Page 41 of A Moth to the Flame (Utopia #1)

Chapter

Twenty-Nine

CORDELIA

I’m more powerful than I ever imagined.

Duke isn’t the villain in this story.

It’s been me all along.

“Gingersnap? You still with me?” Duke steers the truck around the very much alive animals that dart to and fro into the road.

I feel so completely drained, hollowed out in a way that spikes my anxiety. I’m only with him enough to take stock of the utter chaos surrounding us.

The animals rush into and out of damn near all the businesses in town. Everywhere I look, destruction reigns supreme. Broken doors, broken windows, broken…walls? What kind of animal is strong enough to do that much damage?

Utopia isn’t a well-populated place, but nearly every able-bodied person seems to be in the thick of the fray, wielding rifles, shovels, broomsticks. Anything that can be used as a weapon, they’ve got in their hands. They’re not cowering, but they’re not making any progress either.

Cash isn’t wearing his sheriff’s uniform, though it’s clear that he’s trying to organize a better defense than the haphazard battle plan the townsfolk are enacting.

Looks like a real-life Whac-A-Mole game.

Except people are bleeding, and everything’s covered in bird shit.

The Castellaw brothers stand shoulder to shoulder, trying to form a human chain.

Four tall, broad men aren’t nearly enough to prevent the horde from reaching the church, where those who can’t fight are running for cover.

There are too many animals, and no one else is helping to defend a single spot.

Two boys who bear a striking resemblance to Duke dart through the mayhem.

They’re surprisingly accurate with old-fashioned slingshots.

Whenever a ground animal gets too close to the line, they pick it off.

These must be Duke’s nephews. Luke keeps yelling at them, probably to go inside where they won’t catch rabies from a bite.

Their father and uncles are shooting, reloading, and shooting again with impressive aim, considering the chaos.

Until a bear lumbers into the town square.

A chorus of screams infiltrates the cabin of the truck as people scatter.

“Cordie…” Duke grits out, already shifting to open the driver’s side door. “I hope you’ve got something left in the tank for this.”

I didn’t know I had a tank to begin with.

With no time to overthink, I focus my attention on the biggest threat.

Smoke rises from the bear’s fur as I practically fall out of the open truck door after Duke. He tries his best to prop his body up with my smaller one.

“Need a little more help,” I mumble as the bear takes off at a run toward the nearest human—Miss Nell Duncan.

“I stole one of your books once and jerked off all over it,” Duke grunts as he holds up his body weight. “I actually remember doing that.”

That wasn’t the kind of help I had in mind, but it works.

A sizzling heat incinerates his veins from the inside, so I will it to follow a specific course of release.

Just like in the clearing where we faced down a real-life cryptid, a burst of blinding green light explodes, followed by a deafening boom that knocks everyone off their feet.

Holy shit. It really is me doing that.

I’ve never read about anything like this in any book, not even from Granny’s library.

I have no idea what to do now.

I must say it out loud, because Duke chuckles.

“With that kind of power?” He helps me to sit up on the ground, pressing a kiss to his forehead. He raises my eyebrows as a fiendish grin steals across my mouth. “Anything you fucking want, Gingersnap.”

“Watch out,” I say hoarsely.

He chuckles again. “I know, I know. I’m about to get my comeuppance.”

“No.” I swallow down the razor blades lodged in his throat. “I mean, watch out.”

The second he realizes it’s not a threat that I’m making against him, he leaps up.

All I can do is watch as my body moves in ways it never has before the showdown with Mothman earlier.

The bear that I apparently didn’t finish off swipes at him with massive claws, bellows when he ducks back, and swipes again.

The blows never land, because Duke never stops moving.

He uses my muscles, my tendons to bob and weave in a dance as fluid as water over rocks, drawing the bear further and further away from the truck and the heap of weary bones that I’m currently caged inside.

“Jude,” he shouts. “I hope to hell that’s your bear rifle.”

“It is,” a quiet voice, and then a loud shot rings out.

The menacing animal falls into a heap of brown fur just shy of my feet.

I exhale a sigh of relief that’s damnably short-lived.

“Incoming!” someone yells.

