Parker squirmed miserably. “I made a mistake,” he started.
Lucas didn’t give him time to finish. “Don’t worry. You’re not going to get the chance to make another one.”
Parker pulled his gaze off of Cassie and glanced at Lucas, as if seeing him there for the first time. “This has nothing to do with you, Mitchell.”
“Come on, man,” Lucas said, his voice soft and dangerous. “Walk away.”
Parker gave Lucas a lopsided smirk. “Or what? You want to take a swing at me? I thought you used up all your second chances with Fiedler last year.”
Lucas’s shoulders loosened, the way they did before a practice bout with the Guard. I tried to catch his eye. Parker was an arrogant ass, but that didn’t make him wrong. Lucas couldn’t afford to push things with Fiedler, not after the rocky start he’d made at Coronado Prep last year.
Either Parker couldn’t see how close he’d pushed Lucas to the breaking point, or he meant to instigate a fight.
“She’s got nothing left to say to you,” I said. Parker’s eyes shifted to me a half-second before he shook his head and shoved me aside. I stumbled, catching myself on a column.
“Hey,” Lucas growled. He caught Parker’s arm roughly. Parker spun around, fist clenched, ready for a fight. Behind them, I spotted Mr. Landon wandering through the crowd, eyes peeled for any trouble. If I was going to diffuse this situation, it had to happen now. I fixed my gaze on Parker.
“Leave Cassie alone,” I said, willing power into the words. The faint tinkling of chimes echoed strangely around my words as they tunneled through the space between us to settle inside Parker’s mind. I saw Lucas tense out of the corner of my eye. I hadn’t used the call since the night of Winter Ball—the last time I’d told Parker to stay away from Cassie. I shouldn’t have had to tell him again, but I pushed that troubling thought down and willed my words to penetrate through Parker’s own desires.
It worked. After a second or two he blinked at us, as though startled to see us.
“Um, hello?” Ally Krect snaked her arm through Parker’s and glared suspiciously at me before turning an inviting smile on Parker. “Did you get lost, babe?”
“Clearly.” Parker seemed to shake the last of his haze off. He looped his arm over her shoulders, turning his back on us.
I could feel Lucas turn to study me.
“I don’t know,” I said, in answer to his unasked question. I finally met his gaze, and saw my own worry mirrored in his eyes. “Maybe I didn’t do it right the first time.”
“I was there,” Lucas said softly. “You did it right. He’s resisting somehow.” Lucas turned to stare after Parker, who was ignoring us, arm still comfortably circled around Ally. She flicked a suspicious look over to us, then angled her body so her back was facing us, too.
“Come on,” I said, drawing Lucas back to Royal and Cassie, who were studying some old carved panels on the walls. Doing their best to act normal.
“It’s so pretty here,” Cassie said, glancing up as Lucas and I joined them. “I can’t believe this place is over 400 years old.”
“All right,” Royal said, getting down to business. “I say we split up. You two take that side, we’ll take this side, and we can compare notes tonight. Deal?”
I glanced at Lucas, more than a little willing to spend some time strolling through the beautiful mission alone with him.
As if he could read my thoughts, Lucas smiled. “Deal.”
Cassie was right. The mission was beautiful. Everything, from the beams in the ceiling to the stones under our feet, had been hand carved by the monks who’d established this mission nearly half a millennium ago. Lucas and I wandered through the sanctuary, letting the peaceful beauty of the space wash over us. As we drifted back to the main sanctuary doors, Lucas spotted a crack in one of the massive columns framing the narthex. He examined it for a moment, then smiled.
“Huh,” he said. “Apparently those monks were hiding more than one secret around this place.” He hooked his fingers into the crack and what had looked like a carved section of the column turned out to be another concealed door. Lucas opened it, revealing a tightly curved spiral staircase leading up. “Where do you suppose that goes?” There was a decidedly mischievous glint in his eye.
“Well,” I said, as if resigning myself to an odious task. “Mr. Landon did give us an assignment.”
“True. This might be on the quiz.”
