We walk on through the woods. It probably wouldn’t take much magic to get one of those large trees to fall over. I smile to myself, and a large oak topples right in our path. The demons mutter to each other, distracted.
An animal howls in the distance, and they both look up, curious. Something sways up in the top of a tree. The demons argue, trying to determine which will figure out what it is first. Definitely not the sharpest crayons in the box. They say that name again—Kriegen—and when one of them turns its back on me, I pull my hands apart. I see it all in my head: Magic flowing from me, knocking them off their feet, leaving them tied together to that fallen tree. Magic, making salt fall from the sky like rain.
And then it happens.
The girly demon flies across the woods and lands, headfirst into a tree. The male looks at me as if it’s going to pounce again, but then it’s flying too. Moving through the air, then trapped next to her as another tree falls on them. They both let out agonizing screams as salt that looks more like hail starts to pelt their skin. Part of me wants to stay, to finish the job, but I know there are other demons out here, and it’s only a matter of time before they come. I can take on two, but four more? I doubt that.
So I do what any self-respecting witch in my situation would do: I run.
Chapter Twenty-Two
I’m out of breath by the time I get back to my car. Too many thoughts burst through my mind. The witch girl, the black knife, the magic exploding out of her, the demon nest, Carter. Where is he? I need to get to my phone and call the Enforcers.
Carter’s sitting on the hood of my car when I get to the parking lot, and when he sees me, his eyes widen. I probably look a mess. He watches me for a second as I approach, and jumps off my car before I even make it there.
“What happened to you?” His hands run across my arms, which are bleeding apparently. I didn’t even know that. I wince at his touch against my face. His finger comes away with blood from the cut on my cheek. A parting gift from the demons or the woods. Concern’s etched on his face.
I shake my head. “I need my phone,” I say. I move past him and dig through to my jeans in the backseat for my phone. Six missed calls. I dial the number to the Enforcers and lean against the door of the car. Carter stares at me, but neither of us say anything while I wait. A voice on the other line answers.
“This is Penelope Grey. I need to report a demon attack. They killed a witch! I saw them do it,” I say. Carter’s eyes widen. “There were two who came after me, but there were six demons.” The voice on the other end makes me repeat the number.
“Yes, six. I saw them when I was running the C&O Towpath. They were all working together; I escaped about twenty minutes ago.”
The woman keeps asking me questions, but there’s too much going on in my head. Why can’t she just send someone already?
“I know it doesn’t make sense, but I know what I saw—”
Carter reaches over and takes the phone from my hand. “Hi, this is William Carter Prescott. I think the best thing for everyone is if you send the Enforcers to the woods near the mall and save the questioning for later.”
I stare at him. He smiles back at me weakly, and then listens to other end of the line. “I’d hate my father’s reaction as well.” He pauses. The last time he took charge was the mall incident. Did he drop his name then too to get us all out of trouble?
“Yes, thank you.” He ends the call and hands me back the phone. I take it from him, and our fingers linger together a couple seconds. “The Enforcers will take your statement when they arrive, and you have to report to the council. I’ll go with you,” he says. “Are you okay?”
I nod my head, but somewhere in the middle of “yes” and thoughts of “no,” I stop. Carter steps closer to me and rubs my back. Tears sting my eyes. I squeeze them shut against a flood that I don’t want to release.
But Carter holds me against him, trailing soft touches that make me think that maybe, with him, everything could be okay after all. I don’t want to cry—I don’t mean for it to happen—but now that I’ve started I can’t stop. I want to be strong, but the tears fall on their own. I was an idiot for going in there when I heard the scream. Such an idiot. What was I thinking?
I sag against Carter, letting my body melt against his as his fingers continue to rub small circles on my back.
I almost died. Someone did die. Demons attacked me. I used magic. Carter is here. I don’t know what would have happened if he hadn’t. And here I am, snotting all over his shoulder—and I can’t even stop that either.
“Thank you,” I mutter through the tears. He presses his lips to the top of my head. The motion is quick and intimate. “If you hadn’t been nearby I would’ve died out there.”
Carter shifts to lower me to the driver’s seat of my car. He crouches down between me and the open door and uses the corner of his shirt to wipe tears, dirt, and blood off my face. Even though this is strange, it’s good to know I can pull magic from him from farther distances. It just saved me. He saved me. Again.
“What happened?” he asks.
I tell him the story. How I saw the demon nest, what they did to the girl, how they released the essence instead of draining it. He looks as shocked as I feel.
“I’ve never heard of a demon doing that. Have you?” I ask.
“No, and they don’t usually work for another demon, but from what you’re saying that black one seemed to be in charge. Sometimes they hunt the same places, but for one demon to call the shots? No. Never.”
I nod. “And then they were pulling me back, and I felt you. My magic responded and I used it to escape. How did you know I was out there?”
Carter shakes his head. “I didn’t.”
He didn’t know I was here, and yet here he is. This really was destiny, or sheer dumb luck. Some sort of messed up, unfair, crappy destiny, but I can’t deny that. Ever since we met there’s been a bigger purpose. What is it? Carter tucks a lock of hair behind my ear.
“How did you find my car?”
Carter looks away. “Coincidence,” he says. “I know you run when you’re upset, and I figured I’d look at the trails for your car. This was my third stop.”
So dumb luck it was.
“You should get cleaned up before the Enforcers come.”
“I’m fine.”
One of those signature side-of-the-mouth smiles bursts onto his face. “Maybe you should at least change your clothes?”
I look down and he’s right. My running clothes have rips and holes. Damn. I loved these pants.
The last two hours of questioning have left me exhausted. But now I have to meet the council for debriefing. The Enforcers insisted. Carter drove us, and he fiddles with the dials on his stereo and some soft folk-rock music plays through the speakers as we drive.
“I want to explain about earlier in the library,” he says. Carter taps on the steering wheel as he drives. Part of me feels that I’m not going to like the answer.
“I was there because I’m looking into what Vassago said. ‘Someone seeks the same as you.’ I’m seeking one thing, Penelope.” His mom. He looks at me, all serious and brooding. “If someone else is seeking her too then I need to know why, and who. So I was in the library looking for clues about that to find my mom.”
“You think your mom is still out there?”
Carter nods. “What if someone else is looking for her, too? It’s the only thing it can mean,” he says after a pause. “When I met you I was following the first real lead I got on her in months. That demon you killed? He was the one who took her. And ever since then there has been a huge spike in demon attacks.”