I get my feet down and tug him over me, throwing him flat on the ground and dusting him with a single, brutal stab.
When the Mohawked vampire lunges for me again, I drop to my back and use his own momentum to propel him up over my body and down onto the ancient, peeling picket fence around a small burial plot.
He moans in pain. But moaning is a very different sound from poofing.
The fence impaled him but missed his heart. He kicks and bucks, trying to get free. I walk to him, standing over his snarling, monstrous face. And I feel nothing. Not anger. Not elation. I finally gave in to it all, and instead of being relieved to finally let go, I’m hollowed out and empty. I channeled the darkness, used it, and nothing changed.
I could be wrong. I could be wrong. I have to be wrong.
“Who wanted me here?” I ask.
He grabs for me, but he’s still stuck on the fence. I take a small step back, and his hands claw at the air in front of me. “You can stake me. I won’t tell you anything.”
“Okay.” I stake him. I’m once again alone. I already know the answer.
All this was a ruse to get me out of the castle. The castle where Doug—Sean’s lost prize—is, where my mom is, where Rhys and Cillian and everyone I love is. I dial my mother as I race back toward the car. “Someone’s coming. It’s—” I choke. “It’s Artemis and Honora. Don’t trust them. Go on lockdown.”
There are a few heavy seconds as she processes what I told her. “Done.” She hangs up.
I throw myself into the car. “Setup,” I say, slamming it into gear and flipping a very illegal U-turn. “Artemis. She set me up. She set this all up.” I toss the phone at Leo. “Tell me the second you get any texts.” The phone dings, and I resist lunging for it.
Leo reads it quickly. “ ‘Everyone accounted for. Lockdown initiated.’ ”
Maybe they haven’t had time to launch an attack yet. The vampires did say they needed to hold me there for another hour. Hopefully, talkative Jane blew it for them. “They were probably hoping they could just walk in. But the castle knows they’re coming. And Artemis and Honora haven’t been there since we created the lockdown procedures. They won’t know what to expect.” I shake my head, disbelief numbing me. “Artemis. She’s going after the castle. I never should have let her leave with Honora. This is my fault.”
I clench my jaw, strangling the steering wheel imagining Honora’s perfectly lush and thick dark hair, that smug smile, those clever eyes.
“You’re not okay.” Leo’s eyes are heavy on me, even though my own are glued to the road blurring beneath us.
“Of course I’m not okay! The castle is probably under attack, Artemis is behind it, and I’m not there!”
“No, I mean, more than that. I saw you in that fight. It didn’t seem like you.”
I wanted to have this conversation. Needed to. But I couldn’t make myself because it felt too important and scary. With this news, it feels less scary. “Ever since you gave my Slayer power back to me, it’s felt different.”
He sits up from his slouched position. “What do you mean, different?”
Another ding.
“ ‘All clear.’ ”
But I don’t feel all clear. I feel like I’m flying apart at the seams. I drum my fingers against the steering wheel. “Not that I was an expert before or anything, and the powers are demonic in origin anyway, so there’s a certain amount of darkness that accompanies them, right? But I’ve been having these flashes of rage. And sometimes I want—I want to hurt things. Not to stop them or fight them, but to hurt them. And that’s new. That’s not me.” My voice breaks. I stop and clear my throat. “You had my power for a little bit. You felt it. Did you feel that?”
I finally look over at him. And then I wish I hadn’t. His face is frozen in a mask of horror.
“What?” I ask. “Tell me.”
“I—oh, Athena. I’m so sorry. I didn’t think—I didn’t even consider it.”
“Consider what?”
“When I took the energy from my mother. It was overwhelming. So much of it. I assumed that was what it felt like to have your power. But—god, I should have died. I should have died when I was supposed to.”
I pass a car with barely enough space, an angry horn following us. “Leo, tell me. It can’t be worse than what I’m imagining.”
