Banishing the Dark (Arcadia Bell #4)(79)

Her hair was tangled and wild; the toga-like gown she wore was bedraggled and dirty. Dark symbols were painted over every inch of her bared skin—magical armor, glowing softly with Heka. And from the way the symbols dripped in places, I had a feeling she’d used Priya’s blood for paint.

“Ma petite . . . lune,” she said between labored breaths. “I got your message, yes? Thank you for being thoughtful enough to send along transportation with your invitation. I’ve been trying to catch this little bird for weeks, and quelle surprise! He appears right in front of my eyes.”

“Run, Mistress,” Priya said hoarsely. I could barely hear him over Foxglove’s barking.

A shotgun racked near my shoulder. “She’s not going anywhere.”

My mother roughly twisted Priya’s head to the side. “Tsk, tsk, Kerub. You’ll have to kill the bird to get to me.”

“No!” I shouted. “Don’t do it, Lon.”

“I’m sorry,” he murmured, bracing the butt of the shotgun against his shoulder.

Jupe took another step closer to Priya, waving his arms. “No, Dad, no!”

“Get back!” Lon bellowed to Jupe. “Run!”

Quick as lightning, my mother reached back and snatched Jupe’s hair. His scream shattered my heart as she exchanged hostages, dragging Jupe against her and tossing Priya’s broken body to the ground. He yelped in pain and balled up on the ground, clutching one shoulder while my mother jerked Jupe’s arms behind him.

“Struggle, and I’ll snap your neck,” she calmly told Jupe.

“No!” I shouted. “Let him go right now, or so help me God—”

“You’ll do what? Use your new powers? My powers,” she corrected. “Go on, Sélène. Try. I’d like to see them in action. You, too, demon boy. Just know that this symbol will prevent any of you from using your demonic abilities on me.”

That’s when I saw the truth in what she said: not symbols painted on her but one symbol, repeated. I’d seen it once before on Rose Giovanni’s signet ring, the one she’d used to deflect Yvonne’s knack at Christmas.

Oh, God. She’d made herself invincible? What the hell was I going to do now?

“Dad,” Jupe moaned.

“Stay still,” Lon said.

“Listen to your father,” my mother chirped. “If my daughter had listened to hers, she wouldn’t be putting your lives at risk. But now he rots in the Æthyr, and I am forced to fend for myself.”

“No one to do your dirty work,” I said, trying to waste time as my brain desperately analyzed my options. I could see Lon slinking away from me, trying to get a better angle as he edged toward Priya, but my mother’s sharp eyes were noticing, too. She swiveled Jupe in Lon’s direction as a warning. “I know you had Dad kill my brother.”

“Your brother was a walking corpse. Your father performed a mercy. He was softhearted that way. And now I’m about to show you an even bigger kindness. I will let all of your filthy little friends live, and I’ll let you live, too. All you have to do is agree to let me transfer my soul to your body.” She grinned, as pretty as pie, behind Jupe’s corkscrew curls.

But something in that smile faltered, and a strange fuzziness blurred her face for a moment. I’d seen that before, when Priya couldn’t hold his corporeal body on this plane. She was feeling the same tug. Something must have happened to her when she crossed the planes, which meant . . .

She couldn’t remain here without borrowing an earthly body.

All I had to do was wait it out, let the clock run. She’d eventually lose her hold and zap back up to the Æthyr.

And then what? She’d terrorize Priya or some other guardian and catch another ride down when I didn’t expect it? Or she’d continue to puppet me until I ended up hurting Jupe or Lon?

No.

I had her now, and this had to end. No more running.

But how could I get to her without Jupe getting caught in the crossfire?

Oh! Of course: our connection. He was still under my protection, with my sigil tattooed on his hip, and a thin spider web of light joined that tattoo to my hand. But Jupe’s thread was joined by four others.

One sprouting in his direction, blinking with static and connected to my mom.

A black thread connected to Priya’s injured body.

A green thread connected to Lon.

And another white thread piggybacking on it, connecting back to my stomach.

Memories flew back to me like dust being sucked up by a vacuum cleaner: Lon performing the memory spell on me after I begged him to do it; when I first discovered multiple threads in the alley; Lon kissing me in our bed when I came home from the hospital; Dr. Mick informing me that I was pregnant; me telling Lon I loved him after I killed Dare . . .

On and on, a chain reaction of lost memories filled up my head, each one throwing off the magick that had kept them all hidden.

Lon made a gut-wrenching sound. His hands shook on the shotgun.

I blinked away tears and looked up at Jupe, seeing the fear in his eyes in a different way. He wasn’t just a quirky teenage kid, he was mine. All of them were—Jupe, Priya, Lon . . . our unborn child. All mine, and my mother wasn’t taking a single one of them away from me.

I held up my hands in surrender. “All right. You can have me. Let the kid go, and you can have me.”