Salt (7 page)

Carter looks up at me; his eyes shift, melt a little as he realizes what he said. “I didn’t mean anything.”

“You think I’m—what? What do you think I am?”

“Nothing,” he says. “That’s not—”

He reaches out for me. As soon as his hand touches mine, my anger and the magic collide. There’s a bang as the Dumpster across the alley flies up into the air and lands sideways. He gulps next to me.

“I guess you’re pissed. I didn’t mean it that way. Not at all. I swear.”

I shake my head and I push him away from me.

“Pen—”

“It’s
Penelope—
and I’ve figured out your secret too.”

“I don’t have a secret,” he says.

“You do,” I say. I cross my arms. “That little demon-tracking craze of yours.”

“You don’t know anything about that,” he says.

I push him away again and huff. “I don’t even know why I’m still talking to you.”

“Because you need me. Our magic—”

“I don’t need anyone, especially you,” I say. I turn on my heel and stalk off, over the crunching shards of glass. Ironic. Ten minutes ago I thought I finally had a solution to everything—I was
that
close to having all my dreams. Guess that’s what happens when you wake up.

“What’s wrong?” Connie asks when I get home. After I left Carter, I went for a run and now I’m drenched from sweat and rain. I pull the earbuds out of my ears and toss them onto my bed. Connie leans in the bathroom doorway, her arms crossed. Screamo music blares through the earphones. I don’t stop it. My shoes fly across the room into the corner.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I say, pushing past her into the bathroom. “I want to shower.”

“You’re upset about something. You ran during a storm. Gran was pretty angry that you didn’t come home after class. There were two more demon attacks while you were gone; she was worried.”

“Aren’t we all?” I mutter. Connie clears her throat, and I know that she wants to reach out for me. It’s what she does. But she knows me; she knows that I don’t like being touched when I’m upset.

“What happened? How was class?”

Connie looks at me like she’s searching for something I’m not saying. I refuse to tell her about Carter. If I tell her my magic works with some random boy, she won’t believe me. Or worse, she will. Actually, I’m not sure what’s worse. All I know is I tried to move this dead cat off the road during my run, and I couldn’t even conjure up magic to do that. I’m useless alone. It was bad enough when I only had power with Connie or Gran or Pop, and now it’s someone else. I can’t explain anything to her, so I need to keep it close until I know why.

“Nothing extraordinary,” I say, instead.

“There’s nothing you want to talk about?”

I shake my head.

“If you need me,” Connie says as she exits to her side of the bathroom. I nod and lock her bathroom door behind her.

Chapter Eight

All my dreams felt haunted, posing as dark corners, lost paths, and clowns. I hate clowns. I spent my restless night looking in the dark and never finding anything. Not an answer, not even a clue. I woke up unable to remember what I was searching for in the first place. Coffee couldn’t ease the headache pounding in my skull.

“Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed,” Ric says when I get into his car. I glare at him and he doesn’t say a word until we part ways in Nucleus House. He knows me well enough not to push me when I’m in a bad mood. Plus, we were up texting until the middle of the night. It took everything I had not to say anything I shouldn’t, especially now that Carter knew my secret.

When I get into the room, Maple, Kessa, and Beth are standing off to the left. Miriam is not with them, which means that she’s probably been dismissed. No one says it but the numbers in the room are hard to ignore. Only thirty girls remain now.

Mrs. Bentham takes her place in the front of the room, which feels emptier now with fewer people, and clears her throat. “Ladies, welcome again. As witches, our duty to protect Nons exists not only in magic or the sacraments, but in brains, in brawn, and in blade.” On cue, she pulls out a combat knife and holds it up to the light all dramatic-like. She totally rehearsed that. With it, she motions to the table next to her where a bow and arrow, more knives, and salt guns all rest. “Or bow or bullet. You get the idea.

“Today’s examination will test these skills, but with demons. Can you defend yourself in a demon attack? What about in front of Nons? And without magic? Demons can be tricky, but it’s your job to be smarter. Penelope Grey, you are first today.”

When she says my name my palms itch. The other girls look at me, and part like the Red Sea so I can pass between them. Mrs. Bentham presses her lips into a solid line. “Follow me,” she says.

The door to the examination room is closed, but her hand rests on the doorknob. “Everything in this test is magically simulated specifically to test your skills with three weapons—knife, salt gun, bow and arrow—which are hidden within the scenery of each scenario. Understand?”

“Yes.”

She continues. “You will be dismissed if you use magic, fail to use a weapon provided, fail to kill a demon while utilizing your provided weapon, cause a reaction from Nons, or get injured in any way. Failure to succeed in all three scenarios will be a dismissal.”

“Got it,” I say. “Don’t suck.”

Mrs. Bentham doesn’t even crack a smile. “Your test begins when you open the door.”

She leaves me there, standing in the hallway. I take a second to focus, to push everything else out of my head so I can think. A knife, a bow and arrow, and a gun in a fake TV-like setting. How hard can that be? I open the door.

Freaking hard.

I can’t find a weapon anywhere.

