Placing her palm flat on the floor in the puddle of his blood, Jo swept it around her, turning, drawing a circle in which she was thecenter.
Step two: Say theinvocation.
“I beseech the darkness and the chaos that lives there. Heed my plea and accept mywish.”
Jo stared about the room. Nothing happened. She sunk back onto her heels, her feet folding under herbutt.
“Escucha me, Josephina,”Abuelita had said. Jo closed her eyes, trying to hear her grandmother one final time.“If the time comes, and you are in need, remember thisstory.”
The door behind her slammed open and Jo whipped to face it, drawn on instinct by the loud boom of the battering ram. She stared past the barrels of guns at men and women in full riot gear. The army had been called in to take down a couple ofkids.
A man began toshout.
Gunfire exploded in front of her eyes, deep in herears.
And the worldstopped.
Jo had to blink twice to know that she was still breathing. Bullets floated before her, frozen in mid-air. The world was doused in perfect silence. There was no wind, no hum of computer fans, no buzzing of monitors, no pulsing of Yuusuke’s retro dub-step still blaring from his danglingheadphones.
“Your plea has beenheard.”
The voice was as much in her mind as it was in the air surrounding her. It prickled nerves up her arms, setting every hair onend.
She expected to find some timeless monster to have such a powerful voice. But a man who looked cut straight out of a fashion magazine stared down at her. He had a strong chin, deep crimson lips, skin so pale that it was almost translucent, and silvery hair that swept over the side of a face that looked like something from a distantdream.
“Are you a vampire?” The surreal, almost cinematic nature of her situation had gotten to her; it was like being on a film set. All she waited for now was the director’s “Cut!” to bring an end to the nightmarish scene aroundher.
“I am the Wish Granter.” The not-quite-vampire, not-quite-timeless-monster spoke again with a voice that could liquefy diamonds. “And I am here for yourwish.”
“My. . . wish. . .” Jo looked at the circle he stood on the edge of, drawn in her friend’s blood. “I’m notdead?”
“What do you wish for?” he rephrased, with moreurgency.
Step three: Make yourwish.
As her mind was wont to do under pressure, she found herself bullet-pointing. One: She was dead, and it didn’t matter. Two: She’d been knocked out and this was all some sort of hallucination, in which case the feds had her and nothing mattered. Or Three: Her insane, improbable, surreal chance had actually panned out as her grandmother had said itwould.
Jo swallowedhard.
Her next words either didn’t matter at all, or her life and the lives of everyone she loved depended onthem.
“I wish. . .” she started, not wanting to lose her chance. “I wish that none of this happened. That Yuusuke was alive and my family wassafe.”
The man stared down at her. She wasn’t even sure if he wasbreathing.
“This wish requires great power. To grant it, I will need something in return. Something equivalent to the magic I will have toexpend.”
“What?” She’d giveanything.
“You, your entire future, and the old magic that resides in yourblood.”
Jo laughed. It’s not like she’d have a future if she didn’t agree. “Is this any way to make a deal? You’re not giving me a lot of options.” She tried to ignore her dead friend, the guns still pointed at her, her bloody hands. Jo tried to pull together a brave front. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t made deals with devils before. “Fine. Take me, I’myours.”
“Very well.” There may have been the ghost of a smile tugging at the stony man’s mouth when he spoke, but Jo never knew forsure.
The world erupted in cold fire and when it extinguished, there was onlydarkness.
Chapter 2
