Kiersten's Arc

Chapter 14 of 33

Kiersten was still inside Ananda's ring of quartz when the light around her thickened. The stones hummed brighter. Witness rose in her chest without being called. Something was pressing at the edge of the school. Ananda opened one eye. "We have company. Not the crystal kind, sadly." Mother Angel stepped from the window. Her wings lifted a hand's width off her back. "The hunter is close. And someone else is on the path." Kiersten already knew. Her intuition had named the ending before Mother Angel spoke. She stood inside the ring and walked to the doorway of the school. Eduardo was climbing the vine-covered path. Cap low. Blue shirt dark at the collar from walking too fast. His eyes were black from lid to lid. No auburn left. The demon wore him like a coat. "Kiersten," he called. His voice was his own and not his own. "I came a long way. Let me in. I'm ready to talk." She stopped at the top of the stone steps. The light around the school pushed against him. He took another step and the air bent him sideways. He caught himself on the railing and smiled the smile she used to fall for. "Baby. It's me. Open the door." Witness pressed steady against her ribs. Kiersten did not move. Quantum's voice came from behind her, low. "He is bait. The hunter is using what you loved." She already felt it. Behind Eduardo, far down the valley, something was still walking. If she softened now, if she stepped off the porch, the shield would thin. The hunter would have her before sundown. "Eduardo," she said. Her voice was flat and clean. "Your eyes are black. The demon is still in you. I already told you what has to happen before you come back." He stepped forward again. The light shoved him back again. He staggered. "I'll take you through the portal," he said. His hand lifted toward the vine-covered path behind him, where a doorway shimmered between two trees, mossed and rune-carved. "The teachers on the other side. They'll show you a different story. One where we don't end." A month ago the offer would have bent her whole body toward him. Today she saw it for what it was. A door opened by the thing inside him. A story sold before its time. "No," Kiersten said. "Not while he's still in you. Not before it's time. Giving in doesn't free you. It feeds him." Eduardo's face broke for a second. Something behind the black flickered. Then the demon pulled the mask back up. Mother Angel raised her hand. The light on the steps flared white. Eduardo was thrown back down the path. The shimmering doorway between the trees folded shut and was gone. Kiersten sat down in the carved guidance chair at the school's threshold. Her hands did not shake. "Good," Quantum said. "Now we train faster. The hunter felt that."