Demons Forever (Peachville High Demons #6) (24 page)

How do you fight an enemy you don't even understand?

I sat there, paralyzed, staring at the shivering body of my sister. Panic seeped into my bones. Jackson and I had just declared war against something much more dangerous than I realized. This went so much further than just the slavery of demons. The deceit and lies involved went deeper than I could have ever imagined.

I rubbed my face and forced myself back into the moment. I had to get control of myself. This was just another example of the great evil Priestess Winter was capable of. I'd already seen the horror of her actions that day Lea showed me what happened in Aldeen. Was this really so much worse?

I had to get it together and get the hell out of here.

Still, my hands shook and my breath caught in my throat. How was I going to find the potion we needed to wake her up? I prayed Jackson would be able to find a recipe in the library upstairs.

I grasped her hand tight and took a deep breath.

Here goes nothing
.

I connected to my demon power, my heart racing. I visualized the path I'd taken to get here. I would have to retrace my steps with lightning speed in order to get back to the Hall of Doorways before anyone could stop us.

I closed my eyes and let the fiery essence of my demon half burn within my soul. I shifted, taking Angela with me as I flew away from the cage and back through the hallway.

Adrenaline shot through me. For a few brief moments, I believed I could really do it. I could get her out of there without anyone seeing us. But before I reached the end of the long basement hallway, I smacked against an invisible barrier. The blow forced me back into my human form as I fell to the ground.

I heard a crack as Angela's head hit the cement beside me. I rushed over to her, my entire body aching and sore. Warm blood gushed from my nose.

Angela groaned and rolled to her side, still dreaming despite the pain.

I was only footsteps away from the stairs that led back up to the main house, but some kind of barrier had come up since I'd first come through here. This was the trap I'd been waiting for. When I lifted my eyes to the top of the stairs, my heart stopped cold.

Blue silk slippers descended the stairway, followed by a beautiful girl in jeans and a white ruffled shirt. American as apple pie with her pale skin, white-blonde hair and rosy cheeks. She smiled at me with her lips, but her eyes were cold and filled with contempt.

Honora
.

I'd only met her briefly a couple of times, but I recognized her immediately. She was Zara's middle sister. A second.

Had she been watching me this whole time? Fear twisted in my gut, and I knew.

She'd been waiting for me.

The Butterfly

"I suppose it's pointless to ask you to let me go," I said.

Honora cocked her head to the side, her blue eyes wide. "This can't be much of a surprise to a smart young woman like you," she said, her voice sugary as cotton candy. "You had every chance to be a good prima, but it's your own choices that have brought you here. This isn't what anyone wanted for you."

"Of course not," I said. I searched my sister's head for the source of a new bleed, finally feeling a gash just behind her left ear from where she hit the floor. I needed to stall Honora. Distract her so I could stop the bleeding. "You all wanted me to bow down and be the Order's puppet. If you knew me at all, you would have known I could never be that person."

She lifted an eyebrow. "I don't know. You seemed to really enjoy compromising yourself in order to make the cheerleading team," she said. "After all, you knew Agnes wanted it more than anything. You didn't even hesitate, though. You squashed her dreams without a second thought."

My mouth fell open. "You do realize Agnes was a murderer, right?" I said. "That spot on the cheer team would have never been open if she hadn't killed Tori and tried to frame me for the murder. Am I really supposed to feel guilty about foiling her evil plan?"

Honora's smile lost some of its glow. "You didn't know that at the time. As far as you knew, she was one of your only friends. An innocent orphan girl who just wanted to be a cheerleader."

I applied pressure to Angela's wound, doing my best to stay focused on what was really important here. I wasn't about to apologize for betraying Agnes. What she did to me was way worse. Besides, we all knew the Order wasn't ever going to let Agnes onto the team anyway. Even if I hadn't decided to try out.

Honora straightened her pearl bracelet and tugged at her sweater. "We all thought you had potential. You could have been such a great prima. A real leader in Peachville. Imagine the power that could have been yours at such a young age.," she said. Her eyes glittered at the mention of power. It turned my stomach. "It's not too late, you know. It can still be yours if you want it."