The demon swipes its feet across my ankles. I lose my balance and slam to the ground. It makes a kick toward me, but I roll away from it, sliding across the floor, which is set to emulate rocks. I’m going to feel that fall in the morning. This thing is ridiculous. It feels like I’ve been fighting this demon for hours. It’s like they turbocharged it just for this exam.

It charges at me, and I jump to my feet and head for a taller cliff. Redirection. Make it tired. I run, but the demon uses magic and tosses me off my feet. My head slams against the hard ground and pain explodes, blurring my vision. I rub a fist into my eyes, trying to dispel the ache, and then I see it. The glint of a metal barrel. Fina-freaking-ly.

I reach out for it and let myself lie still on the ground. Within seconds the demon hovers over me, and when he’s close enough, I shoot him in the head. The gun recoils in my hand. He bursts instantly.

Getting to my feet, I take a breath and look around. The gun disappears from my hands. Nothing else happens. I walk around the desert-like scenario, expecting a clue. It’s just me and the rocks. Well, crap.

I turn a corner around a rocky outcropping, and then I’m standing in the middle of a forest.

There isn’t much natural light that slips through the canopy of green. All around me are vines and trees and sounds. Mostly trees. I tried to climb one, but it was too slippery, so now I have to walk on the forest floor. Which seems a little too ominous to be good. Aren’t there dangerous animals and bugs in forests? I’ve already tripped three times on the undergrowth and bushes. I should’ve paid more attention in that earth science class last year.

I smell the demon before I see him. Sulfur lingers in the air like humidity, and I do my best to follow it. The farther I get from where I started, though, the weaker the scent gets. I must be going the wrong way. I’ve never tracked a demon through a forest, what with living in the middle of a city and all. I guess I should have prepared that better. I know what to look for—the smell, the black dust that it leaves behind when it’s possessed a Non—but there’s no way I could track black dust trails in a forest.

This sucks. Stupid forest.

I breathe deeply, searching for the scent, but it’s gone. I have to turn around and rethink this. I’m so close to the end, I can’t be dismissed now.

When I move, there it is—just in time to flick me across the forest floor. My legs drag across the undergrowth and crash into the hard ground. I love being a rag doll for demons. There’s no time to search for a weapon. It could be anywhere. There’s no way I’m going to find salt or iron in this place, either.

The demon is red, and it snarls before it charges toward me again. Before I have solid footing, it roundhouse kicks me in the neck. My head snaps to the side and I can feel bones grinding together in my back. A second later, it smashes a foot into my ankle and I collapse, dropping to the ground. Now I’m getting a little pissed.

I scramble to stand up, ignoring the way my body protests, but the demon is gone. My eyes rake over the forest, catching every small movement. A leaf fluttering in the wind or a small scuttle into a bush. Where did it go? I’m totally going to kick its ass.

I scan the trees. I need to get up there so I can see better. I find a tree with a low branch and use my nails to pry off some of the green that makes it slick. Finding a solid footing, I brace myself with my toes and pull myself up. That wasn’t so bad. Another branch is a little higher, but I reach it. Instead of prying, I sort of swing myself onto the branch and hang there like a monkey for a second before I can get upright.

This is what I do for a few more feet, until I’m high enough that I can make out the other trees and a good portion of the bottom of the forest through the greenery. I push the leaves, flowers, and vines out of the way as much as I can so I don’t lose my balance. Something rustles to the left, maybe ten feet from me in the trees, but I can’t tell if it’s the demon. Looking down, I descend one tree branch to the left. That’s when I spot it.

It’s definitely the demon, but even better, the knife is right there, cradled in the crook of the branches. I totally have the advantage now. It won’t even know I’m coming. I grab the knife and use it to clear away some of the leaves and vines. If I can get across the trees, then I can surprise the demon by landing on its turf. That would be rad. I’m totally doing it. And if I fail then I will fail in a blaze of glory.

It takes some time to jump from limb to limb through the trees while still maintaining my height. My hands are shaky and red, my shoes damp, and my pants soaked from the moisture in the treetops, but I am nearly ready to make shish kebabs out of this demon. I cross a final tree before I’m right on top it. Perfect.

I’m lowering myself down a branch when the demon sees me. Its red eyes locks on me, and I’m pretty sure it smiles before it scurries up the tree, digging its long talons into the bark with each inch it gets closer to me.

So much for the element of surprise.

Instead of moving toward it, I’m staying put. This branch is solid and wide, a few inches across, so I can definitely fight on it.

Demon-thing scales the tree way faster than I had, and then it’s so close I choke on the smell. It lunges toward my branch off its own, but it can’t get a grasp and falls back down. It doesn’t stop trying. The demon jumps again, and again, and again until it finally grabs my branch and starts pulling itself up to me. The branch starts to buckle. So much for solidity. This is totally unfair.

My options are limited: Stay on this potentially hazardous branch and fight the demon, or get down. I look below toward the ground. There’s a clearing, just big enough for a landing. It’s really far down there though.

The demon pulls his feet up on the branch. I’m crazy. This is crazy. I can’t die in this simulation, can I? The demon reaches out for me, talons ready, and I jump.