The spiral staircase was so narrow you had to watch where you put your feet; each tread narrowed from about eight inches to almost nothing as it connected in the center of the spiral. It took a bit of concentration to walk up, and I knew coming down would be another challenge.
But the climb was worth it. Lucas and I reached the top of the stairs to discover we were in a cozy little viewing balcony overlooking the main sanctuary. Very cozy, actually—we could barely move without bumping into each other. Sheltered in our hiding place, we had the perfect view of the sanctuary. Just above us, a stained glass window depicted a beautiful saint, haloed in light, holding an arrow over her heart.
Something drew my attention back down to the level below. A lone figure stood in the center of the sanctuary. A familiar feeling pulled at the edge of my thoughts, but before I could place it, Lucas spoke.
“Beautiful.” He was so close, his breath stirred the hair against my neck. I was suddenly aware of the warmth of his body behind me and ached to lean back into him. My heart quickened. I tried to tamp it down. We couldn’t act on these feelings. We had made a promise to the Guard, to our families. But beyond that, I’d sworn to myself to never, never let myself risk Lucas’s safety again. And yet, right at this moment, none of that seemed to matter.
I turned in his arms.
Whatever reassuring thoughts I might have had about Lucas’s and my self-control, I overestimated it.
I don’t know which of us moved first. Our lips brushed and I felt the sudden swell of the Lilitu storm inside me, straining forward, waiting for one moment’s weakness in my self-control to drain Lucas of his vitality. I pulled back from Lucas as if stung.
“We can’t.” I cringed at the sound of my voice, hoarse with emotion. “We can’t.”
“Braedyn,” he started. I traced my fingers across his lips, thrilled at the soft warmth of the touch. I bit my own lip and turned aside.
“We promised,” I said.
“I know. I just wish—” Lucas pulled away from me, and I could see the struggle on his face. “This would be a lot easier if we knew when the waiting part would end.” He smiled, that lopsided smile that made him look in the same moment vulnerable and worldly. “Too bad Sansenoy didn’t leave you his number.”
“Right. Because, you know, why not just call and ask?”
Lucas pitched his voice an octave higher than normal, and I realized he was imitating me. “‘So, Sans, that whole becoming human thing, when do you figure that’s going to happen? ‘Cause my boyfriend and I have some plans.’”
“I do not sound like that!” I said, punching him in the arm for the poor impersonation. But I couldn’t stop myself from giggling.
“Ouch.” Lucas smiled, rubbing his arm, clearly pleased to have won a laugh. “Hey, can I ask you a question?”
“What?”
“Why haven’t you told Murphy?”
The question caught me unprepared. When I’d told Lucas of the angel’s offer to make me human, he’d been so thrilled, I’d stopped halfway through. There was a part I hadn’t told him. I hadn’t told him about the caveat. Because if I slipped up, if I used my Lilitu powers to hurt someone badly enough, I would cross a line. My soul would be too tainted to ever be redeemed, and my chance of becoming human would evaporate as completely as a drop of water spilt on the hot desert floor. That was why I hadn’t been able to bring myself to tell Murphy, my father. I couldn’t bear it if Dad pinned all his hopes on me becoming human, and then I lost control and crossed the line. It would crush him. I’d told myself it was better he n
ot know, but keeping this from him was getting harder and harder. I forced myself to smile. “I just haven’t found the right time.”
Lucas nodded, but I could tell he didn’t believe me. “What exactly constitutes the right time to tell your dad that you might actually get to live a normal, healthy life?”
“It’s—” I took a deep breath, then went for a half-truth. “The Guard needs me right now. As a Lilitu. I don’t want to distract anyone with thoughts of what might happen someday.”
“Might?” Lucas looked genuinely surprised. “What’s this ‘might’ business? You got a guarantee from an angel that you could be human one day. How does that leave room for ‘might?’”
I dragged my eyes back to the sanctuary. “Yeah. No, you’re right.” I forced a lightness into my voice, hoping that would put an end to the discussion. But Lucas heard the fear behind my words.
