I don’t know exactly what he saw when he looked into my eyes, but his laughter faded and he took a step backward.
Then, without speaking, without thinking, I pushed to my feet in one fluid motion, flinging my arms out to the sides at the same moment that I popped my shoulders back and lifted my gaze to the ceiling.
The barrier between the ether and the human world gave way with an audible pop, like a change in the air pressure, and my wings snapped out to either side of me, finally visible.
Finally real.
Finally mine.
My wingspan was easily several feet wider than Gunn’s, though the wings themselves looked more delicate, scalloped along the bottom in a way that reminded me of lace edging, but solid, and a dark shiny red, like patent leather.
An exhilaration spun through me like sheer power, so strong that my eyelids almost fluttered closed with it. When they opened again, a single thought pulsed through me, over and over again.
I win.
I knew it as surely as I had ever known anything, and when I met Gunn’s gaze, the corners of my mouth curved up.
As I stood staring through the slightly opaque barrier between me and my father, I finally recognized the look in his eyes that I had been trying to identify since the first time I had met him, the expression on his face that had puzzled me at every meeting.
It was fear.
I could work with that.
With one powerful beat of my wings, I rose into the air, instinct teaching me to keep the air moving in order to hover there. When I reached out to touch the wall, it melted where my hand met the material I had created, hissing and steaming away like the ice it resembled.
I knew I could dismiss the entire structure with a thought, but this was about show, not expedience.
If I could frighten Gunn badly enough, I might be able to arrange for him to suffer some punishment other than death.
Part of me knew that wasn’t going to happen, but I had to try.
I had to at least give him a chance.
The chance he hadn’t given Oma Elaine.
But when he rose in the air, too, I knew that I would have to kill him.
The idea of killing my father should have horrified me more than it actually did.
I guess Bartlef and Biet had left me numb to the idea of murder. If it even counted as murder. At this point, I wasn’t sure that it wasn’t some weird kind of self-defense. I mean, it definitely was with the others—they were trying to have me raped in order to force me to become the mother of a Fairy-style savior.
I don’t know if Gunn’s attempt to steal my powers counted as the same kind of attack, but I was definitely willing to defend myself.
And part of me knew that he wouldn’t allow me to get away from him. I would do everything I could to avoid killing him, but I was pretty sure that was where this was going.
It wasn’t going to happen today, though. Today I was going to save all the girls cowering in the corner behind me, now perfectly silent.
I didn’t turn around, afraid of what their eyes would show me.
Afraid of their terror.
Still, I had to put on a show for Gunn, no matter how much it frightened my classmates.
Flexing my wings so that they stretched out even farther, I pushed my fist all the way through the hardened barrier, turning the material to liquid with a thought. Slowly, I lowered myself toward the ground, drawing my arm down through the wall, melting a three-inch gap into the wall from top to bottom, never breaking eye contact with my father.
I touched down lightly, then drew my wings in with perfect control, folding them against my back as if I had been using them all my life.
For all this shmuck knew, I had been.
It’s not like he had been around to find out. Not until he heard about the new nala in Fairy, Texas, the one who just might be his child.
Well, now he was going to see who his child—the one he had abandoned—had grown up to be.
Without removing my fist from it, I allowed the rift I had created in the wall between us to continue melting, all the way down to the floor. Then I opened my hand and made a turning, grasping motion. When I pulled my arm back through, all the air on his side of the room flowed with it, a gentle breeze that lifted my hair so that it floated around my head like a dark halo.
Gunn’s eyes bugged out as he realized what was happening, and he gasped, trying to draw in a breath even as I pulled the air out of his lungs.
“Listen to me very carefully,” I said, keeping my voice level and pleasant. I waited a second before continuing. “Are you listening?”
He nodded, his hand creeping up to his throat.
“I’m taking everyone out of here. You are not to follow us. I don’t want to see you on campus, or on the Hamilton ranch, or at my friends’ homes. In fact, I don’t want to see you at all. Got it?”
His attempt to speak failed, so he nodded again. I started to turn away, but at the last minute, spun back around to point at him. “If you hurt anyone I care about, or anyone I know, or even anyone I’ve ever heard of, dying of suffocation is going to seem like an easy out.”
His face had passed red and was beginning to turn purple by the time he nodded again. As I turned my back on him, I threw my hand up behind me, releasing the air back into his half of the room.
I might have flipped him off while I was at it.
Maybe.
The door at our end of the gym was still chained shut, of course. But this time, I didn’t worry about the giant metal links.
Instead, I melted them.
Or rearranged the molecules, maybe? The chain wasn’t hot when I was done, but it wasn’t really much of a chain anymore, either.
Working with the metal burned against the inside of my skin and brought tears to my eyes, so I suspected it was some kind of iron alloy—and that the pile of metal left over when I was done was the iron portion. It certainly clanged to the floor like I imagined iron would.
I wondered if I would have able to deal with the metal at all if it had been made entirely of iron.