From multiple directions, big cats of various colors creep into view. We all know the mountains are home to bobcats and mountain lions, but I’ve never seen one before, let alone half a dozen of them at once .

“Rifles up,” Cash orders. “Women and children into the church. Now!”

“No!” An age-worn, crackly voice shouts.

It takes all my effort to turn Duke’s head toward the sound. Betty Lou Greaves stands with her hands outstretched toward the sinuous form of a large, golden-furred cat. It’s a beautiful animal, despite its deadly growl of warning.

Granny’s longtime friend snarls right back.

I crack a smile at her spunk, even as I mentally brace myself to watch her be shredded to ribbons. No matter how hard I try, I can’t summon even a whiff of power. Either my tank is completely empty, or Duke’s too far away.

Whatever dark magic runs through my veins, it truly is tied to him.

That…that is tragically ironic.

A low, almost melodic hum fills the air and raises the hair on the back of Duke’s neck. Goosebumps race up his arms as the sound changes into mumbled words in a foreign language. It sounds far more human than anything that Mothman conjured.

I glance around, but no one else seems to hear it.

They’re all frozen in fear. Some with their rifles trained on the cats, some with tears running down their faces.

Some are whispering prayers. Smaller animals still run amok through the town, but the townsfolk are focused on the far more dangerous predators.

Duke jerks his gaze in my direction. I recognize the expression on my own face so well that he doesn’t have to move my lips for me to hear his unasked question.

Is that you?

So he can hear the chanting, too.

I shake his head subtly.

It’s obvious from the tension in my muscles that he’s barely restraining himself. His brothers look similarly poised to leap into action. No one is close enough to save the two women on the fringes of the town square from the cats if they decide to pounce.

A trickle of sweat slithers down Duke’s spine.

This is an unimaginable détente. One wrong move could spell certain death, but there’s no clear path to safety.

I may have read about countless situations like this in the past, but I’ve never lived through them.

The worst thing to happen in Utopia that I can remember was Mrs. Castellaw’s car accident.

Bad things just don’t happen here, despite life being hard.

Utopia is obscenely poor, but it’s also boring.

I always thought that was a bad thing. Now, I wish I could go back to being ignored.

A wish.

I cut a glance toward the well in the town center.

Do I dare?

My first wish didn’t go so well, but there’s no denying anymore that I made it happen. I don’t know where these powers came from or how to control them, but I have to do something .

Just as I manage to brace Duke’s hands against the ground, the cats stalk away. Their tails swish angrily, but they all just…turn and leave.

Everyone exhales a collective sigh of relief.

Like some cosmic finger pressed play on a paused movie, time speeds up again. The rest of the animals are still in a frenzy, so the chaos resumes. Bird shit lands on disgruntled targets. Rabbits dart along the sidewalks, into the road, into open storefronts. A deer leaps across the well.

And Betty Lou collapses to the ground.

Gritting Duke’s teeth and my willpower, I crawl to her. Everyone else is so busy trying to contain the hoard that they don’t notice. Even Duke has joined the human army.

When I finally reach her, tears spring into Duke’s eyes. She saved me once upon a time, and I could do nothing to repay her favor when it counted the most.

“Please don’t be dead,” I whisper, then collapse in a heap beside her. “You deserve more than to be felled by a mundane heart attack after the test of will you just aced.”

She laughs, a raspy, smoky sound that shakes her chest. “Dying’s the easy part. Living is much harder.”

I snort. Sounds like something Granny would have said.

She blinks a few times, then rolls her head toward me. Her eyes narrow as she gazes at the tears streaming down Duke’s cheeks. “And what’s the matter with you? ”

“I’m sorry,” I gasp. Too much relief, way too much stress, and a physical exhaustion like I’ve never known loosens my brain-to-mouth filter.

“I tried so hard to save you, but I ran out of power. I didn’t even know I had any power.

I really need Granny right now, but she’s not here.

You almost died. The town’s covered in animal crap, and I’m stuck in this unfairly hot body, and I don’t know what to do now.

I tried unwishing things, but that didn’t work, and I?—”

“Neveah,” she whispers, in a voice that sounds coldly quiet yet painfully loud.

