Page 130 of Wicked Little Games (The Four Nightmares of Castle Pointe 2)

Closing my eyes, I do everything I can do to believe we can fight this, whatever this is.

And instantly, I can feel it. The rippling against the earth. As if an earthquake is imminent, making its way to the surface from the deepest depths below us.

It grows louder, angrier, as the cracking and crashing of the wood and rubble moves, and I can’t help but open my eyes, watching the world shake before me.

“What’s happening?” Blaire squeaks.

My gaze flits to Hazel, and she’s smiling with her eyes closed to the sky, absolute bliss on her face as she relaxes, in complete charge of her own body.

Suddenly, our arms connecting begins to pull, and I look over at her, seeing her feet lift off the ground, her body levitating into the sky. My mouth opens in a gasp, and I can’t find the words as I watch her breathlessly, the power in her so fucking astounding and beautiful that I can do nothing besides just watch her.

Her hand squeezes mine, and I know it’s her sign that she’s still here, she’s still with me, even if it doesn’t seem that way.

Then her head shoots forward, her eyes widening as she stares straight ahead.

“What is it?”

Her body shoots forward again, and this time, her hand disconnects from mine, her body flying into the center of the debris, her limbs crashing against the pile of wood and brick and glass. She lies between a bed of flames as they circle around her, taunting her, threatening her.

“Hazel!” I shout, stepping into the pile.

“Don’t! Don’t come over here!” she shouts as she rolls over, her voice shaking, terrified. Absolutely petrified.

The ground starts shaking more, until it feels like a real earthquake, which we’ve never had here. It shakes so fucking violently, all our hands disconnect as we crash to the ground.

“What’s happening!” Vera shouts.

Hazel pushes up, her eyes connecting with mine. “We aren’t strong enough,” she mouths the words, barely audible, and dread, heavy like piles of lead, seeps into my stomach.

“No. No!” The look on her face is like she’s giving up, and I refuse to allow her to suffer, or become a fucking victim in this shit.

No fucking way.

I step into the brick, and then it’s as if I hit a wall. I’m flung away in the next second by what feels like hands on my chest, but I can see nothing as I’m shoved backward.

I land on my ass, and growl as I roll to my feet, racing toward the fucking debris once again.

It’s a domino effect as each of us tries to make our way to Hazel, and each one of us is knocked down, thrown yards away from her.

“I’m so sorry!” Hazel screams.

“Get out of there, Hazel!” I roar at her.

“I can’t move! Something is holding me do—” Her body jerks, twisting awkwardly as she’s flung up in the air. As if she’s lying down, she levitates on the ground, but this time it’s not from her own power, but the power of someone so much darker, so much eviler that has a hold on her.

Her shoulders bend back, her arms maneuvered behind her as her spine arches. Her mouth hangs open in pain, yet her eyes are rolled in the back of her head, and I know, I just fucking know, she’s not here.

Not right now.

“What do we do? What the fuck do we do?” Vera snaps. “We have to do something!”

“Look,” Malik says, pointing. On the other end of the rubble, way off into the distance, where the trees line the edge of the cliff along Superior, sits a dark shadow, cloaked in black, with white eyes and antlers that are tall and menacing, sharp as blades, staring at us, his thin hand in the air.

He’s in control.

“Is that…” Vera gasps. “Is that from the library? The same demon.” She whispers the last part on a hushed whisper, as if he can probably hear from all the fuck way over here.

Malik shakes his head slowly. “No, but he’s one of them. He…” Malik hunches over, rubbing at his chest exactly where he has said many times the thing entered him. “This guy is stronger. He’s worse,” he gasps, looking up at him with a scowl. “Way worse.”

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