“Brandon?” I pulled myself up to face him.
He glanced over at me, but his attention was focused on the demon standing in the corner of the balcony. It snarled and hissed, but its limbs were immobilized, wrapped tightly in a live electrical wire, which spat sparks into the air. One side of the demon’s body had burned. Weeping blisters covered the skin showing through the tattered remains of a policeman’s uniform.
Brandon clutched his talisman. “I need help,” he said. “This magic is weak and I can’t hold it much longer.”
“Demon,” I said, “it’s me, Breeda.” It didn’t turn at the sound of my voice. Instead, the demon writhed, pushing hard at the loosening wires. Its black eyes never left Brandon.
Evie said the bewitching would wear off. “You sent him,” I said, my heart heavy in my chest. “It was you.”
“Help me,” Brandon pleaded, desperate as the demon’s leg broke through the wire. “He’ll destroy me.”
My magic stirred, but something in Brandon’s expression stopped me before I touched my talisman.
“Do you have your magic?” Brandon shouted. “Use it! Now!”
The demon tossed the wire to the floor. It moved swiftly, but Brandon was quicker, grabbing at his talisman with a ferocious determination. The wire snaked around the demon’s ankle and pulled tight, sending the demon crashing onto the wooden floor. Then the wire whipped upward and the demon flipped into the air. Instinctively, I crouched down as the creature careened over my crouching body and tumbled over the side of the balcony. I heard a sickening crunch as its body hit the ground, but I hid my revulsion, focusing instead on Brandon. His talisman, which had once been a brilliant amethyst, was cobbled with thick, black lines.
“Tell me where they are,” I demanded.
“Who?” Brandon looked confused. He peered over the side of the balcony at the demon’s body. “I think it’s dead.”
“My parents,” I said. The words stuck like sand in my throat. “For the love of Isis, where are they?”
“I don’t know,” he said dully.
“You don’t know! You expect me to believe that?” I knew I should try to hide my anger, but I couldn’t. “And your father? Where is Gavin?”
Brandon studied me. His features had become hardened, not like Evie’s, but as if they hadn’t held any true emotion in a long time. “My father’s dead. He died back in Portland.”
“What?”
“I didn’t mean to.” Brandon paced the balcony. “You knew me. You know who I am. I wouldn’t do it on purpose.”
I felt sick. “What happened?”
“My father toyed with Black Magic so much he destroyed his natural gift. He thought Greta might help him. She was unmarked, like us,” he explained coldly. “But a transitioning unmarked has powers even my father couldn’t comprehend.”
My eyes filled and tears spilled over my cheeks. I didn’t bother to brush them away, and Brandon didn’t seem to notice. “I know she died,” I said. “But how?”
“Gavin was weak, and he worried my transition might destroy him. He’d figured out a way to siphon part of a transitioning witch’s power—so he practiced on Greta.”
“And it killed her?”
Brandon’s eyes took on a desperate quality, and I almost sighed with relief that he could still feel something. “I walked in the room as he was taking her gift,” he said, his voice rising in pitch, growing hysterical. “Her body twisted with pain. I couldn’t stand watching it. So I reacted, Breeda. Our instincts are so strong, aren’t they? I touched my talisman without thinking and I took it in. It covered my body. It invaded every part of me. Every cell.”
“The magic?”
“The Black Magic. Greta was killed instantly; my father, with so little magic left in him, took longer. After Greta’s funeral he came back to Seaside to get me. He was going to use me to convince you to come back to Oregon. But he was weak and collapsed before we left. When he died, I took all of his darkness.”
“But he was seen! Right here in Chicago.”
“I was seen,” Brandon said. “The people here haven’t seen my dad in years. I look enough like him from far away.”
My mind resisted the idea. It couldn’t be Brandon. He loved me. He loved Sonya, our friend. The one who could find me anywhere. “You stole Sonya’s gift, didn’t you? She was a tracker. That’s how you found me.” And you killed her, I thought, fighting the hysteria taking hold within me. Just like Sandy.
The connection was horrible, but it was there. “So now, when you collect someone’s gift, you kill them.” A chill crawled up my spine. Had he done the same to my parents?
