Sebastian looked at her, surprised.
"We don't have time to have this conversation, so I'm only going to say this once. If you love me, trust me. From this moment, until the night ends, I need you to trust me," he told her. "They didn't get in through me."
Abby looked into his face and nodded.
Lydie looked back and forth between them.
"I think they're here," Lydie whispered, raising a shaky finger toward the trees.
****
Kanti stepped from the woods. Although she inhabited Dafne's body, her spirit molded Dafne so that she looked like a hybrid of the two. Skinny and pale, with black hair and black eyes shining, she moved from the darkness of the trees into the open. Abby could see the girl from her dreams in the woman before her. Shoulders squared and held high, she marched toward them without fear. Abby glimpsed the glint of the dagger.
"It's Dafne," Lydie squeaked, though she sounded unsure.
It was Dafne and it was not.
"It's Kanti," Abby said.
On the moonlit earth, Abby saw the shadow of a flying creature. The skin-walkers. Tobias and Alva and more. Five or six in all flew over them.
One of the skin-walkers dove. It seemed to hit a force field above the house that blasted it away.
"Some of the protective spells are holding," Helena whispered.
Kanti lifted the dagger and began to slice through the air. She drew the blade in a dizzying pattern.
"She has access to Dafne's magic," Helena moaned. "She's undoing the spells."
Abby watched the emptiness in front of Kanti grow solid, waver and then disappear.
"It's broken," Lydie said.
Sebastian started to walk forward. Abby reached for his hand, but he brushed her aside. He stepped from the porch slowly, almost catatonically. The man who had stood by her only moments before seemed to transform before her. He looked vacant, empty.
"What's he doing?" Lydie asked, turning to Abby desperately.
"We have to stop him," Helena said and she lifted her arms into the air, creating a cyclone of wind and snow.
"No," Abby commanded.
Helena paused and before she could fling the vortex of wind, one of the flying Vepars fell upon her. Lydie conjured a ball of fire and threw it at the beast, but it had already ripped away from Helena with a hunk of her hair in its mouth.
Helena barely seemed to notice. She reached into her cloak and grabbed a pouch of Julian's powder. She created another wind tunnel and threw the powder, driving it toward the skin-walker. It nearly reached him, but the wolfish-bat thing disappeared into the darkness of the sky.
"Oh thank God," Abby breathed as Oliver's van careened down the snowy driveway. It skidded to a stop. Oliver and Julian leapt out.
"We made it. I can't believe we made it," Julian murmured, running for the porch behind Oliver.
"Where is Sebastian?" Oliver asked.
Lydie pointed toward Sebastian, walking toward Kanti in the distance.
"Dafne?" Oliver started and Helena grabbed the sleeve of his coat.
"No, it's..."
"Kanti," Abby finished.
Oliver unstrapped his bow and cocked an arrow. He aimed for Sebastian's back. Abby saw him from the corner of her eye and lunged at him, knocking the bow from his hand. It skidded across the snow.
"We're going to let him go and join them?" Oliver raged, incredulous.
"Would you put an arrow between his shoulder blades?" Julian asked, staring Oliver down.
Oliver glared at him and picked up his bow and arrow. He did not take aim again.
Abby watched Sebastian walk to Kanti. She smiled up at him with Dafne's mouth. He did not return her smile, but stood obediently as she removed a long silver chain from her neck. In the moonlight, Abby saw a golden amulet with a pulsing red stone in its center. Sebastian kneeled and she placed the amulet around his neck.
Chapter 29
"No, no, no," Abby murmured the word over and over, not wanting to believe what unfolded before her. Sebastian would not—could not—choose hatred over love. She wanted to run to him, to drag him bodily away from the dark witch who had taken Dafne and now Sebastian as well. Her feet stayed rooted. She knew if she tried, Oliver and Julian would stop her. She wanted to crumble into a ball of despair, but she had to stand and fight.
