Luckily, my scream distracts the lion long enough for Grace to pull herself across the rough asphalt of the alley, through bits of refuse and rubble, leaving behind a trail of blood from her long cuts and scrapes. She raises her palm and tries to use her power, but the place must be hexed, because she can’t summon her magic here either. Grace’s curls flop wildly as she crumbles down. My sister lies on the rough asphalt, her dark skin smeared with blood. Her hands claw at the ground as she drags herself forward again.
Shaking, I find another rock. I pick it up, my hand trembling. I want to run to her, to protect her, but my terrified feet forget how to move. I throw the rock and miss.
“Emma, go!” Grace yells, her voice weak and desperate. Her angular eyes are teary and sad.
The flicker of fairy lights above casts a haunting glow over the alleyway dumpsters.
The lion’s powerful muscles tense and flex, rippling beneath its inky fur. I can see every muscle and tendon. Its eyes remain fixed on Grace.
“Get help!” Grace screams. “Hurry!”
Terrified, I pivot and run. But when I’m buried in the shadows by the dumpster at the other end of the alley, I steal a quick look back. The pink cave of the lion’s mouth opens to reveal rows of razor-sharp teeth glistening in the moonlight, like blades of bloody steel.
“NOOOO!” I shout, my voice breaking.
A dark figure steps out of the shadows at the other end of the alley just as the lion pounces on my sister. The figure’s voice echoes off the walls.
“Jay!” he yells. But he never looks my way. He doesn’t have to.
I know that voice.
Hearing it smashes the remaining fragments of my broken heart. Blood flies as the lion tears into my sister.
“Jayla!” he screams louder, his voice filled with anguish.
Oh, God! That voice. The shadows shift, his head turns, and I see his face.
But he doesn’t see mine.
Malcolm.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINEEmma BaldwinGRAND BELLE ISLAND, 1860
I’m in shock as Malcolm grabs my hand, trying to lead me farther away from the deadly vines. When we have escaped all traces of them, his shoulders relax finally. Gnarled trees surround us, their twisted branches clawing at the newborn moon. I snatch my hand away, but he doesn’t seem to notice my anger.
“Come on,” he says.
Sabine’s threat hangs heavy in the air, suffocating me just like the vision I saw of Malcolm in the alley when my sister was murdered.
“You were there when Grace died!” My voice trembles as a mystical fog begins to bubble and curl at our feet. The memory of my sister’s lifeless body flashes before my eyes—the alley with flickering fairy lights, soda cans and trash surrounding my sister’s twisted corpse. The blood splattering her dark skin and dripping from her curls, the deep gashes and claw marks, the fear frozen in her wide-angular eyes; all of it brings reality into deadly sharp focus. “The glowing stones showed me, Malcolm. I know what Jayla did. What you did!”
The way he hangs his head low and can’t look at me gives me all the confirmation I need that the vision was real. “Y’all trespassed on our territory,” he finally admits, his words thick with remorse. “We thought it was an attack. When Jayla feels threatened, she shape-shifts. Usually she becomes the lion. Mix that with bloodlust… and… it was an accident, Emma. She couldn’t control it.”
Each syllable from his mouth is a dagger of betrayal stabbing my heart. I was worried about my sister. I followed her, trying to protect her. I was the one who made the wrong turn into that alley. I did this.
The rain pours, droplets glistening like diamonds as they touch the shimmering veil of mist.
“That lion at your show and backstage. I should have known. But my family’s magic played with my mind and made everything unclear. So I couldn’t make the connections. But you knew! You knewthe whole time.”
“I…” He takes a step closer, his voice heavy with emotion. “I tried to tell you. I love you. I’m sorry!”
“Sorry? Hallmark doesn’t make a card that says, ‘Oops, didn’t mean to hide the fact that my sister murdered yours.’ You were there! You let me fall in love with you, knowing what you did! What your family did! I trusted you. But you lied and kept secrets—just like everyone else!”
“If you knew—” he says. “If you had known, would you have given me a chance?” I watch as his eyes search mine for an answer, the pain and longing written clearly on his face. “Would you have still tried to help me end the Tether?”
His questions hang in the air, carrying his pain and hope.
“No.”
