The dog crouched and focused on the pale circle in the center of the table. I held my breath as he sprang forward. Bear’s paws hit the wood, and he skidded across the table, leaving a trail of scratches behind him.
My aunt didn’t waste any time. She aimed the beam through the bay window and into the dark yard beyond it. At the same moment, one of the dining room walls cracked, and another wire began to work itself free.
Faith didn’t hesitate. “Take it outside, Bear.”
Bear focused on the circle of light and catapulted himself toward the jagged glass jutting from the frame. The dog’s lithe body sailed through the glass jaws, and he disappeared into the darkness.
The electrical wires slithered and twisted through the air. By now, every inch of the floor was soaked—including the staircase where we were standing. The wires reared back, the black, plastic coating pulsing from the paranormal heartbeat inside them.
I held my breath.
Without warning, the wires dropped into the red water like stones. The pigment began to fade.
“Bear must’ve crossed the salt circle. He’ll take the bag into the woods and leave it there, the way he was trained.” Faith leaned against wall and exhaled slowly. “You’re lucky we were dealing with a random vengeance spirit attached to that bracelet. If it had been Andras, this could’ve been a lot worse.
“Are we good?” Jared asked.
Priest tossed a cold-iron round into the flooded hallway. When nothing happened, he jumped down, his green Nikes splashing in the water. “We’re good.” He opened the basement door, and a rush of clear water ran down the stairs.
“Are you okay?” Jared stood in front me, with damp hair and anxious eyes.
I only nodded, watching as he knelt next to Faith and examined her wrist.
“I’m fine. There are towels upstairs, second door on the left.” My aunt climbed down the steps and waded through water. She rummaged through her survival closet until she found an emergency splint buried underneath her stash of first aid supplies, which included dental extraction instruments and a suturing field kit. She tucked it under her arm and reached for a box of ammo.
The box slipped from her fingers, and the rounds clattered to the floor. One hit the edge of my boot, and I picked it up.
The shell in my palm wasn’t a salt round.
It was a bullet.
“Bullets won’t stop a demon.” Alara picked up the shell and handed it to Faith. “You’re better off with salt rounds.”
“Thanks for the tip,” Faith said. “But I’m not planning to use them on a demon.”
Goose bumps pricked my arms.
From the wind chimes and the salt ring to the stockpiled supplies and apocalyptic paintings, Faith’s paranoia marked every inch of the property and her every action. But until now, she had seemed sane.
Maybe she isn’t.
“Are you saying you’re going to shoot someone, Faith?” The words tumbled out, and the moment they did, I wanted to take them back. She was my only connection to the Legion and my father—no matter how much I hated him. Eccentric and anti-social and paranoid I could handle, as long as she wasn’t crazy.
My aunt finished winding a strip of tape around the splint and retreated to the kitchen. She paused in the doorway.
“The demon isn’t the only one hunting me.”
10. CONSPIRACY THEORY
We should give her a little space,” I said after my aunt disappeared into the kitchen. “She seems more stressed out than when we first got here.”
Alara sat down on the steps next to Bear and scratched the dog’s head. “If by stressed out, you mean crazy, then I agree.”
“She’s been on the run, moving from house to house, for more than a decade,” Priest said. “Cut her some slack.”
“It’s more than that,” Jared said. “She was loading her gun with bullets.”
“Maybe we should leave.” Elle glanced at the door, her voice shaky. “I don’t think she wants us here.”
“We can’t.” Lukas appeared on the stairs and dropped a few towels over the side of the railing. “She’s still the fifth member of the Legion. Even if she won’t help us, we need to find out what else she knows about Andras.” He ran a faded gray towel over his wet hair. “And what Faith is hiding from.”
Elle wadded up her towel and threw it at him. “The demon. Even I know that.”
He caught it with one hand and smiled at her. “Andras has been free for less than a month. Kennedy’s aunt has been in hiding for over a decade.”
“So we hang tight and wait until she comes back out,” Priest said, a towel still draped over his blond hair.
All of a sudden, a loud bang came from the kitchen like someone had smashed two heavy pots together.
