by Talia Vance
“You told me it was the chemicals in the lab.” I guess Mom and I aren’t so different after all. On some level we both wanted to pretend this wasn’t happening.
“I just wanted you to have a normal life.”
“But I’m not normal. Nana knew exactly what I was. She knew I made the fire.”
“She was terrified. She believed in the curse so much that she swore she wouldn’t have any children. Then she ended up pregnant with me. She decided to risk having me since I would only be the sixth generation, but she moved to San Francisco shortly after I was born. She thought if she could keep me far from Ireland, then my children might be safe. Even so, she tried to talk me out of marrying your father. She tried to talk me out of having you.”
“She thought I would become a killer.”
Mom looks away, but not before I see the tears in her eyes. “I didn’t believe her. I still don’t. But she was convinced. And there was the fire. The blue flame. Those two children were inside the building with you.”
“I didn’t kill them. Why didn’t you tell me everything then? There was no reason to keep secrets at that point. I needed to know.”
“Nana was worried about you. She said you shouldn’t have been able to conjure fire at that age. She thought it was better if you didn’t believe that you’d caused it. It was better if you didn’t try to use it again.”
Oh God. Nana wasn’t protecting me as much as she was protecting everyone else. Nana knew about the monster in me. She just wanted to keep it tucked safely under the bed.
Mom rubs her lips together. “Nothing else happened after that. Even I was convinced the fire was an accident.”
“But not Nana.”
Mom sighs. “She always believed in magic. She said the men who burned witches would come for you eventually, and we shouldn’t interfere.”
Shouldn’t interfere? “You mean, you should let them kill me?”
“No.” She looks back at me, more certain. “No. She said that you would be strong enough to fight them on your own.”
“What if I don’t want to?”
Mom’s eyes widen with worry, and I realize she’s taken my statement the wrong way. “I don’t have a death wish or anything,” I assure her. “I don’t want any of this. I just want to be something close to normal, if that’s even possible.”
Mom finally smiles. “That’s what I want for you too.”
“But let’s just say it’s not possible. If I had to fight, did Nana say anything about how I was supposed to defeat them?”
Mom shakes her head. “I wish I could help you more.”
“It’s okay.” For now, it’s enough to know that I’m not alone in this. The fact that my mother and I have even had this conversation is a miracle itself.
I hug my mom.
I spend the next three hours researching. There’s some information online. I find the story of the Milesians taking the earth from the gods and sending them to the underworld, but nothing about how the gods were made to stay there.
Hadn’t Austin said he’d been personally banished for a thousand years? So it must be possible, even now, to banish him. To stop him from trying to spark this war with the Sons. To keep the gods safely in the underworld.
I’ve found my hypothesis. My theory.
I’ve even tested it—with Haley and Christy, when we tried to banish Jonah. The spell didn’t work, but that doesn’t mean my theory’s dead. It just means I need to keep testing it under different conditions.
I find the book I took from Christy. My spine tingles as I flip to the banishment spell.
The introduction states the spell should be performed at a gateway. Didn’t Blake say that Avernus was a gateway? I could try the spell if I could get Austin back to Avernus. With Austin gone, I could convince the Sons that I won’t fight. That I’m on the side of humans.
At least I can try.
My cell phone starts barking. I consider ignoring it, but then the howling sets in. I grab the phone, intent on turning off the sound, when I see the message flash across the screen. It’s from Haley. Short as the message is, it has my full attention.
HELP.
THIRTY-eight
There’s no other message. I race to Magic Beans first. Matt stands behind the counter, cleaning the espresso machine with a damp washcloth.
“Is Haley here?”
He shakes his head. “She got off an hour ago. Her boyfriend picked her up.”
Boyfriend? Austin. Shit. This is not good.
Blake storms into the shop, his eyes wild. “Are you okay?” He flips a silk strand from the beanstalk out of the way.
I feel his concern mixing with my own, and it’s not helping. “Haley’s in trouble.” I hold up my phone and show him the message.
“Thank God. I thought it was you.”
“I have to find her.”
Blake follows me out of the shop. “I’m coming with you. I have a bad feeling.”
“She’s with Austin.”
“It’s not like they haven’t gone out before. You don’t think he’s going to hurt her?”
“You’re the one with the bad feeling.” I spin away from him and head toward the Blue Box. He grabs my arm, stopping me.
“I’ll drive.”
I don’t question it. I’m going to need all the help I can get. “Can you call Joe?”
Blake nods. “Any ideas where they went?”
“Maybe Avernus?” I can’t help but hope so. Two birds with one stone. “Haley told me he took her to the beach once.”
“I don’t know if a pureblood human could get in there. At least not alive.”
“The beach, then. He’ll want to be close to home.” His real home.
Blake calls Joe and tells him to meet us at the beach.
I wait until we’re in the car and driving before I ask the question that’s been on my tongue since the moment Blake showed up. “Why are you here?”
“I told you. I thought you were in trouble. I can’t explain it. Something’s not right.”
