by Abbie Lyons
His intuition. I hadn’t even thought of that. If Wilder and I were inverses of the same spot in the demon hierarchy, it made sense that he might have some of the same powers as me. And given that he had much more practice honing his skills, his intuition power must’ve been really fucking good by now.
“That’s why it felt like fate when you were assigned to me for my first assignment performing an exetasis,” he continued. “And performing those exetases confirmed my intuition...you and I are indeed inverses. There are thousands upon thousands of demons and the chances of ever truly knowing who your exact inverse is are astronomically low. But I found you.”
Motherfucker.
“Let me tell you something you might not have learned in Professor Mantel’s silly little class,” he went on. “If you kill or otherwise destroy your inverse, you gain tremendous power. But together, you and your inverse can gain even more power...if you bind souls. And that’s exactly what I wanted for us, Nova. I wanted you to fall in love with me so that when I asked to bind souls, you’d leap at the chance. So I flirted with you. I danced with you. I led you on and made you feel like you were special to me.”
Even given the gigantic evil creep that I now knew Wilder was, the revelation still hurt me. The spark between had felt so real, and I didn’t want to believe I was capable of falling for somebody terrible so easily.
“So that was all fake?” I asked, probably sounding like far more of a wounded woman than I would’ve preferred.
He laughed. “Even faker than your relationship with Collum Tavish. Yes, I saw right through that one from the start. But the point I’m trying to make here is that it was always my intention to bind souls with you and become the most powerful dean this school has ever seen. But for some reason you bound yourself with my bastard of a half-brother, which I have to admit, I hadn’t the faintest idea about until your final exetasis. That one threw me for a loop.”
Raines couldn’t contain his anger any longer. “You evil fucking snake!” he shouted. “You just treat the whole world like everybody else is a worthless pawn in your game. You don’t give a shit about anything than your fucked-up ideals.”
“You never listen,” Wilder chastised him. “This is all for the good of demonkind in the end. Some might get hurt, yes, but if that’s what necessary, then so be it. As the most powerful dean in the history of this school, so much could be accomplished. That’s what’s important to me. Not just the needs of any individual.”
I wondered if that was really how he felt, or if it was just something he told himself to justify his insatiable desire for power.
“But still, I really am sorry,” Wilder said. I didn’t believe him. “I wish we could’ve done this the easy way, Nova. I’d give anything for us to be able to bind souls, but that’s off the table. Now that you’re bound with my brother for all eternity, the only way to gain your power is by destroying you. I just hope you know that your death will result in countless lives being saved in the future. Your sacrifice won’t be in vain.”
There was only question left that wouldn’t stop nagging at me. If I was about to die, I at least wanted to know the answer.
“If your plan was always to bind souls, then why did you almost let me die back in the auditorium last semester? Chaos almost swallowed me.”
He shook his head. “I’m not perfect. I overplayed my hand a bit and let Chaos get a bit too out of control. In that moment, I truly thought there was no way out of the situation. Better to just let you die and then take control of the situation from there. But you and my idiot half-brother proved to be more capable than I’d thought. Which pleased me, as it turned out. I was glad to see you survive. It meant my original plan could move forward. But now...there’s just no choice. You have to die.”
I felt a sudden surge of fury from deep within me.
“She’s not going to die!” screamed Raines, rising to his feet and shooting a gigantic blast of lightning at Wilder...that didn’t do anything more than bounce off of him.
Bounce off of him, and right back to Raines.
“No!” I screamed, leaping forward before I knew what I was doing...but I was too late. Too late and too unable to stop it even if I hadn’t been. The energy engulfed Raines with a sickening sizzling sound, lighting him up from inside, and then, almost as quickly, vanishing.
Raines crumpled to the floor.
Instantly, I felt it too. A clap of power to my chest, like someone had slammed me with defibrillator paddles. It hurt, a pain that pulsed in the very core of me.
