“Oh, you mean her.” He gestures to something on the ground at the very edge of the crowd. A pile of rags and... hair.
My stomach lurches.
Not a pile of rags at all, but clothing. It’s Anna, lying with her throat torn out.
“I told you this would go a lot more smoothly if you simply went along with how things are supposed to go, pet. And yet, you continue to nip and bite at the hand that’ll be feeding you in the short future. It’s a foolish endeavor. You’ll understand that soon enough, once all your little friends are gone, and it’s just us. Me and my toys, and a city of sycophants.”
“You have someone controlling all these people?” I ask.
It can’t be Simpson himself, or things would be even more nightmarish. He’s never shown any talent for mind control. As far as I can tell, he has his super speed and strength and for some reason, he has a bunch of people willing to go along with his terrible scheme to take over the city.
I blink, not wanting to risk a glance around at the others. We need to get Seb out of here. He’s the only one of us not wearing the Pretty Princess jewelry to protect us against whoever is mind-fucking all of these people.
Simpson barks a laugh, sending a cloud of spittle into my face. “Of course, I do. The fun’s about to kick off.”
“Dante and Z, try to track down the person with the mind control powers. They don’t know that we should be immune to its influence—”At least, I really hope we are. I really fucking hope the nulling magic I put into the jewelry is enough to withstand the coercive power.
“Got it,”Dante replies in my head.
“We’re going to need a distraction so we can get the ring to Seb, and then someone needs to get him as far from here as possible. Hanna and Rook, can you grab him?”
“Sure thing,”Hanna replies.
“Say no more, sweetheart,”Roscoe says. “Distraction’s my middle name.”
“I’ll focus on taking Simpson out,”Fabian says.
“Be careful,”I tell him. “He’s strong as hell.”
“He has my little brother. I’m going to gut him,”Fabian’s voice is a feral rasp in my head.
We burst into action all at once. Roscoe sends a blast of light into the air, causing Simpson to frown up at the sky.
“What—”
Then twenty or thirty of our doppelgangers appear, all running around, screaming at the top of their lungs. It’s a sharp contrast to the near silence of a moment before and Simpson swipes at the nearest ones. It does nothing, since they’re not real and he lurches around looking a fool.
I don’t waste the opportunity to dart forward, slipping the ring onto Seb’s finger. Immediately, he snaps out of the daze he was in. His eyes meet mine for a moment and I want nothing more than to hug him and tell him everything’s going to be all right, but there isn’t the time. Instead, I shove him in Hanna’s direction.
“Get somewhere safe, all of you. Blast anyone that comes at you with your fire.”
“Gladly.” Hanna slips her hand into Seb’s and tugs him along, and then the three of them are sprinting along the street, away from here.
I let out a long breath, hoping like hell that they get to safety.
When I spin around, Roscoe’s illusions are still doing their best to cause chaos. They’re literally bouncing off the walls, yelling and singing.
And it might betoogood of a distraction.
It means I don’t notice the way the crowd is getting closer, surging as one mass of bodies until they’re surrounding us.
“Shit.”
This isn’t good.
From the corner of my eye, I spot Fabian conjuring a blood sword from out of nowhere. Although, this crowd looks just like regular people, caught up in Simpson’s plan. I doubt he’s about to start lopping off their heads with his sword.
Which sets us at a serious disadvantage.
