“Light and truth,let me see.
“Your hidden lies are no match for me.
“Light and truth, let me see.
“Reveal the thing that hides from me.”
Patchy backed up,his little butt settled on my feet, watchful, staring at a single point to the side of the couch. My gaze followed his, wondering if he could see the mimic already. Sky continued, voice growing less unsure and more confident as the swirls of red and purple energy began sparking and deepening around him.
“Light and truth,let me see.
“Your hidden lies are no match for me.
“Light and truth, let me see.
“Reveal the thing that hides from me.”
“Nooooooo,”came the shriek of the mimic as a facsimile of a woman in yoga pants, a hoodie, and a baseball cap appeared, giving us our first view of this creature. She looked like any grade school PTA mom on her way to pick her kids up from school. Except she was unbelievably disproportionate at abouteight feet tall with pure malice and hatred on her face as her gaze moved from Booker up to pin Sky in place. “You can’t be here.”
“Oh, shit. Okay,” Sky mumbled. He whipped his head around like he was looking for something, so I started gazing around, too.
Patchy barked sharply, and Booker woke all the way with a start, sitting up and looking around but not up. He didn’t see the mimic in its Godzilla version of who I assumed was his stepmom, until it hissed. “Mine…youuuuuu belong to me.”
Booker jerked his head up, finding the speaker of the voice, screamed, and rolled off the couch.
“Booker, get over here,” Sky demanded with a new edge of authority to his tone, purple electricity crackling off him.
My man was magnificent. We weren’t out of the woods yet, but I felt better in this moment than I had since we were first told he’d have to handle this on his own.
Scrambling toward us, moving on hands and feet in his haste, Booker knocked over two lit candles and fell. I took a step, ready to grab him, when Sky put an arm out, restraining me, and Patchy sat more firmly on my feet, going from a simple pressure to the weight of a mini-boulder. Had he increased his body weight to keep me in place?
As Booker reached me, tears trailed down his cheeks, and I pulled him into my side and watched as a compact mirror appeared in Sky’s hands. The containment vessel. We were halfway there.
Sky was going to end this.
Chapter 24
Sky
“What will you do,little witchling? You have no power over me.”
The freakish thing changing its speech pattern so suddenly freaked me out, but whatever. I had a job to do, and Rosie and Elyse had prepared me well. Rosie had also warned me not to let it get in my head, so I needed to get this show on the road.
Taking a deep breath to prepare myself, I flipped the compact mirror open in the palm of my hands and stared down like I was in prayer. The longer I could go without realizing what I had up my sleeve, the better. “This would be a whole lot easier if I didn’t have to let it saturate first,” I muttered.
“What?” King asked. “What does that mean?” He touched my hand. “Sky.”
Apparently, the mimic didn’t like to be ignored. “Now what? Are you praying?” It cackled. “All you’ve done is prolong his inevitable,” it mocked before going back to targeting Booker in that weird, creepy interpretation of his stepmom. “Youuuuu…filthy human belong to me. Mine. Youuuuu…are nothing without me. Unwooorthy…human. Youuuu…need me. Come…to meeeeee.”
“Go to hell,” Booker yelled.
“We’re supposed to ignore it, remember?” I whispered, hoping that the mirror was absorbing.
“What are you doing with that?” King asked, reaching over like he planned to touch the compact, so I turned away before his fingers brushed it, and Patchy grabbed his pants between his teeth and tugged. “Hey.”
“You can’t touch it. Only me,” I hissed.
“But what’s happening? Can’t you just take care of it so we can get out of here?” King asked with a sense of urgency.
