She shifts her gaze from the portal to me, and a slow smile lifts her mouth as her eyes go completely black.
No!
I shout Haven’s name, panic filling every part of me. She jerks her gaze in my direction, confusion written on her face as her friend lifts her hands and sends a blast of dark power right at me.
There’s no dodging it. The magic hits me right in the chest, sending me sailing.
I slam into the ground with punishing force. Something crunches in my ribs, pain flaring white-hot, and my head snaps back against a stone. Everything goes blank, until Haven’s screams cut through the fog.
Lumbering to my feet, I immediately search for Haven, finding her on the ground, cradling the seemingly lifeless body of her friend, Kendra, as the demon, using Tate as a vessel, stomps up the hill toward us.
Her eyes fixed on the portal.
“Go!” Kade yells to Cassian. “Find its weakness and then get everyone back.”
I don’t look to see if Cassian listens. I’m already headed toward Haven, who’s trying to shake her friend awake, but even from a distance I can tell it’s no use. I don’t know what happened, but half the girl’s face is missing. Haven is in shock.
My mind is still foggy as I stumble forward, struggling to keep my feet underneath me, with one goal in mind: reach Haven.
I’m not processing as I should. Each step is like moving through quicksand. I’m a dozen or so steps from Haven when her face flicks up. Tears pour from her eyes, pure agony etched across her face, but horror fills her gaze when she sees me.
Her name forms on my lips at the same time that I cough. It’s wet, and I realize I’m spitting up blood.
That’s not good, but it doesn’t matter. Nothing does, except reaching Haven and getting her away from the demon.
I’ve almost reached her when Haven screams my name and tries to scramble to her feet. I don’t even have time to react before I’m blasted with the same dark magic as before. This time, the magic strikes like a sledgehammer, hurling me through the air. Darkness claims me before I hit the ground.
Twenty-Eight
HAVEN
Jerking awake, the first thing that registers is the cold, followed by the wet. The smell comes next and I gag, rolling to my side just in time to retch, emptying the contents of my stomach onto the hard wet ground beneath me.
The remnants of bile burn my esophagus and nasal passage as, with shaky arms, I push myself up to a seated position. At first I think I’m blind, but then my vision adjusts, catching faint traces of light, and I realize it’s not my eyes, it’s just dark.
Fear grips my heart and squeezes.
Where am I? What happened?
In a rush, it all comes back to me, and a sob shreds my throat.
Kendra. Becks.
Even in the dark I can see Kendra’s lifeless eyes as she stares unseeing up at the sky, one side of her jaw and throat ripped away by the claws that appeared on Tate’s hand.
No. Not Tate. Not anymore.
The demon.
I squeeze my eyes shut, but it doesn’t stop that moment from replaying in my mind over and over again: the demon blasting Becks with some sort of dark power, like a geyser of black smoke or mist; him sailing through the air; Kendra screaming; that monster turning toward her and slashing at her. The shock in her eyes as she grabbed at her throat, trying to stop the blood from spilling from the wound before she dropped to the ground. And then the fear in her eyes as she lay in my arms, dying.
Shaking my head, I try to dislodge those final moments, but all I manage to do is change the image to Becks: blood leaks from his mouth as he staggered toward me and the blast he took from behind that sent him sailing forward; his prone figure as it lay on the ground, unmoving.
I’d tried to get to him, to see if he was even still alive, but after getting to my feet, the demon had returned and struck me on the back of the head.
Everything had gone dark, and then I’d woken up here.
What if he’s dead? What if he’s gone too?
