Heir of Night (The Thorne Hill)

I gasp, and War disappears. The woman shivers like a chill just ran down her spine but doesn’t waver. She keeps rolling the video she’s taking with her phone, flipping it around to show her face. Her friend is doing the same and accidentally bumps into her.

I’m too shaken up to know exactly what happens next, and I can’t stop staring at the spot were War was standing. He was there, right? I know what I saw. What I felt. It was him. Eliza shakes me, and the next thing I know, the two women are on the ground. The one War stabbed with his sword has a piece of broken glass in her hand, trying to stab the other.

“You’ve always been jealous of me!” she shouts and slashes the glass through the air. Her friend screams and holds up her hand, blocking her face but getting cut clean across her palm.

“Tina, please!” The friend wrestles against her. “Stop!”

“War got her,” I tell Eliza and step forward, throwing out my hand. I send Tina flying off her friend, and she scrambles up, clutching the glass so hard her own hand is dripping with blood. Abby and Melinda make it across the street. Abby grabs my arm, and Melinda rushes forward, hands held out and ready for a fight. A few others have gathered around, keeping their distance and sneaking their phones out.

“What the heck is going on?” Abby asks. “Did you blow up that window?”

“Not on purpose,” I tell her, keeping one hand extended.

“Oh my god.” Abby snaps into doctor-mode and goes to the bleeding girl on the sidewalk.

“She’s jealous!” Tina yells, still clutching the broken piece of glass. “She’s going to kill me and become me! I have to kill her before she kills me!”

“Is she possessed?” Melinda asks, looking over her shoulder for half a second.

“Infected, I think,” I tell her, becoming more and more aware of everyone watching. I can’t keep a telekinetic hold on Tina much longer without someone noticing she’s being held back by an invisible force.

“What do we do?”

“I don’t know.” I was able to shake the hold the demon had on me by using my angel powers, but I can’t hit this lady with a blast of energy and, first of all, expect her to live, and second, not completely expose my powers to the whole freaking world. A crowd starts to gather, and I lower my hand. “Somnum,” I whisper, and Tina’s head lolls back. I flick my wrist, pulling the glass out of her hand before she can fall and impale herself with it. Then she slumps to the ground.

“Holy shit!” A guy with his phone out jogs over. “That chick went totally psycho! She’s probably the one who busted the wind—” He stops short when he sees me.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I grumble, seeing Mr. Social Media from earlier tonight at the bar.

He lowers his phone—and his gaze, realizing I’m pregnant. The shock on his face affirms what Melinda said about me not looking pregnant when I was sitting in the booth.

“You again,” he stammers, and I’ve had just about enough of him tonight. Resisting the urge to grab his phone and throw it down a storm drain, I look back at the woman on the ground. It’s not her fault she got infected by War, and she shouldn’t have to take the blame for shattering the storefront window. She’ll get charged criminally and may be liable to cover the damages.

“Someone needs to call 911,” Abby says, voice coming out strong. She took a pad from her purse and has it pressed against the other woman’s hand and is slowly helping her to her feet.

“On it,” Melinda says, phone already against her ear.

“You need to leave,” Eliza insists. “Your uncle isn’t going to swoop in and save the day this time.”

“I don’t need saving,” I immediately retort.

“Not in the sense you’re thinking about, but in a keep the world from accusing you of witchcraft way, yes, you do.” She doesn’t attempt to hide the worry in her eyes with a snide comment or rude remark. “The last thing we need is you on the national news or going viral on social media, broadcasting your location to all the angels and bloody demons!”

Dammit, she’s right, but I can’t leave. Not when I know this woman is infected by War. We need to cure her, and if we can learn anything about how War works, it could give us the upper hand. He was here but wasn’t at the same time. Is he projecting like Paimon and Bael did? Or traveling across an astral plane only I could see into?

He saw me, though, that’s for fucking sure.

“She’s going to go crazy once she wakes up,” I say, looking at Tina on the ground. She’s going to need stitches for sure on at least one hand.