"You shut your mouth," she hissed, flicking her fingers at me. I blocked the spell easily.
"And Mrs. Casnoff was married. What happened to her husband? Admit it. Your dad took everything from you, both of you, and then he made my dad Head of the Council." I shook my head. "This is nothing more than a freaking temper tantrum with a body count, and I am done with it.
Nobody else is dying for this."
With that, I pointed into the pit, focusing all my magic on Finley and Aislinn. As I did, I saw a bolt of power fly from behind me, undoubtedly from Cal. But Cal's specialty was healing magic, and his attack spells were weak. It harmlessly bounced off of Lara.
She held both hands out toward Cal, Izzy, and Jenna, sending out a pulse of magic that knocked all three of them back several feet. I heard their pained "whoofs" as they landed on the ground. Then I saw Lara shoot something else into the sky, almost like a flare, and suddenly she was gone. I gritted my teeth but didn't dare break my concentration. The magic coming out of the pit was so strong and so dark that it took everything I had inside of me to fight against it. I didn't know if it was the pit itself holding them, or if Lara had done a spell.
Slowly, though, Aislinn and Finley began to move out of the pit. Only when they were several feet away from the edge did I use my powers to gently lower them to the ground.
Izzy and Call both went to them, Izzy to fling herself on their limp bodies, Call to try to bring them back to consciousness. I held my breath until, finally, I saw Aislinn's eyelids flutter and Finley's fingers start to move.
Jenna came up beside me and laid her hand on my arm. "You did the right thing," she said. Watching Izzy hug her mother and sister, I knew that I had. But as the crashes and howls and snarls got closer, it was hard to feel very right.
"Have you ever been in a demon rumble before, Jenna?" I asked.
Hoisting her own demonglass dagger, she shook her head. "Nope. I have a feeling it's going to be super violent."
"Maybe we can talk to them," I said, rubbing my nose with the back of my hand. "Have a little sit-down chat."
"With tea."
"Ooh, yeah, with the nice china, and those little sandwiches that don't have crusts." Call came to stand with us. Aislinn and Finley were getting to their feet, but I could tell they were far away from optimum Brannick strength. "I don't want to kill these kids," Call said.
"Neither do I. But I don't want them to kill me, either."
"Not sure what we want is going to matter that much," Jenna said. I stared out into the trees, hearing my fate move closer.
And here's the thing: I knew I was supposed to be courageous. I was supposed to use my magic for as long as I could, and be all Braveheart about it. But I didn't want to. I wanted to cry. I wanted to hug my mom and dad again. I wanted to see Archer. And I wanted to know that I'd done more here than just delay Aislinn's and Finley's deaths by a few minutes.
So there was no stoic badass facing down the demon hordes. There was just a teenage girl with tears streaming down her face, her two best friends on either side of her, as all kinds of hell ish creatures rushed forward.
I could see the silhouette of one of the demonic faeries heading our way. I remembered its razor-edged wings and the way they'd sliced into Daisy's arms, and my own arm trembled as I lifted it. The magic I'd used to get Aislinn and Finley out of the pit had zapped a lot of my strength, and now my powers didn't flow so much as swirl sluggishly around my feet. Still, I could hold them off for a little while.
I could hear the churning sound of the faerie's wings as it moved closer, and shot an attack spell from my fingers. But before it hit, something else snaked out and wrapped around the faerie's ankle-a silvery whip. With a shriek, the faerie fell to the ground, and my heart was suddenly racing.
"Oh, God," Jenna said. She didn't have to say any more. Jenna and I had seen that weapon before, when The Eye raided a Prodigium club in London.
"It's The Eye," I said, disbelievingly. And then, for probably the first time in Prodigium history, a demon, a warlock, and a vampire all beamed at one another as I repeated, "It's The Eye!"
And sure enough, streaming through the woods from the general direction of the Itineris were several dudes in black. "How?" Call asked. And then one of the guys in black started running toward us. I guess it's possible that it could've been some other kind of lanky Eye with dark curly hair, but I leaped at him anyway.
Archer and I collided with enough force to knock the breath out of me, but I didn't care. I could breathe later.
"Thought you could use some assistance," he said against my temple. "There are only about twenty of us-the only guys I could get to come with me. But still. It's something, right?"
I held him tighter. "Better than something."
But as much as I would've loved to stay there, holding him forever, now wasn't the time. I pulled back and said, "Try not to kill them, okay?" He raised an eyebrow at me, and I immediately lifted a hand. "Don't. No time for quips. Just...try to hold them off, okay? There's still a chance we could save them."
For once in his life, Archer didn't try to banter with me. In fact, he didn't say anything at all. He just ran off in the direction of the fighting. I spun around, planning to dash off after Lara.
But in the end, I didn't have to.
She was once again standing at the edge of the pit-only this time, she didn't look superior or amused. And she wasn't alone. Mrs. Casnoff stood next to her, her hair still snow-white, but back in its elaborate updo. She was wearing one of her Hecate Hall blue suits, and there was nothing blank in her face now. She held one hand out, and I noticed that Lara was frozen, held in some kind of spell. "This school used to be a haven for our kind," Mrs. Casnoff shouted. Her voice was hoarse and raw, but I could hear the echo of the woman I'd once known. "And you've turned it into hell on earth, Lara."