I made a choking sound. "At what cost? My soul? My friends? My memories?" Bitterness swelled within me. "Do you really think power is worth all that to me?"

Honora's mouth fell open. "Yes," she said. "Everyone wants to be powerful."

"I just wanted to feel like I belonged to something," I said. I looked down at my sister. Her face twisted in some secret horror that made my heart ache. "I just wanted to have a family. Not that someone like you could ever understand that. You have to actually have a heart to care about other people."

I swallowed back tears. I knew this conversation had gone on long enough. Honora hadn't come here to talk. She'd come to destroy me. And I intended to be ready for her.

I took a deep breath, centering myself. I knew this battle would be my first true test. I connected first to the earth beneath my feet. Beneath the floor. Deep within the ground, a powerful energy flowed. I sucked it into myself, fueling my body for the fight to come.

"You shouldn't be so quick to throw it all away for people like her." She looked down at my sister, disgust written across her face. "Trust me, having sisters isn't all it's cracked up to be."

I studied her and wondered what she must have meant by that. Did she know Zara had betrayed them? I thought of the butterfly in my hair, but didn't dare bring attention to it.

"I'd like to judge that for myself," I said, praying Angela and I would make it out of here safely.

Honora shook her head. "She's never going to wake up," she said. "I've made sure of that."

Anger ran through me. I gripped Angela's hand. I wouldn't let her stay like this forever. Whatever they'd done to her, it was torture. I could see it in every grimace. Hear it in every moan. I had to save her.

"You'll need a potion to wake her up," she said. She placed her index finger on her chin and paced in front of me. "Of course, I'm sure mother would be happy to give your sister one. That is, if you were willing to make a trade."

I clenched my jaw tight. "What kind of a trade?"

"An even trade. You for her. If you agree to become Prima, all these nightmares go away," she said. She waved her hand and the air shimmered as the barrier between us disintegrated. She stepped closer and crouched down beside me. "We could even take away your memories and replace them with happier ones. We could make you forget about Jackson. You wouldn't even miss him. Besides, Zara's upstairs right now with Selene, making sure he can't come down here to save you."

My head snapped up. "What?"

Zara had betrayed us after all? This couldn't be happening.

"Think about it, Harper. You could still have your sister and your friends in the Order. You'd be rich, beautiful. You'd have so much power and influence. It would be a dream life. I promise you. You wouldn't remember any of this."

Was she serious about this? Did she really think I'd give up so easily? Even after all that I'd been through?

"The only alternative is death," she whispered. She placed a hand on my sisters arm and Angela's body convulsed in pain. "For everyone you've ever loved."

Rage fueled my inner demon. I came alive with it, my hands tingling. Every inch of my skin buzzed with it. "Becoming a prima would be worse than death," I said.

Honora stood, a heavy sigh breaking from her lips. "Don't be foolish, Harper," she said. "This won't end well for you."

I let go of Angela's hand and stood, my eyes locked on Honora's face. She had become my first target. And once I'd finished her, I would move on to anyone else who dared to stand in my way. Even if I had to find Priestess Winter herself and force the potion recipe from her mind.

I breathed in, feeding my power with two kinds of energy. I was both witch and demon. The earth hummed beneath my feet. Life-force pulsed in the air around me, animating my demon side. I gathered it all in, ready to fight.

My hands burst into flame, and I sent a wave of red fire toward Honora.

She lifted a single finger and my fire stopped, frozen in time as if she'd merely pressed pause. The flames hovered in the air between us for a brief moment. Then, she put her lips together and blew, extinguishing the fire with a single breath.

My heart stopped. Shock weakened my knees and I struggled to breathe.

She raised an eyebrow and waved her finger from side to side, clucking her tongue. "You shouldn't have done that," she said.

Before I had a chance to recover, she reared back, then pressed her flat palm toward me. A great invisible force pushed through the hallway. It hit me like a bulldozer. My legs came out from under me and I flew several feet backward, landing on my ass.

