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"No!" a woman screamed after him. "It's blocked. Stay here!"
My gaze swept across the faces, seeing no Savannah, no one even close to her age. As I turned, I caught a shimmer in the corner--like a portal, but much weaker, the glimmer so slight only a practiced eye could see it.
"There!" I said, pointing. "She's cast a cover spell."
I raced across the room and knelt beside the empty spot.
"Good girl," I whispered. "Smart girl. Stay there. Stay right there."
A shot sounded in the hall. A young woman to my left screamed. A figure wheeled through the door. Another young woman--skeletal-thin, all jutting bones, with greasy brown hair and an acne-pocked face.
She lifted a gun.
I started to call Trsiel. The woman beside me dove to the floor, sailing through me and knocking against Savannah. The cover spell broke, and Trsiel's name died on my lips.
Savannah lifted her head. She saw Lily. Saw the gun.
"Cast, baby," I said. "Cast it again. Hide!"
Her lips started to move...in a binding spell.
"No! Hide. Just hide!"
Lily turned toward Savannah. Something flickered in her eyes, something I recognized from the day before. The Nix. Her gaze fixed on Savannah, and her eyes flashed with jubilation.
Lily swung the gun in Savannah's direction.
"Trsiel!" I screamed.
The gun fired. Kristof leapt into the bullet's path, but it shot right through him. Savannah had no time to duck, no time to finish her cast. I threw myself over her, knowing even as I did that it would do no good, that my gesture was as futile as Kristof's.
Someone gasped. Someone behind me. I twisted to see the other young woman, the one who'd hit the floor beside us. She was lying on her side, face contorted with pain and shock, hands on her stomach, blood flowing through her fingers.
I looked back at Lily. She stood there, a tiny smile on her face, gaze and gun fixed on her intended target--the dying woman, not Savannah. The Nix's rage flashed behind her eyes. The air around Lily rippled, as a formless vapor flowed from her body.
Trsiel sailed through the doorway, sword raised. With a perfect lunge, he swung it and the sword cleaved through Lily. It passed right through her, bloodless, as it had when I'd used it on him. But Lily felt it. Her eyes went huge, hands dropping the gun as she clenched her heart.
"Trsiel!" I yelled, pointing behind Lily.
He saw the vapor, now taking on the faintest outline of the Nix. He charged, sword raised, and slashed at her, but she vanished before the blade made contact.
Lily slumped to the ground, slack-jawed, dead.
"Theresa? Theresa!"
Savannah was crouched over the young woman on the floor. As she cast a healing spell, her hands fumbled at the woman's shirt, ripping it away from her stomach. The woman's eyes stared, empty, at the ceiling. Savannah pressed her hands to the woman's neck, feeling for a pulse.
"She's gone, baby," I said.
I reached for Savannah. My hands passed through her as she lowered her mouth to perform CPR. I tried again, tried with everything I had, to touch her, to hold her, but my fingers just slid through her body, my words tumbling out unheard.
I screamed with rage and frustration. Kristof's arms wrapped around me, and he hugged me tight as we watched our daughter desperately try to resuscitate a dead woman.
"They're coming," Kris said, striding back into the studio. "Lucas dropped Paige off at the door. He's parking the car now, and she's running in." He knelt beside Savannah. "Come over to the window, sweetheart. You can see Paige. She's on her way."
Savannah just kept rocking, her bloodied hands wrapped around her knees, gaze straight ahead. Two medics had arrived and were tending to Lily and the other woman, but no one had time for Savannah. Her classmates had fled the moment Lily dropped the gun, leaving Savannah alone with two dead bodies.
"Wasn't fast enough," Savannah mumbled, mouth pressed against her knees. "Should have picked another spell. A faster one."
