Page 20 of Wicked Ties
“Fix. It,” Maze snarled. “And then I will kill it.”
“I can’t.” Apollo shrugged. “You can’t grow a piece of the spirit back. Just like you can’t grow a new heart.”
“So, I’m just . . . like this?” I placed my hand over my chest as though I could feel the missing piece or push it back inside myself.
Cards shot from Maze’s pocket and whirled around his head. Anger and magic radiated off him. “What the hell was that thing anyways?”
Apollo rose to his feet and moved away from Maze to lean against the table across from us. “I think that was the Keres, or one of them.”
“What did it do to me?” I thought I knew, but I wanted to hear the words out loud.
“It took a piece of your soul, your spirit. The piece that used to make you, well, you. It was your emotions, which tie us to ourselves and others.” His face seemed to change into the doctor face when delivering bad news. “I’m sorry.”
“So, I’m like this forever?”
“Yes.” Apollo nodded, giving me a solum look.
“No,” Maze snarled. “How do we fix it or get it back?”
“You’re not listening to me. There is no fixing it.” Apollo motioned to me. “I don’t even know if you could get it back. The Keres are difficult creatures. You don’t know what they did with it. Neither do I.”
“What are the Keres, and how do I kill them?” Maze pulled the justice card from the whirling set above his head and showed it to Apollo. “See.”
“The Keres are like the vultures of Evermore. They linger on battlefields waiting for them to take place, and then they pick over the carcasses or the souls when the battle is over. In this case, it looks like they were going to take your girl’s soul out piece by piece, but something interrupted them from doing the whole job. And there isn’t any killing them. They’re as old as time and just as vicious.”
I knew it. Deep down, I knew it. This was permanent and I couldn’t help anyone else. I couldn’t be the girl they all so obviously wanted me to be. Even now, Maze was enraged at the thought of not having the old me back. They’d never welcome this newer, cold version of myself. I didn’t have a place where I belonged, and now I never would.
“So we get it back,” Maze said simply, like this was a forgone conclusion.
I didn’t want him to get his hopes up. “You heard what he said . . .”
“Yeah, he doesn’t know what they’ve done with it, so we find out and then go from there. This is Evermore, Tilly. There’s always a solution.”
“Like turning me into a demon so I don’t die kind of solution.”
“Low blow.” He swiped his hand over his face. “But yes.”
Apollo crossed his arms and leaned back. “Sorry I don’t have better news for you.”
“You gave us what we needed.” Maze’s eyes turned milky white, and he shook his head. “Now all we have to do is find the Keres and kill them.”
Apollo shook his head. “You’ll never be able to find them. Or kill them.”
Maze tapped his temple. “Oh, I’ll find them. And like you said, we’ve got a crew of killers at our disposal.”
I didn’t know what he had planned, but I did know any hope I had of becoming myself once more was now lost . . .
CHAPTER 8
MAZE
“What are we doing here?” Tilly kicked at a chunk of wooden beam and sent it flying across the wreckage.
For all my life, Warwick had been my home and Beckett’s house the one place where I was freely welcome. Now, standing among the rubble, it felt like I lost the one place that would be home. Evermore Academy was welcoming enough but it wasn’t home, and it wasn’t the same. The former council destroyed our home to frame the queen witches. We barely survived. Now, thanks to Beckett, we all lived, and they were six feet under.
“We need back up. You heard Apollo.”
She walked around the rubble, picking up things and tossing them away. “Like who?”
