Page 270

“You haven’t been taking any Venom,” Ivy asked, eyeing him, “have you?”

They were in the North End now, fancy-as-fuck houses flitting by. The expensive protection spells covering the spotless streets rippled across the corners of his vision, like light filtering through a prism in multi-colored streams.

“No,” he replied. “IhaveVenom, but I won’t take it. I promise.”

She accepted with a shallow nod. “Okay.” But she didn’t sound convinced.

“Loren’s going to get me on a tonic,” he added.

“A tonic?” Kylar echoed.

“Yeah, she works at an apothecary—she’s good with plants. She said it’ll help push the Venom out of my system faster. It would usually take a week, maybe ten days to get over the worst of the symptoms, but she said this tonic will halve the time.” Every time he thought he couldn’t possibly love her more, she did something else that proved him wrong.

“Good,” Ivy said. This time, her smile was real. Possibly the first real smile she’d given him since all the shit that went down in Yveswich. He’d been wanting to talk to her for a while—since the night she’d stormed out on him back at Roman’s—but no words felt good enough. “Good, Darien,” she said again. “I’m proud of you.”

“Thanks.” He gave her a half-smile.

She returned it, but hers didn’t touch her eyes.

He hated hurting his sister. But he didn’t know how to fix this, how to tell her that he was sorry.

When they made it back to Heaven’s Gate, Darien checked on Loren while Kylar and Ivy filled in the others—those who were awake, anyway—on everything they’d learned from Finn about the attacks and the Venenum virus. Tanner was right where they’d left him at the dining room table, still hard at workrestoring communications in Ker, a fresh pot of coffee brewing in the kitchen.

As for Loren, she was fast asleep. Darien had asked her to sleep without a talisman on, for two reasons. One was to preserve the magic of the talismans, since they were getting hard to find and she was safe and completely hidden inside these walls. The second reason was so he could check on her aura.

Blue was still the most vibrant shade, thanks to her swim at the recreational center. The others, though, were dim.Allof them were dim, including white, which was usually her brightest. But her tattoos hadn’t changed since he’d left the house, so he took it as a sign that she’d be okay for the night. He’d be up here soon, and he couldn’t wait for that. To sleep in the same bed as her. Hold her and listen to her precious heartbeat.

He grabbed a change of clothes and went to another room to put them on, so he wouldn’t wake her up. Then he went downstairs, where he grabbed a plastic zip-lock bag of Stygian salts from the kitchen drawer.

He stayed there on that couch for the next few hours. Searching for the missing members of his family. Travis—who he felt like he’d failed. And Max—who he owed an apology over that stupid-as-fuck argument that never should have happened. His best friends. His brothers.

But no dice. The more time that passed without at leastoneof them showing up, the more worried he got. The more salt he snorted. The more time he spent attempting to track them in the abyss of his mind.

He had to find them.

Hehadto find them.

90

Heaven’s Gate

ANGELTHENE, STATE OF WITHEREDGE

It was justafter dawn when Loren awoke the following day to the cooing of mourning doves. She yawned and stretched, reaching for Darien?—

But his side of the bed was empty, the sheets cold.

She blinked her tired eyes. Half-asleep and confused, she sat up, scanning the space, looking for any sign of Darien.

She frowned. Had he gotten up already?

The hardwood floor threatened to freeze her toes off as she got out of bed and crossed the room, stepping over Bandit’s rubber chicken that had been chewed within an inch of its life. She eased the door open and quietly made her way downstairs.

The house was bathed in the silvery light of a rainy spring dawn. The blinds on the windows that overlooked the backyard were open; she could see Jack tending to the in-ground swimming pool, his jacket sparkling with drops of rain. He appeared to be scolding his Familiar, Twitch, but to no avail. The jaguar was a menace—running laps around the pool, knocking over flower pots, and simply being a rambunctious pain in Jack’s butt. Bandit was out there, too; it looked like he and Twitch were teaming up to wreck Jack’s morning.

She slowed when she spotted Tanner at the kitchen table. He was asleep in front of his laptop, his head resting on his folded arms. Curled up by his feet was Silver the wolf, his guttural snores sawing through the air.

Maybe I should go back upstairs,she thought. She didn’t want to wake them?—