“My mother drained others before you. Bradford Smythe. Cosmina. Several incredibly old demons. And I assumed that power would have burned off. She was using so much of it. But …”
“No, that’s worse than what I was imagining. That’s for sure worse. You’re telling me I got an extra demoned-up cocktail of power? That my demon-based Slayer power wasn’t demony enough, so I got several shots of demon espresso to really bump me to the next level. And Cosmina! And Bradford Smythe! Oh gods, I have part of Bradford Smythe’s life energy force free-floating around in me! I need to take a shower. I need to—”
“I should never have been part of your life. I thought I was helping. I really did. But who was I kidding? This is who I am. What I come from. I corrupt everything I touch, and I always will. I’m so sorry. I wish you hadn’t found me. I should have died alone in Von Alston’s house.”
“You’re not going to die.” The tires skid as I take a curve too fast but somehow keep control of the car. “No one is unless I say so.” It comes out a snarl.
He slumps in his seat. His voice is exhausted. It sounds like it’s coming from much farther away than it is. “I never took any energy myself. It was always my mother. And she’s gone. I’m dying. Starving to death. But it’s only incredibly slow and painful, so, all things considered not a bad way to go.” He tries to laugh. It doesn’t work.
His mother’s fate hangs in the air between us. His mother, who stole power and energy from others while they slept, and then passed it to him. That’s how he got my power back from her. Before I killed his mother and left him for dead.
“I refuse to let you die.” I hit the road that will take us to Shancoom. Every mile is torture. “I had to leave you before. I didn’t have a choice. Now I do. And you don’t get to die because you feel bad about what your mother did or who your father was.”
“I’m sorry to do this to you,” he whispers. “But you don’t get a choice in this one either. I’d rather die than be a predator or hurt you again.”
The phone dings. Leo takes way too long to relay the message. I already know before he says it.
“They’re under attack.”
23
“HERE’S HOW IT’S GOING DOWN,” I say, the engine roaring as it devours the road beneath us. I run through the plans over and over in my head, like thinking about them can protect the people involved until I get there. “Jade, Cillian, and Rhys are on the grounds. Jade will have had enough time to set traps. Doug is locked in the gym, where there’s only one way in or out, so they’ll have a hard time getting to him. He can defend himself, but I’m not risking him with how badly Sean would love to get him back. We don’t know their objective, but we can guess they’re after the demons as retaliation for how many I cost them.”
“Athena,” Leo says.
“Tsip will be in and out, wherever she’s needed, though mostly centered around the gym. I don’t know how she is in a fight. She’ll keep the attackers focused on the main portion of the castle, though, and out of the wings. The Littles are staying in their suite, but we have a false back to their closet built in so they can hide there. I’m assuming the other Slayers will be there with Jessi to protect them. Jessi would be more than happy to let them die, but she’ll do anything to protect the Littles.” Artemis won’t go near the Littles. She won’t. Whatever else she’s doing, she won’t hurt them.
“Athena,” he says again.
“Ruth will be in the library with Imogen protecting the books. You know Ruth will die before she lets someone take any of our resources. And my mother—” My breath catches. My mother gave me permission to see Leo, and instead I stole him and ran aw
ay for the day. And now she’s protecting the castle on her own, and I’m not where I should be, and if she dies it will be my fault. Artemis specifically told me to bring our mother and Rhys. She set me up to get the only people in the castle she cares about out.
Oh gods. People are going to die. And Artemis knows it.
Leo’s hand rests on my forearm. “They all know what to do. They’ve all trained for this.”
“If something happens to any of them—”
“Nothing will happen to them.”
“Something happened to you!”
He detaches one of my hands from its death grip on the steering wheel and laces his fingers between mine, bringing it to his lips and pressing a gentle kiss against my knuckles. “And it wasn’t your fault.”
He releases my hand. I turn onto the forest road that will lead us to the castle, my heart in my throat. I reach for the darkness inside, but all I find is fear.
* * *
I slam on the brakes before I hit the smoking ruins of a van tipped over on its side. Jade must have actually pulled off a bomb. I don’t know if I’m impressed or worried. And I can’t help the spike of fear for Artemis.
