Moonset (23 page)

“Oh, it’s all in good fun,” Ash said. “Now open the door for me like a gentleman.” I did so, and she dipped her head as she swept past me. “Thank you, kind sir.”

The whole “Mal texting” scenario had me distracted, and I nearly walked straight into Santa Claus. “What the—”

Ash returned to my side, slipping her gloved hand into mine. “Wicked, isn’t it?” she said in a breathless, excited voice.

“Wicked,” I agreed. This Santa was no ordinary Christmas elf. It was a life-sized mannequin, dressed up like one of the demonic Santas in the movie we were about to go see.

“I love when theaters do the cool promo stuff like this,” Ash said. “They’ve got Santas all over the place.” She tapped one—boop!—right on the nose.

I looked around the lobby. “This movie is really that big?”

“Of course. Christmastime plus horror? Every kid at school has probably gone to see this movie twice. The holidays make us all want to engage in a little patricide, don’t you think?”

“Wouldn’t know,” I said absently.

“Oh, shit, I forgot,” Ash said, ducking her head down. “Sorry,” she said quietly, squeezing my hand. Neither one of us said anything for a long moment, and the silence hung between us even in the noisy theater lobby. I didn’t know what to say to hijack the conversation away from my parents, and the dead elephant in the room.

We passed another pair of Santas on our way to the box office. I paid for our tickets, and we skipped the insane lines at the concession stand to head directly into our theater. It had been awhile since I’d been to a megaplex—the downside to small-town living was that the movie theaters usually only had one screen.

“Hold up,” I said, trying to pretend my brain hadn’t skipped on account of Moonset.
Ash didn’t mean anything by it,
I told myself. “I’m not supposed to walk in with her,” I said, nodding to Bailey and her friends, who were still in line for the concessions.

“It’s really sweet that you look out for her,” Ash said, glancing up at me for only a moment before she looked away. She pulled a pink lip balm pot out of her purse, unscrewed the cap, and ran her ring finger over the surface of the balm before transferring it to her lips. It was enough of a distraction that I forgot about my parents entirely.

“Look,” I said, trying to ease some of the sudden awkwardness between us. “It’s not a big deal. People slip up about my parents all the time. Don’t worry about it. You don’t have to walk on eggshells around me.”

“Yeah, but it’s tactless,” Ash said. She slipped her hand out of mine, the sudden cold startling me. “Guess I’m just a little nervous.”

“You, nervous?” I laughed. “I doubt it.”

“I like you, Justin,” she said quietly. “Maybe at first it was just a game, but you’re sweet.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I didn’t say anything. We waited near one of the benches until Bailey and her group of freshmen sauntered past, barely looking at us. I noticed Luca in the group. “I didn’t know he was a freshman,” I said to Ash.

“He’s not,” she said, watching the group thoughtfully. “But Maddy’s cousin is, and he basically chauffeurs the both of them around whenever they want. Sara’s a lot nicer about it than Maddy is, though.”

“So he’s just like … on call all the time? That kind of sucks.”

“He doesn’t seem to mind,” Ash said absently, like she’d never given it much thought. “You ready?”

I nodded. We headed into the theater and waited near the door, until our eyes adjusted to the change in lighting. The previews had already started. “Come on,” Ash said, grabbing my arm and dragging me up the stairs. She chose seats a few rows up from Bailey’s group, for which I was eternally grateful. I looked them over as we passed, Bailey making every effort to act like she didn’t know me. There were only a couple of guys, and Luca on the end. I nodded to him as we passed.

“So, since we’re chaperoning, how much trouble are we allowed to get into?” Ash pulled off her jacket, and set it on the seat next to her. The gloves she pulled off a finger at a time.

“Yeah, you’re not exactly chaperone material, I’m afraid.”

She gasped. “Are you telling me I’m a bad influence?”

“I’d give you examples, but you know I’m not supposed to talk about your criminal charges until the jury comes back with a verdict.”

“Touché, Mr. Daggett,” she laughed, grabbing my hand again. The movie started soon after that, and I was quickly caught up in holiday cheer and dismemberment. The premise was fairly simple: evil Santa. It wasn’t highbrow by any means. About halfway through, just as the heroine and her love interest were finally getting close for the first time, I turned to see Ash watching me, not the movie.

