Sure enough, in the surrounding buildings and cars, I saw people. Their faces were all crushed in fear and surprise.

  It would take all of Vali’s power and more to wipe their minds. Maybe he wouldn’t even be able to do it.

  Back when I first joined Vali’s ranks, I’d been told that revealing magic to the populace was the greatest sin in the world. As I stood there and let this cold reality wash over me, I wondered why. There would have to be a reason. Perhaps the fake gods didn’t want the ordinary humans knowing what they were – cattle being fattened up for the slaughter. Or perhaps it was something more.

  Alice didn’t question me, and I was thankful for her self-restraint. I didn’t have the brain capacity to try to fend off any queries at the moment. The only thing I could concentrate on was the fear slowly winding around my stomach.

  I’d failed to stop that gate from opening.

  Alice cleared her throat and locked a hand on my shoulder. “He’s here.”

  I twisted my head around and realized that a car had just pulled up beside us. I’d been so distracted by my spiraling thoughts I hadn’t noticed.

  Vali.

  I could feel his presence and his fear as he pushed out of the driver’s side, snapped onto the pavement, and shoved over to me.

  My eyes met his, and a whole unspoken conversation passed between us.

  Alice quietly walked away, giving us some privacy.

  Vali came to a stop beside me, one of his hands in his pockets, the other on his tie pin. Both were tensed, his shoulders so rigid, they could pull from his sockets.

  “I tried to stop him. I wasn’t fast enough. I was wrong. We didn’t have half an hour,” I pointed out, my voice bottoming out low in fear and anger at my own stupidity.

  “I underestimated how many resources they were willing to push into this task,” he said, his voice so quiet, no one but me would’ve been able to pick it up.

  We descended into a truly uncomfortable silence where we realized we were both to blame.

  Vali was the first to break it.

  He took a tense breath, one that honestly felt as if it came from my chest. The longer I spent with him, the more attuned I became to him until it almost felt as if we shared one body.

  He turned to me. I felt his gaze rove across my face. “Lilly, don’t blame yourself. We don’t have time.”

  As far as comforting me went, he wasn’t exactly telling me it hadn’t been my fault, just that I couldn’t afford this guilt – not until we found those other gates.

  I nodded, the move uneasy. “Have you detected any more gates?”

  He shook his head.

  “What happened at the storeroom?”

  His cheeks stiffened. “It was stolen.”

  “What was stolen?”

  He opened his mouth to answer, but he stopped, his lips stiffening and pressing hard against his teeth as if he were trying to swallow them.

  My stomach twisted with nerves. “Vali, what are you telling me? What was stolen?”

  He broke eye contact, dropped his gaze to his tie pin, and neatened it. Though it instantly reminded me of what Alice had said – that Franklin had been groomed for his position – I knew I couldn’t entertain that thought yet.

  “The box,” Vali answered.

  “The box. What box?” I began. I stopped as a memory struck me.

  The entire reason I’d fallen into Vali’s grasp in the first place was that damn Drift box.

  I felt my cheeks slowly descend as if they were going to slide right off my face and fall against the cracked floor by my feet.

  “What do you mean?” I asked in a raspy voice.

  “Though other weapons were stolen, I believe the box was their true target.”

  I nodded. I don’t know why I nodded – I just did it. The rest of me was frozen, stilled by fright. “Why?”

  He made eye contact with me. His gaze had just the same power I was used to from the Vali of old – the guy who was arrogant and always knew more than he would tell me. This time, that arrogance was touched with just a little fragility, and I held onto that fragility as he closed his eyes.

  “They’re after you.” He kept his eyes closed.

  “How can they use the box to get to me?”

  “It is the key to your family history.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means…” he trailed off.

  Just before I could press him to reveal what the hell he was holding back, there was a scream.

  Vali bolted toward it, and I ran right by his side.

  “Gargoyles,” somebody shrieked.