In any case, it meant we could open the door and escape Gunn, who seemed cowed right now, but might change his mind at any moment.
Honestly, I wasn’t sure how long my threats would hold out in the face of someone who wanted power that badly. Long enough to get the rest of the Fairy High students out of the gym, I hoped.
Given the way those students were all staring at me from their corner, however, that might be a more difficult task than I had initially anticipated.
More than one of my classmates huddled together, praying aloud. Others were crying softly—and at least one was sobbing so loudly that it covered most other sounds in the room.
Even Kayla, my supremely self-assured, slightly (sometimes seriously) bitchy stepsister was staring at me in open-mouthed awe.
“Quit it,” I hissed at her. “It’s just me. And I need help.”
“You’re going to have to put those away, then.” Her hands fluttered out to her sides, flapping like wings.
I bit my bottom lip in consternation and leaned toward her to whisper, “I don’t know how.”
Her jaw dropped. “You have to. You can’t go outside looking like that.”
“I’ll work on it,” I promised. “Just help me herd these people out of here.”
“Like animals?” She narrowed her carefully made-up eyes at me. “Is that what you mean by ‘herd’?”
“Oh, for crying out loud. What I mean by ‘herd’ is ‘get them moving so we can save their asses from my homicidal father.’”
Her hard stare lasted another second, and then she turned on her cheerleader-bright smile and clapped loudly—definitely a cheerleader clap, too, loud and precise. “Okay, everyone. Time to move. Let’s go.”
Great. She was even using cheerleader phrases in her cheerleader voice.
But it was working.
I moved away from the humans, drawing my wings in against my back, straining to h
old them as close to my body as possible—but the muscles that held them there were stiff and sore from disuse, and they kept slipping out.
Once I saw that Kayla had everyone moving toward the door, I glanced over my shoulder to check on Gunn.
He was gone.
His exit didn’t surprise me. I didn’t expect him to abide by the agreement he had just made, but I was fairly sure I had bought us all a little time while he regrouped.
I sighed, and began concentrating on figuring out how to slip my wings back into the ether without sending the rest of me tumbling after them.
It didn’t work. Instead, when my classmates were all on the other side of the door, I slid into the ether and moved out into the enclosed glass entryway that separated the gym from the hall leading to the rest of the school.
But as I did, I brushed up against the pile of iron that had been a chain moments before, and the contact knocked me out of the ether just as the door back into the gym shut and locked automatically behind me. No matter what I did, I couldn’t re-enter either the ether or the gym.
Note to self: too much contact with iron limits my powers, at least for a while.
I had a lot to learn about this whole ‘being a fairy’ business.
Like how to deal with an absentee parent who showed up to reinsert himself into my life and started killing my friends and mentors.
I knew for sure I would have to kill him.
I hated killing people.
Chapter Thirteen
Josh
Mason and I were supposed to meet the Council at my house.
But when Mace lost touch with Kayla, I knew that we had to head back over there.
Dad still wasn’t answering his phone, so I texted him to tell him where we were going.
Mason and I met in the parking lot and began a systematic search.
“Why did you just leave her?” I asked.
“Seriously? How likely is it that a super-powerful nala, one who has just sucked dry an Oma, is going to go hang out at a high school on a Saturday? I thought it was pretty much the safest place she could be.”
He wasn’t wrong, but his answer still ignited that fury inside me—this time directed at Mason because he hadn’t asked me first.
On some level, I was still convinced that I should be destined to be the next leader of the People.
And the sickness inside me had latched onto the idea, was feeding on the anger it provoked.
The gym was accessible from two points inside the school, one at the end of a long hall, the other entrance enclosed in a tiny glass foyer that set it off from the rest of the open area where students gathered before school.
By the time we got to the gym in our search of the school, the girls’ basketball team was filing out, two of them being carried by the others, all under Kayla’s direction.
Whatever had happened here, it wasn’t good.
Laney was the last person out of the gym, and I nearly passed out when she stepped into the tiny, glass-enclosed foyer area, dark red wings flashing behind her.
“Oh, holy crap,” I muttered under my breath, gesturing frantically at Mason, who made his way toward me.
Laney let all the other students leave the foyer, and then, catching sight of me on the other side of the glass holding up one finger toward her, she pressed her back against the brick wall to wait, holding her wings still and mostly hidden, unless you knew what to look for.
I positioned myself in front of the foyer door, trying to block her from sight as much as possible.
Time for some damage control.
A quick glance around the shell-shocked students who had streamed out in front of her, however, suggested that it might be too late to contain this news.
But this was Fairy, Texas, and it wasn’t the first time a resident demon had flashed a wing or two at a norm.
I knew there were protocols.
I just didn’t know what they were.
If nothing else, we could get Laney out of here without her being seen by anyone who hadn’t been in the gym to begin with.
“What’s up?” Mason asked as he drew up beside me.
I cocked a thumb back toward Laney.
“What? I don’t … oh, hell.” Mason’s mouth dropped open. “Why is she just standing there?”
“No idea.”
