Wrath

Chapter 23

Owen’s voice had risen with urgency, and he lowered it again. “I haven’t been able to tell you, to warn you or anything because she’s been in your head for months, Alexis. She’s been needling her way in every time you got close. But this has been my plan. And it has to be you. You have to get her soul.”

A storm of emotions battered at me—relief about Owen, confusion with all of the unanswered questions, anger at his means to reach this end, and so much more, but . . .

“Owen,” I said as I looked back at the lawn in front of the abbey, where Kali stood as though waiting for her betrayer to finish, as if indulging Owen. Her soldiers also stood perfectly still but on high alert. “She’s in Rina’s body now. We can’t . . . ”

“Martin didn’t die. He’s back at that building in Virginia,” he said with renewed urgency. He flipped his hand to the redheaded witch behind us. “Neither did she. Rina won’t die. She’ll—”

“You want us to attack the matriarch?” Tristan asked. “Hurt her?”

“Just enough—”

“Owen,” Vanessa said as she closed her hand around his arm. “I’ve been defending you from the beginning, but this doesn’t help your case, dumbass.”

“Do you have any better ideas?” he demanded. His blue eyes flitted over all of us, but nobody could answer.

What were we to do? Could we trust him, or was this another of his tricks while he still worked with Kali?

“We can’t let her stay in Rina’s body,” I murmured.

“She’s already so weak,” Mom said, her voice full of worry.

As though she’d been listening and had grown bored of indulging us and our debates on how to kill her, Kali called out in Rina’s voice, “Come out, Dorian. You are safe now, darling. Your mother and father are here. So is your grandmother. You can come out.”

A creaking sound, like an old metal or iron door swinging on rusty hinges, came from the abbey’s darkest shadows. Lightning flashed and thunder boomed simultaneously, lighting up Dorian’s figure as he stepped forward.

Dorian, no! I yelled into his mind. That’s not Rina. It’s a trick. Stay away from her!

And without further thought, I flashed to him.

“I warned you,” Kali said over another loud clap of thunder.

One moment of utter peace passed.

Followed by chaos as rapid gunfire shattered the night.

All aimed at Dorian and me.

I shoved my son’s unexpectedly large body back through the door he’d come through and followed him into the tiny, nearly pitch-black room as bullets ricocheted off the old stone walls of the abbey. Screams came from outside. I looked around us, and then up, where I found the only other way out of this room.

“It’s a tower, but no stairs,” Dorian murmured, then he wrapped an arm that was too big to belong to my little boy around me and flew us to a window ledge at the top. Tristan must have seen us, because he appeared in front of us, stopping the bullets in midair and flicking them to the ground.

I peeked around him to see Mom in the center of the abbey’s lawn now, her hands on Rina’s shoulders, shaking her. “Stop! You’re letting her win. You’re letting her hurt your family. Please, Mother!”

Kali gave a quick nod of her head to Noah. He lunged at Mom and wrapped his huge hands around her neck. Winston yelled and blurred toward them, but Kali twitched her hand, and he flew back once again. Mom swung her fists at Noah but she was too small, her arms too short to reach him. She kicked her legs out and struck Noah in the groin, but the kick didn’t faze him. His face contorted with pain as she pushed her Amadis power into him, but she became too weak. Tristan’s hand flew up, and Noah froze. But it was too late. Mom’s body hung limply in his hands, which still held tightly around her neck.

“No!” Rina’s voice screamed in my mind. Probably all of our minds. “Sophia! Noah! Noooo!”

The soldiers stopped firing. Silence filled the air.

“Stay here,” I told Dorian before I flashed to Mom’s side.

Tristan appeared next to me and plowed his fist into the side of Noah’s head, then released his power. Noah dropped Mom as he slumped to the ground. Tristan caught her, and then flashed with her to where Owen still stood with the rest of my team and the Amadis. They’d barely moved by the time I rejoined them. Everything had happened so lightning fast.

“Leave my body,” Rina snarled in our minds. I’d never heard her so angry.

“Not until I kill you once and for all,” Kali’s voice replied. “Soldiers, aim!”

Nothing happened.

Rina’s eyes fell on Noah’s body that lay in a heap on the ground. Her foot swung out from beneath her ball gown and connected with Noah’s stomach.

“No!” Rina cried out.

Noah grunted.

“Soldiers, aim,” Kali ordered again. Noah’s head twitched. All of the soldiers swung around. All of the guns pointed at Rina’s body.

Pain jolted through my head. The same icepick agony of before, and now I knew for certain it came from Kali. Had Rina tried to shove her out? The sorceress was becoming aggravated.

“Leave her alone and come get me,” Charlotte taunted. “It’s me you really want, isn’t it?”

“It was tempting before,” Kali sneered, “but I think I’ll have more fun with Owen. You obviously won’t kill me in this body. You’ll never be able to once I’m in his. But first . . . soldiers, fire!”

The tat-tat-tat of automatic gunfire rattled through the night. Again.

Owen thrust his hands toward Rina. I jumped onto Mom’s body, and Charlotte threw a shield over the both of us. I lifted my head to see several bullets stop in midair all around my grandmother and then fall to the grass below. More bullets missed Rina and her shield, flying across the abbey’s grounds. Rina’s hand jerked, and Kali’s staff shook. A bullet whizzed by Rina’s ear. Owen shoved his hands out harder, but Kali fought against his shield.

“Mum, I need help,” Owen yelled.

“Blossom,” Charlotte called out to the witch. “Hold my shield over here.”

Blossom thrust her hands at Mom and me, her face straining with the power she gave it.

“Disarm them!” Tristan shouted as he blurred in one direction of the circle of soldiers. Vanessa took off in the other direction. A crocodile, a tiger, Solomon, Julia, and the rest of the Amadis followed them, while I remained plastered to Mom.

Winston blurred straight to the sorceress herself, although I didn’t know what he planned to do since she occupied the matriarch’s body. Before he reached them, though, Kali’s staff pointed at him and flames flew out of the blue orb. Fire engulfed him. I clapped my hand over my mouth as he screamed and the fire brought him to his knees. His body writhed on the ground as he tried to smother the flames, but the sorceress continued shooting more at him.

Mom shifted underneath me, and her eyes flew open. Winston’s shouts immediately drew her attention. She pushed me off of her and raised her hand. Water shot out of her palm and across the lawn to her lover’s body, dousing the flames. But Kali wouldn’t relent, and it became a battle between her and Mom. But Mom wasn’t strong enough and would quickly lose.

“Alexis, now! While she’s distracted,” Owen yelled at me.

Not knowing what else to do, I pulled my dagger out and charged for my grandmother. If Owen was right about Kali being at her weakest now, maybe I could slash through her shield and push enough Amadis power into Rina’s body to force Kali’s soul out.