I knew that being soul bound meant sharing these feelings. We’d done that, for months now. What I didn’t know, what I’d never even considered, was what would happen if one of us died.
“Raines,” I choked out. But I couldn’t get closer. Wilder thrust himself between us.
“Not so fast, Nova.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.
I was on my own, fighting a demon ten times more powerful than I was, and half of my soul was wrenching in pain.
Also, I didn’t know any fucking magic.
I could turn into a ghost, which would be useless. If I had a carpet square, I could make a spark. I could use my intuition, except that was already skyrocketing off the charts with hey, this guy’s the villain!
None was helpful.
“I’m going to enjoy this,” Wilder said, his eyes manic and gleaming. “I’ve waited so long.”
“Yeah, not me so much,” I said, and ducked as he swiped at the air with a vicious slicing sound. His arm was transformed into some kind of blade—no, I realized. He was holding the sickle. Two of them, glowing.
Again, didn’t need intuition to realize that was bad news.
I hit the ground, legs bent, hard enough to crack my knee caps. The library table was my only defense, with Raines sprawled unconscious just a few feet away. All I had around me were books.
Well, better than nothing.
I sprang to my feet, a heavy tome in each hand, and flung them at Wilder with all my might. They spun through the air like leather-bound frisbees, pages flapping, and for a moment my heart caught in my throat, thinking maybe, just maybe, they’d smack him in the temple, and like David against Goliath, I’d take the fucker down.
Nope. Wilder spun a sickle and sliced one, then two, clean in half. The cut pieces of the books thumped to the ground. Time for Plan B. What else was around here?
I looked up. The chandelier. It wasn’t an open flame, like most of Hades, but instead some angular green rocks that glowed faintly from the tips of a brass claw. That’ll work. I jumped, yanking down the chandelier with every last ounce of my body weight, and felt the ceiling above us splinter and finally give. I clutched it to my chest as slivers of wood rained into my hair and eyes, and held it out like a glowing, pointy shield.
Wilder scoffed. “Oh, please.” He whirled his sickle at me, and succeeded in chipping off one of the glowing lights, which sparkled and fizzed to nothingness.
Great. At least the brass didn’t seem to immediately give way to his magic sickles. I crouched back, packing myself against the wall. Where had he been keeping those stupid things, anyway? His pockets?
Holy shit—wait a minute.
Subtly, quickly, I stuck my fingers into my blazer pocket. It was there, cool metal against my fingertips. Not much, but all I had, and I’d have to act fast.
Another clang as Wilder swung at me. “Nova, I don’t want to have to hurt you. Much.”
Do it, Donovan, I told myself. Do it or die.
With some kind of crazy valkyrie scream, I pushed the chandelier out of my way, jumped to standing, and launched myself at Wilder, arm out and tiny axe blade leading the way.
It worked. I made contact, felt the slice of skin beneath the edge of the blade, the stupid little trinket gift from my ex-fake-boyfriend. Wilder screamed, literally screamed, and stumbled back, a torrent of blood pouring from his forehead right into his eye, clogging the lenses of his glasses.
“What—you little—fuck!”
I didn’t have much time. I climbed over the chairs, over the tables, to the lever for the carousel rooms, and yanked it as hard as I possibly could. It must have been hard enough, because the room lurched, and we plummeted, a stomach-dropping five seconds before landing with a terrifying crunch.
I snapped my gaze to Raines. The fall hadn’t magically given him his consciousness back. But I couldn’t save him if I wasn’t alive.
But if he wasn’t alive—
“You bitch!”
Before I could check for a pulse, blood-soaked hands were at my throat. I gasped, struggled, my legs kicking fruitlessly as Wilder lifted me into the air like I weighed nothing, slammed me into the wall. I saw stars, flecks of his blood streaking my face, the sickles gleaming in his waistband.
“You give me a lust like none other,” Wilder said through gritted teeth. “A lust to kill. Not just to terrify. To kill with my hands like you foul humans kill each other.”
