He grabbed me by the neck and squeezed. Silver sparks of energy flew off my body toward him. He sipped slowly from my aura. A cold, pressing ache radiated from my chest outward. I scrambled for the word he’d used in my vision, hoping it was the right one. “The—the Society.” I gasped. “I contacted them. Why do you think I have this key?”
His hand dropped from my neck, and he stepped backward. His white aura retreated into his skin like a frightened animal. I didn’t know who or what the Society was, but Clancy Mulcarr was obviously very afraid of them showing up. “They wouldn’t like to find you here with three Scintilla.”
Clancy surveyed the shack with a frantic look. My mother, rocking in the corner, crooning to herself; Giovanni, barely conscious but stirring; and me, strangling him with his own words. Using his secrets and his lies against him.
“I will never stop until I find you,” he said as he stepped to the door. “And when I do, you three will die.”
No smoky words in that statement.
And then he fled into the heavy mist.
Giovanni struggled to sit upright. I took his shoulders and blew my energy into him. Fast and frantic, I gave him whatever he needed to be a help and not a hindrance. We had to get out of here fast. I didn’t fully trust that Clancy would let his prize go so easily.
“What? No kiss?” Giovanni said as he wobbled to his feet. He reached for Gráinne’s hand, but she sat frozen in fear, covering her head with her arms. He picked her up and slung her over his broad shoulder, his knees buckling a moment before he steadied himself. “Come!” he shouted to me on his way toward the door with my mother flapping against his back and reaching out for my father.
I couldn’t leave my dad in this place. I tugged on his arm, but he was so heavy. Too heavy. “Help me!” I screamed to Giovanni.
Fergus fell through the doorway of the shed with car keys in his hand. “I’m so sorry,” he said, surveying the scene with shock. He dropped to my father’s side and felt futilely for his pulse. Sympathetic eyes met mine. “I’m sorry. I went to check on Clancy. I didn’t expect he’d be alert. And I didn’t expect his friend to show up.”
Clearly, they had fought. Fergus’s cheekbone swelled and blood clung to the corners of his mouth.
Giovanni rushed back in. “We must go, Cora. Don’t make me carry you out of here as well, because I will.” He savagely ripped the knife from Griffin’s body and wiped it clean on his pants leg.
“I can’t leave him here.”
“You must!”
I fell to my knees over my dad’s body, adrenaline and sorrow hitting me all at once. I bowed my body over him, his blood soaking my knees. His colors gone forever.
Somewhere in my mind I heard Griffin groan on the floor. Arms gripped my waist, but I didn’t fight them. I let Giovanni and Fergus pull me up. They poured me into Fergus’s car, and we screeched away from the shed and down the dirt road leading toward Rising Sun Manor.
“You’ll have to ditch this car very soon,” Fergus said. “I’ll retrieve it when it’s found. There are some supplies in the trunk, and cash.” We drove up to the manor, and Giovanni slid into the driver’s seat when Fergus jumped out, waving us on. “Godspeed!”
I leaned my head into the cold glass of the window and glanced over my shoulder at Gráinne, who had curled into a fetal position in the backseat. It wasn’t going to be easy to be covert with her, and we needed to find a place to regroup. To recover our stolen strength. To mourn. To figure out where we could possibly go from here.
Giovanni placed his hand tenderly on my leg. “I’m so sorry, Cora.”
I bit my lip and turned my head away. But something niggled at my brain. “The knife,” I said. “I don’t know how, but it looked like you took it from Griffin. Did he throw it at you?”
“No. He didn’t throw it.” I glanced at Giovanni and could see by his eyes and the way he worked his mouth that he struggled with his words. “I didn’t tell you everything. It’s like with the book at the library… I pulled it to me.” When he saw me trying to understand, he added, “The Arrazi are not the only ones with special abilities. I’ve used mine to steal. Many times. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”
“It’s okay,” I whispered, glancing at the tattoo on my hand, reliving the memories that had assaulted me when I touched certain objects. I hadn’t been able to look, but I knew there was a knife etched on my back. How poetic. I didn’t understand why I had to be marked by the objects, but for once I was glad I had the ability to retrieve memories. That, and being able to detect the lie in Clancy’s aura. It had saved our lives. This time.
“Take me home,” Gráinne moaned from the back. For a second, I wondered if she meant the home she’d had for the last thirteen years or our home, the one that lived on in her mind all the time she’d been a prisoner. Did she imagine in her wrecked head that we could stroll through its daisy gate and red door once again? Live happily ever after?
How I wished to be home, too. Sitting on my bed, with Mari, with Dun, spread out on the floor, all of us listening to music, trashing the VIPs, complaining about Dad’s strict ways. Dad…
That was another life.
This new life demanded more, so much more. If my father was right, it demanded we somehow find a way to stop the Arrazi and balance the energy in the world. Do that, all while staying out of the Arrazi’s clutches and avoiding a hidden Society that even Clancy had feared. I nearly laughed to myself. One girl, one boy, and a crazy woman were supposed to fix the universe’s energy? We either attempt the impossible or we spend our lives running. Hiding. More people die. And the world goes down with our cowardice.
Rain pelted the windows as we bumped down the narrow drive toward the iron gate.
“Home,” Gráinne moaned again.
I swiped at a tear snaking down my face, and a new determination etched into my soul. “We don’t have a home,” I said. “Until this is over, there is no home for us. There is no home for the hunted.”
I looked back at my mother mumbling in the backseat.
No wondrous thing was ever discovered were it not for someone brave enough to seek it.
Those words weren’t just Mom’s legacy. They were my father’s as well. And now, mine. I wasn’t done seeking answers. I refused to live my whole life running. I would not let my father die in vain. Scintilla were something beautiful in a sometimes ugly world. We were givers of light in the darkness.
I would not let the light go out on my watch.
Acknowledgments
This dream would not have come true were it not for my brilliant and colorful children who made me promise to never give up. They motivate me every day to prove by example that anything is possible if you know who you are, know your truth, and dedicate yourself entirely. Sydney and Cooper, I love you. Promise me you’ll do the same.
Dear Patrick, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Our paths will always run parallel. I love you and am grateful for all you’ve given.
My mother, Yvon, who always encouraged me to be colorful and strong, and to use my voice. This business requires all three, and I’m so appreciative.
The Tribe—Monica (Jo) Bogue, Mary Claire Bouchér, and Lucy Hunter. In one form or another, you three are in all my pages. I love you, sisters of my heart. And to my dear Tribettes—Samantha, Sierra, Makenzie, Sydney, Sage, and wee one—you are who I write for. I hope you feel understood.
My wise and wonderful agent, Michael Bourret, who believed even before I truly did. And my editor, Karen Grove, whose words “This book haunts me” will go down as one of my all-time favorite compliments. Huge thanks to the entire Entangled team for bringing my books to life.