The Reckoning (Darkest Powers 3)

I looked up into the bearded face of Todd Banks, contorted with fury, eyes wild and red rimmed.

“I-it’s Dr. Banks. ”

“Do you think this is a game?” Dr. Banks shouted. “Who told you about Royce? Did you think it would be amusing? Call him forth and see if he’s as crazy as they said?”

Derek leaned down to my ear.

“Release him. Whatever he can tell us, it’s not worth it. ”

I shook my head. Derek didn’t like that, but settled for scowling and keeping his grip on my arm, like he’d yank me out of the room by force if things went bad.

Some of the anger seeped from Dr. Banks’s eyes as he studied me.

“Chloe Saunders,” he whispered. “You must be Chloe Saunders. ” He looked at Derek. “The werewolf boy. ”

“Yes,” I said. “Derek. That’s Derek. ”

The rage surged again, his eyes going crazy wild. “You must not summon here, girl. Leave my nephew in peace. Remember him, though, because that is your destiny. The power will grow until it consumes you and leaves a monster in your place. It will make you do things you could never imagine, things so horrible that-”

He teetered, as if fighting the memories. Hands closed around both of my arms, and I realized Derek had moved behind me. I could feel him there, strong and solid, his warm hands rubbing the goose bumps on my arms.

“Let him go, Chloe,” Derek murmured. “Whatever he’s saying, you don’t need to listen to it. ”

“Yes,” Dr. Banks said. “Yes, you do. You don’t understand. Everything went wrong. We made mistakes. An error in the calculations-”

“With the genetic modification?”

“Yes, yes. ” He waved aside my interruption. “I told them. I told them. But they ran the tests and everything seemed fine. Only it wasn’t. They manipulated the data. ”

“Manipulated the data?” I said.

That got Derek’s attention. “What data?”

“For the modifications,” I said. “What does that mean?”

“They changed the data so it gave the proper results,” Derek said.

“Yes,” Dr. Banks said. “Correct. See? Even a child can understand. But they couldn’t. ”

“So Dr. Davidoff manipulated the data-” I began.

“Davidoff?” Dr. Banks snorted. “A fawning puppy who does whatever he’s told. ”

“So who manipulated the data?”

Dr. Banks continued like he hadn’t heard. “The experiments. Oh God, the experiments. Testing this and testing that, pushing the boundaries to discover what he could create and what he could sell. Such dreams. Mad and grandiose dreams of knowledge, power, and the fantasy of a better life for our kind. Fools that we were, we believed, and gave him free rein. He didn’t care about us. And he doesn’t care about you. That’s why it’s critically important that you-” He started to fade. “The magic in this place. You need to pull me back. ”

I did, gently at first, but he kept disappearing.

“Harder. Chloe. I need to tell you-”

He faded before I could catch the rest. I summoned again. He flickered in and out, and I caught only words, none meaning anything out of context.

“He’s being pulled away,” I said.

“Let him go,” Derek said. “We’ve got enough. ”

“He was trying to tell me something. ”

Derek snorted. “Aren’t they all? Must be a rule in the ghost handbook-if in danger of evaporating, make sure you’re in the middle of a dire pronouncement. ”

I tugged off my necklace. I handed it to Derek, but he tucked it into my pocket.

“Keep it on you, okay?”

Dr. Banks came through easier now, but he wouldn’t stay. When I ramped up the power, he said, “No, Chloe. You’ll bring Royce. ” He faded, his voice pulsing in and out. “…else…try…Clear your mind…focus on me…don’t pull…just focus. ”

I did. He kept talking, telling me to relax, focus not on yanking him through, but welcoming him.

The back of my skull began to throb. I kept going until a sharp, sudden pain made me gasp. I waited for Derek to ask what was wrong, but he just sat there, watching me.

Another stab through the back of my skull. Then a flood of ice-cold water rushed through my veins and I tried to scream, but I couldn’t. Couldn’t move. Couldn’t make a sound.

“Chloe?”

I heard Derek, but couldn’t even move my eyes his way.

“Do you want my help?” Dr. Banks whispered. “You need to welcome me in. ”

Welcome him in? In where? I’d barely thought the question when I realized the answer.

He was trying to get inside me.

I fought, mentally trying to shove him out, shut my brain down, block him, but that ice kept spreading through me. Derek’s hand closed on my shoulder as he reached to grab the necklace from my pocket. I toppled over backward like a statue.

I caught a blur of motion, like Derek had lunged for me, but everything was fuzzy. Even his voice was distant and muffled. The only words I could hear were Dr. Banks’s, crooning inside my head.

“Just relax,” he whispered. “I won’t hurt you. I’m only going to borrow your body. I need to fix this. I took the easy way out, killing myself before I’d put an end to the horrors I began. ”

My mother had been warning me about Dr. Banks, that he’d been driven mad by what Royce had done, by his role in it. And now he was inside me.

I felt the floor scrape my back, saw the ceiling whoosh past, like Derek was dragging me by my ankles. The room flickered and went dark. When it popped back, I was staring at the ceiling.

“Wha-what happened?”

I felt my lips move and heard my voice, but no one answered. I got to my feet.

“Chloe, come on,” Derek said behind me. “Say something. ”

“Say what?”

I turned. He was crouched across the room. A pair of legs stretched out, sneakers pointing to the ceiling. My sneakers. My legs.

I raced over. There I was, lying on the floor as Derek fumbled to get the necklace over my head. I lifted my hand. It was my hand-still covered in scratches from the forest last night.