I couldn’t—breathe. I couldn’t, I couldn’t, I can’t I can’t I can’t.
Wilder’s cheek grazed mine. “This will be so sweet,” he whispered. “To do it this way. So intimate. My dead little inverse and me.”
Black blotted my vision. His face loomed, faded. My hands tensed, muscles contracted, the human in my body reacting on instinct, readying me to die.
“Drop her!”
The hands loosened, barely, but just enough, and my throat gulped air. Then I fell to the ground.
An earsplitting crack rent the air, and Wilder blasted backwards, shattering against the back of the study room. I gulped more air, shaking on all fours. More, more, breathe more.
My vision stabilized and I looked up, still on the ground. A figure stood at the door, one arm extended and throbbing with electricity, its reflection fireworking through a pair of glasses.
“T–Teddy?”
My throat felt like a crumpled straw. Speaking was choking, but with sound. With a brisk nod, the figure—Teddy—leapt forward, impossibly high and impossibly fast, a trail of lightning following in his wake. He landed in a crouch, sparks skittering everywhere, and blasted another pulse into Wilder’s chest like a superhero.
Theodore Motherfucking Dewberry III.
I couldn’t believe it, except that I could.
“Stop it,” Teddy roared. “That’s my friend.”
Wilder didn’t move. Maybe he was dead—I could only hope. Air in my lungs, I felt my attention pulled like a magnet back to Raines. I scrambled to his side, turning him face up.
I’d done CPR once before. A junkie back in the city, nodded out in an alley, totally blue, me with no Narcan and no cell phone to call an ambulance. I’d done everything I could, pumping this thin girl’s chest, desperate to save her, not to break her.
She died.
“Raines!” I couldn’t tell if I’d whispered it or screamed. He was pale, scary pale, too-much-blood-gone pale. Where was he bleeding? If I found the blood, I could stop the bleeding. Save him. All be fine. My head had gone terrifyingly clear, the agony and ache I’d felt early gone, replaced by...I didn’t know what. The superhuman strength that took people over sometimes—moms lifting minivans off of kids, that kind of thing. That had to be it.
“Halt.” Somewhere above me, outside the room, a commanding female voice rang out in the library. “In the name of the Regents, I order you to cease casting, channeling, conjuring, and transmorphing immediately.”
I blinked, watched Teddy, smoking with actual smoke and furious, back off, then be firmly drawn back by a straight-backed woman with a short, white haircut.
“Wilder Frost, needless to say, you have been removed as dean,” she went on. Behind her, I heard murmuring, and saw a growing cluster of students—hard to imagine that all the ruckus wouldn’t have drawn attention.
Stop distracting me. I put a hand on either side of Raines’s head. “Raines. Wake up.” I looked desperately from him to Teddy to the crowd to Raines again.
He was cold. Colder than he’d felt in the potions closet. Colder than the last time we’d been this close. I tried to remember CPR, how to put my hands, how to count—
“Mr. Dewberry, step back.” Mantel flung out at arm to stop him. Teddy obeyed, and receded towards the crowd, where everyone was staring at him, wide-eyed and impressed.
“He’s—” I choked. Tears were wet on my face. I couldn’t believe it, couldn’t believe I was crying.
Because where was the pain? Where was the pain he was feeling? Why am I not feeling it?
“Please.” Mantel pushed me, gently, out of the way. She crouched over Raines, pressed her thumbs an inch above each eyebrow. She spun to look at me, an astonished look on her face.
“You’re—”
“Yes,” I said, not knowing or caring how she could sense it. I wasn’t going to let Raines—because of me—
“I need you.” She motioned me closer, her voice low. “You’re bound. He’s...you can save him. But it will cost you. And the bond will disappear.”
“But it’ll...he won’t...”
“You can save him,” Mantel repeated. “Will you?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
Without further ado, she yanked my hand by the wrist and replaced my thumbs where hers had been. Raines was cold, so cold. Mantel closed her eyes, held both of our shoulders, and whispered something.
