I also know I’d kill someone for a cheeseburger.
The door clicks and I stop pacing. Carter enters the room with an Enforcer and hugs me before he takes a seat beside me. The Triad and the council enter on opposite sides of the room, and I guess I spoke too soon. Everyone stares us. No one moves. No one speaks. Ellore is the only one with a friendly face.
Do they know we lied?
Rafe Ezrati stands without looking at his counterparts. He bows to me, and then to Carter. Everyone, and I mean everyone, looks shocked. I feel like I returned to some alternate universe. “Thank you, Miss Grey and Mr. Prescott, for your valiant service and sacrifice. You are the reason my family has always believed in the Enforcer finals.”
Rafe sits down again.
“We have spoken with both of you and your stories match completely,” Mr. Prescott says. Carter meets my gaze and I know his father is in on our lie. I guess it’s his lie too, considering what he has at stake if anyone found out about Kriegen or Carter. “You’ve both done a brave thing.”
“With that in mind,” Sabrina Stone says, “we’ve decided that you both deserve your spots as Enforcers. You won’t have to complete the Partner Final.”
I blink. That’s it? Carter throws his arms around me, and I can’t believe it. They’re just giving it to us?
“The position is yours, if you would have it,” Rafe says.
“Why?” I ask. It’s the shock. The question sort of comes out on its own.
“You two went into De’Intero and took down a major demon. You took down many demons from the sound of it, and kept our people safe,” Sabrina says.
“As an Enforcer, this is your sworn duty,” Rafe adds. “Allegiance to the Triad, to the fight against evil, to the sanctity of magic and purity of life. To serve honestly, uphold the integrity of the badge, to protect and be willing to sacrifice whatever comes for the safety of your promise. These are vows that you will take—vows that you have already proven to value.”
I look sidelong at Carter.
“I’d be honored,” Carter says, avoiding my gaze.
They all look at me, waiting.
But the weight of it is too real. I’m not being honest or serving with integrity. I’m lying. We’re lying. I’ve lived a lie for years, and taking on this role means living the lie longer. Pretending to be someone I’m not, forever. I see it all now. All my dreams. The future. The past. The present. The things I’ve always wanted floating around in my head. To have magic again, to follow in Mom’s footsteps and be an Enforcer, to prove to myself that I am good enough. Then I see Carter’s smile, feel his lips on mine, hear his laugh, remember how hard he fought with me, for me. And I realize that the things I want have changed.
But the things I need have not.
I need to be an Enforcer. Now more than ever. I need the protection, I need Carter, I need to find Azsis, and if the magic I harness is truly related to the void, then it is evil magic and I still need my essence. I have to say yes. I have to keep lying.
Carter squeezes my hand.
“I’d be honored as well,” I say.
Everyone applauds. I smile, Carter smiles, and for once, for the first time ever, it’s good that we’re both so excellent at lying. Gran may have been right all these years: lying may be the only way to stay together, and alive.
I stop by the library on my way outside. Hyde is sitting on the desk, and he perks up when I walk in, his tail swaying. He lets me touch him, which is surprising. Beside Hyde, I notice a little bell and I ding it. Has that been there this whole time? The sound echoes throughout the library.
Only yesterday, I was here seeking answers; now I’ve found some of them. More of them than I expected to find. Now I have to figure out what I’m going to do with them, what they mean for my future—and if I can bear to search for the ones I’m still missing.
“Poncho?” I call out.
There’s a book on the table when I sit down to wait. I smile, because that means he probably knew I was coming. I turn the book to face me and look down at the page. It’s an excerpt on the Restitution, the ritual to return magic that I’d learned about before, but have yet to study. My eyes scan the page and one singular passage jumps out at me.
“Magic is a fine balance, and any tipping of the scales can destroy it all. There is no good and evil in magic, only ability and motive. Only the purehearted can serve the Void and the Essence alike, can treat them both as equal. The Restitution is the epitome of magic, and only those who balance the line in pure heart can succeed in performing it.”