Brandon stepped to the edge of the balcony. “I can’t live like this. It’s destroying me bit by bit, every time. Do you see this?” He grasped the cord holding his talisman, shoving the stone in my direction. I winced, fearful of what he could do with it.
“I black out now. I miss hours of my life, and the only reason I don’t mind is because being conscious after is worse than being dead. The Black Magic is eating away at my brain, my memories.” He leaned toward me, and in the smooth lines of his face I saw the Brandon I did know, the first boy to hold my heart. Was he completely gone? “Please,” he begged. “I need your help. Will you do it? You’re the only one who can.”
My mind reeled. “Do what?”
He tilted his head, and his face shifted, suddenly gaunt, his features falling into shadow. “Please say you will,” he whispered. “Please.”
I gasped, understanding what he was really saying. “You’re dying. . . .”
“Yes. Unless you help me I will die.”
I stared at him. “You want to take my gifts.”
He shook his head violently. “I want to take one gift. You’ve had a chance to acquire more than one, haven’t you? My brother told me you’d transitioned.”
“Of course. It was you who spoke with Ion. You told him to meet you here.”
“He hasn’t transitioned yet,” Brandon said derisively. “I’m not even sure if he’s unmarked anyway.”
“He isn’t,” I said quickly. “He can’t help you.”
“But you can. It will work, Breeda. You’re very strong. My father always said he thought you were the strongest of us all. He ended up being so weak. Everyone at Seaside was a disappointment.”
“But not Sonya,” I said, a cold fury taking hold. “Sonya was never weak.”
“No,” he said. “She wasn’t. But she also wasn’t unmarked. You’re different.”
I needed to get through to him, so I tried another tactic. “Don’t you understand? If you take my magic, it could kill me.” I reached out, touching his forearm. I wanted him to feel me, to remember.
Brandon leaned in, warming to my touch. Hope flared within me. I smiled at him. Maybe he wasn’t completely lost.
A sliver of light broke through the darkness in his eyes. He wrapped his arms around my shaking body, pressed his cheek against mine. I stifled a shudder.
“It’s you,” I murmured. “See? Still you.”
He buried his face in my hair, taking in my scent. “You do have your gifts. I can feel it. Let me try this, Bree. Please. I promise I won’t hurt you.”
I froze.
He felt it and took a step back. “Does it matter to you if I die?”
“How could you ask that?”
His mouth pressed into a thin, cold line. “That’s not an answer. Let me ask a different question—do you want to see your parents again?”
I couldn’t mask my disgust any further. I glared at him. “Let them go. They’ve done nothing to you.”
“After,” he said. “Now I need an answer. Will you help me?”
I wanted to scream. If it would bring them back to me, then yes, I’d do it; I’d try anything. But was he telling the truth? “I want to see them.”
“We don’t have enough time,” he snapped, touching the stone around his neck. I heard a sharp crack, and another electrical wire whipped against the balcony, missing me by inches. He was trying to get me to use my magic.
It was working. My nerves hummed with it. “Stop!” I shouted. “Please, Brandon!”
“You must be wearing your talisman. Is that it, on your wrist?” he asked, his voice smooth as butter. “How does it feel?”
Magic rippled through me with a force I could barely contain.
Another live wire snapped at my feet. I struggled with the powerful force rolling through my veins—every cell in my body wanted to fight back, yearned for it. My hand automatically went to my talisman, hovering just above the star sapphire.
“Go ahead,” he demanded. “Show me what you’ve collected.”
I searched his eyes for a glimmer of the light I’d seen before, for a fragment of the person I once knew. “If you take my magic,” I said, steadying my voice, “I’ll die. It’s not going to work. I’m sure we can find another way.”
His eyes held nothing but darkness. “I have to try. Why is that so difficult to understand?” He grasped his talisman again and the sparking electrical wires moved toward me with the slow, murderous intent of snakes marking their prey. They buzzed and popped, the electricity surging.
I looked at him, at this boy I once loved—this boy who once loved me—took a deep, cleansing breath, and reached for my talisman.