"I did this for us!" Lara shouted back. "This is what Father wanted."
But Mrs. Casnoff wasn't buying that any more than I was. "This has to end," she said, and there were decades of sadness in her voice. She repeated, "This has to end." Across the pit, her eyes met mine, and I knew what I had to do.
Hands trembling, I pulled the grimoire out of the back of my skirt and flipped to the page detailing the ritual that would close this pit forever. I whispered the words, but they still burned inside my mouth as I said them. From within the pit, the green light began to dim.
"No," Lara said, more confused than angry. She was still frozen there at the edge, arms locked against her body.
Mrs. Casnoff wrapped her arms around her. "I'm sorry," I saw her lips say. Once again, she looked at me. "I'm sorry." She pressed her hand against her sister's back. There was one single pulse of purple light. And then they both tumbled lifelessly into the pit.
I was openly crying now, saying the words of the spell faster and faster as the earth around us began to tremble. "Sophie!" I heard Jenna scream, but I couldn't move until this was finished. This ritual that had made my family monsters, that had killed more people than I could count, was finally ending. I was ending it.
I was so focused on that that I didn't even notice the ground under my feet giving way.
I heard someone else scream my name, maybe Izzy. And then I fell into the pit.
I landed badly and heard my ankle give with a crack. Pain, white-hot and icy cold all at once, shot through me, and I screamed as the grimoire slipped from my hands. Dirt rained down on me as the earth shook and rolled. I gave one brief stab at using my magic to float me out, but the power down here was too strong. My own depleted powers couldn't override it.
I lowered my head, shaking with fear and pain, trying to tell myself that this was okay. After all, I was dying for the greater good. Daisy, even Anna and Chaston, could go back to being regular kids-or witches and warlocks. No one would ever be turned into a demon again.
I laid down on the ground, flinching away from the sight of Mrs. Casnoff's lifeless eyes staring at me. "The ends justify the means," I murmured as the walls of the pit began to slide in.
When I felt a hand on my injured ankle, I shrieked, pulling my leg back even though that sent bolts of fire through me. I half expected to see Lara Casnoff clutching me, or one of the ghouls that had once guarded this pit. But it wasn't either of those things.
It was Cal.
As his healing magic rushed through me, and the bones of my ankle knitted themselves back together, I sat up. "What are you doing?" I yelled over the rumbling.
He just shook his head and yanked me to my feet. After that, everything happened so fast, and I was still so shell-shocked, that I hardly realized what he was doing until his hands were under my foot and I was being lifted into the air, hands from above pulling me up.
"No!" I cried, even as Aislinn and Finley hauled me to safety. The pit was coll apsing faster and faster now, and I scrabbled in the dirt at the edge, reaching a hand out to Cal. I summoned up every ounce of magic I had inside me, so powerful I could hear the nearby trees creaking. "Out!" I screamed. "Get him out!"
My magic surged from me, but it was too late. The ground gave one last mighty quake, and a huge crack opened up in the mouth of the pit. Call stumbled backward, against the far wall. In that moment, his eyes met mine. I lay there on my stomach, hand still outstretched, panting. "It's okay, Sophie," I saw his mouth say. "It's okay."
There was a blinding flash of light and a sound like a mountain giving way. Jenna pulled me back just as the pit collapsed in on itself. The entire island seemed to give a shudder, and I numbly wondered if it was from revulsion or relief.
And then everything was silent.
CHAPTER 33
Someone was shaking me. "Sophie," a voice said in my ear. "Wake up."
Disoriented, I rolled over, strands of hair stuck to my damp cheeks. I'd been crying. Again. I sat up, and for a moment, it was easy to believe the past few weeks had never happened. I was back in my bedroom at the Brannick compound, the early morning sun spilling in the narrow window.
Maybe I'd never left here, I thought woozily. Maybe I'd dreamed it all.
But no. Jenna was sitting on the edge of my bed, looking worried, and Archer hovered in the doorway. And somewhere downstairs were my mom and dad, the Brannicks, Nick and Daisy...
But no Cal.
"Same dream?" Archer asked, and I nodded, scrubbing at my face with both hands. Ever since the night we'd used the Itineris to escape from Hex Hall, the whole island shaking like it was about to collapse into the ocean, I'd been having nightmares.
Dad said that was to be expected, given all I'd gone through. But it had been a month. Were they ever going to stop?
"Was I screaming again?" I asked as I tossed off the covers.
"Just crying," Jenna said, her face sympathetic. "A lot."
I tried to recall the dream, but it was already slipping away. Call had been there again, in the pit, dirt raining down on him. And Mrs. Casnoff, her dead eyes blank. I shuddered.
Jenna went to take my hand, but I stood up and gave her my best "Everything Is Fine, No, Really, It Is" smile. "It was just a dream," I told her.