A Witch in Darkness: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Novel (Runic Magical Academy Series Book 2) Read online

  “Read your cards, dearie?” A smiling older witch leaned over the counter. She had blindingly white teeth. Rose nodded.

  “You know this isn’t a game,” Frankie told her.

  “No, it most definitely is not,” the old woman said, winking at Rose. “But it’s not work either.”

  “Please?” Rose said to her sister. Frankie shrugged and paid for her. Rose hooked her chin over the counter, standing on her tiptoes as the woman shuffled her cards and began the reading.

  When she was done, Rose insisted Frankie get one as well. Her face turned beet red when the first card the reader flipped over had a nude man and woman on it. I pulled Rose away under the guise of fixing her hat. By the time we stepped back, Frankie’s face was a little less flushed.

  “And you?” the woman asked as she restacked the cards. I shook my head.

  “A simple reading of the heart. It does you no good to hide from yourself.”

  “She’ll take one,” Frankie said, paying. I glared at her.

  “Come forward then.” The card reader waved me toward the counter. I stepped up as she began to shuffle.

  “How exactly does this work?” I asked, watching her deft fingers rearrange the deck.

  “I ask a question and the cards interpret the answer.”

  It was a similar explanation as the one Natalia, the High Priestess, gave me when she used a bag of runes to decide if I was a Delatorre or not.

  The woman pulled three cards and laid them out before me.

  “What do you see?” she asked. I looked down.

  “The cards,” I said.

  “No, in the imagery.” She gestured, splaying her fingers across the pictures. I leaned forward to study the three that were in front of me. The one in the middle showed a dog and a wolf barking at the moon. The card to the right was upside down, showing a man carrying off armfuls of swords. But it was the image on the left that made my breath still. It depicted a heart pierced by three swords, dripping blood. My lungs felt tight as the vision I saw in Warren’s head played through my mind again. His lips were on mine as he slid a dagger into my heart. I squeezed my hands into fists. The effect wasn’t the same with gloves, but it helped.

  The card reader was still watching me, waiting.

  “I’m seeing steel as a negative,” I told her, deadpan.

  She smirked, her eyes crinkling as they looked down at the cards and back at me. The sympathy in them made my skin itch. “Humor doesn’t block the truth, love.” Her finger landed on the card with the heart. “You’ve been hurt. Disappointed by others. Possibly a recent betrayal.”

  I kept my face as neutral as possible. My aunt hadn’t really betrayed me, neither had Warren. It had been stupid of me to trust either of them in the first place. Beside me, Frankie ushered Rose to the booth next door to look at small wooden carvings. The woman frowned as she moved on to the second image.

  “Fear rules your present. You bark at illusions, too scared to confront your true worries. Be wary of hasty decisions, where you aren’t seeing the entire picture.”

  I crossed my arms and fought the urge to roll my eyes as she slid one finger over the upside-down card.

  “Your future is full of secrets. Guilt. Shame. You have a lot of healing to do, child.”

  The hair on the back of my neck stood up. I narrowed my eyes at the woman. She hadn’t reacted to my appearance, but now I wondered if she had recognized me. It wasn’t a far stretch to think the daughter of a murderer should feel shame and guilt. “Enlightening.”

  She pursed her lips as she gathered up her cards. “You keep denying yourself and you’ll get nowhere.”

  I turned to leave and froze. My blood froze in my veins as Warren’s green eyes met mine.

  “Mind letting us through?” Charmaine asked, her voice dripping with annoyance. I forced my gaze away from him to her. Whereas I was sure I looked half frozen, she appeared as though she’d just stepped out of a catalog. Her cheeks were pink and rosy from the wind and her blonde hair fell in soft curls from beneath her dark green beret.

  Behind them, I spied Frankie watching me with a furrowed brow. She took a step forward. I shook my head. Stepping to the side, I motioned to the tarot reader. “Be my guest.”

  Charmaine didn’t need further invitation. With a smug tilt of her chin, she headed for the counter. Warren hesitated. Despite the cold, his wool coat hung open so I could see the soft sweater he had on underneath, and he wore no hat or earmuffs. The tips of his ears were bright red. Something about them made my stomach spin. My gloved hands itched to reach out and cover them from the bitter chill. I shoved my hands in my pockets instead.

