It has to be you. You are our only hope." She spoke kindly, gently, but the weight of her words weren't kind or gentle. They were a mantle I wasn't sure I wanted to bear right now.
"Even if it means the destruction of the world?" I asked.
"I do not interpret the words to mean that. It may be metaphorical. The destruction of darkness. Change is known to be destructive too. Perhaps all you will bring about is change. How do we know really? And we cannot sit here, hands bound by one interpretation of a prophecy written a thousand years ago."
"A thousand years?" I swallowed hard. "Someone wrote a prophecy about me a whole millennia ago?"
Jess nodded.
I raised my eyebrows and sat back. What could a girl say to that?
***
Chapter 10
It was after eight when Jess left, but I was restless. Sleep pulled at me, dulling my senses and weighing my eyelids down, but I couldn't rest. Couldn't stop thinking about prophecies and mirrored worlds in which the dead and the demons roamed.
A knock on the door roused me from a semi-sleep and I was not happy. The bedside clock claimed 9 p.m. and I believed it. It had been a long day.
Before I reached the door, I knew who it was.
Gone were the days when I let my guard down. I'd done exactly that when I'd visited my father not too long ago. I'd allowed my emotional baggage to dull my awareness, to let my guard down just long enough to enter the apartment without checking, to allow myself to be abducted by Niko's thugs.
Not happening again.
Lily stood on the threshold, holding a paper bag, grinning at me. Something I was slowly getting used to. Lily had changed. Her spiteful meanness, the hooded eyes, the coldness. They were all gone. She was taking the whole life-saving thing to a whole new level.
In the last two weeks, it had been Lily who'd run my errands, popped in every day to make sure I was eating, to nag me until I forced myself into the shower. Mostly I just did as she asked so she'd leave faster.
I never let her know how much she'd helped me. It was hard to mope when staring down this new, cheerful Lily. Not that I couldn't see the bleakness in her eyes when she thought I wasn't looking.
Anjelo was never far from either of our minds.
"So how has your day been?" she asked, a little too chipper.
"Lily, it's after nine at night." I folded my arms and raised an eyebrow. "I do need my rest you know."
"But I see you've been up and about." She looked me up and down and sauntered into the room. "You actually look pretty damn good for a half-dead panther."
I sighed and shut the door. Now that Lily was here, even the pull of sleep was gone. She was rummaging in the utensil drawer and soon withdrew two spoons.
"I have ice-cream. Double Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Delight." She waved the spoons at me, giving me another toothy grin.
Now how could I say no to that?
I switched on the TV and let an old movie play softly in the background—one appropriately about ghosts, and the making of pottery, of all things.
It seemed so weird. Too normal, too mundane to be sitting here eating chocolate ice cream while Greer was stuck in a demon-filled dead land and my mother and Anjelo were waiting to be saved from a Wraith jail.
"So tell me what's been going on. I take it Logan's been by?"
"Huh?" I stared at her. How would she have known that? I was dressed for sleeping—pajama bottoms and tank top. Then she flicked her eyebrows at my bare arm.
"Yeah. He came by last night. He'd been practicing and wanted to administer another dose of his poison-killing fire." I made a face.
"It sounds so clinical. As if he walked in here with a syringe and jabbed you in the butt."
I snorted. "That would have been the preferred method of administration had I had the choice."
"So now that you're feeling better, what are we going to do?"
"What do you mean?" I asked, digging into the ice-cream tub.
"Well, we have people to save, in case you forgot. Did Logan fry your brain cells while he was
"Even if it means the destruction of the world?" I asked.
"I do not interpret the words to mean that. It may be metaphorical. The destruction of darkness. Change is known to be destructive too. Perhaps all you will bring about is change. How do we know really? And we cannot sit here, hands bound by one interpretation of a prophecy written a thousand years ago."
"A thousand years?" I swallowed hard. "Someone wrote a prophecy about me a whole millennia ago?"
Jess nodded.
I raised my eyebrows and sat back. What could a girl say to that?
***
Chapter 10
It was after eight when Jess left, but I was restless. Sleep pulled at me, dulling my senses and weighing my eyelids down, but I couldn't rest. Couldn't stop thinking about prophecies and mirrored worlds in which the dead and the demons roamed.
A knock on the door roused me from a semi-sleep and I was not happy. The bedside clock claimed 9 p.m. and I believed it. It had been a long day.
Before I reached the door, I knew who it was.
Gone were the days when I let my guard down. I'd done exactly that when I'd visited my father not too long ago. I'd allowed my emotional baggage to dull my awareness, to let my guard down just long enough to enter the apartment without checking, to allow myself to be abducted by Niko's thugs.
Not happening again.
Lily stood on the threshold, holding a paper bag, grinning at me. Something I was slowly getting used to. Lily had changed. Her spiteful meanness, the hooded eyes, the coldness. They were all gone. She was taking the whole life-saving thing to a whole new level.
In the last two weeks, it had been Lily who'd run my errands, popped in every day to make sure I was eating, to nag me until I forced myself into the shower. Mostly I just did as she asked so she'd leave faster.
I never let her know how much she'd helped me. It was hard to mope when staring down this new, cheerful Lily. Not that I couldn't see the bleakness in her eyes when she thought I wasn't looking.
Anjelo was never far from either of our minds.
"So how has your day been?" she asked, a little too chipper.
"Lily, it's after nine at night." I folded my arms and raised an eyebrow. "I do need my rest you know."
"But I see you've been up and about." She looked me up and down and sauntered into the room. "You actually look pretty damn good for a half-dead panther."
I sighed and shut the door. Now that Lily was here, even the pull of sleep was gone. She was rummaging in the utensil drawer and soon withdrew two spoons.
"I have ice-cream. Double Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Delight." She waved the spoons at me, giving me another toothy grin.
Now how could I say no to that?
I switched on the TV and let an old movie play softly in the background—one appropriately about ghosts, and the making of pottery, of all things.
It seemed so weird. Too normal, too mundane to be sitting here eating chocolate ice cream while Greer was stuck in a demon-filled dead land and my mother and Anjelo were waiting to be saved from a Wraith jail.
"So tell me what's been going on. I take it Logan's been by?"
"Huh?" I stared at her. How would she have known that? I was dressed for sleeping—pajama bottoms and tank top. Then she flicked her eyebrows at my bare arm.
"Yeah. He came by last night. He'd been practicing and wanted to administer another dose of his poison-killing fire." I made a face.
"It sounds so clinical. As if he walked in here with a syringe and jabbed you in the butt."
I snorted. "That would have been the preferred method of administration had I had the choice."
"So now that you're feeling better, what are we going to do?"
"What do you mean?" I asked, digging into the ice-cream tub.
"Well, we have people to save, in case you forgot. Did Logan fry your brain cells while he was
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