Banishing the Dark (Arcadia Bell #4)(81)

For a moment, Jupe thought this was the best idea in the world. But if Cady’s mom returned with Priya, she might kill him. Or torture him and use him to fly back down here again. Or if she was inside Cady’s body right now, she might try to take Cady’s soul along with her.

Crap. There were too many possibilities. But he suddenly thought of one that might be the answer to all of them.

“Shoot her mom’s body,” Jupe said to his dad. “You have a clear shot—just shoot her.”

Leticia shook her head. “I don’t think you should. If you destroy the mother’s body while the soul is inside Cady’s body, will the soul be trapped?”

“Crap,” Jupe said. She might have a point.

“And what if they’ve swapped bodies?” she said. “You might be killing Cady’s soul.”

“When magick is present, anything is possible,” Priya mumbled.

Okay, now Jupe was right back to being overwhelmed by possibilities. “What do you think, Dad?”

He didn’t answer. Just stared at Cady with a helpless expression.

Leticia shook her head as if she was unsure about all of it. “This is strange magick.”

“It’s not magick,” his dad said. “It’s one of Cady’s knacks.”

“She’s not human,” Leticia said, flicking a glance from his dad to him.

No use denying it now. Not in the middle of all this. “We’re Earthbounds,” he said. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but it’s not something we usually talk about with, well, you know—”

“Humans,” she finished.

He nodded. When she didn’t look at him, he felt a fresh burst of panic in his gut. Because they couldn’t see halos, most humans didn’t believe Earthbounds really existed. Cady said half of her order didn’t, which was stupid, because they were all about summoning demons from the Æthyr. Leticia had never mentioned the subject, so he didn’t know how she felt about it.

Or how she felt about him, now that she knew the truth.

But what could he do? She either accepted it or she didn’t. Knowing this didn’t make him feel any less anxious; he liked her way too much.

Exhaling heavily, he studied Cady’s frozen scaly body, partly scared, partly worried, and a little bit amazed. It was so quiet. Even Foxglove had stopped barking. Was that a good sign? He wanted to ask about the baby, what with all this talk of soul swapping, but he didn’t want to worry his dad. Dude was already on edge.

“She sort of looks like a dragon.”

Jupe glanced at Leticia, heart thudding in his chest. She flashed him the tiniest, quickest smile he’d ever seen. But it was just enough to give him hope—about her, about him and her together, and about this whole damn mess.

“Oh, Mistress,” Priya moaned. “I have failed you again.”

Jesus, what a whiner. Jupe glanced down at the guardian, who was still struggling to stay on this plane. Then Jupe turned to his dad, who looked as if he was seconds away from a heart attack.

“Come on, people, have a little faith,” Jupe told them. “I mean, it’s Cady. And she’s pretty damn strong. She survived that fight with Dare, and she’s rescued a lot of people. She pulled me down off that roof last fall, and she went girl-on-girl with Yvonne at Christmas. Oh, and she beat the crap out of that girl magician with the school desk—and that was before she could shift into a dragon.” He flashed Leticia a little smile of his own and waggled his eyebrows at her, because just saying all this out loud made him feel a million times better.

“If she can do all that,” he added, “surely she can handle one crazy mother.”

White walls surrounded me. I stood next to a perfectly made double bed, which would have perfectly tucked hospital corners if I lifted up the plain bedspread to check. His-and-hers closet doors were both shut, but no doubt the space behind them contained neat rows of perfectly pressed clothes.

The blinds were tightly shut, just as they were in the rest of the house, to hide dark secrets from snooping neighbors. On the surface, they wouldn’t have seen much if they’d been able to peep inside: no decorations, no paintings, no framed photos—not in here. Those would be out in the living room, to prove to visitors that we were a Normal Family and that there was nothing to see here, move along.

But not at the back of the house. No need for them. Because we weren’t a normal family, and there was no need to keep up appearances behind closed doors.

I never was allowed in this bedroom, so naturally, I always tried to sneak inside. And I’m sure I was successful a time or two, but the memories I had of this room had likely been wiped away by magick. And I’m sure that when I did make my way in here, I would have noticed the only thing of interest, a set of closed curtains on the inner wall.

That’s exactly where my focus was now. Until a confused moan drew my attention.

My mother looked a thousand times more disheveled in this light, a thousand times more feral when contrasted against the tidy cleanliness surrounding her. And in bringing her here, I felt as though we’d switched places: she was now the one panicking, and I felt as if I were standing in front of a wildcat that had been defanged and declawed and had just had its balls chopped off.

“What is happening?” she said, looking around wildly. “Where are we?”