she kidding? Kaitlyn wouldn’t let her stare her down.
“Excuse me,” Angie said.
When Kaitlyn didn’t move, Angie’s hands glowed faintly at her sides.
Kaitlyn watched Angie through her lashes, letting her pass. It wasn’t worth it. The scrawny little witch could control the magic better than she could. Now that she had one of the jewels, she would be even more powerful than before. Damn it to hell, this was not how it was supposed to be. Maybe Angie didn’t know about the jewels after all. If she didn’t, Angie might be stupid enough to take the bracelet off and put it somewhere she thought was safer.
The next time they used their magic, Kaitlyn would dive into the girl’s head and find out exactly what she knew about the jewels.
“Julia,” Angie called out. “Get away from the curtain. Anyone can see you!”
Julia backed away from the wall of velvet. “Sorry. I was just looking for Ethan.”
“Ethan’s fine,” Kaitlyn said. God, she was so sick of those two.
“It’s weird that he hasn’t come back. And he’s—he’s not answering me.”
Wait. Weren’t the love birds in the middle of a fight? Kaitlyn had felt Julia’s crazy-intense emotions. That sweet little boyfriend of hers was also Ethan’s brother. Kaitlyn couldn’t keep herself from smiling. “Aw, poor Ethan. He was falling for you, wasn’t he? But you’re with his brother.” Her heart beat with delicious heat at the sight of Julia’s labored breathing. “And now he’s doing the ‘right thing’ and pushing you away.”
Julia’s head jerked up, her cheeks blazing red and her eyes glassy and bright.
Was this the first time someone had hurt her feelings? Kaitlyn almost laughed. “He has to be heartbroken.” She leaned in and added in a low voice, “Don’t worry. I’ll make him feel much better.”
“Shut the hell up!”
Kaitlyn slid a finger under Julia’s chin. “Ethan doesn’t belong to you.”
Angie pulled Julia aside. “Ignore her. We need to return to the task. Find the portal.”
Kaitlyn glared at them. They acted like she didn’t matter. As if they were so much better than her. She turned away. Today, like every other day, there was someone an inch away from dragging her down, when the only thing that mattered was staying on top. The only thing that mattered was never letting someone else overpower her.
No. She would get those jewels. She would be the one in control. She would get revenge on everyone who had ever made her feel small and helpless and powerless. She would show them what it felt like to be choked with pain and fear. Her heart twisted with grim delight. She didn’t care whether it was the Sorceress or the Fates who helped her do it. All she knew was that revenge would be sweet.
In the meantime, she would have to make nice with these two little nobodies who had never had it hard. What did they know? She forced her eyes from narrowing again. She had to pretend the task mattered. She had to convince them that she could be trusted.
“You’re right, I guess. About the portal,” she said to Angie. All she needed was a moment to look into Angie’s mind to find out how much she knew about the jewels, but she couldn’t look into that ice-blue gaze of hers without feeling like Angie knew what she was thinking. She turned to Julia. “So, should we freeze time first?”
Julia glanced at Angie, as if Angie was in charge. Kaitlyn forced her face to remain emotionless as Angie said, “No, it’s better if we don’t.”
Kaitlyn unclenched her jaw. “At least to get back out in the ballroom? With time frozen, we could go from the stage instead of backtracking all through the opera house.”
“I don’t know,” Angie murmured. “When we freeze time, the creatures don’t have to mask themselves. It gives them a chance to go on killing sprees.”
“Even more reason to freeze time,” Kaitlyn said. “The creatures will show themselves and we can follow them back to the portal. Isn’t that how it works?”
Angie started tapping the side of her dress.
“Oh no,” Julia cried, pushing past them, rushing across the dim stage.
Kaitlyn ignored the blaze of heat from her mark. “What’s wrong with Ethan this time?”
Angie grabbed her arm. “Come on. We have to find out.”
She jerked away from the girl. She didn’t have to be led around.
In front of them, Julia froze. Kaitlyn’s breath left her as she saw why.
A woman emerged from the passage. At least, a woman from the waist up. From the waist down, her body formed an enormous snake that divided in two thick tails. Curls the color of moonbeams covered her bare breasts and cascaded down her back. Her perfect face tilted down as she slithered toward Julia’s retreating form.
Chapter 28
Julia
Julia stumbled back. Why did every other creature have to be a mutant snake?
“An echidna,” Angie screamed. “Run!”
A surge of adrenaline rushed through her body. Run-run-run! But she stood frozen in place. Her gaze skidded to the dark hallway behind the creature. Ethan could be hurt back there. He might be knocked out.
“Julia, let’s go!” Angie yelled.
The snake-girl’s smooth, ivory face tilted down. Her eyes shone with mesmerizing light beneath delicate brows. Julia bit her lip. She lifted her hands to send a bolt of magic at the thing— the beautiful, fragile, lovely thing—but it beckoned with slender fingers. Her pale curls trembled as she dipped her head and smiled. “Come, Daughter.”
