Mara sat on the other side of me. She looked fine, but she gripped my hand a little too tight.
“Let’s begin,” Amelia said, her voice somehow richer than before. “The line between worlds is still thin. It won’t take much for us to fix this mess.”
The others already had their eyes closed, but I couldn’t make myself. I watched Amelia as she held out her hands, palms up, wondering if I imagined the slight halo of light around her. She whispered under her breath, and the candles flared, making my wolf want to retreat. Amelia gave me a stern glance, as though hearing me separate from the wolf. She was certain we were one and the same, but it just wasn’t like that for me. And maybe that was the problem.
Amelia closed her eyes and gasped as a shudder ran through her body. Ryan’s eyes opened, focused on her as though ready to interfere if something went wrong. Amelia’s eyelids shot open, and her brown eyes turned an unsettling shade of silver. Margo’s eyes had changed, too. Perhaps she had magic in her, and that was why the spirit came after her.
Amelia spoke under her breath, whispering guttural words I couldn’t make out. The air felt different. The hairs on my arms stood to attention. I didn’t like the sensation.
A knock at the front door sounded. Werewolves rarely knocked at the front door.
Amelia raised her hand and one of the candles went out.
“Get rid of whoever it is,” Dominic told me.
I obeyed—because of course I did—and got to my feet. As soon as I moved away, the candle relit, reforming the broken circle of light.
At the front door, I almost fell back in shock when I saw Margo standing there, looking furious. Of all the people, and all of the bad timing…
“Why did your whatever he is sack my dad?” she demanded. “It’s because of me, isn’t it?”
“No.” I held up my hands. “He’s not sacked. The job has to be put off for a bit is all. And I don’t have time to talk.”
She pointed a finger at me. “I saw you that night. It wasn’t a trick or a joke. There was glass stuck into your flesh, and there’s not a mark on you now. That’s not normal, so what the hell is going on?”
“Nothing!”
“Liar! Something pushed me. You were there, you saw. But you weren’t even shocked! You know something.”
“I really don’t have time for this, Margo. We’ll talk later, but for now, you have to… Are you all right?”
She leaned against the doorway, breathing heavily, her eyes squeezed shut, and if possible, her skin grew even more wan than usual.
“Hey, are you sick or something?”
She opened her eyes, and they were blue and unseeing. I stepped back instinctively as the chill around her suddenly expanded, suffocating me. She walked right by me while I tried to gather myself. Following, I grabbed her arm to stop her, but she shoved me aside with unnatural strength. She strode straight into the living room as though she knew exactly where she was going.
And then everything went haywire. From behind Margo, I watched in horror as the candles burned out then flared. Alex screamed, her eyes wide with too much of the wolf. Dom tried to calm her, but he looked panicked himself.
Amelia struggled to stand as though something pressed her to the floor. Ryan reached for her hand, but as soon as their fingers touched, he was flung back to the wall, too far from the ground.
“Run,” he said through grit teeth as Nathan rushed over to help him down.
Mara and Victor leapt to their feet, looking from one side of the room to the other as though wondering what to do next. I moved past Margo to help Perdita out of the room, but some kind of energy forced me back. Everyone in the room was shoved away from the circle, away from Amelia, and pinned against the walls, including me.
Everyone except Margo.
Panicked, I fought to free myself, but whatever was holding me was far stronger than a werewolf. Margo went straight for the circle—and the spirit board.
“Margo!” I shouted. “Don’t go any closer!”
Amelia was still crying out commands at an unseen spirit, holding up her hands as though to ward herself from something.
Margo turned around and looked right at me—through me—and a manic look filled her eyes. Wolf didn’t recognise her anymore. Her body stiffened, and her mouth opened and closed a few times. Finally, she shouted out two words in an impossibly deep voice that wasn’t hers, “Protect them!”
The lightbulb over her head shattered on top of her. She shook off the glass as whatever was holding me back set me free. I ran to Margo, and she collapsed in my arms, a trickle of blood running from her nose.
Ryan fell heavily, then a shroud of silence slipped over the room, only broken by a hiccupped sob coming from a distressed Alex. The candles went out. Margo had fainted. I looked from one face to the other, checking that everyone was all right. Nathan and Perdita were embracing, Ryan was lying on his back, breathing deeply, Victor and Mara had huddled close together, and Amelia was staring at me.