Page 69 of The Demon's Spell

It all happened so fast that I could barely process any of it. Within moments, everything came to an abrupt halt. I was so disoriented, I didn’t quite know where I was.

Slowly, I began to make sense of my surroundings. I lay flat on my back, and the full moon shone through the trees. Ice-cold snow seeped through my dress, making me shiver. Screams of agony filled the air, and people called out names I didn’t recognize. For a moment, all I could do was stare at the stars above me. I wasn’t sure how I’d gotten on the ground.

My body ached, but I pushed myself upright. My heart raced as I glanced around frantically for Lucas. We’d been thrown from the limo, but somehow, I hadn’t been hurt. It must’ve been that magic I felt cocooning me before the car went off the road. Whatever it was had saved me.

“Nad!” Lucas screamed, his cry tearing through the darkness. I spotted him scrambling toward me. He grabbed me and pulled me close to him, cradling me to his chest. “You’re all right. I protected you.”

I realized then that the magic I’d felt around us had come from him. He’d created a shield that formed to our bodies to keep us from getting hurt.

“I’m fine. Are you?” I pushed against him. I had to see his face. “Lucas, talk to me! Are you hurt?”

He clutched me so tightly that I couldn’t move. He pressed his head against mine and whispered in a ragged breath, “There are so many voices.”

Slowly, I dared to look around, and horror rocked my body. The Hearse sat mangled not far away, lying upside down and smashed against a line of trees, wheels spinning toward the sky. The headlights flashed before going out completely. A man hung upside down from the driver’s seat, and blood pooled out of a large wound on his head. He blinked several times, and his gaze turned in my direction. The guilt in his features felt like a dagger to my gut. He looked utterly devastated by the realization of what he’d caused. Mira and her friends crawled out of The Hearse’s broken windows, evacuating the broken vehicle.

We were outside of town, on one of the forested roads that led toward a scenic lookout. Glass shards scattered across the snow, and bodies lay across the road and in the ditch. Pools of blood stained the ground. There were so many unmoving bodies…

Lucas pulled me tighter to his chest. I could only imagine the thoughts flittering through his mind at that moment. He always said the traumatic deaths hit harder. This had to be horrible for him, worse than anything I could possibly witness.

Screams continued to fill the night, and Lucas dropped his arms. “Help them,” he said.

“What about you?” I couldn’t leave him.

“I’ll be fine.” He winced, like another dying thought had entered his mind. Lucas conjured a first-aid kit and shoved it into my arms. He clutched his stomach and pushed at me. “Go!”

Someone screamed from nearby, pulling my attention off Lucas. People raced in so many directions, and I couldn’t tell who was hurt and who was dead. I heard Lucas gag, and my stomach twisted into knots. The best way to help him was to help the others. I had to prevent as many deaths as possible.

My gaze landed upon a man nearby. He lay on his back, his arm twisted at an odd angle. Blood coated his body in so many places that I didn’t know where it was coming from. He stared upward, but his eyes seemed to gloss over. He opened his mouth, like he wanted to scream, but nothing came out.

I raced over to him. “Hold on. We’re going to get you help.”

He turned his gaze toward me, but he looked straight through me. His mouth bobbed open, but only a gurgling sound escaped. My stomach clenched as blood sputtered from his mouth and trickled down the side of his face.

A moment later, his entire form went limp, and his head sagged to the side. My whole body began to tremble as I witnessed the life leave his eyes. From behind me, I heard Lucas gasp, and I knew this man’s last thought had entered his mind.

A gut-wrenching wail pierced the night. A woman covered in bruises stumbled through the snow toward me.

“Ian! Ian!” she cried. The woman shoved me aside and threw herself on top of the man, sobbing. After a moment, she turned her bitter gaze on me and growled, “What have you done!? Get away from him, you wicked wench.”

There was nothing I could do. He was already gone.

Nearby, a woman clutched her stomach and cried in agony. In the moonlight, I could make out her dark hair, which contrasted against the white snow. It was Monica, the piano player.

I abandoned the dead man and ran over to her. “I’m here to help.”

She drew ragged breaths. “I wasn’t supposed to be here tonight. It was a last-minute job…”

“Shh…” I told her. “Let me take a look—”

I stopped abruptly when I guided her hands away from her stomach. A thin, curved piece of glass stuck out of her skin, and blood poured from the wound. It looked like it was a broken wine glass.

“Goddess, it hurts,” Monica cried. “Take it out.”

She reached for the jagged piece of glass, but I stopped her. “No! You have to keep it in until paramedics arrive. If you take it out, you could bleed out.”

Monica hesitated. She was panicked and really out of it. I quickly opened the first-aid kit and unwrapped a huge wad of gauze. I carefully pressed it against the wound, making sure not to press the glass in any further.

“Hold this firmly,” I told her. “The EMTs will be here soon.”