The impact jarred me. I shook my head, trying to get my bearings.

Down the hallway, Honora cursed. She had a strange expression on her face, as if she were confused. She tugged on her hair and frowned.

I scrambled to my feet as Honora reared back and threw a ball of light toward me like a baseball.

I lifted my forearm in front of me, forming a shield at the last possible second.

Honora's spell slammed into me. Her energy turned to black oil against my shield and a foul taste coated my tongue. Her darkness seeped into the shield and into me. Coughs shook my body, forcing me to bend over.

I clutched my chest and gasped for air, panic consuming me. I'd completely underestimated her. Was I strong enough to defeat her?

I had to try. For both mine and Jackson's sake.

From the corner of my eye, I saw a darkness swoop down on me from above like a bird. I screamed and crouched low to the ground as something brushed against my shoulder. A crow? I forced my eyes open, searching for familiar red eyes and knife-like talons. Instead, there was only shadow.

My shirt ripped at my shoulder, but whatever she'd sent after me hadn't been able to touch my skin.

Honora stomped her foot, an angry sound rumbling deep in her throat.

I straightened and gathered a new spell between my fingertips. I threw a bolt of white-hot lightning toward Honora. She caught it as if it were a baseball, then threw it right back at me. I exhaled, letting go of my human form. My body transformed to smoke as the lightning flew through me. I somersaulted through the air, then reformed closer to where she stood.

Surprise flashed in her eyes, but she recovered quickly. With a flick of her wrist, she sent a flock of shadowbirds toward me, their pointed claws outstretched.

I formed a circle of flames at my feet, then crouched and drew them up around me like a dome. The birds screeched as they burned. When the last shadow had died against my fire, I pulled the energy together into a single fireball, then hurled it toward Honora.

She moved to dodge it, but the fire grazed her skin. She cried out, clutching her arm. When she pulled her hand away, her skin was blackened. She spun toward me, fury in her eyes.

I took advantage of the moment and reached out to the earth deep beneath her feet. I planned to rip through the cement, pulling whatever vines and rocks and soil I could from under the house, but before I could do it, she spun her body around like a tornado, a large gust of air nearly knocking me down and breaking my concentration.

Jesus. I didn't know she could do that.

I struggled against the wind, but managed to stay on my feet. She stopped spinning and stared at me, mouth open.

Rage reddened her face. Her entire body shook with tension. She pulled both hands up and away from her, forming tight fists that began to glow with a bright blue light.

Fear raced through me, and I tried to shift, but something about that light put me in a daze. I worked to close my eyes or look away, but I was helpless against it. Like a deer in headlights, I stared forward, unable to move.

She lifted her hands and shot the light toward me. Terror ripped through me as the light approached. I could feel the heat of it on my skin, but I could do nothing to protect myself or turn away. I screamed, bracing myself for the pain, knowing from the fury in her eyes that this was it for me. The end of it all.

The light made a direct hit, and although I felt the extreme power behind it, I felt no pain.

Honora stumbled backward, eyes bulging. Her shoulders slumped and she gasped for air. "What have you done?" she asked. "How did you resist that? I... I put everything into that spell."

She stuttered in fear and confusion. She leaned against the wall, her chest rising with each pained breath.

Confused, I studied my skin, patted my body to make sure I wasn't missing something. I hadn't done anything. I had no idea why I wasn't dead or in excruciating pain.

Then, something began to burn the skin near my temple. I reached up, confused. My hand touched the bobby pin in my hair.

Zara's gift. The crystal butterfly. Somehow, it had protected me from Honora's magic. It had been protecting me all along. That must have been why she seemed so angry and confused every time she tried to cast a spell at me.

The force of her light spell must have been too much for it. The butterfly burned so hot against my skin, I had to rip it from my hair and throw it to the ground. The blue stone in its center flashed bright, then faded and cracked.

Honora stumbled forward, eyes narrowed. She fell to her knees near the broken pin. "Where did you get that?"