Blood drips from the wound in my neck onto the spirit. Santa Muerte flickers, and for a moment, Elizabeth’s eyes appear, begging me to stop. I can’t. Dudley won’t let me.
Fiona pulls Paige back, dragging her away. I can see she’s shouting something, but I can’t hear what it is. I can’t hear anything. Everything is moving in slow motion.
Melchora approaches. From her robes, she pulls a feather. Its shaft shimmers like metal.
Shards of glass from the broken table rise around me. Melchora shields her face with her forearms. Everything goes black.
Chapter 31
____◊____
HELL. MY EYES REMAIN closed, but I know that’s where I am. Intense heat envelops me and scorches my skin. A flickering glow penetrates my closed lids and burns my eyes. I’m facedown on the hard ground. This must be brimstone.
I’m afraid to open my eyes and see my final destination. The temperature increases, and I cannot remain still any longer. My eyes open.
An inferno consumes my vision. Fire licks at my skin, my face, and my clothes. The flames are everywhere. This is all I will ever see or ever feel, I think. This is my eternity.
Then a stream of water splashes my head. The flames die down as the torrent continues to wash over me. As the fire dies, the light dims. It’s dark, and my eyes can’t focus. The water continues to blast me. I raise my hand to stop it. Eventually, the torrent ceases.
When I can finally focus, I see Paige standing before me, holding a hose. Her lips move as she shouts. I hear nothing at first, then a muffled noise. Sounds slowly return.
“Darcy, get up!”
I turn back to the fiery hell. It’s not hell. It’s Fiona’s house.
Too tired to stand, I crawl away from the flames. I was close, too close. Smoke rises from my clothes as fabric sears my skin. The tweed coat, though damaged, has resisted the fire quite well. The pendulum dangles from a chain, still wrapped around my neck.
On my wrist is a melted glop of black rubber—remnants of my watchband. The device itself is gone. I try to wipe it away with my other hand and only succeed in spreading the smudge everywhere.
When I’m farther away from the house, Paige tries to lift me. Her hands recoil. I’m too hot to touch.
I rise to my feet and trudge away. The partially melted soles of my boots stick to the ground with every step. My skin is covered in soot, ash, and melted plastic. I turn around to find Fiona’s house fully ablaze. Rafters collapse, and smoke and embers rise into the night sky.
Paige takes a tentative position a few feet beside me. She has a scared look in her eyes. “Darcy?” she says, looking ready to run.
She’s never seen it happen before firsthand. We’ve known each other for three years and lived together for two. I’ve done everything in my power to make sure she’s never seen the evil inside me. Tonight, she finally met Dudley.
“It’s me,” I say, taking a step toward her. She takes a step back, her hands shaking uncontrollably.
It breaks my heart that I’ve frightened her. My best friend in the world. My only true friend. What if she never trusts me again? What if she will always be afraid of me?
Fiona’s Land Rover pulls up beside us and screeches to a halt. The driver’s-side window rolls down. “I wasn’t here,” Fiona says.
“What?” I’m still trying to catch up on what just happened.
“Listen! I wasn’t here. I let you stay while I was away on business to Vancouver. Say it!”
I shake the cobwebs from my head. “You were on a trip.”
Fiona takes a last look at the fire. Her eyes well up. Then she looks at me. “You’ve destroyed me.”
The SUV starts to pull away when I shout, “How do I stop her?”
Fiona, fortunately, hits the brakes.
I plead with her. “How do I stop Melchora?” Her eyes stay focused on the road out of here. I can tell she’s tempted to drive away. “Please,” I say.
“You can’t,” she answers. Then she turns to look at me. “Maybe it can.”
“There must be some other way,” I say. I’m not willing to leverage Dudley if I don’t have to.
Fiona shakes her head. “Only magic can defeat her, Darcy Caine. If you’re lucky, maybe the power you possess can destroy her… if it doesn’t destroy you first.”
She hits the gas, and the Land Rover peels away. It smashes through the gates—she is not even bothering to wait for them to open right away. The red taillights disappear on Mulholland.
I turn to Paige. She’s looking at me, still afraid. “If you run, too, I’ll understand.” I don’t know what she just witnessed, but judging by the destruction beside me, it was awful. I add, “Maybe it’s better if you did.”
She takes a few hesitant steps toward me then changes to a run. She throws her arms around me and holds me tightly. “Don’t you get it, Darcy?” she says, her arms gripping me tighter and tighter. “You’re all I have in this world. We’re the only family we have. I would walk through fire for you. And if anything were to happen to you if…”
She struggles to get the thought out, but I know what she means. If I were to die and go to hell.
“If anything happened to you, I wouldn’t let you go there alone. I would be right by your side. Forever.”
My knees give, but she holds me up. My arms hold on to her as I collapse. The tears pour out. Sirens wail in the distance.
* * *
Paige and I decide not to wait for the fire department—there are too many questions we’re not prepared to answer. With only one road in to Fiona’s house, we have to hurry along a walking trail that leads down to the next property on the hill side. We sneak past the house that sits below Fiona’s and finally
