Binding the Shadows (Arcadia Bell #3)(69)

My halo expanded and whooshed around her head like clouds covering a mountain peak. Silver fog. I couldn’t see her face anymore, but I felt my halo seeping into her mind. It wasn’t the slow, exploratory push I’d used when seeking the transmutation spell inside her. It was a brutal invasion.

And I wasn’t controlling it.

Screaming her lungs out, she let go of my throat, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. Something else was the puppet master. I felt another presence, foreign and distinct and strong. Panic budded beneath all the rage and I tried to pull back, but I was both weak and out of control at the same time.

Blinding light spilled over her back and beamed through my silver fog. I dimly heard a metallic squeal and felt something coming toward us, but I didn’t realize what was happening until an explosion filled my head.

Not an explosion, but a voice. And the voice bellowed, “Cady!”

My Moonchild magick fell away like an avalanche. The silver vision fizzled into shadow and sounds plumped up to normal volumes. Everything became solid and real again. And Yvonne was ripped from me, green halo trailing.

But I barely noticed. I was too busy looking at my skin. Tiny, smooth ridges stretched over my chest, between my breasts. What the hell? This was the coolness that I’d felt in the elevator with the guy from Hajo’s place.

As I yanked down my top, trying to get a better look at it, out of the corner of my eye, I caught a movement that distracted me to the point of madness.

My tail retracting.

Ringed in alternating black and white stripes, it was covered in tiny, glossy scales so lustrous, they almost looked wet. I reached out and managed to grab the last few inches of it. The magick was pulling it back inside me, much like Lon’s horns withdrawing when he shifted down. But I touched it, just for a moment, as it slid through my fingers. I expected it to feel slimy, but it didn’t. It was smooth and silky, and it tapered off into a rounded point. Like a snake.

Just like a snake.

Shouting diverted my attention. “Yvonne!”

Lon’s voice.

He was crouched over her body. She was convulsing.

What the hell had I done?

Rose rode in the ambulance with Yvonne. Lon and I followed in his SUV with Adella. The Holidays stayed behind with Jupe. The hospital was a ten-minute drive. But even though Lon was driving up the ambulance’s ass, it still felt like ten hours. When he asked, I gave him a barebones account of what happened. He made no comment.

“We asked her to do it, Lon,” Adella said.

He didn’t respond. I wished I knew what he was thinking, but I supposed it had to keep. He wasn’t going to say anything in front of Adella, especially if he was pissed. And if he was? I understood, but I wasn’t sorry for stripping the transmutation spell. Just sorry that I lost control after it was done. I suppose I’d be a lot sorrier if I’d f*cked her up enough to do some permanent damage, but that remained to be seen. I wasn’t going to jump the gun and start falling apart just yet.

When we got to the hospital, Lon strode away to find his friend, “Dr. Mick,” as Jupe called him. Moments later, I watched Yvonne’s body being rushed in, strapped to a gurney with Rose trailing behind the ER team. They wheeled her behind a swinging door, and that was all I knew for the better part of an hour.

Adella and I sat together in a mauve-colored waiting room, smelling that depressing antiseptic hospital scent, staring at the TV like zombies . . . watching other people wait for bad news. I finally couldn’t stand the silence anymore, so I returned the Solomon’s Seal ring and attempted a conversation.

“Thanks,” she said. “I’ll give it back to Mama.”

I nodded and took a deep breath. “Adella?”

“Yeah?”

“Did you see me out in the yard with Yvonne?”

She gave me a confused look. “After Lon yelled for us to come.”

Okay, good. She hadn’t seen my reptilian form, or whatever the hell it was.

“Does my halo look funny?”

She glanced up. “It’s a little brighter and jumping around the edges.”

At least the tail was gone.

“I’m not upset at you,” Adella said, eyes weary but kind. “I just want you to know that. Whatever happens with her, it was the right thing to do. You said you’d try, and you did. So thank you.”

I started to reply, but that’s when Lon finally made his way to the waiting room and gave us the only update we’d had: Yvonne was stable. He promptly left us alone again. I watched him walk away, and sadness crept inside my chest.

I hadn’t killed her. But God only knew if I’d turned her into a vegetable. All I could hope for now was that she could be healed. And even if she could, I might’ve unintentionally made her into a martyr—one who suddenly had everyone’s sympathy and attention. Exactly what she wanted. How beautifully ironic.

Adella got up and paced the waiting room while I buried my face in my hands, trying to regroup and focus. To push away all the dissonant thoughts clamoring for attention inside my overtaxed brain. Maybe I could call the Holidays again, check on Jupe. Last I’d heard, he was still asleep. No more vomiting. That was something, I supposed.

“Here.”

I flinched and looked up. Lon was sitting next to me, offering a paper cup of hot chocolate. I’m an admitted hot chocolate junkie and will imbibe it in any form. Lon’s homemade hot chocolate was probably one of my favorite things in the world. Even the watered-down powdery instant chocolate from the hospital vending machine was a welcome distraction.