A jolt flung through my body, like the wind was knocked out of me. Something fell away from me—literally fell, I swore it, like an exoskeleton, shoved off of me and away, into a single stream of energy focused right at the tips of my thumbs.
It hurt.
He wasn’t cold.
Raines choked.
His eyes flew open. Gold. Gleaming. Blinking.
I wanted to sob with relief, but utter shock won out. I turned to Mantel. “How did you—”
“There’s a lot I haven’t told you, Nova,” she said briskly, rising to her feet. “And there’s a lot I hope you’ll learn soon.”
Raines blinked some more, coughed, and pushed himself to sitting. “Fuck,” he said weakly. “Did he get me?”
I didn’t know what to do, so I flung my arms around him.
Just for a moment.
Mantel, meanwhile, narrowed her gaze and looked at the crumpled body. “Wilder.”
He stirred, but barely. Blood soaked his shirt—not just from the little cut I’d managed to get in, I realized, but also from deeper wounds. He’d landed on his own sickles.
Fitting, I thought darkly. But he wasn’t dead.
Before he could move further, Mantel snapped her fingers and encircled his wrists in a steel manacle.
“Gods damn it,” Wilder said. “They—I—”
“Save it,” she said, and motioned for the kyrioi to enter. “You’re gone.”
“But—”
Without another word, the two massive guard-demons had Wilder by the shoulders, and evaporated. The last thing I saw in the swirling dust of their disappearance was his furious, hard stare.
Right at me.
Behind us, the crowd was stirring, even as kyrioi had materialized to keep them at arm’s length.
“Donovan?” A familiar male voice pushed its way through. I turned to see, of all people, Collum Tavish.
“Collum,” I said, not even able to use his last name. I felt wobby, but strong enough to stand, and let him help me to my feet. I brushed my hair out of my eyes, feeling grimy, sweaty, and shaky.
“I’m all right,” I said, before he could ask. “You kind of saved me in there.”
Collum frowned. “How?”
“I’ll explain later.”
My eyes went to Raines. He was breathing hard, his knees gathered to his chest, his face gaining some color back—but not much.
I couldn’t feel it. Whatever he was feeling, I couldn’t feel it. Panic clawed into me, the oh-shit feeling of watching a bus pull away with your purse sitting on a seat, the missingness of something, like a m
emory slipping from consciousness.
We were unbound.
Collum caught my eye, and I knew what we had to do. Wordlessly, we moved in unison, finding our way to Raines’s sides, lifting him to stand.
“All right, all right,” Raines said, his protests raspy enough to prove he needed the help. But he leaned on me—on both of us.
“You’re all right, mate,” Collum said. “Just one foot in front of the other.”
We stepped like that, slowly, and as we cleared out of the study room, Raines swiveled to look at me. I couldn’t feel his emotions, but his face said everything. He could tell the bond had been broken.
“What—”
“It’s fine,” I said, firmly, letting my body hold up his weight. “It’s all over, Raines.”
“YOU’RE sure you want to do this. Because I need you to be sure.”
“Well, you’re the only guy who’s offered to bind with me, so I figured what the hell. Ain’t getting any younger.”
“You think you’re hilarious.”
“You know, I do.”
“We’re going to have to touch, you know. For it to work.”
“I’ll live. Is the moon officially overhead now?”
“Looks like it.”
“So do I touch you first, or...”
“Hand on heart. Bare skin.”
“Well, can you at least move your tie?”
“Here.”
“Okay.”
“Can you feel my heartbeat?”
“Yes.”
“I can feel yours.”
“Great. So keep it there. Because if your hand so much as moves a centimeter towards my boob, I swear—”
“Gods, Nova.”
“Sorry. Is this weird?”
“Shh.”
“I’m making it weird.”
“Shh.”
“How will I know if it’s working?”
“You’ll know.”
