“Why?” she asked softly, finally staring up at him.

“Because you hated her the most,” he whispered, “so you questioned me the least.”

“But … I liked you.”

Alex had just opened his mouth to answer when Jillian’s expression abruptly changed.

With a feral shriek, she wrenched her hand upward, shoved something into his open mouth, and then sealed his lips by planting her palm against them. She dug her fingers into his cheeks, and he flailed, grabbing at her with one hand and waving the gun with the other. I saw him swallow reflexively, right before his gun went off.

After that, everything seemed to happen at once.

Alex, who I thought would recover and fire again, stumbled backward instead. For a moment he simply looked furious. Then, without warning, his eyes rolled backward and he began foaming at the mouth.

While strangled sounds ripped their way out of his throat, Jillian clambered backward toward her huddled family. Gaby, however, didn’t move. Which was strange, considering the fact that blood had begun to soak through the middle of her cream-colored shirt.

She’d been shot.

I gasped, dropping beside her on the floor of the pavilion. “I thought you said we couldn’t get hurt!” I cried out, my voice harsh with fear for her.

“Don’t worry about me right now,” she said, but I didn’t listen. I clutched at her abdomen, trying to staunch the flow of blood with my hands. Yet Gaby managed to stay perfectly calm, swiping away my hands without taking her eyes off Alex.

“Seriously, Amelia, stop it. It doesn’t hurt. Besides, you don’t want to miss the show.” She cocked her head toward the pavilion, and the corner of her lips lifted into a frightening smile.

Almost involuntarily, I followed her gaze to the pavilion into which Alex had stumbled.

Although he remained upright, Alex had fallen to his knees as he convulsed. In the still moments between convulsions, his cold gaze found Gaby’s. He must have been conscious enough to see her smile, because his eyes momentarily widened before they rolled completely back in their sockets and he collapsed.

Suddenly, I could hear another heartbeat, thudding loudly and wildly: Alex’s, I was certain. But his heart didn’t get the chance to ease slowly into death like mine had. Instead, it stuttered more frantically, its individual beats growing indistinguishable until they became one long thud.

Then, abruptly, they stopped.

The following silence was almost palpable compared to the preceding frenzy. In the stillness, Alex didn’t twitch or gasp. He didn’t move at all.

He was dead, as far as I could tell.

Everyone—the living Seers, the dead Risen—held their breaths as we watched his motionless body. Then we sucked in a collective gasp when Alex sat back up.

Slowly, horrifyingly, he opened his eyes and glared at Gaby. He grabbed for his gun, which had dropped to the ground when he fell.

But now he couldn’t seem to grip it. He frowned, turning away from Gaby to stare harder at the gun. He swiped his hand over it once, twice, and then growled in frustration.

Gaby barked out a brittle laugh. “Having a little trouble, Kade?”

His cold gray eyes bore into hers again. “Did you … kill me?”

Gaby’s grin widened. She raised her hand and began twirling another small bottle in her fingers.

“Technically,” she said, “Jillian killed you. But I’m the one who gave her the ground oleander seeds, so I guess you can blame me.”

Alex screamed inarticulately and fumbled for the gun again, with no success.

Watching him, Gaby tisked several times.

“That gun isn’t going to do you much good, Kade. Besides, you’ve already killed me twice.” She paused, glancing down at her bloody shirt. “Well, sort of killed.”

“Gaby?” I whispered, reaching hesitantly for her. By now I couldn’t hear either of their heartbeats. “Gaby, what’s happened to you?”

Keeping her eyes on Kade, Gaby lifted one shoulder in her usual flippant shrug. “Who knows? I feel numb again, so maybe I’m not Risen anymore. But that would be a small price to pay to condemn Kade to this hell.”

“You want to condemn me, Gabrielle?” he snarled. “Then come condemn me.”

“Gladly,” she spat.

She suddenly wrenched out from under my hands and flew at Alex. He bolted up as well, meeting her mid-lunge. Within seconds the two of them had tangled together, snarling and clawing at each other’s throats.

I leaped up too, ready to intervene in their fight. But then I hesitated.

I glanced back at the young Seers, who’d gathered around Joshua like he was their protector. Which, given their hazy mental state, he probably was.

Despite the fact that she still looked disoriented, I caught Annabel’s eye. “Form a circle,” I commanded her, “and do an exorcism on Alex. Now.”

“I don’t know how—,” she started, but I cut her off.

“It doesn’t matter. You’re the oldest, and I know you’ve seen your grandmother perform an exorcism before. So you have to try.”

When she frowned reluctantly, I took a threatening step in her direction.

Almost immediately, Annabel nodded in agreement. She began grabbing at the other Seers and arranging them in a circle on the sand. While Alex and Gaby shouted obscenities behind me, I watched as the Seers—including Joshua and Jillian—clasped one another’s hands and started to mimic Annabel’s chanting.

Somewhat satisfied, I turned back to the brawling ghosts. To my horror, I found Alex straddling Gaby, with his hands wrapped tightly around her throat.

“Let her go!” I screamed.

But a screeching noise from somewhere high above us drowned my voice. I gazed upward and felt my heart go cold.

Because a hundred black, birdlike shapes filled the bruised sky. And they’d started to dive right for us.

Chapter

THIRTY

I didn’t have time to warn anyone before the black shapes descended, some dropping to the wet sand and some landing noisily inside the pavilion.

Within seconds of landing they transformed, shifting from indeterminate forms to humanlike figures with white-blond hair, sleek black clothing, and bloodless-pale faces.

They were glorious. Hideous. And each of them turned their black, pupilless eyes on me.

One of them—a male with a cleft chin and thick jaw—broke rank and strode over to Gaby and Alex. The male placed one hand gently on Alex’s shoulder and when Alex glanced up, gave the boy a sharp-toothed grin.

Instead of being horrified, as any sane person would be, Alex immediately rolled off Gaby and dropped at the creature’s feet.

“Thank you,” he mumbled, touching the hem of the creature’s pants. “Thank you for allowing me inside. Thank you.”

The creature smiled benignly down at Alex’s show of gratitude. Then it affected a worried frown.

“Oh, child. It seems that you’ve gotten yourself killed.”

Alex shook his head forcefully. “But not before I brought them here. Both of them, sir. For you.”

“Ah, excellent,” the creature murmured. He looked down at Gaby, who was still gasping and clutching at her throat, and then up at me. When his black, pupilless eyes locked onto mine, he smiled again.

“Truly excellent.” He glanced back at his companions. “I believe one of you is here for this one?”

Another demon stepped out of the crowd and approached us casually, moving as though she had all the time in the world to claim her prize. When she came close enough for me to see her features—long white-blond hair, angular bone structure—I hissed in recognition.

It was one of the demons from High Bridge. The female who had swooped down like a Harpy and dragged Eli with her into the darkness below the bridge.