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“His eyes?” I asked, replaying his eyes turning color over and over again in my head, trying to see if I had somehow made that part up.

“Yes,” Randy said. He immediately took out his cell phone, pressed on the screen, and then held it to his ear. “Gabe,” he said immediately. “No, just listen. Norah and I just saw someone with black eyes. What the fuck? They turned. One second, they were gray and the next, they were dark as fuck. We didn’t imagine it.” There was another pause. We watched the guy get loaded into the back of a police car as the other officers walked up to talk to a fireman on a walkie talkie. “We think he burnt a church down.”

My gaze moved up, noticing for the first time the steeple and the stained-glass windows. One of them was broken and clouds of gray smoke were wafting out of it and reaching toward the sky. Why would anyone do that?

I stared back at the police car they put the guy into. He stared back at us, his face cocked into a half smile. I swallowed, a sense of dread filling me at once. In my gut, I knew this had something to do with the demon. People’s eyes didn’t just change color and they also just didn’t burn churches to the ground.

“What?” Randy yelled. He turned toward me, eyes big. It was a feat to see Randy scared, but he was just then. He held the phone away from his ear. “Gabe said someone has set fire to all the churches in Salem. Just now. They think it was an orchestrated terrorist event.”

Terror, maybe, but not terrorist. This was the work of that demon. Now we just had to find out if it was Jax controlling the demon or the other way around.

11

Randy pulled me in the opposite direction and we broke into a run toward the wharf. He started the bike, and I got on right after him. It looked as if we weren’t going to get our nice drive around town. Not with what was going on. He drove us back to the apartment and then helped me off the bike. He pulled me close, kissing me on the lips. “This feels big, Norah. It sounds weird to say, but this feels bigger than just the witch world in Salem.”

I nodded into him. I always loved that when Randy put his huge arms around me, I felt safe. He did so now and even though I felt better, I also knew that Randy’s arms couldn’t save me from this. It was a nice thought but not actually the reality.

We walked up the porch and into the front door. Liam was awake now, leaning toward the TV. Everyone else was there too as the news anchor talked about the church fires all around town. Apparently, all of them had been set at exactly 3:33 pm. She went on to say that it was thought the arsons were a part of a bigger terrorist sect that had stayed hidden.

Liam rolled his eyes. He looked a little better. “It’s not terrorists. It’s Jax.”

“We don’t—” Travis started.

Liam stood. “It’s fucking him, Travis! It’s Jax. We know this. I don’t care that you want to argue about the fact that your friend Jax might still be in there, but the truth is, it’s Jax and the demon. They’re one and the same right now and it’s not fair to anyone out there that you’re having an internal war about it.”

My stomach bottomed out. Liam hardly ever got angry, which probably accounted for why the room got silent very quickly.

“More people died, Travis. You heard her. There were a few members of the clergy in some of those churches, and one had a pre-school. Small children, Travis.”

I inhaled sharply, my hand coming up to cover my mouth. I had no idea about that yet. How terrible.

Travis turned. His eyes were full of sorrow, gleaming in the light. “I’m so sorry, Norah.”

I rubbed my face, then strode up to him. “What are you sorry for? Stop it.”

“This is all my fault.”

I wasn’t even going to dignify that with an answer. Travis was just really confused right now. That was his friend. It may have looked like Jax, but I above any should know that it wasn’t. And it sure as hell wasn’t if he was going around setting fire to churches and killing little children. “We’re working on it,” I told him. I couldn’t think of anything to say but the truth.

Gabe’s phone rang. He peered down at the screen with a confused expression but answered it anyway. “Hello?”

He looked at me when the person started talking. Travis put his arm around me and held me to him. It was comforting to me too, but I was pretty sure he was doing it for himself.

“Yeah?” he said, eventually. Then his face cleared as if he finally understood. “Got it. I’ll pass on the information.”

He hung up the phone.

“What is it?” Jennie asked.

“That was a girl I had a class with last year. She was a nursing student and has a job at the Salem Hospital now. She just called to tell me that there’s been an influx of patients coming to the ER who swear they’re hearing voices.”

Jennie’s face pinched. “What does that mean?”

“She said the voices are telling them all to do bad things. Drown their children. Ram their car into a tree. Set fires to their church.”

I swallowed. This was like an epidemic. How the hell were we going to combat this?

Liam ran a hand down his face. “We need to call Walter.”