Dimitri, Priest, and Lukas continued the rites from the Rituale Romanum, their voices overlapping with my father’s.
Andras’ spine stiffened and his eyes widened in shock. A pale gray form rose above Jared’s immobile body, while Jared’s limbs remained paralyzed. Only the form hovering half in—and half out—of his body moved.
He had the hazy gray arms and torso of a man. But the extended jaw, long snout, and black eyes, belonged to an animal.
Andras—in his true form.
“Now.” Dimitri yelled.
Gabriel sprang forward, with the demon bones wailing in his hands. Andras snarled as Gabriel raised the collar. The bones recoiled, pulling away from the demon’s throat.
“I can’t get it on.” Gabriel fumbled with the collar.
Without thinking, I bolted into the cell.
“Get out of here, Kennedy.”
“Give me the other side.” I reached for the collar, ignoring him. “We have to get it on now.”
The bones screamed, the sound piercing my eardrums.
“They don’t want to be linked to him.” Gabriel strained to hold his side of the collar open. “It’s like another death.”
I struggled against the vertebrae as the jagged edges cut my hands.
Another death.
Maybe there was something worse than being linked to a demon. I wiped the ash off my face and smeared it onto the bones, covering them in the ashes of other dead demons.
The bones shrieked and shrank away from me and into Gabriel’s hands. He forced the ends around the back of Jared’s neck. The moment he snapped them together, the bones stopped moving.
The demon’s blurry torso bucked one last time, before it slipped back into Jared’s body.
Everyone stopped reading, and the tunnel fell silent.
Jared dropped to the ground, with the demon somewhere inside him again.
Gabriel dragged me out of the cell, and bolted the door behind us.
Elle grabbed my shoulders. “Are you okay?”
The lights flickered, and the power came back on.
I stared at Jared’s body on the floor, picturing the demon inside him. How much longer until the demon was the only one left?
34. BASTIEL
Less than an hour ago, we had wrestled Jared into the collar made from what was left of Azazel. Now we were in the athenaeum discussing another demon.
“The collar is on, and Bastiel already has a head start.” Dimitri was ransacking the contents of the glass-front bookcase. He tossed a leather-bound book titled A Classification of Demons into the nylon bag at his feet.
Gabriel threw a set of dental extraction tools into a second bag. “If she gets strong enough to summon another demon, they’ll start multiplying like rats.”
“When are you leaving?” My father hadn’t let Gabriel or Dimitri out of his sight since we left the containment area.
Gabriel shook his head. “Sorry to disappoint you, Waters, but one of us is staying.”
“I can handle the situation here,” my dad said.
Gabriel handed Dimitri vials filled with powders and metal filings. “You expect us to trust you with the fate of the world?”
“Trust?” my dad laughed. “That’s a big word for you, Gabriel. I’m not sure you should be using it.”
“Enough.” Dimitri glared at them and zipped the bag. “Trust is earned, Alex. And you haven’t earned mine. Gabriel stays. If that thought is too unpleasant for you, feel free to come with me.”
“I’m not leaving Kennedy with him.” My dad glanced at Gabriel with disgust.
“Why not?” I snapped. “You left me alone in a house with a poltergeist after mom died. I’m sure Gabriel can’t be any worse.”
“He betrayed my sister.”
The hypocrisy was lost on my father. “And you abandoned your daughter,” I countered.
“I’m going with Dimitri.” Priest walked toward him.
Lukas let go of Elle’s hand and caught Priest’s arm. “What are you talking about?”
Priest pulled away. “Andras is collared now. It won’t take seven people to babysit him. We have to find Bastiel and the Shift. Dimitri is gonna need help.”
Lukas glanced at me. We both knew Priest’s decision was about more than his unfailing sense of logic.
Ever since the night Priest learned the truth about how Andras had located our family members, he’d been distant. He couldn’t seem to get past Jared’s mistake, or the fact that Lukas and I kept it a secret.