“Or not,” I said.
Priest entered the kitchen first and almost slipped. The floor was covered with black trash bags, and at least a dozen bear traps were scattered on top of them.
“Be careful.” Faith stood by the sink, wearing a welder’s apron and a yellow dishwashing glove on her uninjured hand.
The floral scent I’d noticed earlier was overpowering in here.
Alara’s eyes widened. “Is that wintersweet?”
We watched as my aunt carried a metal soup can over to one of the traps and painted the teeth with a sticky pink substance that looked like raspberry preserves. “You’re a smart girl. Most people wouldn’t recognize it.”
Alara held out her arm, so none of us could get any closer. “Faith, people call that stuff bushman’s poison for a reason. If it spills, the sap will kill you.”
My aunt dipped the brush in the can and painted another trap. “Then I guess I should try not to spill it.”
Elle scrunched up her nose. “What are you gonna do with those anyway?”
“Protect us.” Faith wrapped one of the traps in a plastic tarp and carried it to the door.
We watched from the window as she positioned the traps around the perimeter of the house. Jared offered to help, but Faith refused. I held my breath as she unwrapped the metal teeth tainted with poison.
When she came back inside, Priest didn’t waste any time. He pointed at the traps. “Bullets and bear traps? None of this stuff will protect you from a demon. Who are you really hiding from, Faith?”
When my aunt realized we were all waiting for the answer, her irritation turned to shock. “You really don’t know.”
“So tell us,” Alara said.
“The Illuminati.”
Priest staggered back a few steps. “Are you sure, Faith? Because I think my granddad was the last Legion member to see any of them, and that was over forty years ago.”
My aunt pressed her lips together and swallowed hard, steeling herself. “If they kidnap me again, I’ll ask for identification. But I spent four days being interrogated by them, so I think that qualifies.”
For a moment no one moved or said a word.
Alara found her voice first. “Why did they kidnap you? What did they want to know?”
My aunt started coating another trap. “Something they didn’t find out. Something I’ll take to the grave. But when I go, I’m taking some of those bastards with me.”
“If Andras opens the Gates, I’m pretty sure he’ll kill them all for you,” Lukas said. “I know it’s a lo
ng shot, but if you help us, maybe we can stop him.”
“I’m not going to help you kill yourselves.” Everything from Faith’s stoic expression to her rigid posture made it clear she wasn’t going to change her mind.
“I’ll take your place,” I said automatically.
Faith spun around, her dark hair creating a tangled mane around her face. “It doesn’t work that way, Kennedy. The duty rests with me until I die or pass it down to a successor.”
“Then pass it down to me.” If anyone warranted a life sentence of defending the world from demons and spirits, it was me.”
My aunt’s face turned ashen. “Your father would never want you to be part of this.”
Rage exploded inside me like a grenade. “My father left me. He didn’t even bother to show up after my mom died. I don’t care what he’d want, and I’m already part of this.”
Faith stared at me, speechless. “He made mistakes, Kennedy. But there are things you don’t know. I will not put his only child in harm’s way.”
“And letting Andras get strong enough to open the Gates isn’t putting me in harm’s way?”
Faith peeled off the yellow glove and tossed it in the sink. Then she shouldered past me without a word.
When my aunt reached the doorway, she stopped. “Your father isn’t the man you think he is, and even if the heavens came crashing down around me, I would never pass this god forsaken curse on to you.”
I stood in front of Faith’s bedroom door, summoning my courage. There were so many things I wanted to ask her, so many questions she might be able to answer.
As I raised my hand to knock, the door opened.
My aunt stood on the other side wearing jeans and a flannel shirt, her hair braided down her back. One glance around her bedroom convinced me the outfit was probably Faith’s version of pajamas. The Eye of Ever was painted on the ceiling above a four-poster bed. The bed was sandwiched between rows of metal shelves, overflowing with everything from plastic milk jugs of holy water and mason jars packed with rock salt, to dog-eared road atlases and enormous crucifixes that looked like they belonged above church altars.