The Bitterwine Oath Read online

  I charged, ready to tear this devil apart with my bare hands if I had to. But a shot rang out through the sacred glade, exploding the creature’s skull. The Woodwalker’s shadow essence screeched and departed.

  Levi and I stood paralyzed, chests heaving. Maggie sauntered onto the scene, her pistol smoking. The three Triad members ran to their granddaughters first. I wobbled, but Levi was there to hold me steady, slipping off his shirt to wad it to my neck. Together, we hurried to Heather, who groaned as we helped her stand.

  Kate was the only one who couldn’t be immediately revived. Maggie cradled her granddaughter in her lap, brushing back her hair and pressing the hem of her shirt to the wounds. “Help us!” she called out, and it was the first time I’d heard fear in her voice. I clamped a hand over my mouth. We couldn’t lose Kate.

  Sofia gripped Maggie’s shoulder for support as she crouched beside them and closed her eyes. She plugged Kate’s wounds with her fingers, forcefully enough to make me wince, and whispered a harsh incantation. Her shoulders convulsed so aggressively that I feared the magic might rattle apart her aging frame.

  Kate opened her eyes and raked in a sharp breath. Maggie laughed and kissed her forehead.

  I sighed with relief, suddenly bone tired.

  Steering clear of the animal remains, I carefully toted the others’ weapons to the other side of the road.

  Even in the dark, I could see Levi’s hazel eyes roving over my features, catching on the blood painted down my neck. I wanted to be furious with him for following us out here. I wanted to scream at him for being careless with his own life when I was trying so hard to protect him. But I didn’t have the energy, not when I would have done the same thing in his place.

  Levi unburdened me of the extra weapons and led me to Sofia and her first aid kit. I pulled aside my curtain of blond hair and let her dab away the dirt and blood with her gentle touch. Her hands were cold, and dark circles pooled beneath her eyes. The spell she had worked on Kate had clearly drained her.

  “He’s Shadowed,” she said when Levi walked away.

  “I know,” I answered, glancing his way. He spoke quietly with Maggie, whose expression was pulled taut as she loaded the weapons into the back of her car. She slammed the trunk and made her way over to me.

  “Go home and rest,” she said stiffly. “I’ll be in touch with instructions.”

  Levi drove me. I winced as I scooted close to him and lay my head on his shoulder, wondering what it would feel like to fall asleep wrapped in his arms.

  But somewhere in the back of my mind, I admitted that the precious days remaining might not be enough to find out.

  TWENTY-SIX

  ONE DAY UNTIL THE CLAIMING

  I wandered into the kitchen in my bathrobe to find of smorgasbord of fried green tomatoes, fried pickles, and jalapeño hush puppies. Slices of battered okra let off an angry sizzle as Mom dropped them into the deep

  fryer.

  After hunting until the break of dawn and sleeping straight through the afternoon, I would have been content to strap a feedbag to my face. I’d told my parents I had to stay up late to write a paper for the summer class, which was getting more mileage as an excuse than I ever anticipated.

  Brianna’s recovery was slow, and Heather wasn’t her usual spunky self yet. Neither of them had been desperate enough to require a magical revival, which was good considering Sofia wouldn’t have been able to repeat the effort without needing one herself. But it meant the two were still weak. Since I had escaped the ambush relatively unscathed, the Wardens needed me more than ever.

  It was exhausting to be needed.

  I’d meant to only sleep until noon, which would have given me hours to spend with Levi. But I’d squandered the day away, perhaps subconsciously realizing that as long as I stayed asleep, I could pretend the imminent Claiming was nothing but a nightmare.

  “What are you making this for?” I asked my mom, voice groggy.

  “There’s an interdenominational prayer meeting and potluck at Calvary. We’re going to unify and pray away any, you know”—she fluttered her hand, her charm bracelet tinkling—“funny business. Or at the very least, let all the hooligans know the town is watching.”

