Not one. Not two.Four.
“No!” I screamed and kicked as Theo burst through the door and dragged me down the hall. “I can help! I can close them!” I screamed.
Theo’s hold was strong, and Drea must have known the plan too, because she was following us without a word of disagreement. She pulled her sword and ran beside us quietly.
When we got outside to the street, Theo set me down and looked sharply at Drea. When his daughter nodded, he released my shoulders and ran back inside. Drea dropped to her knees, clicked on the anklets that would make me invisible if I flew, and then stood to face me.
“Fly us home. That’s an order.” Drea’s words were no-nonsense, but there was a slight quaver in her voice. This was her freaking mom and dad we were leaving behind.
I shook my head. “Drea… four portals. I know your mom is the Portal Master and all, butfour.”
Drea chewed her lip in anxiety. “Fly us home.” Her command was weak at best.
I wished Drea had wings and that I could push a button and force her to fly home without me. I didn’t want her rushing back into the fray with me, but I was definitely going back in there.
I shook my head. “Take the subway. I’m going back in to help the—”
“Are you crazy? That’s my parents. We’re both going!” she snapped and pulled a second blade from her arm.
I grinned, reaching up to pull my daggers off my skin. I was kind of a bad influence, but in this case I was hoping it was in a good way.
We made it just inside the entrance when Skye popped back into view.
“I told you,” she yelled at me as Drea and I sprinted toward the stairs, both our minds focused on getting back up to the second floor.
“Not the time, Skye,” I snapped back.
Drea scanned the area next to me but didn’t say anything as we ran through the building.
Skye vanished, immediately reappearing in front of the door to the stairwell. “Tatum Powers,” she shouted, holding her hands out in front of her as if she had the authority to stop us when in reality we could just run right through her. “Do not let Drea into that fight. She won’t make it out alive.”
I skidded to a halt right before the door, grabbing Drea’s arm as I did to stop her as well.
“What? How do you know that, Skye? You said you couldn’t see futures.”
Skye clenched her fists in frustration. “I know with certainty that if she enters that fight, every possible outcome leads to her death. And it’s not her time.”
“What’s going on?” Drea demanded, her gaze jumping around the room as if she might be able to spot Skye any moment. Now that the course was set, Drea wouldn’t back down or turn away. What could I possibly say to change her mind and let me go upstairs without her?
I opened my mouth to try to explain, when a terrible shriek came from above, followed by a tortured scream.
Was that Theo?
Determination washed over Drea’s features and I knew there was no way she would listen to anything I had to say. I wasn’t going to lose another person I cared about.
Drea spun toward the stairs, and before thinking too hard about what I was doing, I flipped the dagger in my hand and cracked the handle against the side of her skull. She dropped immediately, and I fumbled to catch her before she crumpled to the ground. A hundred percent dead weight, she sagged in my arms, out cold.
I winced. “Sorry.”
Skye’s eyes rounded as she took in Drea’s unconscious form. “She is going to besopissed at you when she wakes up.”
“Yeah, well, she’ll be alive, so it’ll be worth it,” I growled.
Blunt ghost Skye was not my fav.
I adjusted Drea so that I grabbed her under the armpits and then quickly hauled her over to a storage closet. Pulling her into it, I set her down on the floor and then slipped back out the tiny space, flipping the lock once I closed the door behind me. A sealed door wasn’t going to hold my fierce friend, but if she woke before the battle was over, it would at least slow her down.
Taking the stairs two at a time, I raced back up to where Aurelia and the other master hunters were. As I neared the second floor, I heard swords clanging, demons screeching, and hunters grunting. I was reaching out to turn the knob when Skye poofed beside me.
