Her actions had killed a member of her family. She’d opened the door and invited in a snake.

She didn’t deserve to live instead of her brother. Not instead of him.

“Please,” she whispered as Jack jogged her down the stairs. “Please God no,” she begged as he turned the corner to the back of the house.

A shadow down the hall froze. Daisy hadn’t even realized she was looking forward rather than backward. Even through the fog of pain and life-altering horror, a part of her mind recognized the knife throw, where it would hit. She shifted just a little so when Jack recoiled and staggered, her head wouldn’t be bashed against the wall for a second time.

Another knife, dead center. One more into his throat.

Jack gurgled up blood. His arm came loose and Daisy dropped to the floor like a rag doll. She landed on her broken wrist, and the explosion of agony shattered her. She screamed and rolled, holding her injured arm to her chest.

Move, girl! You’re free! Get moving!

Tears and blood clouding her vision, she struggled to sit.

Jack convulsed next to her, a cry of shock and renewed pain escaping him before he clutched at his neck, as though he’d only just realized he’d been wounded. The woman, who had been moving in for the kill and hadn’t seemed to care about Daisy, jerked to a stop. She straightened up woodenly, then stilled.

Daisy shakily pushed onto her knees and emptied her stomach, then pushed to standing, refusing to give up, needing to kill this bitch and get back to Mordecai.

The woman rolled her shoulders before she burst into action, slicing her knife across Jack’s throat before punching Daisy in the forehead. Daisy’s head snapped back and she was falling. Before lights out, the woman bent over to scoop her up as Jack’s movements slowed.

19

Alexis

I could’ve sworn that was Jack’s form hustling past me in the swirling mass of fog and darkness as I made it to my front yard, but his soul was…off. It felt like his, but also like someone else’s. It didn’t make sense.

Then again, I couldn’t think straight, not in this thick, soupy mass of white-tinged darkness, the moon and streetlights illuminating the fog in places. The stuff rolled and boiled around me, suffocating, messing with my mind.

“Was that Jack?” I asked Bria, her shape enlarging as it got closer, her soul identifying her. My words didn’t seem to travel as far as they should. They seemed muted. “Where’s he going?”

“This shit is a mind-fuck, am I right?” she said, stopping beside me. She was close enough that I could just make out dirt and sweat or moisture smeared across her face. “Yeah, that was Jack. He’s supposed to be meeting up with the guys and Kieran, due west of here, in the middle of the street. But I don’t know. He was acting strange earlier. I think he’s worried about the kids. Listen, we got work to do.”

She grabbed me by the arm and yanked me with her, heading toward Kieran’s house across the street. Something brushed past my leg and I jumped. I could just barely see the cat streak by.

Shadows writhed around us, and what I could only describe as a sucker punch smashed against my chest. Bria grunted at the same time, but didn’t slow, pulling me along behind her.

“That is really annoying,” she muttered, jogging now.

“Where are we going?” I asked as the ground underneath us trembled.

“We’ve dug up the cadavers I had stored in Kieran’s backyard. This potential situation is why I went with shallow graves and loose dirt. We need to get them active. Get your bearings. That Hades nut sack is about to shake this party up.”

A tremor rolled through the asphalt, followed by a small earthquake, shifting my balance. Kieran could rumble the ground with power, maybe give it a little wiggle, but this felt more like the other Demigod’s work.

The ground dropped away, giving me a moment of fright, before launching back up and knocking the soles of my feet. My knees buckled and I hit the deck, only to be shaken like a snow globe in the hands of a child. Spirit condensed around me, making me feel sluggish, followed by a blast of unspeakable terror. Fear like I’d never felt before blasted through my mind and locked up my body.

“Fight it,” Bria shouted in my ear. “That’s the Demigod’s magic. Fight the feeling. It isn’t real. If metal is thrown at you, though, run. That is real.”

She hoisted me up and dragged me along, clearly unwilling to let the manufactured terror we both felt tear her away from her duty.

“Get moving.” The cat darted in and batted at my ankles. I kicked at it. “Get going!” he said. “The troops are advancing, your Demigod is stalling for heavens only know why, and the dickhead Hades Demigod is headed for your house. This is all about to unravel.”

I repeated what the cat had said—and quickly explained who had said it.

Bria looked down in bewilderment, then stared at me for a long beat, her expression clearing to one of neutrality. She thought I was crazy.

“Fine, if it is just a voice in my head, it’s been right so far,” I yelled, stubbing my toe against something with a little give. I stepped around it, only for my other toe to hit something with no give. I fell over a curb and onto an unnaturally soggy body. “What the—”

“Hurry, we need to get souls into these bodies and get them moving,” she said, grabbing items out of a box she must’ve brought out before she’d run to find me. She handed a few of the things to me, relics attached to spirits we could call from beyond the Line. “Kieran should be keeping them busy to give us a second.”