Air swirled around the child, tangled blond hair lashing her face.
“We don’t want anything.” Lukas backed away, matching Alara step for step. “Kennedy, get out of here.”
I heard the words, but my body didn’t react. What if I moved and it made the spirit angrier?
“You can’t have my doll!” she shrieked.
“We aren’t trying to take your doll,” Alara promised, clutching the silver medal around her neck.
“Liar!” the child screamed. “I know who you are. He told me you’d come.”
Lukas raised the crossbow and aimed it over Alara’s shoulder.
“Go,” he barked at me.
I stumbled back a few steps.
The child’s face twisted into a wicked smile and her form flickered again, exposing the old woman lurking inside her.
Paintings flew off the walls, and heavy frames splintered against Lukas’ back. He dropped to his knees, covering his head, and the crossbow slipped out of his hand.
Carpet nails ripped out of the floor, pelting us like knives.
“Hey.” Alara pointed the spiked glove at the girl. “Screw you and your doll.”
The vengeance spirit’s eyes widened, the yellow dress twisting in the whirlwind encircling her.
Lukas staggered to his feet and grabbed the crossbow, raising it again. The bolt flew through the air and hit the spirit square in the shoulder.
The doll slipped from her grasp, smashing to pieces.
The spirit’s eyes darted to the broken shards of the doll. She opened her mouth and let out an inhuman wail that echoed off the walls.
A wooden side table pushed itself away from the wall and careened toward me. Time skipped as images flashed in front of me in a surreal sort of stop-motion.
Alara screaming—
Lukas lunging for me—
The flat edge of the table slamming into my stomach—
I heard the sound of wood cracking as my back hit the railing. I felt my body falling, the smooth white ceiling above me.
“Kennedy!”
Something clamped down hard around my ankle, and my body jerked to a stop.
The floor swayed dangerously below me, pieces of the railing scattered over the smooth marble. The grip on my ankle tightened, and I felt myself being lifted. My body slid over the edge of the landing, and Lukas stared down at me.
“Lukas…” Alara’s voice rose urgently, and Lukas jumped to his feet.
Alara’s combat boots were positioned between me and the white Mary Janes marching down the hallway.
The spirit pointed at Lukas. “You broke my doll.”
The old woman’s face flashed behind the child’s, and the spirit hurled her body into the air. Alara stepped in front of Lukas and cocked her arm back, cold-iron bolts protruding from the knuckles of her gloved hand. Alara waited until the spirit was practically on top of her before she plunged the iron spikes into the girl’s stomach.
The vengeance spirit’s eyes bulged, and she opened her mouth to scream. But there was no sound. Her body crackled in and out of focus, as it hung from Alara’s glove like another broken doll.
Lukas raised the crossbow for the third time and fired. The bolt struck the child-that-wasn’t-a-child in the shoulder, and she exploded into a million fragments of nothing.
Then everything went black.
“Kennedy? Can you hear me?” Lukas leaned over me. “Talk to me.”
The room came back into focus, and my thoughts stitched themselves together slowly. I pushed myself up, and Lukas put his hand on my back for support.
Relief replaced the panic in his eyes. “Take it easy.”
“I’m okay.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Where’s Alara?”
“She went to find Jared and Priest.” He shook his head, tension carved into every line on his face. “When you fell, I thought…”
“I should’ve listened when you told me to go.” I wasn’t sure how to apologize for almost getting us killed. “I know this was important.”
His fingers pressed lightly against the small of my back. “That’s not what I was saying. Finding a piece of the Shift isn’t worth what could’ve happened—”
“Wait? Did you find something?”
“Yeah. One of those colored glass disks from the diagram in Priest’s journal.” He looked over at the broken bits of the doll scattered across the floor. “It was hidden inside.”
“Where are the other pieces?”
“I don’t know.” Lukas ran his hand up my back and squeezed my shoulder gently. “Think you can walk?”
I nodded though I wasn’t sure. My back felt like someone had stomped on it. “Give me a minute.”
Lukas spread his jacket on the floor and collected what was left of the doll, tossing the shards into the center of the fabric.
“What are you doing?”
“We need to burn these. If a spirit’s remains aren’t destroyed, it can come back. The same principle applies to personal items.” When he finished, Lukas gathered the sides of his jacket to form a bundle. As he pulled me up, his hand slipped under the edge of my T-shirt and slid across my bare skin.
“Wait. You missed one.” I pointed at the triangular sliver embedded with a blue plastic eye. Black script was scrawled across the inside. “Something’s written on it.”
Lukas picked it up, keeping one arm firmly around me, and turned over the chipped porcelain: Millicent Avery. Middle River, Maryland.
“What do you think it means?”
“Maybe it’s the name of the person who made the doll.” Lukas handed me the shard, and I slipped it in my pocket.
As he eased me down the steps, I leaned against his chest and listened to his heartbeat, focusing on the soothing rhythm instead of the vicious ache in my muscles. A sudden rush of fear swept through me.
What if the little girl isn’t the only spirit in the house?
At the bottom of the stairs, the door was open and bits of gray light reflected off the dusty chandelier and glittered across the floor. It reminded me of the snow globe with the miniature version of Lilburn trapped inside something that was once beautiful.
Relief swept over me as I crossed the threshold.
Jared barreled around the side of the house before we made it down the front steps, rage coming off him in waves. Alara and Priest struggled to keep up. Lukas’ arm was still around my waist, and suddenly I felt self-conscious.
Ignoring a rush of dizziness, I pulled away.
“What happened?” Jared demanded, his anger completely focused on Lukas.
“The vengeance spirit of a little girl was in there—”
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“Alara said you almost got her killed,” Jared yelled. It sounded like he actually cared about what happened to me.
Alara looked stunned. “That’s not what I said.”
Lukas’ hands curled into fists at his sides. “Because she would’ve been safer with you? We both know putting other people first isn’t your strong suit.”
Jared flinched as if his brother had punched him.
Alara elbowed her way between them. She held up a silver disk with a circle of blue glass in the center. “You two can argue later. We need to find the rest of the Shift.”
Jared didn’t move.
Lukas dropped his jacket on the ground, revealing broken bits of the doll. “These have to be burned.”
“There’s writing on this one.” I fished the shard out of my pocket and handed it to Priest.
“Guys?” Priest stared at the piece of porcelain in his hand.
“What if something had happened to her?” Jared demanded, his eyes still fixed on his brother. “The four of us can’t do this alone.”
The words hung in the air for a moment as the truth sank in. Jared didn’t feel responsible for me. I was a means to an end.
I pushed past him, ignoring the pain burning up my back.
“Guys! Priest yelled this time.
Jared spun around. “What?”
The broken piece of the doll was still in Priest’s palm. “This is my granddad’s handwriting.”
CHAPTER 16
A Break in the Line
I waited for sleep to find me. But I couldn’t stop thinking about the last few days and what Jared said outside of Lilburn. I knew Lukas and Jared saved my life that first night because they were convinced I was one of them—the missing fifth member they needed.
I also knew that when I climbed into the van with them, I didn’t believe it.
But I still got in. Because unlike Jared, Lukas, Alara, and Priest, I was alone. They had each other now, protected by the barrier belonging provides.
I wanted desperately to belong to something—to face the real and emotional demons of the world with someone beside me. But that was impossible. The only person I belonged to now was myself.