“Braedyn?”
I didn’t respond, not trusting myself to speak.
“You don’t have to hide anything from me.”
“I know.” Still my words came out too brightly to be believed.
Gently, he cupped one hand under my chin and lifted my face. “What are you not telling me?”
I reached up to take hold of his hand, but I didn’t pull it away from my face. After a long moment, I came to a decision. “Okay,” I breathed. “But not here.”
Lucas’s brow furrowed, but he didn’t say anything. He simply nodded. I returned to the spiral staircase. I could feel him watching me all the way down.
I emerged from the hidden staircase, trying to get my breath back under control. It would be too humiliating to start crying on a school field trip. I turned to face a row of shadowy statues, pretending to study the carved figures while I quickly thumbed moisture out of my eyes. I turned back to the sanctuary, scanning the room for my friends. If I hadn’t been so distracted, I would have seen her sooner. As it was, I only caught the motion of her darting from behind a statue out of the corner of my eye. I barely had time to react, shying to the side as she attacked.
That tiny movement probably saved my life, not that I had time to appreciate my good fortune. One moment I was twisting to shield myself from an unknown attacker, the next I was skidding across the floor, pain lancing through my shoulder, and she was there, on top of me, lips pulled back in a snarl.
I reacted without conscious thought, my muscle memory kicking into action. I drove my knuckles into the woman’s throat, which should have flattened her. She barely reacted, but her grip loosened enough for me to plant my feet against her ribs and kick her off of me.
I heard someone scream. Lucas shouted. And then she was diving for me again. I threw my body to one side, rolling onto my feet and spinning around, hands up and ready for a fight. She was already mid-lunge. I was dimly aware that she was the woman I’d seen earlier, slipping through the gate into the mission’s inner garden.
She collided with me before I could do more than block her punch. The force of her blow sent me staggering back a few steps. I faced her, frantic, but hard as I wracked my brain I knew I’d never seen this woman before in my life. Could she be a spotter? Maybe a member of the Guard from a different unit? I held out my hand—a gesture of truce.
“I’m not your enemy.”
She lunged for me again, swinging her other arm with more force. I saw the tire iron with just enough time to drop. It sailed through the air where my head had been moments before. Ice gripped my stomach. Whoever this woman was, she was not playing around. That blow was meant to end me. I tried to run past her but she caught me by the scruff of my shirt and jerked me back, hard. I hit the ground with a sickening thunk, red and black swirls overtaking my vision. When they cleared, I saw her standing over me, tensing to swing the tire iron for my head.
Lucas hit her like a freight train, bowling her over before the killing blow could fall. A wave of nausea rose in my throat but I pushed it down and forced myself to roll to my knees.
Lucas was wrestling with her for the tire iron beside a bank of stained glass windows. She released the iron suddenly and Lucas, unprepared, lost his balance. Before he could recover, she turned, punching him savagely in the solar plexus. Lucas dropped the tire iron. It struck the ground, impacting with the sound of a clanging bell. Something was wrong—Lucas gasped for breath with a horrible, wet sound. He dropped to his knees, unable to do more than struggle for oxygen.
The woman picked up the tire iron and turned back to Lucas, hunched over on the ground before her.
“No!” My voice sliced through the sanctuary. The woman turned toward me, and I saw again the lifelessness of her eyes. My breath came out in a ragged hiss of realization. “No.”
The woman left Lucas, bearing down on me. I realized that I had to end this fight, and I had to do it now. Nothing would make her stop, and the next time I went down, there would be no one there to save me.
I charged toward the woman. She lifted the tire iron to strike, but at the last moment I dropped, skidding toward her across the slick, polished stone, feet first. I connected solidly, the force of my kick shoving her up and back.
No surprised flickered through those dead eyes as she hit the stained glass window. The glass exploded behind her like a shower of multi-colored gems, clearing the way for sunlight to flood the sanctuary with blinding intensity.