“What do you care?” As I say the words there’s a slicing pain in my stomach, only eclipsed by the sinking feeling in my heart. “I’m nothing to you.” I know he still thinks I set him up to be killed by the other Seventh Daughters.
I wait for his reaction, practically begging for him to deny it. At the very least I hope for righteous anger, something strong I can use to distract me from the grief that’s already ripping at me from the inside.
There’s no denial. No anger. His reaction is far more disturbing. He glances at me, his eyes sad. Pitiful. Then I feel what I should’ve felt from the moment he arrived: the wall between us, solid as the stacked stones in the field in my vision, piled high and packed with clay dried harder than cement.
I have to work hard to sense the resignation I can see in his eyes. He’s past being angry with me. Way past. He’s walled me off. Doing everything he can to keep me out.
I laugh, a harsh sound that doesn’t mask the pain behind it. Anger, I can use. I gather the slings and arrows that have been tearing around my chest and prepare to fire. “I don’t know why you’re so disappointed in me. You always knew what I was. Why wouldn’t I return the favor and let my sisters do my dirty work for me? It would’ve been poetic justice if they’d killed you.”
He doesn’t take the bait. He looks straight ahead in silence, the wall in place, no sign that I’m breaking through.
“Of course I sent Sasha and Sherri to kill you. That’s what you think, right? Which explains why they had no idea what they were doing. Obviously they came to die as martyrs. I mean, if you know Sherri Milliken, you know what a selfless person she is. And Sasha … ” My voice trails off and my anger suddenly seems so pointless.
Sasha is dead. I may not have been th
e one to send her into that den of Sons, but her blood is on my hands all the same. I could have warned her. I could’ve told her how the Sons would use their power to kill, taught her how to fight them. I could’ve talked her out of going after them in the first place. I did nothing.
In a way, Blake is right about me. I betrayed him. I betrayed Sherri and Sasha. I betrayed myself. I sat passively by and did nothing until it was too late. Too late to help the Seventh Daughters. Too late to help Blake.
So I didn’t kill him. I didn’t set him up to be killed.
I didn’t choose him, either.
Blake’s voice is quiet. “Were you close to her?”
I shake my head. “I met her once. The night Jonah attacked me. When you picked me up in Mira Mesa.”
He nods. There’s another tense silence before he speaks again.
“You don’t get it, do you? I’m here because I thought you were in trouble. You still are. And whether I want it to or not, it still matters to me that you’re okay.” He laughs then. “Who am I kidding? I want it to matter.”
He doesn’t say anything else. He just reaches across the car and takes my hand. As his fingers lace with mine, the wall comes down with a crash. I feel him all at once, a flood of sensation. Anger, disappointment, and pain are there, but they’re not his. My dark emotions are mixing with something else, something that threatens to overtake them. Not quite hope—it’s richer than that. It’s the most powerful magic I’ve ever felt, filling me with such force that I almost smile.
“You’re as much a part of me as breathing,” he says. “I’m tired of pretending you’re not.”
I let out a breath. “So don’t.”
The car stops at a light. Blake looks at me then. Really looks. And it’s not just that he sees me. Or even that he likes what he sees. There is something else behind his eyes.
He doesn’t say anything at first, and for a moment I think maybe he won’t. That he doesn’t have to. The stoplight flashes green, reflecting off the windshield, but the car doesn’t move. Blake closes his eyes and then opens them again. Then he leans forward, bringing his lips so close to mine that they’re nearly touching. He exhales; I feel the hot breeze against my mouth. “Do you feel it?” he asks.
The emotion that fills me is so potent, so full, so pure, that putting a name to it would diminish it somehow. My heart expands to soak it all in, until I can’t tell where Blake begins and I end.
“Yes,” I say.
His lips finally touch mine. And in the moment, I believe.
THIRTY-nine
I’m only partly relieved to see another car in the small parking lot at the beach. The other half of me is terrified. Blake clasps my hand as we walk down the path and make our way along the sand next to the base of the cliff.
The air is colder than it should be this time of year. And there’s something else off about it all … an unnatural smell that wafts on the wind, a hint of sulfur. I hold my hand out, using my power to form a mini pressure system that forces the air to flow around us. Only then do I let myself take another breath.
“There’s something in the air.” I say.
Blake nods. “I know. I feel it.”
“I mean literally. Something’s here that shouldn’t be. I’ll try to keep it away from us, but hold your breath if you get hit by a gust.”
“Do you think Austin would really hurt her?” Blake asks.
“Maybe. I don’t know.” My gut is telling me he would. “Don’t look in his eyes. His promises are empty.”
We see the fire first. It’s a huge bonfire, with stacks of wood that rise several feet out of the pit. The flames flicker and stretch, higher and higher. Instinctively I reach out to them, test them. The fire recedes on my command, quieting down to a slower burn.
Haley’s laugh carries across the beach. She whoops and throws her arms around Austin’s neck. He stumbles back, folding her into his arms and spinning her around in a circle. From here they look blissful, romantic.
Blake stops. “She looks okay to me.”
Haley’s voice is too loud. “Let’s go skinny dipping!”