  “Warren, come on.” Charmaine gestured for him to join her. The way her eyes could change from sweet to savage as she glanced between us was impressive.

  “You better get back to your girlfriend.” It was moments like this that I appreciated everything I’d learned growing up in the system. Lesson one: keep your emotions under control. Don’t show disappointment or rejection. If you expected the worst, it could never hurt you when it happened.

  Annoyance slid over his features. “At least I don’t have to wear a helmet when I’m around her.”

  My hands curled into themselves, but it wasn’t enough. I could feel the grimace inching its way across my face. Frankie must’ve seen it, too. She was beside me in a moment.

  “That booth didn’t have anything for my parents,” she told me, tugging Rose behind her. “Let’s keep looking.” She looked at Warren, “I think Charmaine wants you.”

  Sure enough, Charmaine stood with one hand on her hip, waiting for him. His jaw tensed, but he headed her way without a word as Frankie looped her arm through mine and pulled me away.

  “So, are we going to ignore that, or…”

  “He’s just being his usual jerk of a self.” I’d never filled Frankie in on what exactly happened after Samhain with Warren and me. The logical part of me said it didn’t matter. By turning him down, I’d stayed one step ahead of whatever game he was playing with me. But there was another, angrier part that throbbed with hurt and embarrassment as I glanced back at him, standing stoically beside Charmaine. I’d let my guard down, let myself trust him, let him kiss me—and I’d been wrong. So, while, yes, I wanted nothing to do with him, the heat that bloomed in my chest wished I knew how to use my magic to pull every booth in this place down on top of him.

  The wind picked up, slicing through my jacket and flapping the ends of my scarf behind me. Rose grasped at her hat, pulling it down tighter around her ears. I looked up, frowning. We’d come to the festival a few times since it opened. The weather was always perfect snow flurries. I thought it was part of the magic.

  “Do you want to get the hot chocolate now?” I asked. I had to yell over the crowd and the sound of the wind. A few others in the crowd were glancing up at the sky. I looked at Frankie, questioning, but she wasn’t paying attention. Her face had gone bright pink as I followed her gaze to Theo making his way toward us.

  “Frankie?”

  She snapped her eyes to me.

  “Um, sure.” She looked back up at Theo, who had obviously spotted us now. “Actually, I’m going to go to the bathroom.”

  Before I could respond, she’d turned and hurried in the opposite direction. Theo paused, the easy smile on his face gone. Suspicion scratched the back of my mind, and I filed it away for later. Something was definitely going on there, but if I had my secrets, then Frankie could have hers.

  “Come on, Rose,” I said, grabbing her mitten-clad hand in my own, “Let’s find the hot chocolate stand.” I pulled her toward the smell of sugar, just as the wind surged forward. A ripping sound wrenched through the air and made a shiver of fear race down my spine. I glanced up.

  No way.

  Above us, a jagged slash ripped through the sky. Before I could react, Rose screamed, and everything went dark as something hard and rough collided into me from behind.

  2

  I SCRAMBLED AWAY from the weight pinning me down. As I scraped my body off the cobblestones, splinters clattered around me. It’s just a booth. Not a demon. The reassurance didn’t do much. That sound and the rip in the sky could only mean one thing. The fabric between worlds had been torn asunder.

  Demons were coming.

  “Rose!” I screamed and whirled on my feet, looking for her. She’d been in my hand a second ago, but now she was gone. The festival was in chaos. Booths were flung over, wares trampled and destroyed as people ran.

  I glanced up into the darkened sky and the unnatural rip slashed across it. The ragged edges of our dimension hung among the stars. As I watched, a dark shadowing figure began to inch out.

  “Rose!” I turned on my heel, eyes scanning the crowd, earning myself an elbow to the face as a harried-looking witch carried his daughter in his arms. I stumbled back, only just managing to stay on my feet. If I went down now, with the panic, I’d likely be trampled.

  “Rose.” My voice was lost in the wind and shrieks. Glancing up, I saw the shadow crawling through the sky had grown.