I skidded to a stop beneath the window and threw my arms over my head protectively. Tiny fragments of stained glass showered down. The silence was profound, but brief.
Screams sounded inside and outside the sanctuary. I couldn’t summon the energy to look up.
“Braedyn!” Lucas called, voice hoarse.
I moved my arms away from my head gingerly, and slivers of glass tinkled to the ground. Glass littered the floor around me. Lucas was half-crawling, half-scrambling forward to meet me. I dragged myself up into a sitting position.
Lucas threw an arm around me. In seconds we were surrounded. Mr. Landon was shouting, his usually jovial face a mask of panic. Annie was screaming into the phone, eyes streaming. And beyond them, a shell-shocked crowd of my classmates watched in horrified fascination.
The only thing that felt real was Lucas’s arm around me. I realized I was clinging to him ferociously when Mr. Landon tried to pull us apart.
“Are you hurt?” he was asking. “Braedyn, are you hurt?”
“Don’t,” I whispered, tightening my grip on Lucas’s shirt. Mr. Landon pulled back helplessly.
“How long?” he asked Annie. “How long until the ambulance gets here?”
I didn’t hear Annie’s response. I was looking at Lucas’s face. “Did you see?” I whispered. “Did you see her eyes?” Lucas nodded grimly. So I wasn’t crazy. The woman who’d attacked us?
She was a Thrall.
We were still clinging to each other 15 minutes later when the paramedics arrived.
Chapter 2
As far back as I could remember, the moon had been a comforting beacon in the darkness. But tonight, the thin crescent sliver seemed distant, unfeeling. My shoulder ached. A student who’d seen the attack reported that the woman had leapt for me, clubbing that tire iron across my shoulder. I supposed I was lucky that the fracture was my only serious injury from the day. Most of the large stained glass shards had fallen out of the window with the woman. The few smaller fragments that had rained down on me left only superficial cuts on the skin of my hands and my lower back. My jacket had ridden up during my slide across the floor; otherwise, I might have escaped with even fewer cuts. My arm was bound up in a complicated sling, but I knew I’d only have to wear it for a few days, not the month or more the doctors had prescribed. There were a few perks to being Lilitu. One good night’s sleep would ease the pain, three or four would heal the fracture completely.
I glanced out the window to the Guard’s house next door. Lucas’s drapes were closed, but I could see the light was on. It was close to midnight, but he was still awake. Probably getting grilled by Gretchen again, going over the w
hole attack in excruciating detail. As the Guard’s resident spotter in Puerto Escondido, Gretchen would have been on high alert just knowing there was a Thrall in town. But the Thrall had just attacked Lucas, the last family Gretchen had in this world. She’d drive herself to find the Lilitu responsible, no matter what it cost her.
A Thrall in town. We hadn’t seen one since Ais’s death. It hadn’t surprised either Lucas or me to learn that after she’d fallen through the stained glass window, the Thrall had rolled to her feet and stood up. What did shock us was that instead of returning to the sanctuary to renew her attack on us, the Thrall had fled the scene. Thralls don’t give up. Once they have their orders, they pursue their objective until they are killed or incapacitated—or until the orders are rescinded. I couldn’t guess what the Lilitu who’d sent that Thrall intended. I only knew that it meant a Lilitu was back in Puerto Escondido.
I tried to tell myself we’d all known it was just a matter of time before the Lilitu resurfaced. Ais had made it pretty clear that a growing number of Lilitu were hell-bent on breaking through the Wall that separated our worlds. This war was ancient, but the final battle was coming.
Knowing it was coming and seeing it begin were two very different things.
I shivered under the blankets, wishing Lucas would fall asleep. I needed to see him, to feel his arms around me in the only safe place we could embrace—in the dream.
I heard a voice downstairs, full of tension. I tried to push it out of my mind, assuming Hale had come over to talk about the attack with Dad. Hale might have been the leader of this unit of the Guard, but he sought out Dad’s advice often. More and more often, it seemed to me. I heard another muffled voice. This one sent a jolt down my spine. Thane was here, too?
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