I don’t want to read this. When I turn around, Poncho is there.
There’s a twinkle in his eye, and I wait. I had this whole speech planned out, about how I knew that he was really Vassago because of that stupid sock, and I demand to know why he is here. But now that I’m in front of him, I’m not really sure I want to know. It’s so ironic.
“I think the word you are looking for is hypocritical, not ironic,” Poncho says. He takes a step toward me and leans on the back of the chair. “And that would be a correct word.”
“How are you two people?”
He smiles. It’s so much like Vassago that it’s jarring. But then, he is Vassago. Somehow.
“Here, in this room, I am Poncho. Out there, I am Vassago. Decades ago the Triad came seeking me out, and I helped them with a problem. It’s a long story that I shall tell another time. In result of it, they gave me a job, and bound my magic to their DNE system. It’s been safer for me hiding out here.”
Protective custody for demons? That existed? “Why would the Triad help you?”
Poncho doesn’t move his gaze away. “When you know the things I know, both sides want to use you. I serve all, but sometimes that means you can only appear to serve one.”
I nod my head slowly. “How did they know they could trust you?”
“Intuition is a lot of it; proof is another. Miss Grey, do you know what happens when you rip someone’s magic away from their soul?” He doesn’t allow me to answer. “They fight back.”
I raise my eyebrow. “The soul or the magic?”
“Both,” he says.
There’s a silence between us so loud that when Hyde meows, we both look at him. “So you do have magic, but it’s bound. How do they even do that?” I ask.
Poncho shrugs. “Is there anything else?”
I want to mention Azsis, but I need a break. A short one. Without conspiracies. I want to celebrate this minor win for my side. If being a demon—half demon—is a win. This whole thing is weird, but I’m tired. I think I’m done digging for answers. At least for this month.
“Maybe later,” I say, standing up from my chair. Poncho nods and I move toward the door. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet, Miss Grey,” Poncho calls. I move toward the door and then pause as he continues to speak. “We are not through, you and I. Matters of the heart are often poisonous,” he says.
Why would he say that? I turn, about to ask a question, but he’s already gone.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Ric pushes Connie as we turn out of St. Elmo’s Coffee Pub. They are arguing about who was hotter in the movie: Chris Pine or Bradley Cooper. I still think Zac Efron is the best of all of them.
“I don’t understand them,” Carter says, pointing between Ric and Connie. He presses his lips against my temple. I love being near him.
“Where to next, Con?” I ask. She snaps out of her argument and plasters on her smile. She has this whole day planned as a celebration for all three of us becoming Enforcers. None of us mention the whole halfway-to-hell thing, but I know that she’s secretly celebrating our survival of that, too. She and Ric know the whole story, the real one. No more lying to my best friend and my sister.
“Hot-boy movie is a check, so next it’s the park.”
“The park? You really suck at this whole ‘celebrate’ thing,” Ric says.
She waves him off. “Just wait. It’s going to be way more exciti
ng than a normal day at the park.” Oh man, cue the freaking clowns. Or ponies. Or flying trapeze artists jumping over fire.
That last one could be cool.
It would be better than her other idea to have each of us break a big rule before we took our vows. We tried that this morning and the most dangerous it got was me having a triple shot in my latte. We party big.
Connie bumps into my hip. “I can’t believe two of my favorite people are going to officially be Enforcers.”
“That’s not nice. What about Carter?” Ric asks, looking over at her.
“I was talking about Carter,” she says. Carter chuckles, and Ric kicks at my sister before he hugs her. Idiots, both of them.
We turn the corner and Carter yells, “Detour,” before pulling me away from my sister and Ric.
“What are you doing?”
“Just a second,” he says. We run down the street, and I look over my shoulder toward Ric and Connie, but they’re talking about something else entirely. The magic is going too crazy as we move, but it’s only a few more blocks and then I realize where we are: our alley.