“What?” I said, dropping my voice so it wouldn’t carry. “Is there something on my face?”

“You’re not anything like I thought you’d be,” she said, her tongue darting out to lick her lips.

“Fi-first impressions aren’t what they used to be,” I said, transfixed. I wasn’t sweating now, but my skin was flushed. Hot. I couldn’t stop staring at her lips, and wondering what her lip balm tasted like.

“Definitely not,” she whispered, leaning in.

Just before our lips would have touched, our first kiss, I happened to look down past her nose, and pulled up short. “What is he
doing
?” I demanded.

Ash pulled back in surprise. “What?” It took her a second to follow my line of sight. There had been some seat changes in the freshman group, and now instead of having a girl on either side, Bailey was on one of the ends, and talking to a blond-haired kid with a bowl cut. He kept leaning in to her, showing her something on his forearm.

“Relax,” she chuckled. “At least they’re not making out.”

Making out? I almost jumped out of my seat. But Ash grabbed my hand, stopping me. “Relax, it’s just a movie. They’re just talking.”

“That’s not the point!”

“God,” she said softly. “You really do think of her as your little sister.”

“Of course I do,” I said, suddenly confused.

But before I could push the issue any further, sirens wailed in our ears.

Twenty-Four

“The alliance between Illana Bryer and
Robert Cooper gave us a fighting chance.
But for three years, we stayed at a stalemate. Moonset went to ground, and continued to
direct the war front from the shadows.
We thought they’d never be found.”

Adele Roman
Moonset Historian, From a college
lecture series about Moonset

The movie kept playing, but the lights rose in the theater. Emergency sirens continued to blare from the hallway—they weren’t the ringing bell of a fire alarm, more the whoop-whoop of a tornado alarm.

“What’s going on?” a girl cried from behind us.

“Trying to watch the movie,” someone bellowed from down below.

Bailey twisted in her seat, her eyes meeting mine for the first time tonight. She looked afraid. But more than that, she looked
aware.
Like she knew something the rest of us didn’t. “Oh no,” I muttered, getting to my feet.
Not now.

Ash looked up at me. “Justin?”

One by one, like items being checked off a list, each one of the light bulbs exploded with a paff. Darkness was gradual, but by the time the last one popped, the only light was from the projector. People screamed, and there was movement all around me.

“Justin,” Bailey called warningly.

I spun around, looking for the source. If this was a Maleficia attack, there would be a
feeling.
A sense in the air where nothing was visible, but something was definitely there. “Please be wrong, please be wrong,” I whispered.

“What the hell?”

The shout came from the floor, and I whipped around immediately. Someone had come into the theater while I was distracted. The emergency lights flicked on, spotlights that did little more than create an ominous amber glow.

“We … we … we … we … ” The movie began to skip, cutting the same moment of an earnest blonde dropping a cell phone onto a table. Over and over again, that same two second clip. I took my eyes from the floor, from the new arrival, and that was long enough for chaos to break out.

Another shout, pained this time, as a body went flying through the air. From beside me, Ash’s shock was palpable. “Santa?”

She was right. It
was
Santa. More specifically, one of the zombie Santa mannequins that had been set up all over the megaplex. And he was heading directly for my sister.

I leapt over the chairs in front of me in an instant, already shouting for her. Bailey took one look at her friends, and then a longer look at the Maleficia-possessed spirit of Christmas, and started backing away down her aisle.

“Only … only … only … only … ” The movie jerked again, cutting to a totally different scene. The man’s voice was hoarse and full of rage.

More Santas surged into the theater, their movements jerky and awkward. As people tried to run, the Santas grabbed them in mitted hands. Most they pushed aside, but a few they threw. Quickly, the crowd of theatergoers realized that running for the door was not an option. The crowd, however, was evenly divided on an alternative route. Half ran down the stairs on the far side, heading for the emergency exit that led outside. The other half ran for the top of the theater … and no route of escape.

“What’s going on?” Bailey grabbed my arm, squeezing for dear life. “What’s happening?”

“It’s going to be okay,” I lied. The first row of seats had a pipe railing over it and open space for wheelchairs. Since the stairs were occupied, I pushed Bailey under the railing and climbed up after her.

One of the Santas lunged for us, but tripped over his own feet and clattered to the ground.

