“That works. How about a drink later?” Paige moved toward the door.
“I thought you gave up drinking.”
Paige paused with her hand on the knob. “I gave up drinking to cover my pain. Having a drink—maybe two—to celebrate not being subjected to family torture? Totally acceptable.”
“Got it,” Sarah said with a laugh. “I actually have plans tonight, but how about tomorrow after we practice?”
“Another reason to celebrate. Perfect.”
Paige left, and Sarah slumped onto Eden’s bed. She had to get out. Not just Eden’s room, but Coventry House. Paige wouldn’t be the only sister returning home that night. Several lived within driving distance and had planned to come home early.
Most wouldn’t ask about Eden—she wasn’t due back yet, and too many sisters would have liked to see her gone anyway—but an unspoken truth was its own type of lie. Whether a residual effect of the confession spell Alex had cast or just recent events, Sarah was at her limit with lies.
I’ve got to get out of here.
As Sarah rode the shuttle down to Main Street, she texted Quinn to let him know she and Alex were going back to the cave.
What’s left of it anyway.
Sarah wasn’t convinced entering a partially collapsed cave was safe, but what was these days?
Quinn—Tonight??
Sarah—We have to get there before the Council does.
Quinn—Got it. What time?
Sarah realized what he was really asking.
Sarah—I’m sorry, but you can’t come.
She saw the bubbles as he formed his response, but texted again before he had the chance.
Sarah—Alex will never let you. Please don’t push it or she won’t let me come either. I’ll be in trouble for even telling you.
The bubbles disappeared then reappeared just before he replied.
Quinn—You’ll tell me what you find out?
Sarah—I promise.
One thing she knew for sure, Quinn would act in Eden’s best interest. He didn’t need to be a hero; he just wanted her safe.
They exchanged a few more texts, and he agreed not to call Eden’s parents unless their mission to the cave was a bust.
Sarah got off at the first shuttle stop with no idea where she was headed. She just needed to be away from Coventry House until it was time to meet Alex.
Now dusk, the light faded rapidly as she hurried down the near-desolate street. A cold front was moving in, and she was one of the only fools out and about.
She spied a cafe a block away and hustled over.
Unlike the streets, this place bustled with life. A jarring contrast made more so because it seemed so ordinary. The Earth continued to spin as her best friend was missing.
Suddenly, being in public felt like a very bad idea.
“Sarah.”
Sarah turned, coming face-to-face with Kai.
“Hey,” Sarah said.
“Are you okay?” Kai’s eyes held concern. “What did Alex want?”
“Nothing.” She shook her head. “It wasn’t important, just Alex stuff.”
Sarah might trust Quinn not to go off half-cocked, but if Kai knew she was headed back to the cave…
Kai studied her. “You’re not in trouble?”
“I don’t think so. I…I told her about…” Sarah cast a glance around the busy cafe. “Eden’s recent visitors.” She tapped her temple to make her meaning clear.
Kai’s eyes widened. “You told her that, and you’re not in trouble?”
“I think she might be preoccupied with more pressing matters at the moment.”
It was strange to be standing this close to Kai and yet feel the distance between them.
“Hot chocolate for Kai.” The barista slid a steaming mug across the counter.
“I was going to sit.” Kai gestured to an open table at the window. “Do you want to join me?”
A nervous hopefulness quivered in her voice. Sarah found it hard to reconcile in this woman who was always so sure of herself.
“Yeah,” she said, “I’ll order and be there in a few.”
Minutes later, Sarah slid into the chair opposite Kai with a hot chocolate of her own.
Too nervous to meet Kai’s eye, Sarah turned her gaze out the window. The glow of lamplight dotted the quiet street.
Kai broke the silence. “How are you?”
“Fine,” Sarah said. “How about you?”
“Not fine,” Kai said. “And I find it really hard to believe you are.” She pitched her voice low. “I could have died today. Worse, I could have watched you die. And it’s not like it’s the first time. I’m not sure when I’ll be okay again, but it’s not today.”
“I’m sorry.” Sarah stared down at her mug.
“What are you sorry for? None of this is your fault, Sarah, it’s—”
“Do not start bashing Eden.” Sarah held up her hand as her eyes flashed a warning. “I mean it. Don’t.”
“I wasn’t. I was just going to say it’s a bad situation, and I know how worried you must be.”
“Why aren’t you worried?” Sarah asked. “Do you really hate Eden that much?”
Kai flinched, an expression of something Sarah couldn’t quite catch passing over her face then disappearing. “I don’t hate her. And you love her, which means I care about her too.”
“I’m worried about her.” Sarah ran her thumb along the rim of her mug.
“I know you are. I am too.” Kai’s expression was kind, but urgency shone in her eyes. “But you trust her with your life—I know you do, because you’ve said so more than once.”
Sarah nodded.
“Then trust her.” Kai reached out and laid a hand on Sarah’s. “Trust her with her own life. Believe she is doing what needs to be done, and let her do it.”
Kai squeezed her hand, and it felt so natural, so right. Sarah’s hand belonged wrapped inside of Kai’s. How could she have broken up with this woman? It had seemed logical at the time, but for the life of her, Sarah could make no sense of it now.