“On foot from here,” I say, because I don’t know where any more bombs will be. I get out, stake in hand, and hurry forward. No bodies, I think as I peer into the interior of the van. Please, no bodies. There aren’t any, and I can move again. Leo is behind me. His breathing is heavy, but he’s moving fast.
There’s a snapping of a branch, and I gasp as I’m doused with water. A water balloon, to be precise.
“It’s me!” I shout.
“Sorry!” Cillian is somewhere in the trees. I can’t tell his exact location, which is good, because it means no one else can either. But it also means he wasted one of his few holy water balloons on me. “We took out five vampires who climbed out of the ruined van, but there were two other vans that didn’t get damaged!”
“Where are Rhys and Jade?”
“Rhys is chasing down two stray vamps, and I haven’t seen Jade yet. I’m supposed to stay in my tree.”
“Good!” My hair dripping, I hurry forward around the next curve. There are two vans stopped in the middle of the dark forest road. I hold up a fist to Leo. “Stay here,” I whisper. I close the distance to the vans. The first one is empty, doors gaping open like mausoleums. No hostiles, no Jade, and no Honora or Artemis.
Or at least that’s what I think, until I’m electrocuted from behind.
“She’s down,” a woman’s voice says. “There’s one in the trees. No, up in the trees, not on the ground. Another deeper in the forest with a crossbow. He should be neutralized soon.”
“Nonlethal force,” another voice says over a crackling feed, and this one hurts more than whatever they did to me that’s left me flat on the ground, blinded by pain and unable to move. Artemis. “Remember our goal. Full team converge on the castle; the Slayer is out of play.”
“The hell she is,” I say, my face against the dirt of the road.
“What?” the woman over me asks.
“Playtime is just starting.” I stand and punch her and she falls back, unconscious. Human. One of the creepy cloakers. I tear the door off the second van. Jade is in there, her head bleeding and her hands and feet bound. My favorite crossbow has been tossed in the back, so I grab that, then break the ropes. Jade groans, sitting up.
“Where is she?” Jade demands.
“Who?”
“Honora!”
“She’s mine.”
“First come, first serve!” Jade pushes past me and runs for the castle, stumbling and limping.
I’m about to follow when I remember that Cillian and Rhys were being pursued. I scream in frustration, then run into the trees around where I was doused. A vampire is halfway up the tree. I aim, but before I can pull the trigger, he poofs into dust from another crossbow bolt.
“Cillian!” Rhys’s glasses are askew, and his hair has abandoned all pretense of order. There’s a cut along one of his cheeks, and his eyes are wide with adrenaline and panic.
“I’m okay!” Cillian shouts from above me.
I turn on my heel. Rhys isn’t going to let anything happen to Cillian. “They’re at the castle!”
“Go! We’re behind you!”
“Bring Leo! Go in the back way, put him in the tower with Pelly, then converge on the great hall.”
Leo is leaning against a tree. “Athena, I want to—”
“Follow your orders!” I snap. “I can’t wait for you!”
I sprint, and Jade curses as I pass her easily. The front door is closed, still intact. They didn’t come in this way. I do a quick mental inventory. The dorm wing is the easiest point of access. The windows are lower to the ground, and half of them are missing. I race around the side of the castle. There are two vampires in the trees. I fire two bolts, and then there are none.
Leaving the crossbow on the ground, I jump up and catch my own window ledge, then break my window and fling myself into my room. In the hall, I hear the furtive, creeping sounds of several attackers.
“Doug!” I shout. “Come on, this way! Hide in my room!” Sure enough, I hear footsteps running toward the sound of my voice. I slam the door. A few seconds later, it bursts open to reveal two vampires. I’m standing in the middle of the room between my bed and Artemis’s. The fan whirls in a blur overhead.
“Oh no. Two vampires. Help. Help.” I pull out a stake.
The first vampire, her bumpy, tortured face incongruous beneath perfectly coiffed blond hair, charges at me. I stomp on the floorboard beneath me. The spring-loaded board … does nothing.