My veins turn to ice. “She’s not okay.” Haley doesn’t know how to do anything she can’t learn from watching others or practicing in her room. Haley would never suggest skinny dipping. Okay, maybe in a hot tub, but never in the ocean. Haley can’t swim.
I let go of Blake’s hand and run the rest of the way to where Austin is still holding Haley in his arms.
“Easy.” Austin’s voice is soothing, lilting accent and all. “You’ll get to swim soon enough.” He grins when he sees me. “For a moment I was worried you weren’t coming.”
“Let her go.”
Haley’s eyes are so dark I can barely make out a thin ring of turquoise. “Brie! Are you stalking us now?”
Blake steps up behind me. As he does, the wind shifts, changing directions and blowing toward Blake. I have to react fast to stop it, convinced now that whatever is in the air is dangerous.
“Haley, listen to me. I’m not stalking you. You know me better than that. And Blake is here too. We’re here to help.”
Haley’s laugh is too high. “Last time I checked, Austin and I were doing just fine on our own.” She moves her lips to his neck and kisses a trail to his ear. Her smile is too big. It’s not the coy smile that took her two years to perfect, the one that shows just a hint of teeth, and the promise of more. “We’re going skinny dipping!” She lets go of Austin and stumbles away, pulling her long-sleeved tee over her head. The cold wind whistles around her but she doesn’t flinch.
“You can’t swim.” I keep my voice low. Embarrassing Haley in front of Austin and Blake won’t help me convince her to come with me.
“You think you’re so great now, don’t you? So you got a boy to notice you. La dee dah!” She spins in a circle. When she stops in front of me her face is contorted into a grotesque sneer. “I bet I could get him too, if I wanted. Except I would never do that to you. I have boundaries.” She unbuttons her jeans and starts peeling them off.
“Haley!” I grab her arm. “Listen to me. This isn’t you talking. He’s in your head. Don’t let him do this.”
She shakes off my hand and continues pulling off her clothes until she’s standing on the beach in only a thin pair of black lace panties and matching bra she’s managed to keep hidden from her mom since she bought it at the mall three weeks ago. When she looks at me again, her face is almost wistful. “Why can’t you understand?” She looks over her shoulder at Austin. He stands in the firelight, smiling at her with his crooked grin, looking for all the world like a smitten boyfriend. “I love him. It’s not like before.”
The air turns colder, even as I push the wind away. It’s too cold.
“Haley.” Blake’s voice is smooth. He touches her shoulder, fighting fire with fire. She can’t look away from him. “Aren’t you cold?”
Haley blinks, a lost look in her eyes. “Blake?” Her arms come around her chest and she rubs her arm, finally feeling the chill in the air.
Too late, Austin realizes what’s happening. No longer content to sit back by the fire, he’s on us in three strides. Haley is already grabbing for her clothes and shivering.
“Good.” Blake keeps his voice low. “Get your stuff. We need to go home.”
The golden light that flares behind us is so bright we all turn at once.
A ring of gold surrounds a patch of darkness so black that it seems to swallow everything. The light-ring grows and changes shape until it forms the outline of a man. Not a man. A god.
The creature that stands before us is like nothing I’ve ever seen. It almost hurts to look at him. It’s not so much that he’s illuminated in sunlight as it is that he’s the sun itself. His light and heat shine on everything in his orbit. The cold air turns to a warm tropical bree
ze; hot waves dance along my skin. He’s wearing what looks like a suede cloth, draped across his chest and tied around his waist, barely covering him. His boy-band good looks, so approachable as a human, are now anything but. His face is chiseled—sharp lines cast in granite with the skill of a master, so perfect that it’s a shock when he flashes that crooked smile and my insides warm to an uncomfortable degree.
Haley drops her clothes in the sand and moves toward Austin, enchanted. She doesn’t even notice the silver flash behind her.
With Blake’s appearance, the beach is lit up like it’s high noon, silver and gold light attempting to outshine each other. Blake’s sword is drawn; his eyes watch Austin warily.
Austin holds out his hand to Haley and pulls her to him. She sinks into him, her eyes still huge. He strokes her hair as he whispers in her ear, and from a distance it almost looks like he cares about her. But I hear the last word he says as he pushes her away. “Swim.”
Haley turns her back on him and starts to walk toward the water. I grab her arm but she pulls away easily. “Leave me alone.” She starts to run.
A flash of lightning strikes right where Blake is standing. Blake disappears, before I can tell whether he’s been hit. I spin around, looking for him.
Austin’s laugh heats me through. It’s a stark contrast to the icy cold heart that beats inside him. “Who’s it going to be, Brianna? You can’t save them both.”
I call the wind, using it to blow Haley backward, doing what I can to keep her from making it to the water.
Blake appears with a flash to my right. “Go after Haley. I can take care of myself.”
“He can’t kill you,” I say, remembering Austin’s comment about not being able to interfere. “If he kills you, he’ll be banished to the underworld.”
Blake grins. “So it’s a win-win.” He disappears again as I run to Haley.
She’s fighting against the wind. It’s strong enough that she falls to the ground. She struggles to get on her hands and knees, crawling with tiny steps.
