Page 110 of Solar Shadows

Fake Me kicked the door open and ran outside, leaping into the air. The solar shadows moved beneath us, lifting us off the ground like a flock of fucked-up angels.

More of the white magic came to my hands. “Break it!”

A beam of energy shot into the sky, striking the invisible barrier of protection around the mansion. The strike forced it to appear like glass, just like when the hag’s crystal shades attacked.

Cracking glass, fissures darting across it.

Oh. Shit.

Fake Me/Tony picked up speed, hurtling toward the splintering barrier.

“No!”

“Yes!” he roared back. “Yes, Isaac! This is awesome!”

With an almighty crash, the barrier collapsed just before he shot through it.

He laughed, my head spinning, my brain out of ideas.

I whimpered, falling to my knees, terrified for my brother and Drake and everyone down there. Desperate for a solution, I resorted to begging him to stop.

“I’ll do whatever you want.”

“I know you will, babe,” he replied ominously.

It made no sense. He shouldn’t be inside me. Uncle Jonathon couldn’t pull it off, and he’d been running on traces of Moon power. As much as it pained me to say it, Jonathon had more power in his pinkie finger than this prick.

Only, that wasn’t true.

We flew over the city, those figures spinning and leaping and dancing around him. Me.Mybody.

Think your way out of this!

I was supposed to be The Sun, not this impostor, not this weak creature having his arse kicked again.

By Hecate, my little brother and his boyfriend. Everything inside me throbbed with aching guilt. To see myself punch Riley, shoot Drake… Oh, Hecate. I couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t fucking stand it.

Fake Me arrived at Rowan Road, landing in the middle of it, then strode toward Blood Palace—a crimson-bricked, detached house with a pointed roof.

What did Tony want with it?

The windows were dark, sealed against daylight. We were still a few hours away from sunset, so none of the vampires would be awake yet.

A sea of plastic flamingos observed the street from the house’s front yard, clustered together under the shelter of tall spruce tree. There were Hecate Crystals growing on the garden wall and on the roof of the next house down.

Fake Me clasped my hands together as if in prayer.

The doors of the parked cars popped opened,people in white getting out. Every one of them wore a creepy smile, carrying shimmering shards of Hecate Crystals in their hands.

“What’s… What’s happening?” I rasped.

“Welcome,” Tony-as-me greeted them, keeping my hands pressed together. “It’s good to see you all.”

They surrounded him, forming a ring, the solar figures sat in a circle around us.

Another car pulled onto the street, coming to a stop before the gathering. The driver’s door opened, a huge guy in white getting out and opening the back door. He bent inside, picking something up.

That something turned out to be the unconscious body of actual Tony.