  Sure enough, I tilted my head back to see gargoyles on top of the roofs of the buildings around the gate.

  The city was full of old Art Deco buildings. You know the kind – the ones with those peaks and arches and carved architraves. And, more than anything, the grotesque gargoyles that adorned them.

  Now those gargoyles were coming to life.

  While Vali might technically have the power to hide this obliterated building from the city – and to wipe the memory from any ordinary human who saw it – I doubted he could hide the gargoyles.

  “Stop them from spreading through the city,” he screamed, his voice bellowing low and shaking through the street.

  He peeled off, giving everyone orders.

  I stood there and thought. I didn’t have time, but I knew that if I didn’t figure this out – and didn’t connect every single dot – I’d have no hope of defeating the gods and saving humanity, let alone myself.

  I cast my gaze over and locked it on Vali. Was I looking at him or Franklin? It was Franklin’s body – the broad chest, the rigid back, the strong jawline, the flax-colored hair. But who the hell was Franklin really? More to the point, who the hell was Vali?

  Did I truly know him? Or had my heart deceived me into thinking that loving him was all that mattered?

  7

  I didn’t stand around muddling through my thoughts for long. Soon, Vali gave me orders. Though part of me didn’t want to accept them, the rest of me knew that I had to trust him. For now.

  Though I had a flesh wound in my shoulder, I rejected medical attention and instantly set off through the city streets, Alice by my side. While Vali had offered me stronger backup, I didn’t accept it, because there was no stronger backup than Alice.

  Cassidy had already been whisked away for medical attention.

  Alice didn’t say a freaking word to me as we both ran down the side streets and back alleys through the city.

  From current counts, at least 40 gargoyles had sprung to life and were now rushing over the city’s rooftops.

  Our mission was clear – hunt them down and destroy them.

  But that was the only thing that was clear.

  Though I appreciated the importance of this mission, I knew I still had to keep an eye out for more gates. Those were the real targets – the gargoyles were just distractions. Violent, capable, murderous distractions, granted, but the gates would be what mattered most.

  “Do you trust Vali?” Alice asked.

  Her question was out of the blue. It was such a surprise, I skidded to a halt.

  I should have guarded my expression, but I knew I couldn’t. My cheeks became pale, my eyes drooping as my lips slowly parted open.

  “You have no idea if you trust him, do you?” she surmised.

  My heart shuddered at that. It wanted me to tell her – no scream at her – that I trusted him. That I’d always trusted him. That I freaking loved him. But how could I tell anymore?

  Secrets were mounting, and they pushed away the few facts I could hold onto.

  “Maybe I shouldn’t have told you that stuff about Franklin. I haven’t confirmed much yet,” she said in a quiet voice.

  “No, tell me everything. Doesn’t matter if it’s a rumor, doesn’t matter if it’s a lie – I need to know.” My voice shook.

  Alice opened her mouth, but she didn’t get the chance to spill the beans. At that exact moment, we heard a crunch from above.

  It could have been something falling over, maybe a gust of wind snatching some loose stones and sending them tumbling down from above.

  It wasn’t.

  “Duck,” Alice roared.

  I shoved to the side just in time as something sailed straight past my shoulder. It slammed into the street beside me, cracking the asphalt and sending it scattering around as massive chunks of it dashed against my legs and face.

  “Shit,” Alice snapped as she shoved a hand into her holster, pulled out her gun, and started firing in one smooth, practiced move.

  It was a gargoyle.

  Though Alice’s shots were well-placed and dashed against its face and open mouth, whatever its body was made out of, it was bulletproof.

  The bullets ricocheted against the walls of the buildings around us.

  I shoved forward, calling my Drift sword to my hand as I opened my palm as far as it would go.

  The gargoyle slammed into me, whipping its tail around, but I was quicker.

  With a single blow, I dispatched it, and the damn thing exploded into dust, scattering over my feet.

  By the time my heart had kicked into gear, adrenaline rushing through my body, the fight was over.