Two more of the skin-walkers attacked. The first went for Oliver. He squatted, pulled his bow from his back and launched an arrow at the beast. It twisted away and he missed. The second snatched the bag at Julian's feet. Julian threw a cloud of dust into the creature's face. It rose away, the bag clutched in its talons, and then twitched and released its grasp. The Vepar flew wildly into the trees, screeching and shaking its head.
Kanti did not move. She did not turn to watch the Vepar as it disappeared into the trees. Her eyes were trained on Abby. Abby stared back at her, willing her gaze to rip the evil spirit from Dafne's body.
Another skin-walker dove, and another. Helena picked up the shotgun, took aim and fired. She missed and another of the creatures plunged and sunk its claws into her back. Julian took hold of the monster's wings and ripped it away. It turned, biting and clawing, and Julian released it before it could sink its venomous teeth into his hands. Lydie conjured a stream of fire that hit the monster in the face. It flew and then plummeted, shrieking, into the snow at the edge of the woods. The moment the fire extinguished, the beast transformed. It heaved and gasped until a man, a Vepar, emerged. He stood from the ground, hulking, seven feet tall, with patches of black hair on his blistering red scalp. Abby saw that most of his face had been burned. It looked raw and sticky. He glared at the porch and the witches and then broke into a run, his eyes trained on Lydie.
Abby conjured ice from the lake. It flew in daggers into the sky at the beasts that continued to circle. Several of the ice spears sunk into one of the flying creatures. It spiraled down and thudded on the deck, wriggling, already transforming back to a Vepar. Abby did not recognize the changing form, but shifted her attention back to the Vepar racing toward them. Lydie shot fire at the beast, but he dodged it, leaning down and scooping a huge rock from the ground. He flung the rock toward Lydie and she dove to the side. It crashed into the porch and splintered wood exploded. Abby drew more daggers of ice from the lake, directing them toward the Vepar. One of them sunk into his shoulder. He ripped it out and continued, but Helena, hunched and in pain, had sent a blast of wind at the Vepar. He struggled forward, but couldn't make any ground. Lydie, her face a mask of hatred, stepped to the edge of the deck. A huge orb of fire floated above her fingers. She sent it into Helena's wind. The Vepar caught fire and began to dance and howl. He fell to the snow, thrashing and then growing still. As the fire died, Lydie strode purposefully down the steps and into the yard. She leaned over the monster and drove the stake into the Vepar's stomach and up through his chest.
Oliver straddled the Vepar who had hit the porch. He shoved his metal blade through the thick breastplate and into the pouch beneath the heart. Abby heard a loud pop and saw a burst of black blood that sprayed Oliver. He wiped his arm over his face.
Kanti conjured a handful of fire; it grew and danced and lit her twisted features. She smiled and laughed and howled at the moon. Sebastian stood beside her. The amulet on his chest glowed brighter with the fire that Kanti held. As she thrust the fire toward the house, Abby conjured her own ball of ice and water. She cast it toward the maniacal witch. It collided with the fireball just before it struck the widow's walk. Kanti created another ball of fire and another, until she and Abby cast their energies back and forth with dizzying speed.
A black crow flew from the forest. It dove toward Kanti, ripping at her hair. She swatted it away, but then another appeared and another. They started to attack her, ripping at her face and hair. She howled with rage and opened her arms wide, creating a dome of fire that rose above her.
The birds flew to Abby. They landed on the porch around her, watching her with their curious dark eyes.
Kanti took hold of the amulet around Sebastian's neck. She trained her black eyes on his and pointed to Abby.
"Bring her to me!"
Abby watched, sick, as Sebastian turned toward her. His body moved as if controlled. His face held a sheet of impassivity. Abby started to retreat on the porch and she bumped into Julian, who had created a cyclone in the air. One of the Vepars was caught in its grasp.
"Go with him," Julian urged, so quietly that Abby almost missed it.
"What?" she asked, alarmed, suddenly convinced that Julian too had become a dark witch.
His light eyes bored into her, and she nodded.
