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“No. It’s news to me.” Raphael crossed his arms as he glared at his sister. The look on his face told me that he wasn’t least bit pleased by it either.
“I found out in Peru,” Claudia said. “It’s a long story. None of that matters right now. All I know is that he exchanged something for me, and whatever it was, it was bad. Really evil.”
“That’s messed up,” I said.
“No kidding,” Shane said. “How did your parents let that happen?”
She shrugged. “They were gone.”
“Right.” Shane winced. “I’m sorry. Stupid question.”
“It’s alright,” Claudia said. “The point is, that was what changed Luciana. I won’t—can’t—defend her at this point, but after casting so much black magic… I just wonder how much of the original Luciana is left.”
I didn’t like where this was going. I’d seen visions of Luciana calling out to Satan and just by the look of her craft room, she’d been doing those kinds of spells for years. It wasn’t a stretch to imagine that power consuming her. But she’d been in control in my nightmare vision, standing over that hell mouth…
Tapping on the table as I thought, I kept going back to Raphael’s words. Now that the witches I trusted most were back on campus, it was time to get their opinions on what I’d seen. Dastien tensed beside me before I even opened my mouth. “I’ve seen some things… Before we go any further, I think you should know what we might be up against. I’m starting to think this might be bigger than just her vendetta against the pack.”
“What did you see?” Raphael asked.
I told them every detail I could remember, only leaving out the fey guy. I had a feeling that would set Cosette off again, and we needed to stay focused.
When I was done, I sat at a stool. “So, we’re in for quite a fight. Unless you think we can change it?”
“Yes… And no.” Raphael was being completely annoying with his ambiguous answer.
“What do you mean?” I tried to keep the frustration out of my voice, but didn’t do an awesome job of it.
“It means we’ll probably end up in that church, but how we get there and the outcome could vary,” Claudia said.
Dastien grasped my shoulder so hard it hurt. “See. I told you.”
Raphael nodded. “The future is never set in stone. Destiny might put you in that spot, but it’s up to you to choose what you do when you get there.”
“Okay.” I took a few breaths as that sank in. “Okay. So, we’ll probably get to that point, but we can change things once we’re there. So, we make that happen.”
At least there was hope.
“We will definitely try to make sure that your vision ends a different way. But to do that, we need to be even more prepared, and we have to figure out where she’s hiding out.” Claudia sat up tall on her stool. “I tried to scry for Luciana, but I’m coming up with nothing. She must be somewhere that’s heavily warded, so we’ll have to find her some other way. In the meantime, we should start brewing potions to fight against her demons. From what I know, the veils between this world and the next are thinnest between three and four in the morning.”
Wait. That actually lined up with what’d been happening. “That’s when the demon killed those families last night. And when the demon crossed over in Luciana’s house. But I thought it was because the cop crossed the circle?”
Shane shrugged. “Could’ve been a happy coincidence. Or the demon could’ve been waiting there since the night before. I don’t know what spells she used.”
Right. None of us did. “Why that time in particular?”
“It’s the witching hour. Not that I appreciate the name. But that’s when ghosts, demons, and black magic are the strongest. So we need to be ready by that time tonight in case she’s up to something tonight.” Claudia motioned to the objects in front of her. “I’m not sure how to use all this, so there are no dumb ideas. And the books you brought back will certainly help. If any of them talk about summoning, then maybe we can use the spells to reverse-engineer some counters.”
I cracked my knuckles. “I’m so in for this. I’m tired of doing nothing. Let’s take her down.”
“Agreed,” Raphael said.
We divvied up the books and artifacts. Dastien and Adrian started digging into the spell books while the brujos started pulling supplies and equipment from the storage closet.
We were done sitting around, waiting for Luciana to come to us.
For once, we were going after her.
And when the time came for us to me
