Four confused faces turned to me.
“How could Dr. Spencer help?” asked Laurel.
“He’s an overseer, here to watch over Sage Springs. He thinks he might know something about what’s been trying to kill us, but he wants to talk to us together.”
“Who is us?” asked Dana.
“Everyone involved in stopping the Disruptive Convergence.”
“So everyone in this room,” said Dana, “and Kayla …”
“Kayla isn’t getting out of the hospital yet,” said Laurel.
Dana nodded. “Okay, she’ll be safe in the hospital for the time being. She has police watching over her.”
I didn’t know if Dana knew this from Laurel telling her, or if she’d bothered to visit Kayla herself.
We didn’t have the luxury of time to hang around. “Look,” I said, “let’s just get to Dr. Spencer’s office before it’s too late.”
Dana got to her feet. “Fine, but if you try anything, don’t think for a moment that Laurel and I won’t use magic against you.”
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. “I won’t give you any reason to, I promise.”
I hoped I could keep that promise.
Wanting to feel at least someone was on my side, I slipped my hand into Riley’s as we walked back across campus. I wanted us all to be united, to face whatever was picking us off, one by one, as a team. But I sensed Dana and Laurel shooting ice daggers into my back, and the tension between Riley and Flynn was thick enough to cut.
I prayed Dr. Spencer would be able to find a way to make us trust each other again.
We walked in a pack down the hall. More students had gathered, talking excitedly, but they parted as we walked through to make way for us.
“It’s the election,” said Dana. “I should be in the hall with everyone else, right now.”
“This is far more important than the stupid damn elections,” I snapped.
We headed to the office. John Spencer still sat behind his desk, concentrating on some papers. He glanced up as we walked in. “You were quick.”
“I know,” I said. “There have been some developments, and we couldn’t wait.”
His eyebrows lifted. “Oh?”
“I thought you were an overseer?” I challenged him. “Shouldn’t you already know?”
“I’m an overseer, but I’m not omnipotent, Elizabeth.”
Riley glanced between us. “What the hell are you two talking about?”
Dana put her hands on her hips. “I was about to ask the same thing.”
John gestured toward the row of chairs lined in front of his desk. “Please, everyone, sit down. I’m picking up on some serious tension here, and we’re not going to get anywhere unless we can behave like adults and have a conversation. Okay?”
Chastened, we all headed to the chairs and dropped down into them. John came to stand in front of his desk, his hands clutched in front of his body. “First of all, let me just say that Sage Springs is a place of great magic. There are certain places in the world where ley lines converge.” He paused. “You know what ley lines are, don’t you?”
“Of course,” said Dana. “They’re lines of power that make up a grid of the earth’s natural energies. Often ancient monuments or sacred places are built upon them.”
“That’s right. Here in Sage Springs, there are a number of ley lines, and the pools in the forest are the result of where two sets of lines intersect.”
Flynn’s eyes narrowed. “You know about the pools?”
“I know about everything in Sage Springs, or at least I thought I did.” He turned to Dana and Laurel. “I know about the coven, and I’m sorry for your loss.”
“The coven isn’t finished,” snapped Dana.
Laurel reached out and took her hand. For some reason, that act hurt me, as if she’d betrayed me by supporting Dana.
He turned to Riley. “I hadn’t been aware of you, though.”
Riley shrugged. “I’m not part of Sage Springs.”
I squeezed his hand. “You are now.” I looked back to my teacher. “Please, explain to us what has been killing our friends, and why it’s targeting us?”
He nodded. “The thing is a demon you must have released during the Disruptive Convergence. It’s tracking each of you down, and killing those it can.”
The black thing I’d seen in the fog. The strange clicking sounds. The creature that had pushed me from the roof.
But that didn’t explain why Kayla said I’d been the one to lure her onto the beach, and why, in my dreams, I’d been seeing others responsible for the deaths.
“So why has no one else seen it?” I asked. “And why would Kayla say it was me who tried to kill her?”
“We can’t see the demon in its natural state. Something about the way its molecules interact with our world simply doesn’t work with our eyesight. If it wants to interact with us, it takes on the shape of one of us.”
“Like a shape-shifter?”
“Kind of. Except really it’s more like camouflage, as if it’s holding up a mirror and reflecting someone else’s reflection back at us, while it hides behind the glass.”
My eyes widened. “So what are you saying? That when we see this thing, we think we’re looking at one of us?”
“That’s right. It can take on the shape of you.”
“Can it communicate?” I asked, panic bubbling up inside of me. I hated to think of this thing taking on the form of one of my friends, and my mind tried to grasp at ways we would be able to tell its true identity. “Would it sound like us, too?”
“Yes. Everything about it is identical, except for what is in its interior. Like I said, it’s a camouflage. The substance from the other dimension is still inside.”
“So we could slice it open and find out?”
“Yes, only how would you know you weren’t cutting open one of your friends?”