She met Kai’s gaze. She saw it on her face—she knew too. They belonged together. But Sarah had done the breaking, so Kai was waiting for Sarah to do the patching.
Sarah squeezed Kai’s hand and opened her mouth to apologize, to say yes, they had things to work on, but they would work on it together.
That’s what she was going to say. But something over Kai’s shoulder caught her eye and filled her with dread.
Chapter 10
The landing at London Heathrow had been turbulent, and it’d been all Eden could do to keep from vomiting. Now, as she and Ash strode down the jetway, she’d composed herself enough to address the bombshell he’d dropped.
“Not here.” Ash cast a glance over his shoulder.
Eden did the same, her skin prickling as she wondered if the man behind them was following too closely. She stayed silent and picked up her pace.
The pair spilled out into the bustle of the terminal, Ash in the lead.
“Wait.” Eden pulled out the boarding pass for their connecting flight. “Our gate is that way.”
Eden pointed in the direction opposite the way Ash had gone.
Ash closed the distance between them. “Change of plans.” He plucked the pass from her hands and shoved it into his pocket.
Eden wanted to demand an explanation but didn’t let herself. For one, he’d just refuse to answer until he felt like it, and for another, she suddenly felt exposed standing in the crowded terminal and wondering where the next threat might lie.
She flashed a tight smile. “After you.”
Ash moved with haste, following signs for the Underground. Were they staying in England? He’d been clear they needed to meet up with his people—whomever they were—if she had any hope of ridding herself of the cursed mark.
But apparently, delaying was exactly what they were doing, because after one final escalator, Ash was at a kiosk buying tickets for the train into London.
“If what you say is true, why on Earth are we not heading straight to our destination?”
Her language was cloaked, her question surely pertinent enough to deserve an answer.
“What I said is true.” Ash pressed buttons on the touch screen before him. “The stone has been found.” The machine spit out two tap cards. “But it hasn’t been retrieved.” He held one of the cards up for her. “Yet.”
His steel-gray eyes held a glint of danger and excitement. A hint of blue peeked out from their depths.
Eden clutched the plastic Oyster card so hard the edges dug into her palm. Her stomach twisted in the way it did when she was afraid—an occurrence far too often these days.
“And that’s what we’re doing here? Retrieving the stone?”
Eden knew the other eleven were secured inside a small backpack stuffed inside of his duffel. She’d be uneasy with him having possession of the seals to any god’s prison, but especially this one.
Ash led her out onto the crowded platform. The sign above proclaimed the next train would arrive in two minutes.
“Yes.” Ash scanned the area. The action appeared natural, like a tourist, not a man on the lookout for the next threat.
Perhaps she should be happy he knew where the final stone could be found, thus keeping it out of the hands of those who meant to kill her. But finding it meant he would have them all, and regardless of how many times he’d saved her life, Eden didn’t trust him.
“And then what?” Eden tried to keep her voice even.
If he was tricking her, luring her in just so he could deliver her to some other sect of Agamon’s followers, she didn’t expect he would reveal it. But she was learning to spot lies—the downward cast of the eyes, a slight twitch of the mouth. Perhaps if he meant her harm, his features would give him away.
But he was as stone-faced as ever. “We take it with us to our next destination.”
A rush of wind announced the arrival of the train.
When the doors whooshed open, Eden stepped forward, gasping at the strength of Ash’s grip on her arm.
“Not yet.” His eyes held warning, and Eden’s pulse raced, her vision darting.
When the crush of people had streamed onto the train, they were alone on the platform except for one other—a man wearing an overcoat and a predatory gaze. He started toward them with surprising speed.
“This way.” Ash pulled Eden with him, racing down the platform toward the front of the train.
She stumbled, but Ash kept her upright. She spared a glance backward and saw the man nearly at their heels.
They were running out of platform, approaching the first car. A series of high-pitched beeps pierced the air, and the doors began to close.
“Now.” Ash pushed Eden through the sliding doors and jumped in after.
Their pursuer slipped an arm inside the car, and the doors halted. Ash kicked the man in the stomach, sending him tumbling backward. The doors snapped shut, and Eden became aware of all the eyes now upon them.
“He grabbed my girl’s ass.” Ash slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her uncomfortably close, but Eden didn’t dare back away and spoil the ruse.
His words were greeted with nods of approval from their fellow passengers.
“Tube is filled with wankers these days,” one man grumbled.
Ash nuzzled Eden’s neck, and now she was definitely going to pull away until he whispered, “I know you don’t trust me. You don’t have to. But I am going to see you safe.” Eden swallowed, his warm breath tickling her ear and making her cheeks grow warm. “I know someone we can see in London. He can’t take away the mark, but I think he can help us. After that, we can talk.”
Eden acquiesced with a tight smile. She didn’t trust him, but she needed help, and he was the only one offering.
She thought of Quinn back home and stiffened. He’d have helped. He’d have gone to the ends of the Earth. But he’d have gotten himself killed, and the weight of her current guilt was nothing compared with that.