  I stood there, staring at the scattered ash remains of the gargoyle. I forced a breath through my teeth then let my shoulders droop.

  I turned to Alice.

  She faced me with complete surprise, but somehow it didn’t take her long to step back, return her gun to her holster, and offer me a shake of her head. “I’m not going to ask what happened to you. But it’s obvious you found your true power.” She glanced at the sword.

  As I opened my palm, I let the sword dissipate. “Yeah, I guess you could say that,” I agreed in a weak voice.

  I felt Alice’s eyes slice into me. “You’re worried, aren’t you?”

  I nodded.

  “Worried you have no idea who Vali really is.”

  My back lengthened. I knew Alice was good at reading people, but this was seriously good.

  I massaged my brow. “We don’t have time for this. We have to stop those gargoyles, find those gates, and stop the invasion.”

  She took a tight breath. “I hadn’t believed you until what transpired on that roof,” she said in a stiff voice that sounded like her words were trying to break through her throat. “And what exactly happened on that roof? Those clouds – I’ve never seen anything like them. What the hell is that gate?”

  Though all were good questions, I simply didn’t have the answers to them.

  As I pinched the bridge of my nose, my phone rang. I yanked my hand off my face, shoved it in my pocket, and grabbed my phone, knowing who it was even before I answered. “Yes, Vali?”

  “I assessed the gate.”

  “Can you close it?”

  There was a long pause. “No.”

  I let true fear sail through me as my shoulders drooped so far down my sides, they felt like they would drag me into the center of the Earth. “What do we do?”

  “We wait until another appears. Then we stop it. This time we must prevent it from opening.”

  “When will another appear?”

  “I am assessing the continuous energy output of this gate, and in my estimation, they won’t be able to open another for at least an hour.”

  “An hour,” I repeated through clenched teeth. “That isn’t much time. And are you sure?”

  He hesitated, and that hesitation felt like knives in my back.

  “Vali, are you sure?” I demanded, my voice stern with ferocious determination.

  I felt Alice’s eyes on the back of my neck. If she had any question that I had a different kind of relationship with Vali, my tone would blow that question apart.

  “I’m certain. We have an hour. Use that time to track down the last gargoyles. We cannot allow this city to fall into chaos.”

  “Yes,” I managed through a breath. I hung up before he said goodbye.

  I returned my phone to my pocket, closed my eyes, and ground one hand into a tight fist, my nails firmly implanted in my flesh.

  “Come on. I think there’s more down this way,” Alice said.

  I yanked my eyes open and followed her.

  The city was still dark – the storm above hadn’t dissipated completely. Some of its power had been taken away considering it had been used to open that gate, but it was still wild out here. The wind chased and roared down the streets, picking up anything that wasn’t tied down and sending leaves and old Styrofoam cups scattering along the pavement. As for the rain, it picked up, driving down the back of my neck and pounding over my scalp like thousands of pins falling from the sky.

  It was cold, too, but that just made me feel right at home. Alice, on the other hand, kept shrugging into the collar of her jacket and drawing it higher but never letting her right hand move too far away from the gun in her holster.

  Alice obviously had a good knack for tracking down escaped magical gargoyles, because she led me down another twisting laneway and we heard more of that unmistakable scattering of claws.

  This time Alice hung back, offering protection as I sliced the gargoyle with my sword. All it took was one blow until it scattered into ash that was caught by the wind as it sailed down the city street.

  2 down, only 38 to go. 38, and we only had 50 or so minutes left.

  … I’d never sleep again, would I? I’d never return to my grandmother’s mansion, never answer all those questions I had about her, and never push into the Drift to find her. Because this – today, this battle – would be my last. There was no way I’d be able to rid the city streets of gargoyles and stop those three remaining gates from opening in such a short space of time.

  Alice must’ve had a cold – which I doubt was being helped by the apocalyptic weather – and she pushed a hand into her pocket to pull out a tissue. She frowned. She shoved her hand back into her pocket and pulled something out. It was a business card.

