Page 190 of The Demon's Pet

“Super speed,” Mor said, cracking her neck back and forth to stretch it. “I should have expected that. How’s your strength?” She put up a hand, made a gesture, and something huge formed in the air, growing bigger and bigger.

A giant boulder.

She hurled it at me, and terror struck me as I realized it could obliterate Betty’s hut. Before I could think more about it, I lunged forward with a perfect punch aimed at the center of it.

My fist made contact with the cool stone, and I felt unbearable pressure just before it exploded against my fist, sending chunks flying every which way and coating the air in a thick powder.

“Excellent,” Mor said. “Sam told me not to go easy on you. He said you need to learn fast.” She cocked her head. “You should have telekinesis.”

“I did at my execution. It was kind of beyond my control.”

“A lot of strong powers are like that,” Mor said. “Even those wielding them don’t fully understand them. But you have to trust them, and yourself, and use what you have.”

The dust from the boulder finally settled to the ground, but as I felt something tiny and cold land on my cheek, I looked up at the sky and saw small white flakes falling from the sky.

“Snow?” Griffin put his hand out, then his tongue, catching something small and white on it before turning to smile at me. The red sweatshirt he wore had several small white dots on it as well.

Simon frowned up at the sky. “It’s too early to snow.”

Mor looked up as well, then down at her hand where several snowflakes had fallen. “Shit.”

“Why shit?” I asked, tilting my head so a little flake could fall on my tongue. It melted in a little flash of cold that I loved. “Snow is awesome.”

“This isn’t normal snow,” Mor said, whirling around to face the cathedral behind us. “This is—”

The doors to the cathedral burst open, and Os strode through them. He wore a dark-purple tunic over black pants and black leather boots. His purple hair was tied back in a braid, like he was ready for battle, and his right hand was in a glove, his left covered in an assortment of blue rings.

I hadn’t seen him like this before, and I didn’t like it.

Something about the tight way he held himself and the slight shame in his eyes made me nervous.

The snow began to fall more heavily, surrounding us like a blizzard.

“Os, no!” Mor yelled as the snow fell faster, harder, and then began to swirl around us, getting colder. I couldn’t even see Griffin and Mor and Simon anymore. They were just shadows as the snow fell so heavily I couldn’t see anything but blankets of white.

Then the snow stopped falling, and I stood, looking around me.

Griffin, Mor, and Simon stood stock still, eyes wide and staring, their bodies like frozen statues covered in a thick sheet of ice.

Betty’s shack was frozen too, and so was everyone inside probably.

“I just need everyone to stay calm for a moment, Cleo,” Os said, walking forward and looking over Mor. “We don’t need anyone getting hurt who doesn't have to be. It’s too bad I can’t even trust Mor, though. She knew what Sam was doing.” Os’s eyes met mine. “He had no right to take you.”

“What?”

“Or haven’t you found out he was a liar yet?” Os asked. “There are rules, Cleo. Rules that have to be followed.”

“What do you mean?”

Another figure walked out of the cathedral, folding his arms and glaring. I recognized the dark hair and gray eyes, the confident build.

It was Bran.

“You have to come back, Cleo,” he said, sneering at me. “You never had permission to leave.”

I took a step back. “You don’t have any authority here.”

“Unfortunately, that’s not true,” Os said. “The celestials don’t like to come to this polluted, desecrated realm, but they will if it’s important. And when one of our havens is robbed by one of our own enforcers, we have to get involved.”

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