The Shadow Stealer

by Melissa Giorgio

  And then nothing.

  Chapter Fifty-two

  Rafe

  After Collins flung me across the field with a simple swish of his hand, it took me a moment to catch my breath. I struggled into a sitting position, propping myself up on my elbows. Nina was currently battling Collins, and from the look of it, she’d managed to wound him already.

  I am really, really losing my edge, I thought as I searched for my sword. It had been blown in the opposite direction I had, and I’d have to bypass the two duelers to retrieve it.

  “Rafe, are you all right?” Charles loomed over me, holding out his hand. Next to him was Morgan, her face pinched as she swayed on her feet. My heart tripped over itself. Why did she look so bad? Had Gabi’s mom been hurt when we were separated? I didn’t see any blood, but that meant nothing. I currently felt like shit and I wasn’t bleeding.

  “Morgan—” I started.

  “I’m fine,” she interrupted, in a tone of voice that told me I better shut up about her general well-being. I blinked, unused to hearing her talk like that, but the stress of the battle and seeing Charles again must have had her on edge. Not that I blamed her. “Can you stand?” The edge in her voice softened slightly.

  “Yeah.” Accepting Charles’s help, I hauled myself to my feet. The earth only spun a little, I was happy to notice. “Shouldn’t we be helping Nina?” I asked as she continued duking it out with Collins.

  Charles shrugged. “Honestly, Rafe, if they happened to destroy themselves while fighting, they’d be doing us a favor. The paperwork is much easier when the person—or demon—in question is dead.”

  My eyebrows rose. I knew Charles could be a jerk sometimes, but that was cold, even for him. Then again, Nina had tried to kill most of us, and Collins had just admitted to murdering my parents…

  “I doubt it’ll be as easy as that,” Morgan said in answer to Charles’s chilling statement. She was watching Nina and Collins carefully, and she suddenly pointed. “Look, there. At Collins’s left hand. He’s casting a spell.”

  She was right. While Collins was swinging a knife with his right hand, his left hand was curled up by his side, with his fingers wiggling in some sort of weird pattern.

  “What’s he doing—?” I started to ask.

  My words faltered as Collins slashed Nina across the chest with his knife. Lips pressed tightly together to prevent herself from crying out, Nina stumbled backward, one hand to her chest as her blood splattered against the snow.

  With Nina distracted, Collins spun around, a dark mass of magical energy flowing from his five fingertips. I didn’t know what he was doing, but Morgan must have because she made a startled sound and launched herself forward. “We have to stop him!” she cried.

  Charles and I followed suit, but we were too late. The dark particles that spewed forth from Collins’s hand gathered in the air before him, stitching together to create a shadowy door.

  I had exactly one guess as to what lay on the other side of that door.

  As the door flickered into shape, Collins began cackling. He swiped his right hand in the air and Morgan went flying in one direction, Charles in the other. How is he so strong? I wondered. Had demons taught him those spells?

  What chance did I have against him, unarmed and still recovering from the parasite spell?

  I have to try, I thought grimly. This was the reason I became a hunter: to stop people like Collins from bringing abominations to Earth. So what if I didn’t have the Sight? My dad had made sure to teach me everything I would ever need to know to succeed as a hunter.

  And now I would use that training to destroy the person who had taken almost everything from me.

  “Rafe, you’ve always been a fool, which is why I’m taking it upon myself to tell you that it’s too late,” Collins said. “There’s nothing more you can do. I’ve been planning this for years, and now it’s finally time to share it with the world. My demons have been trained specially by me. Notice how they’re not rushing through the portal? That’s because they’re waiting for my command to attack. That’s how strong I am, you foolish boy. Demons listen to me!” Collins’s face flashed with triumph.

  He could control demons? As farfetched as that sounded, I wasn’t going to wait around to find out if he was lying or not. A hunter was sworn to protect the world from demons. We would do whatever it took to keep the peace and prevent the demons from overpowering the humans. You struck first and asked questions later. That’s why Nina had tried to kill Gabi. That’s why I hadn’t hesitated when taking down Davenport.

