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She was nearing the Ferris wheel again, having gone around in circles trying to get away, when she spotted Sabrine, Blue, and Lace several yards to the east.
Loren lifted a finger to her lips.
When she turned back around to look for the creature, it was gone.
Her head swivelled in panic. She searched for its aura, heart racing, lungs aching with stress and exertion. The Ferris wheel kept turning at her back, merry music bobbing through the night.
Found you. That awful voice floated into her head.
“Where are you?” The question was a shaky whisper.
Look up.
Her whole body turned ice cold as her head inched upward…
She didn’t even have a chance to scream before the monster—its body camouflaging with the Ferris wheel it was perched upon—attacked.
With an ear-shattering snarl, it leapt for her throat.
—
Darien hadn’t stopped running since he’d left the Chopping Block. He searched frantically for Loren, tracking the auras of the Devils who he thought might be with her.
He caught sight of her before he saw the monster. Caught sight of her just as Max got there, sprinting to her side, where he grabbed her by an arm. Max, who didn’t know how to use his magic like Darien did.
A shout of warning ripped out of Darien’s lungs as the creature leapt off the Ferris wheel, heading straight for them, claws outstretched.
Darien ran like hell, closing the distance at a speed faster than he had ever moved.
He put himself in front of them at the last second, boots skidding.
Shadowy magic lashed out of him, striking the demon like whips.
It bellowed in agony as it collided with the smoky black wall—
The thing fell back, smashing the whole Ferris wheel into pieces.
Debris showered the air. Darien’s magic sputtered as he shielded himself, Loren, and Max from the assault.
The monster was back up again in an instant, swiping aside broken pieces of the ride.
It was angry.
With a lashing of a barbed tail, it struck through his magic, felling it in an instant, leaving them all vulnerable and defenseless.
“RUN!” Darien bellowed. “Get out of here!”
The whole world went silent. There was a shift in the air—the kind that set every nerve in Darien’s body on fire.
A shift that could only mean the use of magic. Magic that wasn’t his.
The end of his world should’ve come. He should be dead, but—
The creature was frozen in place. Darien had the sense that time had stopped, but while the thing’s massive body stayed suspended in midair, the rest of the world kept moving. Carnival rides continued to spin, lights twinkling sporadically. Music continued to play. The civil defense siren still wailed, the bone-chilling sound scraping up the length of his spine.
Darien turned—
Loren stepped up to his side. She held her right hand out before her, fingers splayed, her conduit glowing like a golden sun. Her eyes were solid white, and there were colors shining there, faint shades of the rainbow, as if her tears had transformed into multicolored paint.
