Darker Days

Lukas snorted. “She always was all about showmanship.”

I couldn’t help smiling. Holding out my hand, I said, “Well, let’s go give her the ride of her annoyingly long life.”

We rounded the corner and started down the dark stairway. Flickering light at the bottom told me Meredith hadn’t bothered magically rebooting power to the house. It made navigation tricky—but not impossible.

“You made it!” she squealed as we reached the bottom. “I was starting to wonder which one of your parents I’d have to torture first.”

Under my T-shirt, the black crystal Valefar had given me lay warm against my skin. Not yet, a tiny voice inside my head whispered. Wait.

“Okay, so we’re all here. Now what?”

“Where are the other Sins?” she asked casually. She was leaning against the wall at the far corner of the room, grinning like we were all old friends. Around the edges of the unfinished basement were the other three Sins—Amari, Vida, and Kendra. Standing flush against the wall and still as stone, they watched us in silence. At the other end of the room, Mom and Dad sat in a corner side by side. Next to them, a woman lay crumpled and unconscious.

I held up my bag and nodded to my parents. “In the box. Let Kendra and my parents go.”

“Give me the box first.” She turned to Lukas, batting her eyes. “And you come stand over here by me.”

Neither of us moved. Meredith sighed and put her hand out, wriggling her fingers. “Come on. Hand it over. Time’s almost up.”

“Kendra and my parents first.”

“Aww. Someone has trust issues.” She snickered. “Fine, then. I don’t have time to do this the easy way.” With a snap of her fingers, Lukas was in front of her, and just like the other day, I couldn’t move.

As if some unseen force was dragging him to the ground, Lukas struggled to stay on his feet. “Meredith —”

“If you won’t take my gift voluntarily, I’ll force it on you. You’ll thank me for it later—after you realize you still love me.” From out of nowhere, Meredith produced a small blade. Slicing open the palm of her hand, she held it against his forehead and began to chant. “EGO dico in phasmatis of Ira, solvo is vultus. EGO dico in phasmatis of Ira, peto tectum in alius cognatio populus.”

Pale and shaking, Lukas let out a blood-chilling scream. It bounded off the walls and echoed in the small space, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand at attention. Fists balled tight, he lost his battle with gravity and collapsed under an invisible weight at Meredith’s feet.

“Phasmatis of Ira, EGO to order vos licentia is somes.”

The girl. She was going to transfer Wrath to the unconscious girl.

But nothing happened. With more force, Meredith repeated, “Phasmatis of Ira, EGO to order vos licentia is somes.”

Eyes blazing, Lukas let out a laugh. The sound rivaled the most spine-numbing cry I’d ever heard. When he spoke, his voice had an inhuman echo to it. “You can’t take it unless I let you.”

“Phasmatis of Ira, EGO to order vos licentia is somes,” Meredith said again, louder and with more force. Fingers threading through his hair, she was starting to look annoyed.

I could feel the ward tingling against the skin on my back. It was fighting the magic that kept me rooted. Just a little more… Any second I’d be free.

“Phasmatis of Ira, EGO to order vos licentia is somes.”

More laughter from Lukas. Only this time, he was standing. With a growl, he knocked Meredith’s hand away and took a single step forward.

Meredith might have been cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, but I could see it in her eyes. She knew a roadblock when she saw one. Expression morphing from annoyed to amused, she thrust both hands out and sent Lukas flying backward without laying a finger on him. He careened through the wooden banister and crashed against the wall, landing with a thud at the bottom of the steps.

Satisfied he was out of her way, Meredith turned to me. “Fine. Your turn, then.”

I laughed. “I hate to tell you this, Mer, but I’m not an angry girl. That transfer mojo won’t work on me.”

She was still smiling. Not a good sign since I’d just poked a state-sized hole through her little delusion.

“For Wrath, you mean? Of course not. He won’t give up the Sin to save a stranger. I wouldn’t expect him to give it up and trap you in the box.” Her smile widened. “But someone else is more than willing.”

I tried flexing my arm. No luck, but the fingers on my right hand twitched. Getting there. Just needed to stall things a little longer…

“I don’t understand something,” I mused. “You said, and I quote, Your fate has been arranged for a long, long time. If you planned to off me then what was that supposed to mean?”

She started pacing, head tilted in reflection. For once, I was glad she loved hearing herself talk. It might buy me the time I needed. “Well, just between us girls, I wasn’t supposed to touch you. That was the deal. Valefar did me a solid back in 1882 by giving me that spell and a way to gain my freedom. He said he would ask for a favor in the future, but imagine his surprise when he came to collect and found me buried like last week’s trash.”

“Yes. Imagine that…”

She ignored my sarcasm as though I hadn’t spoken. “We have quite a history. He does me a favor—I do him one. It’s all very convenient. I owed him for the spell, and then again for freeing me from Simon Darker’s prison.”

“So he told you I was hands-off and you, what, pretended not to hear? Because this is kind of the opposite of leaving me alone. Just, yanno, FYI.”

Meredith grinned. “He cut me a deal. I owed him two favors, but he would wipe away all my debt if I simply found the box containing the Seven Deadly Sins and arranged to have a person of his choosing open it. A demon named Damien. He told me I was free to exact my revenge on the Darker line with the single stipulation that I leave you alone. He even said I could take Lukas back if I wanted.” She leaned in close and giggled. “I agreed, of course. I was free and got to have my revenge on the Darker line, and I could have another chance with my fiance. Really, I was making out in the agreement. But then I met you at the school, and I knew there was no way I could do as promised. You insulted me and waved Lukas in my face. He was mine first, and you had no right to him.”

Lukas said Meredith had always been a spoiled child. Obviously, nothing much had changed. She threw away her toy, bored with it, then as soon as someone else showed an interest, she wanted it back. “You put him in the box—or have you forgotten? Why the hell would you care?”

Her eyes narrowed. “I told you I changed my mind about that.”

“So now what? You’re obviously planning to double-cross Valefar. Is that such a good idea? Demons don’t take kindly to backstabbers.”

“I admit, I do feel badly about going back on my word, but there are just some things a girl can’t ignore. I was hoping you’d be open to Wrath. That would have been poetic, but Pride will have to do.”

My blood ran cold. The box. She was going to put me in the box.

Hand still dripping from the cut she made, Meredith reached for me. “EGO dico in phasmatis of Superbia—”

From the other side of the room, Mom let out an anguished scream.

That was the moment my knees unlocked. Hand going straight for the knife in my belt, I launched myself at the witch, ready to draw blood.

But as fast as I was, a witch was always going to be faster. She blinked out of existence, reappearing by the base of the stairs where Lukas was just getting to his feet.

“Look out!” I yelled as she appeared behind him.

Lukas swiveled and threw his weight at her middle. Caught off guard, they both hit the concrete floor and rolled a few feet.

With Meredith occupied, I turned and started for the other end to free my parents but didn’t get more than three steps when something hit me in the back of the head. I went down on one knee, catching myself before I