Bolts of light flashed, but the creature waved them off. Her cheeks dimpled as her smile broadened. She was like a doll, Julia realized. She didn’t have sharp, pointed teeth or evil, serpentine eyes. She couldn’t be a creature, not really. She must have been cursed to have snake tails. Julia could break the curse. She could help the girl.
“Yes, help me,” the girl pleaded.
Julia felt a hand grab her but she shoved it away. Blasts of magic left her palms as she stunned whoever was trying to stop her from helping the trapped girl. Couldn’t they see she was in trouble? Weren’t they supposed to be saving people?
The girl’s eyes grew large and luminous, the color of moonlight over water. “Save me. I beg you.”
Julia stepped forward, close enough for one of the thick snake tails to wrap around her. She welcomed the warmth, relishing the feel of dry, smooth scales against her arms as the powerful muscles took hold of her body. She no longer needed to stand, supported by the strength of the snake tail. She no longer needed to worry.
“No!” Ethan yelled.
White lightning arced across the stage. The creature threw back its head and screamed. Its grip loosened and it fell to the floor. Julia collapsed. Sh
e pressed her hand to her throbbing forehead, forcing her eyes up. Kaitlyn and Angie lay lifeless on the stage.
What had she done?
“Get out of here,” Ethan said, his hands still sparking with leftover magic. The skin on his face and arms was covered in furious welts. A red slash went down his face from forehead to jaw. “Take hold of the other two and Journey. Now!”
Julia shook her head, unable to clear it.
Magic built in Ethan’s hands again as one of the creature’s tails twitched.
“Go, Julia. You have to go!”
She forced herself to her hands and knees, her vision losing focus. Angie and Kaitlyn. She needed to reach them.
Her clumsy movements, made more awkward by her gown, eventually led her to Angie’s still form. Lightning flashed, lighting up her friend’s pale face briefly.
Please work, Julia thought, raising her hand and whispering, “Restore.”
Magic flowed from her palms as another burst of lightning shot through the dark space.
Angie moaned.
“Thank goodness,” Julia said, almost falling over in relief. She headed to the spot where Kaitlyn had fallen—
She was gone.
Crap.
“We have to get away,” Angie said. “That’s an echidna. It takes over your mind.”
Like she didn’t know that already?
“Where’s Kaitlyn?”
“I don’t know,” Julia mumbled. “Can you stand? We have to help Ethan.” Her gaze instinctively turned back to him and her heart seized up.
The echidna had him in one of her snake tails. His unconscious body hung limp as the reptilian vise squeezed tighter around his torso.
Julia flew at the creature, thrusting her hands out and commanding the magic with every cell in her body. White energy poured out from her mark, covering the echidna in waves of power.
Angie joined her and the creature began moving away, her delicate face twisted in anger. Julia continued to advance, sweat forming on her brow and at the back of her neck as she forced her magic not to give out. The echidna screamed, her eyes going utterly black with her next blink.
“Don’t stop!” Julia called to Angie, whose magic flared twice as brightly as they closed in on the monster.
With a flash of gleaming, perfect teeth, the echidna flung her slender arms toward the sky. Black mist formed a vortex behind her.
“No,” Angie cried.
Panic threatened to take hold as Julia watched the swirling mass of darkness. The echidna leapt back and Julia rushed forward. Angie held her back but she yanked herself free, following after the creature, reaching desperately for Ethan. Her fingers closed around the fabric of Ethan’s jacket and she was pulled through the black mist.
The world imploded in an abrupt absence of sound, of light, of touch. She couldn’t feel Ethan in her grasp. She couldn’t even feel her own body or draw a breath. Terror overwhelmed her. She had been turned into nothing.
No. She had been turned into dark energy. Her essence flowed like scattered seeds on a current of fear and cruelty and hunger.
A burst of sound exploded through the void. Light and sensation flooded her soul so abruptly she would have screamed if there had been air in her lungs. She drew in an enormous breath, her eyes pinpricked with dark spots as she took in the fiery, noisy world she had emerged in. The sky was burnt orange. A mob of people gathered on the lawn of a palace. Angie lay gasping on the ground, her hand clutching the hem of Julia’s gown. Julia followed her own hand, wound tight in Ethan’s jacket. Her eyes lifted to the sight of the enraged echidna.
Angie screamed. The echidna’s free tail whipped out at them, leaving a burn of pain across Julia’s cheek. The echidna’s tail lashed out a second time, slashing across her arm as she brought it up to protect her face.
Angie lifted her hands.
What was the use? Blasting the creature hadn’t done any good last time. They were going to die.
Angie blasted Ethan, the jewels at her wrist sparkling as brightly as the mark on her arm. “Restore!” she screamed.
Ethan’s eyes flew open. The snake tail tightened but he shoved his arms free. With a grunt, he sprang to his feet and punched the echidna in her doll-like face. She snarled, black blood trickling down her lip as she lifted her arms. The mob of people surged closer, soldiers among them with long rifles and gleaming swords.
The echidna’s face began to flicker in waves of darkness. She glanced behind her, jaw clenched as her body transformed against her will.