Someone cleaned all the glass from the ground, but aside from that, it’s still the same. Last time I was here, everything changed. I didn’t know anything about myself, and now I know everything. I’ve gotten everything I’ve always wanted. I toe the iron grate with my shoe—amazing that this small, unimportant thing made me whole. “Thank you.”
“Are you talking to me or the iron?”
“Both,” I say, turning to face him.
He smiles and pulls me in. “Witch,” he says, his lips on my neck, “you smell good.”
A smile plays on my lips. “That’s the smell of pure power with whipped cream on top.”
Carter pulls me around and his smile is large, his eyes glistening. I kick at his feet. “Your lucky shoes,” I say, pointing down at his bright blue Converses. “I didn’t realize you were wearing those.”
He shrugs. “I don’t know anymore. They keep bringing this girl around and she’s sort of a stalker.”
I gasp and hit him on the shoulder. He laces his hand with mine, then grabs my arm, pulling me toward him. He pins me against the wall with a smile and presses his body against mine. My hand slides up his chest, around his neck.
“I will always fight for you,” he says, his voice low.
I look into his eyes and I know, without a doubt, that I trust him. “I will too,” I whisper.
His lips are against mine, and my tongue slides against his. My fingers roam up his neck as the brick digs into my back. Carter leans into me. This is what I want. Carter and me. Everything else can work itself out. It doesn’t matter like this matters—like he matters.
He smiles against my lips. “You know what?” he says between kisses. His lips tickle mine when they move. “Maybe these are lucky shoes.”
I laugh. “I know they’re mine.”
He kisses me again, long and deep. Fire builds between us. Our bodies fold together; warmth seeps through the layers of fabric. I could get used to this. He moves away from me, and I moan under his lips. A soft kiss pecks my forehead as he trails his fingers on the bare skin of my arm, leaving goose bumps where his touch lingers. I smile, out of breath, and the air fills the small space between us.
“We should go back,” I say, but I don’t even mean it.
“We should,” he says, but he keeps me close.
His breath on my ear makes me giggle. I’m totally that giggle-at-her-boyfriend girl. “So we’re officially Enforcers now. That should be fun,” I say.
“Only if we get to spar some more.”
“You like that?” I ask with a smile.
“Not as much as this,” he says, leaning in to kiss me again.
I don’t like it as much as this, either.
Acknowledgments
Salt has been a crazy journey, and none of it would have been possible without my three Boston boys. Joshua Sheena, who insisted that I watch Supernatural and meet the Winchesters because my life was missing something. It was, so thank you for showing me the errors of my ways. Derrick Pyle, who locked me in my room, talked me out of corners, helped me get out of my own way so I could write the things that had to be written even when I didn’t want to. Thank you for that, and for Vassago because he was all your idea. And Nathan Behit-Aharon, who was there to listen, to overanalyze male counterparts in YA, and to make me laugh with bad puns. You are like geometry: without you, life is pointless.
Without the three of you, I would have never written the first draft of this book.
To three women who have been in Penelope’s corner through this whole process. Jaime Arnold, my publicist, who read Salt and insisted that I sub to Entangled, and then fought for me in every single way. I hope you know how much you matter. Cindy Thomas, my crit partner, for being there the day I had this idea and spending a whole lunch developing it with me—and then reading, talking, and brainstorming with me over and over for months. This sort of feels like yours, too. And my friend, Amalie Howard, who after reading a single page of this story said it was something special and believed in it even when I didn’t. Glad you were right.
To my editors: Guillian Helm and Laura Anne Gilman for helping me shape this story and make it stronger. Liz and Stacy for letting me be part of what you are doing, and to all the other people at Entangled who give their time and energy to my little book: Thank you.
My other amazing critique partners: Christina Ferko and Patricia Riley for EVERYTHING and ALWAYS. Crystal Harris for the necklaces, the support, the laughter, the new ending, and the fangirling. Traci Inzitari for the enthusiasm and willingness to always help out. My amazing agent, Nicole Resciniti, for jumping in and taking charge and making me smile. Jennifer L. Armentrout for being so supportive and for the lovely blurb!