When Sebastian stepped onto the porch, Oliver attacked. He launched onto Sebastian's back, trying to tear the amulet from his neck. A Vepar fell from the sky and sunk its teeth into Oliver's shoulder. Julian raced to his aide, pulling the Vepar from Oliver as Sebastian shrugged him off. He moved toward Abby, his eyes glassy and distant. He scooped her into his arms and terror seized her. What if she didn't fight back and he took her to Kanti?
And then he was running. Running faster than any human should have been able. Behind them the earth was splitting. Trees groaned and crashed. Sweat poured down Sebastian's face as he directed all of his energy, energy that he couldn't possibly have, into the earth behind him. The crows followed them, flying through the darkness of the trees overhead. Abby saw Kanti for an instant, shock and then savage fury crossing her face. A tree crashed and blocked her from Abby's view.
****
"Where's Abby?" Oliver screamed as the earth at the edge of the forest began to rumble and split. He watched trees crashing in the distance. He spun wildly in a circle and then his eyes fell upon Kanti. He followed her gaze to Sebastian. Sebastian fled into the forest with Abby in his arms. Kanti looked mad with rage.
****
Beneath the dark canopy of trees, Sebastian set Abby roughly down and reached for the ground. He lifted a tarp, covered in snow, and flung it to the side. Beneath it, she saw a storm cellar door. He jerked it open and shoved her in, following close at her heels.
"I know you're freaking out right now, but I need you to run," he bellowed as she tripped down the stairs.
He held her arms to steady her.
In the cellar, Abby saw tunnels, sparsely lit, branching out in several directions.
"This one," Sebastian shouted, pushing Abby toward the tunnel to their left.
He took the lead, holding her hand and then, apparently frustrated by her slowness, he lifted her back into his arms and carried her.
She didn't speak. She wanted to. She wanted to ask him what had happened. She wanted to rip the throbbing amulet from his chest and demand an explanation, but she understood that they needed to get away and that Sebastian was making that happen. The tunnel ended at a huge wooden door. He kicked it open. On the other side, he set Abby down and dug a key from a divot in the wall. He locked the door and slipped the key into his pocket.
"Up and out," he said, hustling Abby up a set of crude wooden stairs. They emerged in darkness, deep in the forest and she shivered, scared. A hulking dark shape loomed before them. Sebastian reached for it and pulled off another tarp. A black Jeep stood beneath the cover.
"Get in," he told her, sliding behind the wheel.
Suddenly she thought of Oliver, Lydie, Helena and Julian.
"We can't leave," she told him urgently. "We have to go back and help them."
"No." He shook his head. He took the amulet from his chest, grimacing as his fingers touched it, and reached beneath his seat for a heavy metal box. He opened it, wrapped the amulet in a black cloth and shut the lid, screwing up the number combination on the front. He slid the box back beneath his feet.
"We have to get as much distance between Kanti and this amulet as we can."
He started the Jeep and drove down a rough, barely discernible trail that wound through the forest. The Jeep slid in the snow and bounced over roots and uneven ground.
Abby braced her hands on the dashboard and closed her eyes as a spasm coursed through her belly. She clutched her stomach.
Sebastian glanced at her.
"We're almost out, two more minutes and we'll hit the pavement."
When they reached the road, the tires squealed as they found solid ground. The trees formed a black dome around the yellow beam of headlights. Abby searched the trees, wondering what lay beyond the scope of their headlights.
"What the hell just happened?" she asked, finally.
Sebastian let out a huge sigh and then grinned.
He beat his hands on the wheel and turned to her in amazement.
"It worked! It actually worked!"
"What worked? I thought...I thought..."
She started to cry then. A huge uncontrollable sob rolled through her body, and she buried her face in her hands.
She thought he had become one of them, that the prophecy had come true, that the curse had taken her beloved Sebastian.
"Oh Abby, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," Sebastian murmured, reaching across the car and wrapping his arm around her. He pulled her against him and she pressed her face into his side.
Her body shook as she cried, but she couldn't seem to stop. In the moment, there hadn't been time to feel all of it, or any of it. The moment when she watched him cross the snow and stand by Kanti. In that instant, their whole life, the dream of their future, dissolved before her. Despair and relief poured out of her as she understood that it had been a setup . He had never left her.