I tried to wrap my head around all of this, while a lead weight settled in my stomach at the realization of what John Spencer’s words meant. I remembered my strange conversation with Laurel, how she’d tried to get me down to the beach on my own, and then how Riley had seen Laurel in a different place only moments later. Realization sank in. It had never been Laurel I’d been talking to that day. The demon had been trying to lure me to the cove to attempt to kill me once more.
Laurel glanced around at us all, her face pale, her eyes shadowed with worry. “You mean to tell us that we wouldn’t know the difference? We could be sitting here right now with the demon and we wouldn’t even know.”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
A blanket of suspicion fell over the group.
“Hey, I am who I say I am,” said Flynn, holding up his hands.
“So am I!” insisted Dana.
Laurel nodded frantically. “Me, too!”
I rolled my eyes. “Great.” I’d been hoping to dispel some of the tension between us, but all Dr. Spencer had succeeded in doing was deepening it.
Something dawned on me, and I frowned. “You said we weren’t able to see the demon in its true form, but I think I’ve seen it. When we were trying to close the portal back at the pools all those weeks ago, I saw them climbing up the inside of the hole. There were more, but only one was close enough to the surface to get out before the water came down.”
“Maybe you could see it then because you were still looking down into the other dimension?” he suggested.
I shook my head. “No, I’ve seen it since then too. I’ve caught glimpses of it in the fog, just a hand, a brief flash of a face, but it was definitely the same thing. I’ve only ever seen it in the fog, though.”
“It must be using the fog to get around in its natural form.”
“But what does it want? Why is it trying to kill us?”
John steepled his fingers against his lips. “You were all there that night, weren’t you? All involved in closing off the portal during the Disruptive Convergence?”
“That’s r
ight.”
“So it’s probably taking its revenge. You not only cut it off from its home and all its fellow demons, but you prevented the Convergence happening, which would have made our world home to all its demon friends. Think of the fun they’d imagined having, wreaking havoc on all seven billion of us.”
“Yeah, I guess I’d be a pretty pissed demon too, considering.”
He frowned and pressed his lips together.
“What is it?” I said. I knew he’d thought of something.
“I’ve had a fair bit of experience with demons, and the only thing I find strange is that this one is picking you off one by one. Normally, when they manage to get onto our plain, they prefer tragedy on a much larger scale. Multi-vehicle pile ups, taking aircraft down, release of a suddenly virulent virus. They like to cause as much pain as possible, and while I’m not saying that it isn’t causing a lot of pain, I would normally expect to see more.”
I shrugged. “Perhaps this one is simply more focused.”
His brow creased. “It would be the first of its kind then. These things like to cause suffering, and mass tragedies seem to be the way they tend to work.”
“This one is obviously different.”
So a demon was out to kill me and the remaining friends I had left. Not only that, it was taking on the guise of those friends, so I wouldn’t even know if I was talking to the real person, or a demon in their form. I glanced around at those sitting with me. Dana, Laurel, Flynn, and Riley. Any one of them could be the demon and we wouldn’t even know about it. Hell, John Spencer might be the demon right now, and everything he was telling us was a pack of lies. I shook my head. I couldn’t think like that or I’d never trust another person ever again.
Riley leaned forward in his seat, his elbows resting on his thighs. “So how do we go about killing this damn thing?”
“That’s the tricky part. I’m not sure it can be killed. I think attempting to send it back where it came from would be a better plan.”
“Opening up the pool?” Flynn said.
John nodded. “Or something similar.”
Flynn frowned. “What else is similar?”
“The pools don’t physically open up onto the underworld. They’re simply a place where the magic is strong, where the ley lines converge. There are other places similar around Sage Springs.”
I thought of something. “Like the cove?”
I glanced to Dana and Laurel. My ex-best friend gave me a smile, and I wondered if she’d forgiven me now she knew a demon was responsible for Kayla.
Dana nodded. “Yes, the cove is a place of power. That’s why we always meet there.”
“Is there a way we can call it?” I suggested. “Get it to come to us and then snare it somehow.”
“I think there might be,” said Dana. “There’s a spell for drawing in evil and trapping it, but there’s a chance you’ll be affected as well.”
I reared back as though I’d been slapped. Riley’s hand tightened around mine.
“Beth isn’t evil,” he snarled.
She flipped her red curls back from her neck, and rolled her eyes. “Sure she isn’t.”
I gripped my fist by my side, resisting the urge to go for her. I remembered my comment to Riley about not asking questions with his fists, and in this case I figured they wouldn’t solve any problems either.
John Spencer interrupted. “Elizabeth isn’t evil. I should know.”
“Why do you know?” asked Dana. “How do you know all of this stuff, anyway? I know Beth said you were an overseer, but what does that even mean?”
“I’m nephilim. Half angel. I keep watch over humankind.”
Dana snorted. “Seriously? You’re half angel and you teach math?”
“Mathematics have an ancient pattern that aligns with much mythology. People think their worlds are random, but in truth everything can be explained with mathematics.”
“Are you serious?” Dana repeated. “Magic and math have nothing in common.”
I lifted my hand. “Can we not debate this now? There’s a demon we need to somehow catch and send back to the underworld.”
