Page 140 of Hidden
My throat closed, and I stepped forward despite myself as the demon reached Bianca and wrapped his fingers around her neck. He couldn’t have known it would work, his reaction reeked of desperation. There was no way he’d have known he could touch her.
However, he didn’t let his surprise stop him from continuing his assault.
Instead, he smiled.
She dropped the doll, reaching for the hands that held her. Fear barely had time to enter her expression before she was pulled backward into the shallow end of the water.
She was drowning.
Everything else fell from existance as the kappa’s face transformed into something even far more sinister and dark. The creature remained unmoved as Bianca flailed, trying to escape. To breathe.
I held my breath as her movements slowed and his teeth bared.
He didn’t win. Bianca was—relatively—safe with us, in the present.
But how? No one was here to help her. Any longer and—
A whirlwind of movement rushed past us, and the demon was thrown back. A second later, Alyssa carried Bianca to the shore, throwing a dark glance in the direction where the creature had fallen.
But when it didn’t resurface, she turned her focus back toward her daughter.
“Bianca…” She slapped the smaller girl’s cheek, unable to attempt anything else. “Bianca, you’re okay? Wake up.” Her statement came out as both a desperate question and command.
At first, Bianca didn’t stir. Then even though I expected it, I let out a sigh of relief as she finally gagged and began to cough.
Next to me, Miles started cursing under his breath.
Alyssa’s hands shook, and she dropped all pretenses as she threw herself at her daughter, pulling the smaller girl into her lap. “You’re okay, baby,” she kept repeating. “You’re okay.”
Bianca’s eyes slowly blinked open, and she looked up. “Aly?”
“I love you so much.” Alyssa peppered Bianca’s face with kisses. “I love you.”
Bianca brows furrowed in confusion. She seemed too disoriented to even notice that Alyssa was holding her. “I was bad.”
“No, you weren’t, baby,” Alyssa insisted. “It’s not your fault.”
“But—”
“I love you.” Alyssa held Bianca back from her. “Now, go back and find Kieran. He’s still bespelled. Wake him up and—”
Her sentence cut off with a gasp. She didn’t need to breathe, of course, but demons could feel spirits as easily as one human could touch another. And having a hand thrust through your back would shock anyone.
Bianca blinked, still dazed as she stared up at her mother. “Aly?”
“I only need one more,” the kappa growled, pulling his hand back. With the movement, Alyssa was thrown from Bianca, who had been released in that moment. The demon snatched the spirit’s limp form in midair, smiling his toothy grin. “And I don’t care who it is anymore.”
Then he dove under the water, taking the spirit of Alyssa Dubois with him.
I had no control of when my abilities decided to shift between memories. My work relied on following the thought patterns of my subjects. The longer I stayed in someone’s mind, the more difficult it was to focus—to control the direction of my power.
The echo of a thousand memories passed over me, overlapping as they all fought for my attention. The threads of each memory surrounded me—all equally important. What was I looking for? I didn’t remember.
But why was I hesitating? Why was my heart aching?
The noise grew louder, almost painful against the pounding in my head. The memories brushed against my senses. What was I supposed to do?
I reached for one. But my chest felt heavy, and my finger twitched.