  And that’s why I launched myself, unarmed, at Collins, determined to do anything and everything to keep him from succeeding in his sick plans.

  Our bodies collided, and I could see in his eyes that I’d caught him by surprise. Capitalizing on that, I punched him in the nose as hard as I could, satisfied when I heard the sound of crunching bones. Roaring with fury, he tried to push me off him, but I struck again, my left hand connecting with his gut.

  He went down hard, and I smiled grimly. It felt good to hit him. Really good. I wondered if Dad was watching, cheering me on.

  I went for another hit, but Collins caught my fist and twisted sharply. Grimacing, I tried to break free from his grasp, but he used his free hand to jab me in the side, right where Nina had hit me with her parasite spell. I let out a scream of pain, my vision going hazy and spotty. Even though I was wearing a shirt and jacket, it felt like he’d gone through all of those layers and stabbed me with the sharpest, cruelest blade.

  “I told you it was too late,” Collins hissed in my ear. “You never listen, Rafe. You’re a stubborn, headstrong fool, just like your father. I did the world a favor when I rid it of him, and now I’ll be doing it again when I kill you. It’s a shame, however, that you won’t be around to see me destroy everything you and your friends hold dear. Everything you’ve fought so hard to protect—it’s no match for my army!”

  If Gabi were here, she’d roll her eyes and tell Collins he sounded like every stereotypical movie villain ever. The thought of my fierce girl facing down Collins without batting an eye made me, despite everything, grin.

  “What’s so funny?” Collins wanted to know.

  “Oh, I’m just thinking how it’s a shame Gabi’s too busy to hear you spout this bullshit that you probably think is so evil and cunning.” I shook my head. “Really, did you practice that speech in front of the mirror while you glowered darkly?”

  She was rubbing off on me, wasn’t she?

  Collins’s eyes flashed, and my grin grew wider. Before he could reach for his knife to shut me up, I drove my leg into his abdomen. Using all of my strength, I lifted him up, over me—

  Directly into the shining black door he’d created.

  “You love demons so much?” I asked as I turned over and struggled to my knees, one hand pressed against my side. “Why don’t you go live with them?”

  “No!” The dark masses gathered in the doorway, grabbing for Collins as he plunged his fingers into the icy ground and tried to pull himself out of their reach. So much for them listening to his orders. Collins’s eyes were wide and panicked, and I made myself watch.

  I did this.

  I didn’t regret it.

  Nina joined me; I could see her pink hair out of the corner of my eye. She was breathing hard, her hand against her chest, but her face was calm as she watched her master fight to break free of the demons’ grasp.

  Collins turned his attention to her. “Nina, please, help me—” His voice cracked with desperation.

  “Go to hell,” she said before stomping on his hand with one pink boot. She went for the other one but hesitated, cocking her head in my direction like a little pink bird. “Actually… Do you want to do the honors?”

  I shook my head. I’d done enough. “He’s all yours.”

  Maybe it was because she hesitated. Maybe it was because she was looking at me, and not at Collins. Whatever the case, when Collins stopped digging his fingers into the
snow and instead grabbed Nina by the ankle, neither Nina nor I were expecting that. She crashed to the ground with a startled yelp, struggling to pull away from him as they were both dragged into the black abyss.

  For half a second, I watched the girl who had tried to kill Gabi, and had nearly succeeded in killing me, slip toward a certain death. How easy it would have been to say I was too hurt, too slow to help her. How I’d wanted to but couldn’t.

  No one would have known.

  But I would have.

  Dad taught me how to fight, but he also taught me how important life was. “Your job, as a hunter, is to save people,” he’d told me when I was a wide-eyed kid who worshiped the ground he walked on. “At the end of the day, they won’t remember you or what you’ve done for them, but you’ll remember.” He tapped me on my chest, where my heart rested. “You’ll carry those memories, right in here, for the rest of your life. The good and the bad, Rafe. There will be times when you make mistakes, and you’ll regret them for a long, long time. That’s why you need good memories, too. To help you outweigh the bad.”