“Okay, whatever,” she said.
Flynn spoke up. “Beth is right. We need to get rid of this thing before it hurts anyone else.”
“Okay,” I said. “So we go down to the cove, and see if we can trap this son-of-a-bitch.”
As a group, reunited, we rose together and left the office to head down the corridor.
Laurel gave me a half-smile as she walked at my side. “I’m sorry I accused you of hurting Kayla. I should have known you weren’t capable of doing such a thing.”
I smiled back. “It’s okay. What else were you supposed to think? I’d have reacted the same way if the roles were reversed.”
“I shouldn’t have said what I did. I feel horrible.”
I stop walking briefly to pull her into a hug. “Don’t worry. As long as we’re friends again, that’s all that matters to me.”
“So we’re friends.”
I grinned. “Best friends.”
She hugged me again, and my heart filled a little more, giving me hope. We’d never get Melissa and Brooke back, but if we could stop this thing, we could at least try to live normal lives again.
The Great Hall, where the elections were being held, had started to fill with college students. Despite the murders of our friends, others seemed to be in a celebratory mood, ribbing each other and messing around. Death had a tendency to make others live harder and faster, as if suddenly reminding them of their own mortality made them want to fit in more living than normal.
Riley and Spencer led the way, heading to the exit, with Laurel and I following behind, and Dana and Flynn hot on our tail. We moved with purpose, intending on heading down to the cove and using Dana’s spell to call the demon.
But Riley and Spencer reached the big double doors that led out onto the campus grounds and drew to a halt.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, but I had a feeling I already knew.
I pushed between them to stand on the other side of the glass doors which separated the building from the outside.
A wall of white fog pressed back against me.
Chapter
22
“Oh, shit.”
I turned back to the others. “When the fog is here, it means the demon is close.”
“So what are we supposed to do now?” asked Laurel.
“We can’t go out in it,” John Spencer said. “It’s dangerous, not only because we can’t see a damn thing, but the demon might pick us off before we even notice someone is missing.”
I remembered something. “Riley can create a clear path. We can get through that way.”
I looked toward my boyfriend.
He nodded, but his expression didn’t fill me with hope. “I can, but I don’t know how long I can hold it back for. Probably not the whole way down to the beach. I’d hate for us to get halfway there, and I lose control. We’d find ourselves surrounded by fog, and the demon could take one of us.”
“Shit,” I said again.
I turned to John. “You said there were other magical places. Is there anywhere in the school?”
Flynn spoke up. “I think I know one. The swimming pool.”
“The swimming pool?”
“I’ve always felt stronger there. Perhaps we can use the water as a kind of medium to gain access to the other world?”
“This demon may have some kind of affinity with water,” said John. “It might be the reason it needs the fog to move around in its own form while it’s here.”
“Isn’t it just using the fog to hide in?” I suggested.
He nodded. “Possibly. But it came from water, and the fog is ultimately made of water particles. I don’t know for sure, but it’s a theory.”
“So we try the pool?” Flynn said, looking toward Dana.
She pressed her lips together and nodded. “It’s worth a shot. But we’d still need to get through the
fog to reach the pool.”
Riley stepped up. “I think I can help with that. I can hold the fog back enough for us to pass through.”
I looked at him anxiously. I remembered the way he had lost control of the fog that first night back at his trailer. “Are you sure you can keep it back long enough to get to the pool?”
“I can’t promise. But I stand a better chance of that than I do holding it back long enough to get to the beach.”
I nodded, realizing we had no other options.
“I’ll go out there first,” said Riley. “I’ll create a channel through the fog, and the rest of you move past me and walk through it. I’ll walk along behind you and do my best to keep the channel clear.”
We glanced at each other, each sensing the other’s nerves.
“Everyone, hold hands and stay together,” said John. “Whatever you do, don’t let go.”
Laurel spoke up. “But didn’t you say this thing was able to look like us? How do we know if we’re holding hands with the real person, or the thing taking on the form of that person?”
I reached out and took her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “We can’t worry about that now. Everyone here is who they say they are, right?” Everyone nodded, but I wouldn’t have expected anything else. “So keep hold of everyone’s hands and we’ll be okay.”
She smiled back and nodded.
“Okay,” said Riley, stepping forward. “I’ll go out there first. Stay here until the fog is clear enough for you to walk through.”
I moved to his side and stood on tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek. That day’s stubble grated my lips and I inhaled the scent of him. I was proud of my leather-jacketed guy, who just happened to be able to control the air.
“Be careful,” I told him.
He nodded. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
And he pushed open the big glass door separating us from the fog, and stepped out into it. I could make out his shape, the dark bulk of his leather jacket, and the way he lowered his head, his arms spread either side of him. I knew from experience that he would be muttering words I wouldn’t understand, but I couldn’t hear him through the glass. My heart beat hard, terrified long, black fingers would reach out from the fog and yank Riley into the white, but nothing happened.
Twisted Magic (The Dhampyre Chronicles Book 2) Page 17