“Octavia!” Rae called. Her voice was a million miles away.
A million miles behind me.
I whipped my gaze toward the house. Rae clambered down the steps of the porch, rushing to me. Her brown skin was more vibrant, glowing with life that the version of her that’d been crouched over the wards didn’t have. I’d thought it’d been the low morning light. The sleepless nights that’d dulled her skin.
Before I could take a step, the Rae that led me into the stable grabbed my wrist. Her nails broke skin, pulling me behind the stable doors and slamming them behind us.
TWENTY-NINE
“How long hasit been impersonating you?” Daylan’s hard voice demanded an answer.
“I don’t know!” I paced in front of the locked stable doors. There wasn’t any sound coming from inside.
“And the wards, how long?—”
My heart pounded too loudly for me to hear him finish the question. Nico took over, grabbing the phone from my hands and walking away to relay information that’d been stuck in my throat.
December stepped in front of me, her dark eyes matching the worry in my own. But at least she could speak.
“Rae…” she started before the words became muffled once more. I blinked, trying to do away with the blurry image she’d become. Her mouth kept moving, words melting into nothingness.
I placed my hands on my head and took deep breaths.
A good hunter didn’t let emotion win.
A good hunter could separate self from panic. A good hunter…fuck.
Fuck it all. None of it worked. No matter how hard Itried, it didn’t work. It didn’t protect people. We didn’t protect people. Because these jobs always came back. Maybe this was their world. We delayed the inevitable. And I could write all the books and make all the kits, and it’d all still end up with us losing the people we loved. I’d end up losing her. Maybe?—
“Rae.” It was Jonah’s voice that reached me. He took December’s place in front of me. “It needs something from her, that’s why it’s taken her. If it’s a Crossroads demon, and she didn’t make the deal but is still tied to it, then the demon needs her alive to fix whatever’s broken.”
“Right.” The rushing water sound in my head quieted for a moment. I braced my hands on my knees.
“One, two, three,” Jonah whispered so the others wouldn’t hear. “Hold.”
He counted for me until I stood back upright. Dread would do nothing for Octavia. And she was still alive on the other side of this wall. I’d be damned if the last thing I did for her was to lose hope.
“The practice trap.” I turned to my team, arms dropped to my sides, and a voice devoid of emotion. “We still have enough supplies to do a new run?”
Nico’s jaw ticked, but he nodded. “Should be.”
“I’ll start taking inventory now,” Jonah said. Before any of us moved, he sprinted across the yard toward the barn.
“Do we need to rehearse again?” Daylan’s question was more of a suggestion.
“The last one blew up in our faces,” December said. “So, my vote’s a yes.”
I could almost smell the soot of yesterday’s failure on my skin.
“We don’t have enough time for practice.” The wordsset the roof of my mouth burning as if I'd swallowed a spoonful of ice. “I just have to be better.”
The more time we wasted standing out here wondering what the best option was, the more time that thing had alone with Octavia. There were a million and one things that could happen behind those quiet doors.
I had to be better.
“Rae,” Wilson’s hard voice pierced my ears.
“Go help Jonah,” I told December and Nico, running back to the house.