Within seconds, Neveah’s goldilocks curls swish over Duke’s cheeks as she leans over the both of us. “Granny. Oh, God. Are you hurt? Don’t you ever do anything like that again, you hear me? This godsdamned town isn’t worth sacrificing yourself for.”

“Hush, child. Those are innocent people you’re damning.” Betty Lou stares at me before saying, “The path to home begins in the…”

“Wilderness,” I finish reflexively.

It’s a saying that Granny always pounded into my head, so I’m not surprised that Betty Lou’s latching onto it after a near-death experience. It always brought Granny comfort when times were hard, too.

“Holy shit,” Neveah breathes as she stares at me in Duke’s body. “Who are you?”

“Delia?” Betty Lou guesses.

I nod. What’s the point of hiding it now? I’m just happy that the cat’s out of the bag without any convincing. I’m tired of lying, tired of being lonely, just…tired.

“Holy shit,” Neveah repeats, flattening her palms against Duke’s cheeks to turn his head this way and that as she inspects me. “How did this happen?”

“The wish I made at the well…” I trail off. She was there. She knows exactly what I wished for.

“You let her make a wish at the well?” Betty Lou hisses.

“I didn’t think it would work!” Neveah shrieks. “The shrouding spell has held up for this long!”

With a few groans, Betty Lou raises herself onto her elbows, glancing around at the not-at-all controlled chaos around us. “Get them both out of here. Now. ”

Neveah hauls me to Duke’s feet with surprising strength. “Where should I take them?”

“The McCoy homestead,” Betty Lou answers, straining to rise. “It’s still well warded. Take Hope with you. We’re out of time. Find the library. I’ll distract the coven.”

Neveah nods, then follows orders without arguing.

I have plenty of arguments brewing in my gut, but my words come out slurred. “What is happening right now?”

“No time to explain,” she grunts as she practically drags Duke’s body thicker into the furry fray. “I have more questions than answers at this point anyway.”

That makes two of us.

I open my mouth to fire off at least one, then promptly bite Duke’s tongue when I faceplant on the road. I spit out gravel in time to see a fox fleeing the scene of the crime.

“Motherfucker,” I mumble.

I taste Duke’s blood. Why does it have an actual flavor? Like…spiced mulberries.

Duke appears out of nowhere. My pupils are blown wide, and my nostrils flare like he’s seconds from exploding. He turns his attention to Neveah. “What did you do to her?”

“Holy hell.” She gapes at him. “It’s true. You switched bodies. All of that is going to have to wait. We’re getting out of here right the fuck now.”

“Are you out of your mind?” he argues as he struggles to help me up. He wipes some of the blood off his mouth, snarling, “I’m not leaving my brothers and nephews to this shitshow.”

Neveah glances around like she actually forgot about all hell breaking loose around us. “The worst is over. The bear’s toast, and the cats aren’t coming back. A couple of rabid opossums are exactly the distraction we need to get you two out of here unnoticed.”

Duke can’t argue with that. He sighs, knowing he’s lost this round. With a last wistful glance toward his family, he hauls one of his heavy limbs over my shoulders.

Neveah moves to do the same on my other side, but Duke stops her with what sounds like a warning growl. “Don’t. Touch. Her. ”

She glances between us like more questions are piling up on her tongue, but she chooses a wiser route than interrogating us about the current status of our situationship.

“No offense, but time is of the essence, and Delia isn’t strong enough to basically carry your ass all the way to her house.

” She pales and swallows thickly. “Wow. I can’t believe those words just came out of my mouth. ”

I can’t even snort in amusement. I’ve never felt this hollowed out in my entire life. Not when Duke cut me down time and again, not when everyone ignored me, not when I was sicker than a dog. It’s to the point that I feel like I’m watching a movie. I’m not a participant, just an observer.

I can barely stand, even with Duke’s help. I rest his head against the top of mine and whimper. It’s all I can do.

“Gingersnap,” he murmurs softly, rubbing his chest briskly.

Almost as if he’s trying to keep his own heart beating.

“I don’t know who to trust anymore, but you need help fast.” He pushes Neveah away when she reaches for me.

“Cornelius, if you can hear me, then now’s a fine time to prove where your loyalties lie. ”

Who’s Cornelius?