  No, not grown. Multiplied. Where one clawed hand had been around the edge, now half a dozen clung to the sky, clawing into our exposed dimension. The witchlights began to flash in warning, and a low whine whistled through the air.

  I spun, searching through the frantic crowd, and then I saw it. A white hat and a bright pink bobble by the evergreens they had for sale. She stood just behind one of the trees, her mouth open and her eyes wide.

  My spine tingled as I ran for her. I prayed to the universe that Frankie would be safe wherever she was. The crowd shoved and pushed around me, throwing me off course, but I didn’t dare take my eyes off Rose, afraid that if I blinked she might disappear.

  The flash of something
with glistening black scales and thin needle-like spikes made me freeze. The demon darted through the festival. It was about the size of a large dog, shaped like a scorpion but with a tale full of thin needles. It turned, as if it sensed me watching. Rows of dark eyes reflected the flashing witchlights above us. Then it charged. Before I could react, a witch flung himself at the creature, a candlestick in his hand. The demon spun, slamming its tail into him and embedding half a dozen needles into the witch’s chest as it threw him. He crashed into a booth. It splintered under his weight, flinging wreaths, candles, and bundles of herbs everywhere. I watched in silent horror as the flames caught quickly.

  A scream ripped through the air, and my heart jumped to see the spiny creature had turned its attention to the trees. White flashed through the branches as Rose staggered back and ran. With a swish of its deadly tail, the demon followed.

  I grabbed an abandoned yule log from the ground and took off after Rose. The one thing she had in her favor was she was fast. I was panting as I darted through the rows of firs and pines. Rose turned a corner, and I cursed as the demon pushed through the trees, almost on her heels. I followed. The pine needles scratched at my exposed skin as I stumbled out into the next row. It was too close. I was never going to make it.

  “Hey, ugly, over here!” I launched the yule log at the demon’s back, managing to smack it under the base of its skull.

  To my relief, the demon turned. Unfortunately, that had been my only weapon. My heart thumped in my chest as its beady eyes looked at me, glittering in the firelight. Its lipless mouth opened, revealing a row of sharp teeth as it hissed.

  I glanced around me and weighed my ability to use one of the evergreens with any force. The odds seemed unlikely. Cursing my luck, I put my right hand out, like I was trying to calm a feral dog, and struggled to remember everything I’d read about magical theory.

  Intention, focus, and energy.

  “Stay back,” I muttered. “That’s a good ugly demon.” I felt inside me for the low burn of magic. It crackled in my chest. Watching the monster inspect me, I slowly tried to make eye contact with Rose, who’d stopped running. Her wide eyes were trained on the demon’s tail that swished in front of her.

  The demon pawed at the ground, its eight eyes watching me, but it didn’t move to attack. If anything, it looked curious. It pawed again at the ground, shifting its weight as if deciding whether or not to get closer.

  Its tail dipped and Rose whimpered as it swung dangerously close to her. That was all it took. The creature snapped its head in her direction and lunged. Rose screamed.

  “No!” I launched myself at it. Landing on its hard scales. They sliced at my hands as I tried to hold on. The creature bucked me off. I landed on the ground in front of Rose as it reared.

  “Stay the hell back!” I screamed, and with every ounce of intention, focused on lighting this nightmarish creature on fire. But it wasn’t fire that burst out of me. Like a hook, my words cast out, ensnaring the demon’s mind with my own. It snapped back, hissing, unable to get closer to us.

  A cold sweat washed over me. My breath came out in uneven gasps. It wasn’t anything like the night on Samhain, where I didn’t understand how I kept the demon at bay. No, my head throbbed with the effort it took to hold it, to keep it from doing what it wanted—which, now that I could see into its mind, was tearing us to pieces as our blood dripped from its many teeth. I shuddered, and the demon took that tiny moment of weakness to push forward. Having felt me, felt my magic, it wanted a taste. It yearned for it. Biting back the bile rising in my throat, I pushed at Rose, hoping she’d run. Whatever the hell I was doing, I wasn’t going to be able to do it forever.