I’ve faced a lot of disappointment in my life, but this is right up there with the worst of it. I stomp once more in petulant disappointment. That does the trick, though. The spring-loaded board is tripped, and she flies in almost slow motion upward toward the fan blades. With a cut-short shriek and a showering of dust, she loses her head.
“Holy hellmouths, it worked! It actually worked!” I laugh in shock, jumping up and down. “I have to tell …” Artemis. I have to tell Artemis.
The other vampire has frozen in disbelief, staring at the remains of his companion floating lazily down toward the beds.
All my giddy triumph sours. Artemis is the reason I got to test our booby traps. I pick up a heavy book and throw it at the vampire’s head. He stumbles, stunned. I kick him, and he flies directly into the large stone fireplace. The switch is hidden behind the mantel. I flip it, and he’s consumed in the jet of pressurized flame that shoots directly into him.
And look, I didn’t even catch my room on fire. That was our one concern with that method, but I figured out a way to keep it contained. Just put the vampire directly in the fireplace. “Go me,” I mutter, then step back into the dark passageways.
If the attackers are working under plans from Artemis and Honora, they’ll know about the secret passageways. I walk toward the nearest entrance. Sure enough, the closet door is ajar. I lean toward it.
The screams echo down the narrow stone passageways. Definitely several vampires’ worth of screaming.
I can’t quite imagine what the tiny purple demons are doing in there, but whatever it is, they’re good at it. No secret passageway movements for hostiles. I hope Artemis isn’t one of them. I almost call the tiny purple demons off, but I can’t afford to protect her. Creeping around secret passageways isn’t Artemis’s style. I sprint back toward the main hall to make sure my mother has it under control.
There are two vampires writhing on the floor, clawing at their now-empty eye sockets. Tsip looks up at me, beaming. “I got some eyes, Nina! And it’s my birthday!”
“Great job, I guess?” I stake the vampires, knowing even sightless vampires have enough killer instincts to be threats. My mother must still be hidden outside in the alcove, protecting the front door.
I peer out the window to see several hellhounds converging on the entrance. I open the door, grab my mother, and yank her insi
de before slamming it closed again.
“Thank you, Artemis,” she says, straightening her jacket. “Nina!” she corrects.
The fact that the first name on her tongue while being rescued was my sister’s hurts even more. I know it was a mistake. But it was a mistake born of habit. Artemis is the one she relies on when things get bad. And now Artemis is the one making things bad.
We share one silent, agonized look. We don’t have time to say anything, though. Rhys and Cillian run in from the dorm wing, Leo behind them. He looks beyond winded.
“Leo, into the tower section. Pelly’s there. Keep it safe. Sean did bad things to it for a long time, and I’m sure he’d love to take it back.”
I can see the struggle on Leo’s face. It’s killing him to have to leave this fight to us. But he nods and heads toward the kitchen, where he’ll access the door to the condemned tower section.
“Why now?” Leo asks, pausing.
“What?” I’m peering out the window. The hellhounds are circling. There’s no sign of Artemis or Honora, which is troubling.
“Why did they attack now?”
“Because I pissed them off at the convention!”
“No, he’s right,” Rhys says, reloading his crossbow. “You pissed them off a long time ago. What’s changed?”
“I don’t know! They have Artemis and Honora on their side now. They had room in their calendar for a quick castle assault. They threw a dart and it hit ‘screw over Nina’ on a board. Does it matter?”
“It might!”
“Well, we don’t have time to figure it out now! Leo, get into the tower wing. Rhys, Cillian, take up sentry in the Council wing. You should have a good view out of Bradford Smythe’s old rooms. Pick them off if they come near.”
“Anyone who comes near?” Rhys asks, hesitant.
I almost say yes, that’s how focused I am on protecting the castle. But Artemis. And, hells, Honora. I don’t want her dead. If only so I can rub her defeat in her face. “Legs until you can see their faces. Then heart shots, assuming vamps or demons.”
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