“Eed … eed … eed … eed … ”

“We have to get everyone out of here,” I said, trying to think. With a row and a railing between the advancing army of Santas, they couldn’t come directly at us.
At Bailey. They were going after her first.
It was just a theory, but I wasn’t about to test it out.

We ran to the end of the row. Most of the kids who were making for the theater’s exit had already passed us, but they were cut off from the exit by one of the Santas. I looked towards the place we’d entered from, and Santas were guarding it, too.
They’re cutting off escape routes.
But how was that possible? Maleficia was supposed to destroy things. Break them down. Not play puppetmaster.

“They’re not hurting anyone,” Bailey said at my side. “Just the ones who get in their way.” And then a moment later, “They’re after us, aren’t they?”

“One … one … one … one … ”

“Yes,” I said, keeping my voice short. “Stay away from them,” I shouted to the one or two kids who still thought going up against the Santas was a smart move. The majority of the red-suit pack kept heading towards us.

The Santas by the emergency exit couldn’t be toppled by any of the kids rushing for the door. Time and again, they shoved back anyone who attempted to run away. Eventually the crowd panicked and ran for the stairs, though the rest of the people were still hiding on the top row.

A shift seemed to come over the monsters then. It was like Bailey’s first question had reminded the Santas that they were supposed to be the demon-filled patriarchs of a bloody Christmas, because where they’d been content to push people out of there way a moment ago, now the violence was escalating. Their movements stopped being as jerky, and they kept their balance better. Mouths that had been painted closed now opened, revealing bloody teeth.

It’s like they’re becoming more alive.
But I didn’t know what that meant. Or how it could help me.

One of them shoved a boy to the ground below us, crawled on top of him, and started punching. Bailey gasped. “Jesse!” She dropped her hand and bolted down the step towards the Santa.

“Bay!” I yelled profanities, jumping under the railing and trying to cut her off. The Santa raised its fist like it was going to punch her, and I threw myself between them. “Bailey, run!”
There’s the curse to think about. Come on, hit me.
When the curse had activated before, it had been like being covered in something heavy, right before it had cut through the wraith that had attacked me. Hopefully, history would repeat itself.
I turned my neck, giving the creature a perfect target to hit.

The Santa raised its fist … and then it hesitated.

“Hit me! C’mon, hit me!” I shoved it, but the Santa wouldn’t complete the act. It took the shove, then turned its head to look down at Bailey.

“Hit me!” I shoved it again, and this time it toppled backwards. Jesse, the hair-swooping boy that had been sitting next to Bailey, struggled to his feet, Bailey at his side.

They know what happens when we’re threatened.
Everything Quinn told me was wrong. Maleficia wasn’t stupid at all. It was smart. Really smart. I raised my voice into a yell. “You want us to go with you?”

“Justin, no!” Bailey looked up from the boy, shaking.

“You only need one?” I continued, raising my hand to point at them. “Take me. But you leave my sister alone.” I looked around the theater, pretending it was so I could look at each of the Santas, one by one, as if I really were speaking to them and not whatever was pulling their strings. But the truth was I had to figure out a way to keep thirty people safe from creatures that were about to be really,
really,
pissed off.

I’d seen enough creepy things in my life. The wraith, the Harbinger, the Moonset symbol. But all of those were trumped by a legion of devil Santas all cocking their heads to the side, as if they were contemplating something.

I dropped my voice, and spoke out of the corner of my mouth, moving my lips as little as possible. “Bailey, remember that thing I made you promise to never, ever do again?”

She looked startled. “What?” Then recognition hit her, and her face knotted up. “You said
never.
Not even if it was an emergency.”

I looked at the army of zombie Santas. “We’re a step past emergency.”

I backed up and took a step down the aisle, moving toward the screen and never once turning my back on the Santas. I kept my hand raised, finger pointed. They seemed to follow it with their eyes. I grabbed Bailey by the shoulder, and once she was behind me started to back up again, only this time I was heading for the emergency exit.

The few who were still there by the door backed away from us—a few of them Bailey’s friends from the group, I noticed.

The guards couldn’t be moved. They were like statues. But I was willing to bet that those rules didn’t apply to me, either. “You can’t hurt me,” I said to the pair of them. “And you can’t stop me either. Can you?” I shoved first one, then the other, and both tumbled away from the door like they were nothing.