The landing was a bad idea that I didn’t think through. I crash to the ground, landing on my back, and all the air rushes out of my lungs. God, that hurt. I just want to lie here and die now, please. The sounds of the forest all go quiet around me as sharp pulses radiate up and down my spine. My head is already pounding. I open my eyes, but the light hurts it. I think I broke myself.

When I get my breath back, I peel myself off the ground, sitting up very slowly. My bones all ache and I groan as I move my head. I look up at the treetops and see a mass of red still up there. The branches shake, like the demon is climbing down, but it’s coming down too quickly. It jumped too. I bolt up from my spot and say a silent prayer that it will land where I did.

Why did it jump? Seriously, those things are so dumb.

I hide behind a tree, moving as quickly as I can, and watch as it lands very close to where I did. I don’t think. I just move and shove the knife into its chest as it explodes into fragments of red guts and dust.

I win.

Unlike before, everything disappears. It dissolves away from me, and then I’m standing in the middle of Times Square, where the sky is dark but barely noticeable because of the bright lights of billboards. Are you freaking kidding me? This is the one that involves Nons. New Yorkers don’t really pay attention to other people, though, so maybe I’m in a good position.

I walk around the empty space of sidewalk and notice looks in my direction. When a cab stops I catch a glimpse of myself in the window. I look bad. Like I’ve been beaten up and rolling around in dirt, ripped clothes and all. I guess I have been. A sudden weight is added to my shoulders as a bow and arrow appears around me. Awesome. This isn’t helping. My look is already attracting attention, so let’s add weapons. How am I going to fight a demon without gaining more? I hate this.

“Do you know which way Bryant Park is?” a Non asks me, strolling up right beside me. I cock my eyebrow and look at him. He looks normal enough, but locals don’t ask for directions. They’d rather be lost. He could be a tourist, in which case he’s an idiot for asking someone dressed like me.

“I don’t, really,” I say. He frowns. That’s when I see that there’s a little bit of dirt on his face. Which probably isn’t dirt at all but demon dust. “What’s going on there today?”

If I can keep him talking, I can watch his eyes. Find out for sure if they flicker to the demonic colors. The Non starts spouting off something about a band, and the whole time he talks I don’t notice any change in his eyes. He’s not possessed.

“Sorry, I don’t know how to get there,” I say. The guy nods and wanders off to ask someone else.

I start to cross the street and a taxi driver nearly plows into me. I turn to yell at him, and I see it before the driver can recover. A flash of red in his eyes. He’s a demon.

I can’t attract attention. Think, Penelope. Make this work. I hop into the back of the death cab and everything smells like sulfur. There’s even dust on the headrest. This is totally the demon.

“Where you going?” the cabbie-demon asks. He has very gray hair, big teeth, and a mustard stain on his shirt. He looks like he’s had a few too many doughnuts. Not that I blame him; doughnuts are good.

“Columbus Circle,” I say, because it’s the first thing I think of. That’s right on the edge of Central Park. I remember that area from the one time I visited with my parents before they died. It was a circle with a big statue and the park was really gorgeous. It’s after 9:00 p.m. here, and I feel like the circle will be crazy busy. How will I find a place to kill a demon without anyone seeing me? I’m so glad that I don’t live in region one every day. This is stressful.

We’re there before I’m ready and it’s asking me for money. I reach into my purse to get it and exit the car. The cabbie-demon doesn’t leave, but he watches me. I know he wants me as much as I want him. If he’s desperate enough, I can hope that he will follow me.

I don’t look back for a few minutes because I don’t have to. I can still smell him. He totally wants this milkshake.

I rush ahead of the demon and get a stance around the corner past the statue, where there’s an open space of grass and not too many people. He’s so close to me. I extend my arrow and pull back on the bow.
One more step. One more step
. Something jumps me from behind and I lose my footing. The arrow flies as I face my attacker. Another demon—that Non from before. He was not a demon then. I’m sure of it. The boy knocks me to the ground and my arrows go flying in different directions. Have I mentioned that I hate this?

Nobody around us is paying us any attention. I roll onto my back, reach one of the arrows, and shoot it off at the boy from a crouch; it zings him in the arm and he screams his crackly-demon sound before he starts heaving in breaths. That’s probably not good.

The cabbie-demon has rejoined the party and now there are two of them and one of me without my salted arrows. I can see the arrows but I’ll have to do some maneuvering to get them.

I flip up to my feet and charge the demon boy. It’s stupid, but it’s the only thing I can think of doing. He’s not ready for it, and demon-boy crashes backward into a tree. I’m close enough now for another arrow, so I shoot it directly into his heart and whip around to face the cabbie before the demon-boy can burst.

The cabbie-demon is ready for me. He tries to get me, clawing at my space and throwing his round body toward me, but I’m quicker and I trip him before he can move against me. I guess he should’ve possessed a better Non, maybe someone leaner who doesn’t spend all his time driving. While he’s down, I see another arrow across the grass so I make a run for it. He uses magic to knock me down again and the arrow zooms back to his feet. It’s the last one. There were only four arrows in my holder. He knows it too, because there’s this gross little smile on his Non’s face. Creepy.