A Darker Past (The Darker Agency #2)(25)
“I do,” she insisted. “I reacted badly. Mom is probably ashamed of me. I just couldn’t hold it together, Jessie. I broke.” The tears gathering at the corners of her eyes spilled over, and she dropped her head into her hands to hide her face.
I pulled her up and shook my head. “Don’t you dare. You acted like anyone would. I would have freaked the hell out.”
She was shaking her head. “No way. I’m pathetic. Mom would have never reacted that way. She wouldn’t have crumbled like that.”
“You’re not Cassidy—you’re you. And you are perfect, exactly the way you are. Who the heck says you have to pretend to be fearless? Because that’s what those other witches do, Ken. They pretend. They’re just as scared as everyone else. They just hide it better. They build up a wall of bravado using their powers as a shield, but when you strip that away, they’re only human. Just like you. Just like me.”
She looked like she might argue, but after a minute, slumped back against the wall and sighed. “God, she was so pale…” Kendra looked up. Her eyed were red-rimmed and swollen, but there was strength there whether she saw it herself or not.
“We’re gonna figure this out. I prom—” Movement caught my eye. A dark tendril of smoke wafting in from the seam of the window by the desk. I watched it for a moment, transfixed by the way it swirled and danced with an odd kind of grace, before the reality of it hit me like a pound of quartz. “Shit!”
The small tuft of purple smoke fragmented and burst upward, taking a familiar shape. With a grainy laugh, the demon from the mirror stepped forward, gaze fixed on Kendra. “The Belfair blood calls to me, witch. I knew I would find you sooner rather than later.”
With a yelp, Kendra stumbled off the bed, ducking the demon’s reach by a fraction of an inch. I lunged sideways, determined to get between them, but it knocked me backward with the tiniest flick of its beefy wrist.
Had the lights been out, I could have shadowed us both the hell out of there, but since Kendra had put up the track lighting, it was bright as the sun in here.
“Tell me where it is,” he demanded, advancing on her.
“It,” Kendra repeated. She started to back away slowly, but didn’t get far. Three steps and she hit the wall. “Define it.”
“You know what I seek, witch,” the demon bellowed. “Give it to me now, and your death shall come swift.”
Not even an I’ll spare your lives? Someone didn’t know how to negotiate…
“Um,” I said, trying to redirect his focus to me. “Maybe it would help if you explained what you were looking for. Does it have a name? Maybe you have a picture?” My heart thundered behind my ribs, but I stood my ground. “Oh! Maybe you could tell us where you last saw it? That might—”
And just like that, he was in front of me with one hand wrapped around my throat and his putrid demon breath puffing out across my face. It was all I could do not to puke right then and there. A mix between rotting flesh and burning hair with the smallest hint of sulfur. When I felt the ground beneath my feet disappear and saw the twisted grin on his face, I tried to call out for Mom, but wouldn’t you know it? That required air—something that was, at that particular moment, in very short supply.
Chapter Ten
As I struggled to move air in and out of my lungs, Kendra sprang into action. Lunging sideways and flinging the door open, she leaned into the hallways and screamed, “Upstairs. Hurry!”
“Girls?” Mom’s worried voice drifted in from the hall a second before she appeared in the doorway with Cassidy. Lukas brought up the rear, but managed to push past them and into the room. Lips curled in a snarl, beautiful brown eyes narrowed and sparking with rage, the sight of him would have taken my breath away if Purple Haze here wasn’t already cutting it off.
The demon smiled at them. A sick, twisted grin. “Give it to me or I will snap her neck.”
“I’ll kill you,” Lukas threatened and made a move to lunge forward.
Mom came in to stand beside him, closing her hand around his arm with just enough time to pull him back. “What is it that you want?” Her tone was even, but underneath the calm was fear. What we did was dangerous, she knew that, but seeing it affect me up close and personal was hard for her to handle.
The fingers around my neck twitched, long, pointed nails puncturing the soft skin at the back of my head. For a second I was sure he would do it. Snap my neck like a Popsicle stick. But his fingers flinched, and he said, “It does not surprise me, after all these years, to see that the Darkers and the Belfairs still conspire against demon kind.”
“Whatever your grievance is with the Darkers,” Cassidy said in a cool tone, “it does not affect us. The Belfairs have not aided their cause during my lifetime.”
Wow. Talk about throwing us under the bus. Kendra paled and watched her mom in shock. Even my mom looked surprised.
“Just tell us what it is you want,” Lukas said. He’d wrenched free from Mom’s grip, and I didn’t like the look in his eyes. It was similar to the look he’d worn when we were in the park. Sort of unhinged and feral. His gaze alternated between the demon and Cassidy, and I wasn’t sure which one he wanted to rip apart more.
The demon roared. “I want my lord’s prison.”