“You saved my life.” I could still feel the water in my lungs, the pressure, and her arm around my neck.
He smiled. “I am the high priest, remember?”
“I’m pulling you guys up.” Lukas’ voice sounded shaky, or was it Jared’s? I couldn’t tell over the echo of the sloshing water and our ragged breathing.
“Take Kennedy,” Priest said. “I need to look for the disk.”
My stomach roiled at the thought of staying in the filthy water for another second. But we had risked our lives to find it, and I wasn’t leaving Priest down here alone.
“I’m staying.”
“You’re both coming up,” one of them barked.
“Give us a minute.” Priest ran his hands along the slippery walls. “Check between the cracks.”
We worked our way around the inside of the well until my legs started to go numb from the cold. Priest even dove to the bottom a few times, but he came up empty-handed.
“Maybe it’s up there around the perimeter of the well somewhere,” I said.
“Your lips are turning blue. We’d better get out of here anyway.” He retied the rope so it was more secure, leaving us a few feet apart.
He signaled to Lukas. “Okay, pull us up.”
I watched Priest rise above me, moving closer to the gray sky. My body rose out of the water slowly, grime running down my arms. As my feet lifted out of the water, I felt a tiny hand close around my ankle.
It was impossible. I watched her explode. Then I remembered.
She wasn’t the only one who died in the well.
The boy’s spirit looked like he was standing on top of the water. But his feet were just below the surface. The dark water splashed against his shins as if it was only inches deep.
“Wait.” His voice was tiny. The boy’s fingers uncurled from my skin as he reached into his pocket with his other hand. He pulled out a muddy silver disk, exactly the same size as the one we found at Lilburn.
“Lower me back down,” I said.
“No way,” Lukas yelled. I could see his black jacket at the edge of the well. He tugged the rope harder.
“I’ll untie myself,” I threatened.
Lukas hesitated, then lowered me a few inches.
“A little more.” I extended my shaking hand.
The boy dropped the disk in my palm.
“We’re supposed to look after it, but I don’t wanna stay here without Mamma. I’m scared of the water,” he said. “Don’t tell her I gave it to you.”
“I won’t.”
The boy smiled before he faded away.
Lukas hauled me over the side and untied the frayed rope. He pulled the last end free and paused, his hand lingering on my waist. “You scared the crap out of me, you know that?”
“Sorry,” I whispered.
Jared stood a few feet behind his brother watching us. For a split second, I held his gaze, wishing I could be braver.
Not the kind of bravery it took to climb into the well, but the kind it would take to act on what I was feeling right this second—to run over and throw my arms around Jared until everything else disappeared. But I wasn’t that brave, and I didn’t want to feel anything when it came to Jared. Not when I knew how easily a guy like him could hurt me.
Lukas wiped the dirt off my face with the edge of his T-shirt. He made me feel safe in a world I didn’t understand, while Jared always left me feeling off balance. Like the way he was making me feel right now.
Heat spread across my cheeks.
I wondered if Lukas noticed—if he thought it was because of him.
“Did you see me take out that vengeance spirit?” Priest asked Jared. “Don’t tell me it wasn’t badass.”
Jared looked away, breaking the connection between us, and gave Priest a weak smile. “Yeah, it was badass all right. And dumbass.”
“Whatever.” Priest stripped off his shirt and yanked on his dry hoodie, flipping the hood over his head.
“Here.” I handed Priest the disk.
He grinned when he saw it. “That’s what I’m talking about.”
Alara put her hand on my arm gently. “Are you okay?”
For a second, I was speechless. It was something a friend would do, not the girl who couldn’t stand me.
I rubbed my neck, trying to get rid of the feeling of Millicent’s arm wrapped around it. “I didn’t know spirits could touch us like that. She felt so real.”
“Not all of them can, but she was a full body apparition. Some of them feel as real as you and me.”
“How can you tell the difference?”
Alara stepped behind me, helping me wring the disgusting water out of my hair. “Sometimes you can’t.”
“Damn.” Priest winced and shook his wrist in the air. “I must have cut myself.”
It was worse than that.
When he pulled up his sleeve, I saw lines carving themselves into the underside of his wrist. It looked like they were being guided by an invisible blade, leaving deep bloodless indentations behind.
I gasped. “Oh my god.”
It looked like another paranormal attack.
Jared squeezed Priest’s shoulder. “You’re getting your mark.”
What was he talking about? And why was he so calm while something sliced into Priest’s skin?
I pointed at the lines. “Does someone want to explain that?”
“When the original members of the Legion summoned Andras, they carved part of his seal into their flesh to bind him,” Lukas said. “It was supposed to help them control the demon. When a member of the Legion dies, their part of the seal transfers to the person chosen to take their place.”
“Why wasn’t it there before?”
“You have to earn it by destroying a paranormal entity.” Priest stared down at the mark in awe. There was something wrong about a kid killing a vengeance spirit before he went to a high school dance.
Alara twisted her eyebrow ring, pouting. “I still don’t have one.”
Lukas nudged her. “You will. Maybe you can take down a pink milkshake.”
“Eventually our marks will form the seal,” Priest said.
“How?”
Jared pulled up his sleeve and Lukas did the same. The skin on the insides of their wrists was smooth and unmarked. Priest held out his wrist, too. Where there were deep depressions a moment ago, the skin had completely healed.
I grabbed his wrist. “Where did the cuts go?”
“Wait.” Jared nodded at Alara.
She scooped a handful of salt out of her pocket. The guys offered her their wrists and she rubbed them with the crystals. Within seconds, the indentations appeared in their skin, the lines blackening like they were filled with ink.
How is that possible?
I examined the shapes etched into their skin. None of the designs resembled the demon’s seal until they bent their wrists, Lukas and Jared lining up theirs side by side, and Priest pressing the heel of his hand against Jared’s. It created an L shape that transformed into three-fifths of the seal. After a minute, the lines faded again.
“So you don’t have one?” I asked Alara.
She brushed the salt off her hands. “Not yet. My grandmother was overprotective. But I’m not going to be last.”
“I don’t think you have to worry about that.” I had almost gotten myself killed again today. I obviously wasn’t ready to destroy a vengeance spirit.
“You still don’t believe you’re one of us?” Priest asked, shaking the water out of his hair. He saved my life. This fifteen-year-old kid I barely knew.
I looked back at Priest and gave him the only answer I could. “I don’t know what I believe.”
CHAPTER 20
A Sliver of Light
Priest wiped off the disk, revealing the red glass in the center of the silver ring. I sat on the ground wearing Lukas’ jacket over my wet clothes. This time I was too cold to let my pride get in the way when he offered.
“We should go back to the van
or you guys are going to freeze to death.” Two near-drownings had transformed Alara from hard-core to maternal, but Priest didn’t seem like he wanted to be mothered.
“No way. The clue to finding the next piece has to be out here.”
“Where? In there?” Jared stopped pacing and gestured at the well.
“You think?” Priest raised his eyebrows.
Alara shoved him affectionately. “Don’t even joke about it.”
Lukas peered over the edge of the well. “No one’s going back down.”
“Maybe it’s in the house,” I offered.
“At Lilburn, the disk and the clue about this place were together.” Priest sounded skeptical. “The house is pretty far away.” He rolled the circle of glass between his fingers, fascinated. “Whoever designed the Shift must’ve been a genius.”
As he rotated the disk, a slash of light appeared on the side of the well.