She stepped back from Ash and gripped a pole to steady herself. A hole opened up from deep within her. It reminded her of the hunger she’d felt when at the mercy of Bes’tal and his lost souls. But this was of her own making. The hole where Quinn used to be.
Chapter 11
Out the window in the distance, an unusually large shape traveled across the quad.
Sarah squinted, waiting for it to coalesce into something more than a shadow—a large football player, two tall women walking tightly together—but it didn’t. The closer it got, the more the hairs on the back of Sarah’s neck stood on end. She’d thought it had been walking, but that was only because the figure had been far away. Now that it was closer, she realized it was gliding, hugging the edge of the clearing, so its silhouette was indistinct from that of the trees.
“What are you looking at?” Kai turned her head and followed Sarah’s gaze.
“Hopefully, nothing.”
But Sarah had been through too much to believe it was nothing. She rose to her feet.
“Sarah, talk to me.” Kai held fast to her hand.
“I have to go.” Pulling away from Kai’s grasp took more than physical strength.
She turned and strode out the door.
“Sarah, wait.” Kai hurried to catch up. “What is it? What do you see?”
Sarah didn’t slow. “I don’t know.” She jaywalked across the two-lane street. “But I’m going to find out.”
Sarah sensed Kai’s frustration but couldn’t let it deter her. Some amorphous blob of…something…was lurking around the quad. She didn’t need to be a witch to know that was bad news. She only had to have watched any horror movie ever.
Sarah raced in the direction she’d last seen the darkened silhouette. There would have been a time she’d have told herself she was being silly, but that time had long passed. This wasn’t nothing. This was definitely something.
When Sarah reached the tree line, she slowed, Kai matching her step for step.
Where had it gone? Sarah peered between the trees. It wasn’t dense forest like the far end of the quad. This was only a double row of trees meant to provide a clear separation between the dormitories and Main Street. Drunken students would sometimes crash through as a shortcut home, but more often, the trees forced them to use sidewalks, which kept the non-college-going population of Somerland happy.
Sarah took a tentative step forward, questioning just how reckless she was being. She’d been studying demons on the sly via the app Jules had downloaded for her, but she hadn’t gotten to the chapter on smoke monsters. Was it an illusion? She flashed on the hulking shape she’d conjured to scare the drunken frat boys at the Pride rally a few weeks ago. Was someone playing a trick?
“If they are, I’ll gut them,” Sarah muttered.
“What?” Kai whispered beside her.
“Nothing.” Sarah kept her focus on the trees. “There.”
She pointed to the large, semi-translucent shape twenty yards away. It hovered just above the ground and appeared to be made of smoke or maybe dark energy. She couldn’t see its eyes but felt sure it saw her—that it was looking right at her. The figure bobbed slightly in the breeze.
“Stay here.” Sarah stepped forward, but Kai grabbed her arm.
“What are you doing?”
“We prepared for this,” Sarah said, shaking her off. “Eden and I. And Paige. We learned battle magic.”
Sarah strode forward, hoping to convey more confidence than she felt. Kai moved with her, and Sarah readied her weave more quickly, before Kai had a chance to get hurt.
Sarah didn’t know what type of demon this was, but it wasn’t fully embodied, which told Sarah certain spells—like a fireball—wouldn’t be effective. It was just as well; Eden was better with fire than Sarah ever would be.
They’d only been practicing a short time, so Sarah’s knowledge was limited. She could only think of one spell that might work. An instant later, tiny sparks si
zzled at her fingertips, waiting to be loosed.
She raised her hands, but before she could strike, the shadow spread massive, smoke-like wings and flew straight toward her. She was seized by terror. The sparks at her fingers fizzled just as the creature propelled itself not just at her, but through her. Dark colors swirled around her and within her. Images flashed in her mind. Demons. Darkness. Betrayal.
She gasped and clutched her chest, her heart and lungs pressed in a vise.
“Sarah, what is it?” Kai gripped her shoulders.
Sarah couldn’t speak, couldn’t think. She managed to turn her head just enough to watch as the shadow flew up above the treetops and disappeared into the night sky.
“Sarah, talk to me.” Kai gave her a shake.
The darkness and terror receded just enough so she could speak a single word. “Alex.” It came out a croak. Sarah swallowed and managed a few more. “Get me to Alex.”
Chapter 12
The ride into London was long and crowded, but Eden was mostly too preoccupied with her own thoughts to notice.
Memory pressed her heart in a vise. She’d asked Kai to help her lover and her best friend to let her go. But did she want that?
No, what she wanted was to be at Quinn’s place watching a movie with him and Sarah and even Kai, laughing and eating pizza.
But what she wanted didn’t matter. Not now.
“This is us.” Ash’s words cut through Eden’s rumination.
The train stopped, and she and Ash exited the car, swept up in a sea of people as they ascended two flights of stairs, finally emerging onto a bustling London street.
The air held a chill, but it was warmer here than it had been in New England. The sky was gray with overcast, and though Eden felt disoriented and without a sense of time, she sensed it was late morning.
“If I remember correctly, his shop isn’t far.” Ash started toward a narrow side street.
“If you remember correctly?” Eden had assumed this was someone Ash knew well.
“It’s been a while.”
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