“Hey! You have to pay for that!” Alice shouted after me, but I didn’t stop.
I made a sharp left turn toward Anjelika Stork’s, and right into Vyra. Heart pounding, I tried to hurry past her. But I — I guess the part of me thatwasn’tme wanted to know who his girlfriendwas.
Long, voluptuous waves of shiny brown hair bounced down to her tiny waist. She was perfect, slender, with curves suited to her proportions. Her lips were glossed and shiny, and her luminous skin was the same shade of tan as Leland’s.
As I was frozen there, the Counterpart text Vanished from my hands, uncovering the magazine with Leland’s face on it.
Before I could hide it, Vyra’s eyes flashed at the sight. She squared her shoulders, standing directly in front of me to block my path to Anjelika’s. I heard Leland’s easy footsteps jogging up behind me and winced. Cringing, even as my spine tingled, because my blood liked him near.
Vyra snatched the magazine from me.
I tried to slip past her, but a spiked fence shot up around me, and I was trapped. I gagged into my arm at the scent of her spelltracks, iron wrapped in artificial sugar.
“I am sodonewith Leland’s groupies,” she said. “You do know he hates all of you, don’t you?” She flapped the magazine open so it parted on a glossy page, and I glimpsed dark blue before she snapped it closed again. “Will you be hanging the poster of him in your bedroom? Pinning it to your vision board? Taping it to a doll?”
Rivers of lava raged through my veins, and I breathed out steam. I frantically looked at Leland. “Can you take down the fence, please?”
Since the Blessing, I’d often felt on the verge of something dangerous. But this was worse than a verge. It was happening.Actuallyhappening, and I couldn’t run from it because I was trapped. Vyra shook her head at me, her long lashes flicking to the side, unimpressed.
“I didn’t get it for the poster,” I tried. “I only wanted to learn about — ”
The fence came down, and in the same instant, everythingwent pitch black. Somehow,Icould see, but it didn’t sound like anyone else could.
I ran, darting around Vyra, sprinting for the narrow alley from earlier. I felt Leland follow but refused to slow down as people in the street were shouting,I can’t see! I can’t see!
I pushed past them. Running was good. Running helped.
I skidded into the alley, my breath ragged as I ducked behind the dumpster and dropped to the ground. I curled my arms around my legs and tucked my head. I had to hide from him.
With a loud scrape, heavy steel slotted into place, closing in the alley with an eight-foot-high roof and doorless walls. I stayed huddled, listening to Leland’s approach as lanterns were fixed to the walls at even intervals. I heard a match strike, and the opaque darkness lifted, the makeshift room glowing warmly with flickering, orange flames.
Why Leland had followed me was a mystery, until I looked down and spied what he must have seen. What he’d been trying to hide, the reason he’d cast Pitch Black over me.
I was not there. Not in matter or mass or solidity. I was ghostlike, either leaving this world or trying to hold on — I couldn’t tell. But I was only there vaguely, flickering like a bulb about to burn out, one second translucent, the next I disappeared. I reached for the dumpster and my hand went straight through it.
This wasn’t in any texts. There was Invisibility — for Enchantresses — but when witches went invisible, they retained their forms. The spell only prevented them from being seen. Shadows could pass through walls like dark clouds of smoke, but not invisibly. This was . . .
I was fading, becoming more and more transparent with every passing moment. I heard gasps of breath — my own — though I was sure I wasn’t breathing. There was no air in this alley or my lungs.
Then a cool breeze of pine settled before me, and it was Leland, calmly saying my name.
Ember.
Ember.
Ember.
Over and over, as if trying to wake me up or call me back to him.
In a moment of translucence, I looked at him. “What is this?” I asked. “Why is this happening?”
“You’re etherizing,” he said. “How the Goddess transitions from her corporeal form to ether. I have an idea how to stop it, but — ” He crouched and held out his hand. “You need to take this.”
CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
EMBER