Above us the screen started skipping again, a blurring of images and sounds as each second of the movie was extrapolated and thrown out of order. Until it finally settled on the words it was looking for.

“
They … die. They … die. They … die.”

My eyes widened. Even as I’d opened up an escape route, the Santas had turned on the crowd, and were now heading up the stairs, single file. A boy in a white T-shirt was collapsed on the ground, unconscious. One of the Santas approached, settling his black boot over the boy’s neck.

“No!”

I stepped forward, throwing out my hand the way I’d seen Quinn do against the wraith. What was the
spel
l
? “
Les divlock.
” Nothing. “
Lex davlock.
” Nothing. Shit, what was it?!

Ash appeared at my side, punching her fist forward. “
Lex divok!”

The Santa went flying back, spinning up in the air like a top. My brain went spinning in much the same direction.
Ash just used a spell. Ash just used magic.

I opened my mouth, expecting to confront her about being a witch, but what came out instead was, “You knew who I was all along?”

She looked guilty, but determined. “Justin, we’ve got to get them out of here. I’ll explain later.”

“The hell you will,” Bailey muttered, a suddenly fierce expression crossing her face. “Now, Justin?”

I shook my head, trying to regain my focus. “Yeah,” I said, my mouth dry.

When people thought about which of us was the most dangerous, they always picked Jenna. Occasionally Cole. Rarely me. But never Malcolm or Bailey. But Bailey had the talent for evocations, and an inability to understand the difference between when to use her powers and when not to.

Bailey dropped her head, whispering words to herself.

Fascinations were brainwashing spells, in which the subject is literally fascinated into believing whatever the witch wants them to. Witchers were basically the reigning lords of fascination magic—they used it the most frequently, and they limited who they taught it to. But Bailey’s gift was self-taught, something innate she was born already knowing how to do.

The night of the Harbinger’s suicide, the Witchers had split the crowds up into fours and fives because that was the limit that most people could influence at one time.

Bailey looked up, and near on thirty pairs of eyes stared at her blankly, awaiting orders.

“Tell them to avoid the Santas, to help each other, and to head for the emergency door,” I said.

Bailey nodded, concentrating. She didn’t have to say the words out loud.

“You can’t let them go outside,” Ash said. “
Lex divok!”
She turned her palm towards the Santa at the top of the chain on the stairs, and
pulled.
Instead of flying forward, the Santa went tumbling back, and like a stack of dominos he knocked down every Santa below him until the entire line was off their feet.

“Why not?” I demanded. “We have to get them out of here. Did you miss the big warning?” I gestured towards the screen. “They’ll kill everyone.”

“And if this is just a trap to get you out in the open?” she snapped back. This was not a side of Ash I’d seen before. Confident and in control, yes, but never angry and harsh. Even knowing she’d been lying to me since the beginning, I was fascinated.

“Do you have a better idea?”

It turned out that she did. “Clear a path to the main door. Get everyone out into the lobby. The Witchers are probably on their way already.”

Right. Witchers. “They’re already here.”

“And if they’re not in here, that means they’re neutralizing whatever else is going on. Distractions to keep the Witchers busy while the warlock came after you.”

“
Lex divok
!” I shouted, sweeping my hand from left to right. The Santas I’d pushed from the door had climbed to their feet, only I knocked them back down again, sending them sliding against the concrete floor towards the other wall.

“Bay, change of plan,” I said. “Make them go for the lobby exit. We’ll clear a path.”

Bailey didn’t say anything, but there was a brief jut of her chin that I took for understanding. She was sweating. I wondered how long she could keep the spell going before it overwhelmed her. Mind magic was a lot of things, but easy wasn’t one of them.

As hard as it was to admit, Ash and I worked well to-gether. She kept the demon Clauses on the stairs tumbling down, and I knocked the ones that had blocked the exit toward them. Between the two of us, we kept most of them down at all times. Bailey stayed behind and between us, head down and hands balled up into fists.

She’s not going to be able to do much more.
About half of the kids were in the hallway, moving orderly but a bit slow. But the way everyone was moving, I didn’t think Bailey would be able to hold out until we all out of the theater.

“Can you set off the sprinkler system?” I asked, looking over Bailey’s head at Ash … who wasn’t in much better shape. Constantly using the knock-down spell was taking a toll on her, too. I was barely winded, but she looked like she was in the middle of a marathon.