I wore slick black leather in my mind. I wielded a sword, kicked serious ass, and did it all without mussing my mid-back-length flowing red hair. Tonight, my legs looked a mile long in the leather boot-leather pant combination and a little pouch of chocolate pinwheel belly bubbled over the waistband. Nina had hoisted my boobs to my chin with the little strap-up apparatus and my cheeks were flushed—not exactly with the strength and confidence of a superhero—more like the angst of squeezing into the getup. But still, I looked reasonably badassed even if my hair was neither mid-back-length nor flowy.
“Okay,” I said.
Nina hiked up her shoulder bag. “I’m coming with you.”
I put a hand on her shoulder and shook my head. “I’m not letting anyone else get involved or get hurt. I can do this.”
She silently handed me her keys.
I slammed myself into Nina’s car and gunned the engine. I was midway to Battery Townsley when a call came in from Vlad.
“Vlad?” I screamed into the phone. “Vlad, Nina is worried sick about you. Where are you?”
But Vlad didn’t respond. Instead, there was some muffled speech, a high-pitched scream, and the thunk of something being hit. I pressed the phone against my ear, listening for some clue—until I heard the cry.
Desperate. Terrified. Young.
I slammed my foot onto the gas pedal, pressing it as far down as it would go. After a full block, the light turned red in front of me and I slammed on the brakes, tapping my fingers on the steering wheel.
“Come on, come on, come on,” I huffed to the sleek black interior. “Ugh!” After what seemed like hours in idle, I clicked on the radio.
I snapped the radio back off and made a squealing U-turn the second the light turned. Whatever Heddy was going to do tonight, she wasn’t going to do it at the Battery.
“Okay, okay, okay,” I said to the steering wheel. “If Battery Townsley was just a dump site, where would Heddy take her sacrifices?”
I snapped my fingers as the dozens of illuminated pentagrams burned in my mind. I barely had a moment to catch my breath before I was pulling in to Mercy High.
The building was bleak, the parking lot deserted save for one dented Rambler parked in the back corner. I didn’t have to move closer to know that the car was Janitor Bud’s—and likely the one Nina had seen Miranda disappear into. My heart lurched into my throat, but I steeled myself, sinking my administrator’s key into the lock before it occurred to me that I was approaching a powerful, murderous witch, weaponless. I hesitated there for a quick second—but when I heard a scream—high-pitched, tortured, I pushed through the doors, thundering through the darkened hallway.
“Kayleigh! Miranda!” I screamed.
“Ms. L?”
Miranda turned out of a darkened alcove. Her eyes were wide and glassy.
“Oh, God, Miranda, I’m so glad I found you. We have to get you out of here.”
I yanked my cell phone out of my bustier—the only place I could fit it—and speed-dialed Will.
“No,” Miranda said. “You’ve got to help me. We’ve got to save Kayleigh. She’s up there!” She grabbed my hand and stepped up, yanking me to her. “Come on!”
“Miranda—your hand—your arm. You’re covered in blood!”
She glanced down at me one more time, her eyes pleading. “Please, there isn’t much time!”
I shoved my phone back into my bust just as I heard Will’s muffled. “Hello? Hello? Sophie?”
I was halfway up the stairs when I heard the sound of crushing metal behind me. Someone was kicking and growling and screaming. I took a step backward and Miranda ran behind me, pressing her palms against my back.
“No, upstairs!”
I held her off. “Miranda, what is that?”
“Please Ms. Lawson! We’ve got to get to Kayleigh!”
The desperate terror in Miranda’s eyes clawed at my chest and I took the steps two at a time until I was on the second landing. The hall should have been dark, but a blinding yellow light was bleeding through the cracks in the art room door. I went for the handle, then burst back, my hand singed.
“You have to get in there. You have to!” Miranda was clawing at her hair, tears rolling over her cheeks.
I sucked in a sharp breath and prayed to God the leather would stretch as I center kicked the door, launching it open. I saw the glint of Heddy’s eyes as she looked up at me, startled. Her hair was blown back by the wind that swirled out from the spinning vortex in front of her—the center where the pentagrams had been.
I felt myself gape. Then I felt the wind being knocked out of me as something came down hard, pressing against my lower back, knocking me off my feet, and shooting me right to the edge of the black hole.
“Look what I brought you.”
My head snapped up as Miranda sauntered in, a wide grin cutting across her face. It was only then that I noticed that most of her wounds had healed. The enormous purple-blue bruise that marred one whole cheek was gone, the skin pink and perfect. I must have been staring because she dragged an index finger down her cheek and said, “Oh this? It was all stage makeup. If you had really paid attention, you would have known I was a drama geek, too. A few necessary blows, and grease paint the rest. But thanks anyway, you made a swell nurse.”
“Miranda,” Heddy snapped, “lock that door and get into your robe. We don’t have much time.” Heddy was standing at the head of the pentagram and seemed to be controlling the swirl of the vortex. She was wearing a hooded robe that screamed every bad Druid movie ever made and carried a lit candle in one hand and an expression that clearly said that she wasn’t as pleased with Miranda’s gift of me as Miranda had been.
“What?” I pushed myself onto hands and knees. “Miranda—you?”
She just smiled silently.
“What the hell is going on here?” I pulled myself to my feet. “What is this?”
“Portal,” Miranda said simply.
“Like a hell mouth? At a high school?” I cocked out a hip. “Hate to tell you, ladies, but it’s already been done.”
“Silence!” Heddy yelled. “Lay down where you are. The Dark One will appreciate a second sacrifice in his honor.”
“The Dark One?”
“He will be very pleased.” Another voice came out of the perimeter of darkness around the room.
“Finleigh? You’re in this, too?”
“Sacred order,” Miranda said, slipping into her robe. “Me and Finny are legacies. Those two”—she pointed to two girls I had never met—“were perfect additions to the old Lock and Key Club.” Her eyes cut to the closed door of the supply closet. “So was Kayleigh.” She wrinkled her nose. “But Kayleigh’s special.”
I licked my lips as the two girls I didn’t know grabbed my arms and pinned them to my side. “And what about Fallon?” I asked Miranda.
Miranda shrugged and picked a piece of invisible lint from the sleeve of her maroon-colored robe. “She wanted in. Don’t like her. She bugs me.”
I narrowed my eyes. “She bullied you.”
Miranda grinned. “Did she?” She checked her nails. “She and that stupid Janitor Bud.”
“So Bud was a part of this.”
“Uh, no.” Miranda cut her gaze to me, laser sharp. “Bud thought he could stop this.” She held her arms out, indicating the creepily robed girls, the vortex. “He really thought that he could change ol’ Heddy. Bring her back from the dark side. Ain’t that right?”
“Stop talking, Miranda,” Heddy commanded.
