“Oh, I don’t plan on being careful. I plan on being vicious.”
Jade appears from the dorm wing. Her head is still bleeding, but she has my discarded crossbow and looks terrifying as opposed to terrified. “Took out two more. If you can cover me, I’ll go to the shed and get supplies to blow up their vans so they can’t get away.”
My mother cuts a hand through the air. “Too risky. There are hellhounds out there. Post yourself at the far end of the dorm wing. Guard our backs.”
Jade scowls, but she nods and disappears where she came from.
“We do need to neutralize the hellhounds.” My mother checks the safety on her gun. “I seem to recall we’re both pretty good at—”
That’s when the front doors blow up.
24
MY HEAD RINGS, AND I cough as bits of dust and plaster and centuries-old stone particles invade my lungs. I scramble to my feet, blinking away the grit and expecting a hellhound to lunge at me from the gaping hole where the front doors are hanging wildly by one hinge. But no hellhounds are prowling.
“Hey, Wheezy! Catch!”
I turn just in time to have my own mother thrown into me. I catch her, stumbling backward and nearly falling. I set my mother on her feet. She straightens her suit jacket and pulls out a sleek black club. “Thank you.”
Honora stands across from us, one of those wretched shock sticks in her hand. I’m going to take it from her, and then I’m going to shove it down her—
“You were supposed to be unconscious.” Honora’s hair isn’t even mussed, a sleek high ponytail showing off her lustrous dark locks. She’s wearing perfectly fitted black pants, combat boots, and a black sweater. She’s like an advertisement for traitorous assholes—betray your people, but look good doing it!
Now it’s not the grit that’s making it hard to see. It’s the pulsing red on the edges of my vision. “Yeah, well, you were supposed to be screaming ‘my arm!’ ”
She tilts her head in confusion. I rip one of the heavy doors the rest of the way off and throw it at her. She only has time to raise one arm to protect herself, and the door slams into her forearm with a bone-shattering blow.
“You bitch!” she screams, clutching her arm and dropping to her knees.
I shrug. “It’s not ‘my arm,’ but it’s close enough.”
“Nina.” My mother’s voice is sharp. “Careful.”
“Not with her.” I refuse to try and hold myself back. Not for Honora. I take a step toward her, then twist to the side as a dart whistles through the air, hitting the wall behind me.
Artemis reloads. Judging by her position, she came from somewhere else in the castle—the dorm wing, or the Council residence hall, or the kitchen. I don’t know which. I was too focused on my prey. Artemis is holding a pillow, of all things, in one hand. But in the other, she has the dart gun trained directly on me.
“Artemis,” our mother says, “you are grounded.”
Honora laughs, her normally low voice high and tight with pain. “You’re all lunatics. All you had to do was give up some demons. Now look at us.”
I don’t take my eyes off the dart gun, but I’m trembling with rage. “You came here! To our home!”
“This isn’t a home,” Artemis says. “It never was.” She tosses the pillow to Honora and then fires three darts at me. I twist out of the way, jumping and somersaulting across the floor. None of the darts hit me.
“Oh.” Our mother stumbles to the side, then leans against the wall and slides to the ground. One of the darts is embedded in her shoulder. “So grounded,” she slurs before her eyes close.
“You tranqued our mom!” I point accusingly at where she’s lying on the floor.
Artemis reloads. “Yes, I did.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“You wouldn’t understand. You’re the last person who could understand.” She circles. I follow her, not letting her get behind me or to the door to the gym where Doug is.
I used to be the only person who understood her. Now? She’s right. I don’t. “What happened to you?”
She laughs wildly, gesturing to the castle. “This happened to me, Nina. You happened to me. You have no idea how it feels to be powerless. To know as much as we do and be totally dependent on others to fight it.”
“Of course I do! I had to watch you be the capable one, the strong one, the one who always got picked. I was powerless for sixteen years of my life!”
“No! You were always chosen. From the day we were born. You were chosen. Well, I’m choosing myself. I don’t need ancient mystic forces determining I’m worthy of power. I’m going to do it myself. And then no one will be able to hurt me, or hurt you, or hurt any of us.”
“You’re hurting us!”
“Means to an end.” She lifts the gun and fires several darts so fast I barely have time to dodge.
“Don’t think I don’t see what you’re doing.”
She raises an eyebrow. “Oh?”
“You’re angling me away from Honora while she sneaks off.” I stop moving, raising both my fists. “She can’t get away. I’m faster and I’m stronger and I’m better than her. Not only is Doug staying here, but she is too. We have a whole dungeon waiting for her.”
“Actually,” Honora says, sweat beading on her forehead from the pain of her arm, “she’s angling you in front of the door so that this can happen.”
The snarl behind me is just enough warning. I turn and catch the hellhound as it barrels into me. It takes me to the floor, and I hold its jaws where they’re desperately straining for my neck. Hot, sticky saliva drips down on me. I kick up into its stomach, launching it off me and through the air. It hits the wall with a thud and lands with a yelp, scrambling to right itself. I pull out a stake, but the hellhound changes direction and lunges for my unconscious mother.
Two darts stick out of its back before it gets there, and it stumbles, then slumps down.
Artemis doesn’t lower her gun, instead firing another dart at me. I dodge, then run at her, hitting her stomach with my shoulder and carrying her across the great hall with my momentum before tossing her down. I’m about to grab her—and do what, I don’t know, but my heart is racing and my anger is eating me alive, hotter and fouler than the hellhound’s saliva. But a popping sound precedes Tsip.
“Nina!” she says, crying. “It’s terrible!”
I whirl around. The door’s intact! No one could have gotten in to Doug! “What? What happened?”
Tsip holds out her hand. Her palm is lined with dust. “Their eyes turned into dust! All the pretty eyes! And it’s my birthday.”
I grit my teeth and clench my fists. “Tsip. Get back to your post right now, or so help me, I’ll take your own eyes and gift wrap them for you.” It’s not an empty threat. I know as I’m saying it that I’d do it. But I don’t have time to feel disgusted with myself.
She scowls, her lower lip trembling. “That would totally defeat the purpose.” She disappears, and I turn back to Artemis to see her slip something into her mouth. Doubtless one of their demonic booster drugs.