  Despite what Nina had done to me, and Gabi, and the rest of us, it was Dad’s words that propelled me forward as I grabbed Nina’s hand and pulled with all of my strength. She flailed widely, one of her boots connecting with Collins’s head. He let go of her ankle with a grunt, and I yanked Nina out of his reach before he could grab her again.

  Collins’s eyes met mine briefly before he crossed the threshold. There was nothing but fear in their depths, and I wasn’t ashamed to admit that that made me feel pretty damn good.

  And I laughed when Nina blew him a kiss and said, “Bye byeeeee, Collins!”

  His scream filled the air before cutting off abruptly. As soon as it did, the door to the demon realm began blinking in and out of existence, the particles scrambling in the air like static on a TV.

  And then it was gone. There were no explosions or shaking or even giant towering walls of flames. Just, one minute it was here, and the next, gone.

  “Guess it needed Collins alive in order to stay open.” Nina stood and carefully tested her ankle before putting any weight on it. “Stupid demons shouldn’t have been so eager to kill him. Now they’re stuck in their realm!” She stuck out her tongue.

  “No one ever said demons were smart,” I said. “Look who they were taking orders from.”

  “Stupid, stupid Collins!” Nina laughed. Not her sarcastic, evil laugh, but a genuine peal of laughter. Our eyes met. “Thanks for saving me, Rafe,” she said. “You didn’t have to, after everything I did.”

  “You’re right, I didn’t. But I wanted to, so…” I let my sentence trail off and shrugged. “Don’t make me regret it, okay?”

  She nodded her head rapidly. “I won’t! I swear I won’t! You just earned yourself a new fan, Rafe, and I will do anything, anything you say, like buy you dinner or wash your car or—”

  “Um,” I said, scared that I’d somehow managed to turn her into my own personal fangirl. “Um, maybe not.” Gabi would flip out if she heard what Nina was saying.

  Speaking of Gabi, it was time to get back to her side. I turned around, tuning out Nina’s endless prattle, only to discover things weren’t like how I’d left them.

  Whenever I walked into a room, my eyes always sought out Gabi first. It could be crowded with our friends, her family, but it didn’t matter. I always found her first.

  But now, I couldn’t find her.

  Ignoring the pain in my side, I jogged over to where I’d last seen her, healing her brother. Philip was still on the ground, unconscious. Kain was lying next to him, his face gray. My stomach dropped when I saw how he was cradling his right hand in his left. Something was wrong. Something had happened and he was hurt and—

  “Where’s Gabi!” I demanded, even though I didn’t expect Kain to answer me. Even though I had an idea of what had happened. Turning around, I scanned the field for Morgan, thinking—hoping—maybe Gabi had run to her side.

  Morgan, who had been blasted away by Collins’s spell was just getting up, but it was Charles who was helping her stand, not her daughter. I thought I was going to be sick. “Morgan!” I yelled, cupping my hands around my mouth. “Something’s happened! Gabi’s gone!”

  Kain let out a low moan. “Rafe—your girl—” His blue-green eyes were unfocused as he struggled to sit upright. I was worried he was going to injure himself further, so I crouched down next to him, listening closely to his whispered words.

  “The demon took her.”

  Four words that were heavy as a death sentence.

  “What’s happened? Where is she?” Morgan appeared at my side, her face sweaty and twisted with pain. She looked worse each time I saw her, but that wasn’t important now.

  Gabi.

  Gabi, Gabi, Gabi.

  It was a chant inside in my head, drumming along with my racing heart, and I knew it wouldn’t quiet until I’d found her and pulled her into my arms.

  I would never let her go, I swore. Never, ever again.

  “The demon. Where would they have gone?” I spoke quickly, my words tripping over themselves in desperation. I needed Morgan to know what was going on so she could fix this. “Back to its realm?” When Morgan didn’t answer, I stood, staring down at her as I barely resisted the urge to start shaking. “Morgan, we have to go to her, before—” Before it’s too late. I swallowed the words, afraid if I said them, they would come true. “You can teleport, right?”