“No,” Angie yelled, getting up and firing her magic. “We have to stop her. Once she’s transformed she’ll blend into the crowd and we’ll never find her!”
But the people rushed over them like a wave. The echidna turned into a childlike woman, her eyes filled with venom. She turned and ran. Ethan plunged through the crowd after her.
Julia grabbed Angie’s arm. “Come on! We can’t worry about the creature now.”
Angie’s lips formed a thin line, but she nodded once and they ran, stumbling blindly from the crazed mob. Julia held her friend’s thin arm so tight she thought she might break it, but she wouldn’t lose her. Not in this mess of people.
This way, Angie said. Through that row of boxed-off hedges.
Julia had no clue what Angie was looking at, but let her friend take the lead. Her face and arm pulsed with pain from where the echidna had whipped her. She couldn’t catch her breath.
Angie pulled her through a small space between massive, square bushes. Julia was grateful to be free of the crowd. Gunshots blasted and she hunched down, her eyes darting across the night. She needed to get a grip. She forced herself to take a deep breath. Then another.
“Here,” Angie said, lifting her hands to Julia’s face. “Restore.”
“Thank you.” Julia’s eyes slid closed as the soothing warmth of Angie’s magic seeped into her skin, drenching her soul with healing light.
“Where are we?” Julia asked as she returned the favor and healed Angie.
“Don’t you recognize the palace?”
“Geez, Angie. We were almost killed. I wasn’t paying attention to the freaking palace.”
“We’re back at the Tuileries. The echidna slipped through a time rift. Why did you follow after it, Julia? Why?”
Julia stared at her, dumbfounded. “How was I supposed to know? I thought they couldn’t do that on their own!”
“Time rifts are different,” Angie said, exasperated. “They’re little cracks in space-time that form around the portals.”
“Well that would’ve been nice to know two minutes ago. All I knew was the creature—” A cannon boomed and Julia cowered. Shouts rose in the air, fierce and terrifying, but she forced herself to straighten. “The creature had Ethan.” She swallowed.
“You could have summoned Ethan! Now we’re separated. How are we going to find Kaitlyn and bring her over from another point in history?”
Julia doubled over, her hands jammed deep in her hair. “Oh, man. We might be trapped here. We might never get back home.”
People rushed toward them. Their wild eyes glowed with hatred as they spotted her and Angie.
Julia’s heart thundered in her ears. These people wanted to kill them.
“I think—this must be the March on Tuileries,” Angie said, her face blank as she shoved the bracelet from her wrist. “And if we can’t freeze time, we’re in serious trouble.” She offered Julia the jeweled circle. “Hurry.”
Julia took it. The moment it touched her skin she felt a calming ripple of warmth. She stared at the jewels, magic flooding her, her thoughts slowing down as their power grew, making the bracelet feel heavier with each passing second.
“Put it on, now!”
Julia shook herself from the jewels’ spell. She slid the bracelet past her fingers as a man shoved her to the ground.
“No!” She hadn’t pushed the bracelet fully on and it slipped from her hand. She reached for it and her fingers were stepped on as a voi
ce boomed above the commotion.
She had no idea what the man was saying, but he lifted her by the shoulders for everyone to see.
“Freeze time,” Angie yelled.
“I lost it.” Her voice sounded hysterical even to her own ears. “I lost the jewel!”
The man hauled her away from Angie as he kept talking to the people. Angie! She gasped for breath, half dragged, half-marched to a platform. Her stomach bottomed out and her knees buckled. This cannot be happening. This cannot be happening.
The crowd cheered as the man lifted her chin and showed her off. People spat at her, closing in, tearing at her clothes and pulling at her limbs.
Waves of nausea rolled over her.
There was no sign of Angie.
What had happened to her? She had to find her. She couldn’t let anything happen to her friend.
She elbowed her captor, lifting her hands to blast him. Someone struck her across the jaw. A knife appeared at her throat and Julia stilled, her heart frosting over.
The mob started chanting. That was never a good sign. Her arms were roped together. She writhed and bucked, mindless now of the knife. She had to get away, to escape. They were going to kill her!
The hands on her arms were rough. No matter how hard she writhed, she couldn’t escape them. She started shaking uncontrollably as the mob’s chanting grew wilder. So many people, just like on the day of Marie Antoinette’s debut. Only this time, instead of delirious joy, the entire world had gone insane with hatred.
The knife returned to her throat and the crowd cheered. Julia’s stomach roiled. If Angie had escaped somehow, she would still be doomed if these men killed her.
Julia!
The voice boomed through her skull and her eyes darted around. “Ethan!” She fought against the gag that was shoved into her mouth. A rough hand jerked her chin up again. The filthy cloth was tied with a harsh tug. She blocked out the cloth’s foul scent and shut her eyes, reaching for Ethan with her mind.
Damn it, Julia, where are you?
I’m down the path, in the center of an enraged mob that’s about to kill me!
The crowd cheered again, jolting Julia’s eyes open. The sound of gunfire burst in her ears. Explosions lit up the palace in an angry red glow. Someone yanked her by the hair and she blinked hard, her head pulled so far back she could see the sky.