“Where did those come from?” He kept trying to peer around to see more of her wings.
“No idea,” I repeated.
Finally, my friend shook off his surprise. “Doesn’t matter. She needs help.”
“Yeah. I’m going to hustle her back inside the gym, then get us out of here through the ether.” Mason was broader than I was—he made a better shield. That’s what I told myself, anyway, though the truth was that I didn’t want him moving through the ether with her.
Mason nodded. “Sounds good. Meet at your house?”
I didn’t look at him. “Definitely. As soon as possible.”
Taking up his position in front of the glass door, Mason put his hands on his hips, elbows wide and legs spread, taking up as much space as possible. It was a lot, I realized. At some point, while I was convalescing in the hospital, Mace had bulked up even more.
He was going to make one hell of an enforcer someday.
Once I was inside the foyer, I realized that Laney was shaking.
“What happened?” As soon as I asked it, I knew it was a stupid question, or at least one that could wait until later. “Never mind. Let’s get you out of here.”
“Door’s locked.” She spoke through chattering teeth and pointed at some scattered metal along the threshold. I could feel its cold bite from where I stood, and the base of my wings ached in remembered agony.
“Blocked from the ether, too,” I murmured.
She nodded jerkily.
“It’s okay.” I took her hands in mine and stroked the back of them with my thumbs. “Mason’s got the door for us. I’m standing in front of you. We’ll get you out of here when things calm down a little.”
“What if they don’t calm down? All those girls saw me.” Tears welled up in her eyes, and I leaned my forehead down to rest it against hers.
“Shh,” I whispered. “It’ll all be fine. We’ll take care of it.” I didn’t know how we would solve any of these immediate problems without Oma Elaine, but I did know that panicking wouldn’t help.
Maybe my dad could help us.
Once we got home, that is. If anyone ever answered my calls.
Mason glanced over his shoulder and frowned at me. I nodded toward the iron on the floor, and his confused expression cleared.
There had to be a way to get out of here without Laney’s new wings drawing any more attention than they already had.
But Laney’s next words shook me. “Gunn is here, and he’s going after all the fairies he can find. Starting with me.” She paused, still trembling. “I guess that answers the question of who I inherited my powers from,” Laney said, blinking back tears at the thought of Oma Elaine’s body. “I didn’t know power-vampire was a family trait.”
“None of us did.” I tried to comfort her. “But that doesn’t mean you have to end up like him. You may be nala, but you don’t have to be dangerous.”
Her eyes were huge in her pale, serious face. “What if I am? Maybe I can’t help it. What if I’m a monster?”
“You’re not, Laney. I’m sure of it.” I turned my head around slowly to stare out through the glass doors at the people milling around outside the gym. Relatively few of them were fairies.
That meant Gunn would probably be headed somewhere else.
But all those human girls were probably already telling everyone they met about what they had seen inside when Laney popped those wings. Not to mention whatever else had gone on when she confronted Gunn.
The People were going to be putting in a hell of a mind-wipe session. Once this was all over, it was going to take some massive cleaning up to deal with getting everything back to what passed for normal i
n Fairy, Texas.
But first, we were going to have to save the fairies.
Chapter Fourteen
Josh
“I know what to do.” I placed one finger under Laney’s chin and tilted her face up toward me. Her eyes still glowed a little.
“You do?” She sounded shaky, but not broken. I remembered what broken felt like. Laney was still up and running.
“Come on.” Taking her hand, I pulled open the glass door to the foyer.
Laney planted her feet, resisting, and automatically spread her wing to help maintain her balance. With a gasp, she folded them again, but the motion made her stumble out after me.
The look Mason gave us was more assessing than surprised. “Damage control later?”
“Yeah. Where’s Kayla?” I scanned the area and found Laney’s stepsister helping the coach sit up.
“I don’t want her to go with us,” Mason announced.
“Agreed.” Turning to Laney, I said, “Wait here with Mace. I’ll be right back.” It took only a moment to round up all the fairies, another few to explain what I wanted.
Pulling Kayla aside, I put her in charge of the remaining humans and the one fairy Gunn had all but drained, and then six of us—me, Laney, Mason, and three basketball players who were also of the People—made our way to the first open space we found: a girls’ bathroom. All the classrooms surrounding it were shut tight, their doors locked.
“Seriously, dude?” Mason rolled his eyes, but didn’t hesitate to follow the rest of us in.
“Now what?” Laney asked me.
I’m not going to be able to talk her into this.
I knew it was true.
Instead, I showed her.
Taking her hands in mine, I leaned forward and pressed my lips against hers, imagining pouring my power into her. I felt the tiniest spark of magic flow from me to her, and then inhaled sharply, and the spark became a roaring fire, consuming me even as it rushed through my body and out my lips, surging into her.
When she tried to pull away from me, Mason stepped up behind us, holding her in place. “This is how we win, Laney, how you win. You take what we have and you beat that bastard. We’ll recover. Just don’t take it all. Don’t kill us.”
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