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I scramble over to Snow, examining the huge, charred section of flesh on his shoulder. Ripping off my shirt, I press it to the wound—which is both burned and bleeding.

Tanner appears at my shoulder. He pulls a bottle of something from his pocket and sprinkles it on Snow’s mutilated skin. Snow’s eyes roll back. He roars with pain, and I scream with him.

“He’s out of the fight, Mack. Get him to safety in the trees. Nova will fix him later.” Tanner makes me look at him, sensing panic is about to take over. “She will fix him, but he should be some place safe.”

I look away from Tanner, stroke Snow’s head, and stare into his big black eyes. They flash amber, showing me a glimpse of my own face. “Snow, buddy, we’ve got move.”

He groans and refuses to get up.

“Snow, if you die, I die. ‘Cause I sure as hell can’t live without you. You wanna be responsible for my death?” I grab the scruff of his neck and press my forehead to his. “Move, Snow. You’ve got to move.”

With another loud groan, Snow heaves himself to his feet. I support him with every ounce of strength inside me, but he’s heavy as hell. “This is what it was like for the others when we got drunk and smashed stuff up,” I mumble as we stagger toward the trees. “We’re getting a taste of our own medicine.”

Snow huffs. The bleeding has stopped, but the pain hasn’t.

“Almost there,” I tell him.

When we reach the trees, he collapses and drags himself under the shelter of a low-hanging branch. He growls and sniffs the shadows.

Two pairs of eyes are staring at us. One of them moves closer, then I hear a familiar voice. “Mack? Snow? What happened?”

Sarah pushes free from the undergrowth. Behind her, lingering in the darkness, is Sam’s mother.

“Look after him for me? I have to go back.” I squeeze Sarah’s arm. “Don’t let him get up. Keep him here, right?”

“You think I can hold down a polar bear?” Sarah asks.

“Right,” I mutter. Turning to look at Snow, I say sternly, “Do not move, that’s an order.” He huffs at me, but I shake my head. “I don’t care. Right now, I’m giving you orders. You stay put. Got it?”

This time, he nudges my hand with his nose; he gets it.

I’m emerging from the trees when I hear Nova scream.

49

NOVA

The Hollow is crumbling. Chunks of stone and brick clatter on the floor around me. Dust falls, and the ceiling creaks. Cracks create deep grooves in the walls. The chandeliers quiver.

Instead of walking up the steps, I flew toward the roof and entered through a window at the top of the house. I pass Tanner’s room, then Mack’s. Memories swell against the darkness. I pull them deep into my soul and breathe their light instead of his thick, black mist which now swirls around my feet.

For each dark, fear-filled memory he uses to try and infiltrate my head—Johnny, Kayla, Eve, the A.M.A., my scars, my pain, my parents—I call on a happier one. I allow feelings of love, and light, and power to surge in my belly. I remember how it felt when my flames first set themselves free. I remember how it felt when I set myself free. I remember seeing Kole through the rain and waking to Tanner’s smiling face. I remember the first time Mack kissed me, and the day Luther finally told me he loved me. I remember Sam ripping off his mask and showing me his face after twenty years apart. I remember it all, and I know he cannot take those things away from me.

When I reach the top of the stairs, I find myself eye-level with Kayla. She is hanging from the ceiling in the entrance hall. Her gray, sunken face is the only thing visible beneath a tangle of black weeds.

For a moment, I feel sorry for her, and I hope Nico didn’t have to see her like this.

I walk to the bottom of the steps then look up. With a burst of flames, I sever the weeds and she tumbles to the floor. I let her body catch light and watch my fire burn away his evil from her skin.

When I put them out, she is still whole. She is not burned or mutilated; she looks peaceful. I descend the stairs and swipe my hand over her face to close her eyes. At least now Nico can bury his mother.

Fire Bird, finally, you have come to join me…

The voice of The Shadow King trickles down through the cracks in the walls. “No,” I say loudly, speaking his tongue. The same tongue as the demon from The Cross and all the others who have crept free from his realm. “I have come to finish you.”

His words turn into laughter. It shakes the walls and sends the chandelier crashing down from the ceiling. I jump sideways and watch as the glass splinters into a million pieces, narrowly missing Kayla’s body.

“Show yourself. Stop hiding.” I move past Mack’s old living room toward the center of the house. It pulsates as if it is living and breathing. I step on a floorboard, which bends and breaks beneath me, but my wings carry me up and over the gaping hole it creates.