  Blood dripped from my nose, its metallic taste trickling into my slightly open mouth as I tried to breathe through the mounting pressure in my head. Just as my eye caught sight of the yule log I’d thrown, the pressure broke and my mind snapped back to me. Shoving Rose behind me, I launched myself at the log as the demon charged.

  My fingers landed on the wood, just as its claws scraped down my side. Screaming, I turned, ready to drive my meager weapon as far down its throat as I could before its rows of teeth closed around me. I hoped Rose would know to take off again while it was distracted.

  The demon roared. Hot, stinking breath billowed out as it collapsed, a glowing blue sword sticking from its chest. Rose whimpered against my arm. Her face pushing into me as she cried.

  I stared at the glowing weapon. That could only mean… I looked up. Warren strode forward. His overcoat and sweater were spattered with blood, his hair windswept, but he was deadly calm as he gripped the hilt and jerked it out of the demon’s carcass. His only tell the swift rise and fall of his chest.

  “We need to find Frankie,” I said to him. Rose clung to my hips. The smoke from various fires hung thickly in the air, cutting off the vision, though not the sounds, of the attack.

  “No,” Warren said, looking up to meet my eye. He squinted into the haze. “The guard will be here soon. The best thing we can do is stay here until it’s safe.”

  “We can’t just leave her out there,” I snapped. He strode toward me, and I cursed myself for the way it made me step back.

  “Are you going to take her back out there?” he asked, gesturing to Rose.

  “Can you make a portal?”

  He shook his head. “No. Not this close to the rip.”

  Demon gates were essentially portals into another world. Opening a portal this close could open another demon gate—or worse, send you straight into the demon realm, a place we’d only briefly touched upon in demonology. There’d been a few idiotic enough to try an expedition, but none lucky enough to survive.

  I knelt down to pull Rose off me and looked into her face. Her violet eyes brimmed with tears.

  “Warren’s going to keep you safe, okay?” I said. My voice was rough, the taste of blood still on my lips. I wiped it away. “I’m going to find your sister.”

  Rose whimpered. “I want to stay with you.”

  I shook my head. The set of her little jaw twisted at my heart. Stubborn bravery apparently ran in her family. “No, you need to stay safe in here, where you’re hidden.”

  “I told you, you’re not going out there,” Warren hissed, stepping closer. I stood up, but even at my full height I had to look up at him. Jerk.

  “I don’t care what you say.” I moved around him. “Frankie’s out there alone. She could be hurt.”

  “And you think you can help her?” He grabbed my wrist, shackling it with his hand. His grip wasn’t tight, but it was firm. “If I hadn’t gotten here, you both would be demon food. You go out there, you will be.”

  It took everything in me not to slap him as Rose began to cry and launched herself at me.

  “What’s the matter with you?” I said. Rose had wrapped herself back around my legs.

  “I want to go home,” she whimpered.

  “The truth is the truth,” he said. His jaw was tight as he glanced away, but his voice softened. “The sooner she learns it, the better.”

  “She’s a child,” I snapped.

  “Then be a better role model.” He turned, leaning in closer to me. The harsh sound of his voice sent little shoots of electricity through my veins. “You could start by thanking me for saving you.”

  “As if you need the ego boost.” I jerked away, which was a mistake. My side burned, and I yelped in pain.

  “You’re hurt.” His eyes widened, the anger in them dissipating as he reached for me, but I pushed his hands away.

  “Funny, I hadn’t noticed.” It was only partly sarcasm. With the adrenaline coursing through me, the pain was dull.

  “So, your plan is to walk out of here, hurt, weaponless, into a full-on demon attack.” The anger was back. I didn’t have time for this. The longer he kept me from going after Frankie, the more likely it was that she would get hurt out there looking for her little sister.

  My response was cut off by the sound of rustling in the trees. I shoved Rose behind me, ignoring the pain shooting through my side. Warren stepped up, sword at the ready.

  “We need to move,” he whispered as the scuttling got closer.

  “I’m not leaving without Frankie.”

  He tensed, as though to argue, but then nodded. “How about a deal?” Glancing back at the trees, he took a step backward, herding us toward the edge of the square. “We’ll get far enough away to evacuate her.” He nodded to Rose. “Then I’ll help you find Frankie.”