“I think the five of us should stay together,” Lukas said.
Priest picked up one of Dimitri’s bags. “Noted.”
Alara stood up from where she was sitting on the floor, and Bear followed her. “I’ll go with them.”
Dimitri closed the bookcase. “Get your things. We leave in thirty minutes.”
Priest took off out the door before any of us had a chance to catch up with him. But Alara was waiting for me in the hallway.
I didn’t waste any time. “Are you going because I didn’t tell you about the list?”
“I joined the Legion and left with my grandmother to protect my sister. Now I’m leaving with the Illuminati for another kid I love. I can’t let Priest go alone.”
“He’s never going to forgive us, is he?” I swallowed hard, but the lump in my throat didn’t budge.
“Never is a long time.”
“I’m so sorry, Alara. If I could take it back—”
She touched the medal around my neck, the one she’d given to me. “You remind me of Maya. Did I ever tell you that?”
I shook my head.
“She believes in people the way you do—a hundred and fifty percent. All or nothing. It’s my favorite thing about her. That and her gorgeous curly hair, which you don’t have.” I threw my arms around her. “But you’re stronger than my sister, and me. Promise to remember that when I’m not here to remind you.”
“I’ll try.” I released her from my death grip.
“That’s what people say when they aren’t willing to fight,” she said.
“I’m willing to fight.”
Wasn’t I?
Alara walked backward down the hall, watching me. “Prove it.”
Priest stood by the warehouse door in his orange hoodie, headphones around his neck and a duffel bag at his feet. Alara stood next to Dimitri, wearing her black eyeliner like war paint.
Dimitri and Gabriel were talking in low tones, a cigarette balancing between Dimitri’s lips.
“I can’t stay,” Priest said finally.
I nodded as the familiar tightness spread through my chest. “I should’ve told you.”
“You said that before.” He looked at everything but me. “What’s done is done. There’s no going back.”
“Sometimes moving forward changes what’s behind you.”
He shifted his weight, avoiding my eyes. “Maybe. I don’t know.”
I rushed over and threw my arms around him. “I do.”
He wrapped a reluctant arm around me.
“Be safe,” I said, before I let go.
Dimitri and Alara came up behind me, with Lukas, Elle, and my father trailing after them. To his credit, my dad kept his distance.
Alara drew Elle and me in for a group hug. “Kick ass and take names while I’m gone.” I nodded, and Elle sniffled. Alara stepped back, a mischievous smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. “Is someone sad to see me go?”
Elle waved her hand in the air, dismissing the idea. “Hardly. I have dust in my eye.”
Alara shoved Lukas in the arm, playfully, and looked at Elle. “Take care of him, too.”
Dimitri hefted the bag of supplies over his shoulder and patted his long coat pockets for the cigarettes that would probably end up killing him. “Take care of each other. We’ll be back as soon as we can. Hopefully, with a shape-shifting demon, or what’s left of her.”
I held Elle’s hand as they filed out the door, wondering if I’d ever see them again.
I sat on the floor under the stars of the athenaeum’s painted sky. I couldn’t stand to watch Priest and Alara drive away. Bear rested his head in my lap whimpering, as if he knew everything had changed. Open books lay on the floor strewn around me, none of them holding any answers.
“I figured you would be in here.” Lukas closed the heavy wooden door behind him.
“I didn’t realize I was so predictable.”
Lukas leaned against the wall and shifted his weight from one side to the other, his silver coin flying between his fingers. A deep line was etched between his eyebrows from frowning.
“Is it Priest?” I asked.
“What about him?” He started pacing.
“Is that what’s bothering you?” I gestured at his hand. “Because if you flip that thing any faster, you’re going to lose a finger.”
Lukas caught the coin, trapping it in his fist. “That obvious, huh?”
“You’d suck at poker.” I hugged my legs against my chest. “It’s too easy to tell when you’re lying.”
He stopped pacing and looked at me, the worried lines in his face growing deeper. “There’s something I need to tell you.”