  Morgan’s mouth was opening and closing, but no sound was coming out.

  “Morgan, please, I know you can—”

  “I can’t.” Her gaze flicked to her injured hand and she shook her head slightly. “Not like this. Not now.”

  “Yes, you can. Use our powers. Combine our energies. We can do this.” A sudden thought occurred to me, filling me with a sense of hope that I clung desperately to. “The tracking spell!”

  Morgan looked confused. “I don’t—”

  “There’s a tracking spell on her necklace,” I explained. Why was she still saying no? Didn’t she realize what this meant? “I put it there, and renewed it only last week. I’ll search for her, and then you do the teleportation spell and we can—”

  “Rafe, no.”

  Her words were whispers, but to me they were as loud as shouts. I stared at her, confused. What was she talking about? Why was she still saying no?

  “I don’t understand,” I said, feeling the hope that had begun to build inside of me crumble. “Why do you keep saying no? Don’t you want to rescue her?”

  “Of course I do!” Tears spilled from her brown eyes. “But I can’t.” She held up her bandaged hand, as if that was supposed to mean something. “I can’t bring her back. Not like this. I was hurt after removing the demon magic from your body, Rafe, and I’m too weak to do that type of magic. Even with everyone else supporting me.” She met my horrified gaze, her expression broken. “I can’t do anything.”

  I opened my mouth to speak, but Morgan cut me off. “It’s up to Gabi now. She needs to save herself.”

  Chapter Fifty-three

  Gabi

  The blackness and silence were unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. No matter how wide I opened my eyes, I couldn’t see, and when I screamed, I heard nothing. And when I’d tried walking, gingerly feeling my way in the dark, I’d crashed into a wall after only a few feet. After smashing my face twice against an unseen barrier, I’d given up because I was in no mood to break my nose.

  I returned to what I assumed was the center of this place, trying not to hyperventilate. Was this how I would spend the rest of my life? Trapped in a shadowy tomb while the demon used my body to do its bidding?

  I would rather die.

  Rafe, I thought miserably. The thing was, I didn’t want to die. The demon had captured me without giving me a chance to even say goodbye.

  Although how could anyone expect me to say goodbye? I wasn’t ready to go. There was so much more I needed to do, and I refused t
o let this thing get the best of me.

  No freaking way, I thought, squaring my shoulders in determination. This wasn’t the end. I would not let the shadows win. What had Rafe said the night he’d confessed his love?

  “You stole away the dark shadows that have been haunting me all these years like you’re my own personal sun.”

  “I’m the sun,” I declared out loud. “So you stupid shadows can go suck it and die, okay?”

  And just like that, they skittered away as I began glowing with an unnatural light.

  My mouth dropped open. Really? It’s that easy? Just be rude and they disappear? I was still surrounded by darkness, and I couldn’t see beyond my extended fingertips, but that fact that I could see my hands and my body meant—well, what, exactly?

  It meant I was in control. It meant that I wasn’t going to stand around and wait for the others to come rescue me. Mom was probably doing something right now to break through the demon’s shadowy tomb; wouldn’t she be surprised when I rescued myself first?

  So… I was able to make myself glow. Now what? I thought back to moments ago, when I had willed the shadows away from Kain. Could I do that again? Maybe I couldn’t remove all of them, but if I could find a way to pierce this tomb even just a little bit, maybe I could wiggle through and free myself.

  I just hoped that whatever rested outside the tomb was the park and not the demons’ realm.

  Don’t think about that, I commanded myself. Get out first, and then deal with the possible army of demons waiting to devour you—

  “What part of ‘don’t think about that’ don’t you understand?” I asked myself, scowling. For some reason I knew this wouldn’t work if I was upset, so I took a moment to calm my racing heart before I reached for the shadows. They slipped through my fingers, oily and quick, but I wouldn’t be deterred so easily. Again and again I tried to grab it, any of it, and finally I managed to clamp down on a tiny part. Moving quickly, before it could dance away, I pulled as hard as I could, and was rewarded with a slight tearing sound.