She can’t just do this! Hel can’t use me to kill!
So I do something I never imagined. I imagine Hel inside of me, and I push her into something and lock it behind me. The image is perfectly formed in my mind, but strange. It isn’t until I realize that I can no longer feel her that I realized that I did something.
I think I actually locked her away.
At least for now.
I’m breathing hard when I crouch down beside Tevor. “Are you okay?”
His head jerks toward me, and he shivers. “Yeah…I just...I thought you couldn’t combat it.”
I offer him my hand, but he shakes his head and gets unsteadily to his feet. He starts to walk away from me, but then looks back. Behind him, the twins still stare at me, no expression on their faces, so I jerk my gaze away and back to him.
My mouth opens, but I don’t know what to say. But the guy? He looks a little scared. Of me. And I don’t blame him.
“That was fucking awesome.”
I spin around and see Mercy beaming up at me.
“Hel took over.”
“Yeah, but you fought back against her, didn’t you?”
I nod.
“And now you know how to use her icy magic.”
“I guess,” I say, then look at Trevor far away. “But the magic he used against me… I think if I hadn’t stopped him in time, it would’ve killed me.”
Mercy is quiet for a long minute. “So, now you know. They can move as fast as you can, and they have magic capable of destroying you. Which means you need to learn to interrupt that spell before they can ever unleash it.”
A tremor moves through my body.
Mercy takes my face and pulls me down to look at her. “I like you, Reid. I like Hel too. The last thing I want is for you to die. I wanted to be able to sugarcoat things for you…”
“You’ve been sugarcoating things for me?” I ask, shocked. How bad is the truth then? Mercy is amazing, but not exactly...sugary.
A darkness comes over her face. “My father is a beast, Reid. I am sugarcoating things compared to how I was taught.”
“A beast?”
She winces, but she forges on. “Yes. You’ve heard the story of Beauty and the Beast?”
I nod, confused.
“That tale was based off of my parents’ story.”
“So your dad is…?” Some kind of weird fairy tale creature?
She shakes her head. “It doesn’t matter. What I’m saying is that I can’t sugarcoat things for you anymore.You need to learn to defend yourself. Faster than you are.”
I know she’s right. “Okay.”
“Reid?”
I jerk away from Mercy and stare at Izzy. How the hell did she get here without me seeing her?
“Izzy.”
Her arms fold over her chest and her glare sweeps from Mercy to me. “We need to talk.”
For some reason, I kind of hope she wants to talk about the godslayers. And not the fact that Mercy was cupping my cheeks so intimately. I didn’t do anything wrong, but it kind of feels like I did.
“Sure thing.” I look back at Mercy. “We’ll talk later?”
“You bet,” she says, and there’s a challenge in her eyes as she looks at Izzy.
Chapter Six
Aiden
“How’d you get the wheels?” I ask Van as he drives us back toward our hometown. “Do I even want to know?”
He leans back lazily in the leather driver’s seat, his hands draped over the steering wheel relaxed, as if we aren’t rushing down the highway at speeds that should offend any nearby state troopers. He weaves in and out of traffic, his driving competent and his eyes keen even if that give-no-damns act of his is perfectly polished.
“Do you remember Fitzy from my lacrosse team?”
“I don’t remember any of your rich asshole friends.”
“Jealous,” Van mouths, before he adds, “Well, we got to be friends when my mother sent me to that godawful rich-kid outdoors ‘boot’ camp.”
“Oh, I remember that. You came back with all kinds of new inspiration. Wasn’t it that fall that you started your little black market on school grounds?”
It doesn’t matter how much money Van has. He’s always looking for the next scheme.
He nods. “Anyway, Fitzy was bullied pretty bad there. I did him some favors, and he’s paying me back now by making sure I have wheels.”
“What kind of favors?” Knowing Van, I can picture him wearing the official camp shorts and t-shirt uniform, rowing a canoe out to the middle of the lake on a moonlight night. Right before he pushes a body overboard.
Love the guy, but he’s kind of a psycho.
Maybe that’s part of why I love him. Van’s no-holds-barred, all-in when he’s on someone’s side.
He shrugs mysteriously.
“Wait.” I cross one hand over the other to make the time-out symbol, because sometimes, Van is full of bullshit. “Do you mean you stood up for him and acted like a friend, so now he’s looking out for you too?”
Van rolls his eyes. “You’re so touchy-feely, Aiden.”
I shake my head, holding back a laugh. Van’s a far better guy than he’s usually willing to acknowledge.
“Let’s go get touchy-feely with some vampires, then,” I say. “I talked to that asshole that Izzy hangs out with sometimes.”
“You’re going to have be more specific.” Van’s lips curl up at the corners. “We all think any guy that Izzy hangs out with is an asshole.”
“The vamp one. The one with the crush on her who keeps trying to walk her to class. Starts with a D?”
“Darryl,” Van says.
“And here I was thinking of him as Dickface. Well, he was very helpful. Told me where the vamps hang out back home. He’s probably hoping we’ll get killed, but whatever.”
“Not today.” Van shrugs as if it doesn’t matter. “Maybe tonight, given our new roommates, but not today.”
“At least we can make some vamps pay first.” My hands twitch into fists, hoping we find them today. I know it’s a long shot. “You really think those ‘godslayer’ assholes even could kill us?”
Every day, it feels like my powers grow a bit more.
“I’m not sure even Izzy can charm them,” Van says dryly.
I nod. “Although I almost ran into that Clancy guy, and he rushed out an apology, which doesn’t exactly scream ‘a force to be reckoned with’.”
“Careful,” Van says, his voice soft. “Just because he’s the smallest of the godslayers, radiates a nervous energy, and has that nerd look, don’t count him out. All of them were given the powers to kill us, so we should expect that they can and will.”
I think of Lucus, the huge guy with the black hair and a death-stare. Yeah, Van was probably right. We should be cautious of all of them. The ones who give us the evil eye, and even the female godslayer. We couldn’t trust any of them.
And then something occurs to me. “If they were all chosen for a reason, do you think we were too?”
“Fuck,” Van mumbles under his breath. “I don’t know.”