The HB&K Society for smiles and laughter and support. My, what a year! (Let’s repeat it.) All my friends in the DC MafYA, the Boston Gang, and the YADC group (you know who you are) for the adventures, friendship, and cocktails! Especially Jenny Adams-Perinovic for the amazing, amazing cover that I love so much!
My longtime friend Elizabeth Brown, who handed me a YA book before I knew what YA was, told me to read it, and subsequently helped me find my calling. Without your guidance through pages of stories, I don’t know where I’d be.
I have to thank some other friends and family in my life who get it and never questioned me or let me quit: Mom, Cierra, Papaw, Grandma Carrie and Grandpa Ed, Aunt Barb and Uncle Mike, Ashley Carmichael, Billy Eisnaugle, Hannah Hanrion, Tricia Howell, Meagan Pack, Andye Eppes, Katie Black, Kim Harrington, Victoria Schwab, Jennifer Rush, and other people I can’t list because that would take years. Thank you.
To my coworkers at One More Page Books for dealing with all my anxiety, tears and random ideas, and the revision brain.
To the (online and offline) YA community—all the fantastic authors, aspiring writers, bloggers, beta readers—for your support, tweets, pictures of cats and hot boys, and other randomness. All of you are the biggest group of enablers I’ve ever met. It’s pretty awesome.
To you—the amazing, beautiful person reading this book. I’m really thrilled to share this. I hope you love it! (And then you want more because there is more coming!)
And lastly, to my Nanan, who influenced this book in so many ways that aren’t even a fraction of how she influenced everyone around her. I miss her every day—especially the way she told us exactly what we didn’t want to hear but needed to hear anyway (and was always right about it). All you wanted for us was to find our dreams and live life the way you had: with joy and passion and love. This is my dream, and even though you aren’t here to read this book, I know you’re proud. Thank you for your love, unwanted lessons, and fire for living. You will always be my moral compass, my foundation, and my biggest inspiration.
About the Author
Danielle Ellison is from West Virginia, where she spent her childhood pretending to fly, talking to imaginary friends
, and telling stories. She hasn’t changed much since then. When she’s not writing, Danielle is probably drinking coffee while fighting her nomadic urges, watching too much TV, or dreaming of the day when she can be British. You can find her on twitter @DanielleEWrites.
Darker Days
By Jus Accardo
A little sin can be deadly…
Jessie Darker goes to high school during the day, but at night she helps with the family investigation business. Cheating husbands and stolen inheritances? They’re your girls—but their specialty is a bit darker. Zombie in your garage? Pesky Poltergeist living in your pool? They’ll have the problem solved in a magical minute. For a nominal fee, of course…
When gorgeous new client, Lukas Scott, saunters into the office requesting their help to find a stolen box, it sounds like a simple case—until the truth comes out. The box is full of Sin.
Seven deadly ones, in fact.
They’ve got five days to recapture the Sins before they’re recalled by the box, taking seven hijacked human bodies with them. Easy peasy—except for one thing…
There’s a spell that will allow the Sins to remain free, causing chaos forever. When the key ingredient threatens the life of someone she knows, Jessie must make the ultimate choice between love and family—or lose everything.
Amazon | B&N | iTunes
Spring Moon
by HRH Princess Sophie Audouin-Mamikonian
Amid the expansive plains of Montana, the Lykos Ranch stretches for miles. The inhabitants who live in near isolation from the outside world are members of the most powerful clan of werewolves in North America. Among them lives just one human: Indiana Teller.
Grandson of the clan’s leader and offspring of a werewolf father and a mysterious yet human mother, Indiana is rejected by his peers and heads to the University of Montana to find a normal life. Despite warnings from his grandparents, he falls in love with a beautiful human, Katerina.
Salt Page 29