  I hardly paid any attention to it. Well, until she stiffened as if somebody had rammed a metal pole down her back.

  “What is it?” I asked through a tight hiss.

  “Who the hell is the White Witch?” Alice asked.

  Though I’d never heard that exact term, with a rattling breath, I knew who it was.

  The Drift witch.

  I bolted around Alice’s shoulder and stared at the card.

  At first glance, it looked like an ordinary business card made out of ordinary cardboard. A message was scrawled across the back, and on the front were three words: The White Witch. The closer I got, the more I realized that the words weren’t written in ordinary ink. The ink drifted across the card as if chased by the wind.

  Alice was stiff, but I was stiffer. It felt as if my muscles had been replaced with clay casts. Gently, I plucked the card out of Alice’s hands, turned it over, and read the message aloud. “Call on me. I will help you stop the gates from opening. Call.” Underneath the word call was a number that scrawled itself across the card as I rubbed my finger over the cardboard.

  I shivered.

  “Where the hell is this from? I don’t remember picking this up,” Alice stammered.

  I didn’t reply. I shoved the card into my pocket. That would be when I felt something. Another card. Letting out a rattling gasp of my own, I yanked the other card out of my pocket. It was exactly the same business card from the White Witch with exactly the same message scrawled across the back.

  I watched Alice’s eyes widen. “Did you put that in there?”

  I shook my head. Then I stopped. I remembered that ghostly sensation I’d felt just before I’d fallen through the roof – a hand pushing into my pocket.

  Had the White Witch used magic to transport her card into our pockets? Why? What was the point? Why wouldn’t she just come to my aid?

  Alice watched me, her attention like ropes wrapping around my face. “I know you can’t tell me everything, but what the hell is going on? Who’s the White Witch? Why does she want you to call her? Does it have anything to do with these gates and gargoyles?”

  I nodded, not sure which answer I was responding to. I wiped the sudden sweat off my brow, then pushed the cards into my pocket. I didn’t pluck out my phone, and I didn’t call her.

  There was more to this situation, wasn’t there? There was always more. It was as if she wanted me to concede something, as if calling her and asking for her help would seal my fate in some way.

  Or maybe it wouldn’t. Maybe I was overthinking things. Maybe I needed her power now more than ever. Though I was half a witch, she was a full goddess of the Drift. If anyone could assist me in finding the gates and locking them down, it was her. So why couldn’t I do it? Why couldn’t I shove a hand into my pocket, pluck out my phone, pull out the card, and call the number?

  Alice continued to watch me, her expression grim. “Tell me what you’re thinking, kid. I can help you decide.”

  I darted my gaze over to her and knew my expression was unguarded as my cheeks stretched with hope, gratitude, and relief. I couldn’t forget that no matter how dire the situation was, I still had friends.

  I told Alice all I could, though I measured my story and didn’t let her know what the Drift was.

  Once I was done, she took a step back, clamped a hand over her mouth, and looked thoughtful. “I’d trust your instincts on this one, kid. If you don’t want to call her, then don’t. And you’re right – if she agreed to come to your aid, then what the hell is she doing now?”

  I sighed with relief. It felt good to get this off my chest, even if I was still hiding a mountain of secrets behind my basic story.

  “Whatever it is, though, we have to keep on the run. There are more gargoyles out there,” Alice pointed out.

  I conceded her point with a nod. We turned around, and we pressed forward.

  The storm had become more subdued since it had concentrated most of its power on opening that gate, but as the seconds ticked by, it again increased in ferocity. The wind now felt like swords slicing through the city streets. It was bad enough for me, and I had to wrap my arms around my middle lest my shirt be pulled from my back – but it was worse for Alice. She didn’t have Drift magic to call upon. It was through sheer grit and determination alone that she kept walking, even against the battering-ram force of the gale.