Page 30 of Angel Lost

“Possible futures,” corrects Hewie, popping up at my elbow, apparently no worse for wear from his impromptu nap. He dusts himself off as he gazes wide-eyed around the chamber. “If he turns and looks into the water, he might see the veil and those soon to pass or recently passed. So the books say.”

“I’ll hold him face down untilhepasses if he doesn’t get his ass out the water,” Kai snarls.

“It’ll work though, right?” Hewie snags Kai’s sleeve. “This place is powerful enough?”

Kai blinks, his gaze dropping slowly to the banshee’s grip on his arm. Hewie snatches his hand away.

“You did well. It’s perfect.”

Hewie’s cheeks pink up and I swear he grows half an inch. That’s how to deal with Hewie. I wish the others would stop poking fun at him, scaring him.

Farrell finally resorts to physically dragging Zephyr out of the water, but he just stares ahead, blank—like someone flipped a switch in his brain. With a sharp motion, Farrell backhands his cheek.

“Ow!”

He does it again.

“Alright! Stop.” Zephyr shakes his head, flinging water across the room.

Farrell lifts his hand, but I catch his wrist. Zephyr shoots me a grateful smile, rubbing his cheek where a red weal is already forming. “Did you have to hit so hard, asshole?” He flips Farrell off, then turns to me. “They’re unveiling one at the academy this year, you know.”

“One what?”

“Observatory. But it’ll have nothing on this. Can’t you feel the power here?” He clasps both my hands in his. “You have to bring me back here, Lorelei. You have to.”

A smile pulls at the corners of my mouth until he squeezes me harder.

“It’s not funny. I have to come back,” he says.

“Okay, fine. I’ll bring you back.” Sheesh, talk about intense.

I stand in the middle of my friends while Kai completes the final shading on my tattoo. The mirrored walls reflect the light strangely on their faces, shadows dancing across them. I can trust these guys, can’t I? They’re going to own me. I study each of them in turn. They’re worried, every single one of them.

Zephyr plays with a strand of his silky blond hair. Chano’s brow is pulled down and even Farrell has a tell: the hard set to his jaw, the clenched teeth. Kai’s the unknown in all of this. The assassin. Apparently.

He catches me watching him in the mirror and his hand stills. “You can change your mind, killer.” He cocks his head to one side. “You want me to stop?”

And there it is. My out. He wouldn’t offer an out if he had bad intentions. “Finish it, Kai. Bond me.”

Zephyr flinches, but before I can apologize, I feel it. Kai puts the last line in its place at the nape of my neck and there’s a tightening, a constraint around my very being.

“Now,” Kai commands, and together they chant.

For such heavy dark magic, it’s a short spell. I know it is, I read through the thing with them, but each word worms into my brain. Each beat, each line adds another weight to my chest, more fog to my head.

Gone. It’s gone.

I can’t feel my power.

Chapter Ten: Lorelei

I panic, lashing out, reaching for my aether. Chano looms over me, holding me down. His face is pinched with emotion, but he keeps chanting.

Pain ricochets around my body. I can’t do this. I can’t. My head spins, the mirrors spiral around and around, and the faces of the others twirl above me. I can’t tell which is real and which is a reflection. They need to stop. I can’t do this. The pain…I open my mouth, but my tongue won’t work.

“Stop!” a rage-filled voice screams.

Someone has realized. Someone will help me.

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