“I’m not the one.”
Jared’s breath caught and he closed his hand around mine. “There has to be another—”
I silenced him with a look. “There’s only one explanation, and we all know what it is.”
The floor buckled, and the ceiling split down the center.
Jared pulled my arm behind him, our fingers still intertwined. He looked down at me, our bodies practically touching. “It doesn’t matter.”
He was the boy inside the wall again—the boy who held me and confessed his deepest secret. The one I could trust.
I shook my head. “We both know it does.”
Lukas reached for the Shift as it rolled across the floor.
“Don’t touch it!” I shouted.
He yanked his hand back the moment his fingers grazed the metal. “What the hell?”
Alara wrapped her jacket around it and tried to pick it up that way, but the heat burned right through the fabric and she dropped it. “It’s too hot.”
“We have to go. Now.” Jared shoved them toward the door, dragging me behind him.
Priest stood outside the cell, frozen. All the color had drained from his face. He grabbed Jared’s arm and pushed the heavy metal door shut.
Pieces of concrete rained down on us, but no one moved. The letters that had spelled DARIEN SHEARS the first time we saw his cell door had rearranged themselves to spell something else:
anDraS is here
“Move!” Lukas yelled.
Lukas and Alara ran for the stairwell with Priest on their heels. The railing vibrated violently, and the shaking intensified as we navigated the stairs.
I slipped and my knees slammed against the metal steps.
Jared hauled me to my feet, and we tore through the cell block. The deafening rattle of the bars rose up around us. Spirits flickered in our path, awakened by the sudden disturbance in their environment. But they weren’t full body apparitions, and we passed right through them. Each time, I felt the revolting sensation of a cold hand tugging at the back of my neck, marking me in a different way.
Lukas burst through the door to the yard first. Instead of stepping into the afternoon light, there was nothing but darkness.
The black sky pulsed and churned like it was alive. Lightning cracked and illuminated thousands of beating wings, blocking out the sun.
Crows—hundreds and hundreds of them.
Black rain, pouring from the clouds with no end in sight.
Alara stopped, fixated on the sky. She shouted something before taking off in a dead run. But I couldn’t hear anything over the thunderous din of lightning flashing and feathers flapping.
It felt like the end of the world, the sky falling one dark wing at a time.
And it’s my fault.
The van was only a few yards away now, the roof and windshield covered with more crows. They scattered when Lukas opened the back doors, ascending to meet their own legion.
Priest tore open the duffel bags and unearthed the EMF detectors. He lined them up on the floor of the van and flipped them on. The needles jerked all the way to the right, pushing into paranormal overdrive. Red bulbs flashed and the devices beeped, lighting up the floor like a pinball machine.
My heart pounded. “Does that mean there’s something in here?”
“No.” Priest stared through the window at the sea of black. “It’s out there.”
The lights of EMFs flashed faster and faster, blinking like the timer on a bomb.
“What’s happening?”
Priest shook his head. “I don’t know.”
The EMFs exploded, wires and plastic ricocheting against the walls. I covered my head as sharp pieces of flying plastic sliced my arms, until the debris stopped banging against the van’s interior.
A thin trail of blood ran down Alara’s cheek. She winced, but instead of reaching for her face, she clamped her hand over the inside of her wrist.
Priest seemed confused for a second then shook his own wrist, inhaling sharply. “My skin’s burning.”
Lukas nodded. “Mine, too.”
Jared pulled up his sleeve. The mark that usually only appeared when he rubbed it with salt was already carved into his skin. But the indentations weren’t filled with dark lines. The mark was completely white, swollen red skin surrounding the outline. Lukas, Alara, and Priest revealed their marks one at a time. Theirs had reacted the same way.
I didn’t have to check my skin to know it remained unmarked.
Alara shook her arm, trying to cool it. “What does it mean?”
We all knew, but no one wanted to say it.
So I did. “He was telling the truth.”
Darien Shears—the spirit who tried to protect us from ourselves.
“No.” Lukas rubbed his hands over his face. “The journal said—”
“Either the journal was wrong or we misinterpreted something.” My voice faltered. “Look outside. Does it seem like I put together a weapon to protect the world, or used one against it?”
Real rain battered the roof, the sky still ink-stained from the clouds and the crows and whatever was coming next.
“It isn’t your fault,” Jared whispered, rubbing his thumb over my palm. “We decided together.”
I was the only one in that cell. I snapped the pieces of the Shift together. It didn’t matter if they had wanted me to do it or not.
In the end, I decided.
I had failed in too many ways to count, the proof destroying everything around us. Burning itself into everyone’s flesh except mine—the one who didn’t belong.
In a single moment, I had unleashed a demon their ancestors had spent over two hundred years defending the world against. One their families died trying to destroy.
CHAPTER 33
Black Dove
Sirens cut through the storm and the birds and the excruciating silence inside the van. Blue and red lights flashed through the darkness—police cars or ambulances, maybe both—and they were close.
“We have to run.” Priest shoved everything within reach into one of the bags, and Alara did the same. There was only one road in or out, and we would meet those sirens head-on if we tried to leave the way we came.
Lukas opened the back door and rain pelted the metal floor. I couldn’t see anything except the colored lights getting closer.
“If we get separated, head north.” Jared pointed beyond the prison. “Pennsylvania isn’t far. Find the second town closest to the state line, and we’ll meet there.”
Alara and Priest took off.
Lukas turned to follow them, and Jared grabbed his jacket.
“Take Kennedy with you. She’ll be safer,” Jared said.
Lukas and Jared faced their other halves, the person who made them both weaker and stronger. Neither of them spoke, but a look more powerful than words passed between them.
Lukas shook his head. “You’re fa
ster.”
Jared’s eyes filled with doubt. “I don’t want to screw up again.”
“We all screw up.” Lukas backed into the storm and disappeared in the darkness.
Jared’s hand closed around mine, and we ran.
Our feet splashed through pools of water. Blood pounded in my ears and lightning cracked against the sky.
I thought about the night my mom died—how scared I was and how alone. I was back in that place. In one moment, I had ruined any chance of destroying the demon that killed her, and I had endangered the lives of how many others? Thousands? Millions?
Jared swore the mark didn’t matter, but I knew it did. And sooner or later, it would matter to the rest of them.
We reached the edge of the penitentiary, or what was left of the stone building. It looked as if a child had built it out of blocks and knocked it over after finishing. The sirens grew louder, the blue and red whirling lights practically on top of us.
We aren’t going to make it.
“Come on.” Jared led us deeper into the shadows. I tried to keep up, but the ground had turned into a river of mud, and I kept losing my footing. Jared tightened his grip on my hand as if he was determined not to let me fall.
The ground inclined, turning the gentle rise into an impossible climb as water and earth rushed under our feet. I lost my balance again. This time, my wet hand slipped out of Jared’s and I fell.
My shoulder hit the ground, and I slid into something sharp.
Pain shot through my ankles and calves like hundreds of knives piercing my skin. I jerked and the feeling intensified, the blades even sharper. Was it glass?
Lightning splintered the sky, illuminating the silver vines coiled around my legs.
Razor wire.
I tried to pull my body free, but the wire only wound itself tighter, the barbs digging deeper into my flesh. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from screaming, and the tang of blood filled my mouth.
Jared dropped down next to me, rain running down his face in rivulets. “Are you okay?”
I closed my eyes, trying to stay calm. “I think so” was all I could manage.
He smoothed the mud-slicked hair away from my face. “Don’t move.”