****
As Oliver watched, a skin-walker landed at Kanti's feet. It transformed quickly. The creature rose up next to Kanti-Tobias. He smiled at Oliver and his sharp teeth glinted.
Beside him, Kanti's eyes flickered. Oliver saw Dafne, her face desperate, reclaim her body. Dafne turned to Tobias, unknowing beside her. She plunged the dragon blade into his chest. She snarled and screamed as she drove the blade in deeper. Tobias grabbed her shoulders, shoving her away, and stumbled back. Dafne dove for him on the ground. She took hold of the dagger a second time and pushed it further, harder. He tried to shove her away, but black blood spurted from his chest. The malice drained from his eyes and he fell backwards into the snow.
Oliver raced toward Dafne as Kanti washed back over her. He could see the struggle happening within her. Dafne re-emerged. She pulled the blade from Tobias, and Oliver skidded to a stop, horror-struck, as Dafne turned the blade and drove it into her own heart.
"No!" he screamed and ran for her. He pulled the dagger from her chest and thrust it away as she slowly collapsed beneath him.
"Dafne, no, no, just hold on," Oliver crooned. He pressed his hands into her chest, trying to stop the flow, but it was so much blood and moving so fast as it left her body. It soaked the snow beneath them.
She reached her hand to his face and took a rattling breath. Blood trickled from her mouth.
"Destroy the amulet," she whispered. And then she was gone.
Chapter 30
"Julian has known since the beginning," Sebastian told Abby, holding her hands tightly in his own. "I didn't want to lie to you and I'm so sorry that I did."
They sat together at Ula, in the bedroom that Abby had stayed in on her very first night in the castle, when witches and Vepars were mostly a dream that she expected to wake up from at any moment. It hurt that Sebastian had lied, and had been lying for months.
"After the second time I woke up in the shed, I knew that Kanti was getting into my head. Whatever they did to me in the Vepar's lair must have given her access to my mind."
"So Faustine was right."
"Yes. I went to Julian and told him. He believed that Kanti would know I was deceiving her if you knew what was happening since she was influencing your dreams. She obviously had access to you too. Julian started to work with me to block her psychically. He also sent me home with a shielding elixir, which I added to your coffee."
"Are you serious?" She stared at him, incredulous.
"It made sense, A
bby. We needed everyone to see me shifting to the dark side. Kanti wouldn't believe it otherwise."
"What if his elixir had hurt the baby? Did you consider that?" She pulled her hands away, fighting the desire to lash out at him.
"Julian knew about the baby. I made it clear that you and she were all that mattered, that everything we did had to be in service to you and our child. I would never have done any of it if I'd seen another way."
"How about come to me, your future wife? Include me? Include the coven so that we could create a plan together?"
"And lose access to an evil spirit hell-bent on destroying us all?"
"I get the feeling Dafne had similar thoughts when she started her web of lies. Look how that turned out?"
Sebastian frowned.
"Abby if you had felt what I have experienced, losing my parents and Claire, chasing this mysterious evil, then you would understand."
"It's not fair that you use those feelings as an excuse, Sebastian. I know that Claire's death devastated you, but she can't be the reason that anything goes. If we're going to have a life together, you have to bury the past. You have to come into the here-and-now and make choices based in your new reality."
"Do you think that I was wrong? Tell me this, if the roles were reversed, what would you have done?" he asked, trying to temper the anger in his voice. Anger, but also shame. He felt badly and she knew it, but did that let him off the hook?
Abby bit her lip and looked away from him. She didn't know what she would have done.
"In Chicago, Julian pressured me to talk about you, as if he suspected you were being pulled toward evil, and wanted me to admit it. Why?"
"He told me about that," Sebastian admitted. "He wanted to gauge what you were thinking and feeling. It was important that you believed something was happening to me, something bad, because then Kanti would be able to sense that in you and perhaps also sense that you were hiding it from the other witches. He wanted your feelings to mirror back to Kanti what she already believed. He pushed you to see if you would get defensive."
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