  “Nice euphemisms.”

  “I know you think it’s silly to worry about ritual murders in this day and age,” she said, stirring the okra around with a skimmer. “And I’m sure you’ll do what your dad does and say that Miss Maggie’s prayer meeting is over the top—”

  “I don’t think that,” I said. “I think it’s nice, the community coming together.”

  “Honey, are you scared?” she asked.

  Out of reflex, I almost said no. But I hesitated. Maybe it was the constellation of tender bruises and cuts on my body. Maybe it was knowing that the Wardens had faced an ambush unlike any the group had ever seen, or knowing that three more boys had been marked for death since then. Whatever it was, it broke my resolve. “A little.”

  “You don’t need to be. Someone’s just trying to cause a stir. They have to know they’re not going to get away with anything.” She stroked my hair, smiled, and handed me a chafer of fried food. “Now make yourself useful and help me load the car. Dad’s already at the church helping set up.”

  “I thought he said it was over the top.”

  “Yeah, but he’s wrapped around my little finger,” she said with a wink.

  When she was gone, I brought breakfast back to my room and peeled off my robe to appraise the damage I’d been too exhausted to care about after hunting with Kate and Lindsey. Clusters of chiggers and mosquito bites added insult to injury, but the bruises were already healing and the cuts scabbing over. I wondered if our slightly accelerated healing rate meant that Brianna and Heather would be back in fighting shape before tomorrow night.

  I got a text from Maggie to the group. I’ll be attending the meeting and searching for any second shadows we may have missed. I encourage those of you who are interested to attend and pray fervently that tomorrow will be the day this all ends.

  Reaching for a sense of comfort about tomorrow night, I considered going. But I didn’t want to go into that sanctuary yet. Only a few hours remained before I had to fix my focus on the battle yet to come, and I wanted to spend that time with Levi.

  At the same time, I feared he’d already started changing the way Ryan had changed.

  The Triad had assured us that there’d been no premature takeover of any Shadowed boys before the last attempted Claiming and told us to not read too deeply into a haircut and some new clothes. They told us everything would proceed as planned and to meet at the hideout tonight to receive our instructions for tomorrow night.

  Now that Levi had been Shadowed and the Claiming was coming up fast, some of the doubts I had tucked away over the past few weeks sprang out of hiding. I’d scoured Grandma Kerry’s letter for any hints I might have missed between the lines but had come away empty-handed. I’d tried to weave some kind of logical context for what Nora had done during the last Claiming, but that was a dead end, too. She had let down her shield and allowed darkness to penetrate her spirit without fighting back. It made no sense.

  The idea of one of those horrible creatures seizing Levi as a vessel hit me in waves of terror. How powerful would the Woodwalkers be in new bodies? What terrible things would they do to the people in this town if they had a magic that mirrored ours and were able to walk among us?

  There was so much we didn’t know, so much Malachi had never understood about the revenge curse she had wrought and its repercussions.

  While I waited for Levi to answer my text letting him know I was awake, I sat crisscross on my bed and perused the Book of Wisdom, browsing for any spells or rituals that would be useful during the witching hour tomorrow night, when the Woodwalkers were free to possess the bodies they’d chosen and take them to the sacred glade, where they could complete the Claiming. Where they could take forever what did not belong to them.

  I chanced upon the page
that someone had removed. I hadn’t thought about it since my first time flipping through the book. “Basically sacrilege” was the phrase Vanessa had used to describe removing an entry from the Book of Wisdom. I trailed my finger along the torn edge. The more I studied it, the surer I felt that the page hadn’t been ripped out in a fit of rage, but surgically removed, sliced out. The act of a disciplined person, a rule follower. Or perhaps a rule maker.

  “Hmm,” I said aloud before flipping back to the divination spells. There was a spell for finding lost things, but since the missing page had never belonged to me, I wasn’t sure it would work. Then again, it seemed worth a try. It required a single bone, an empty glass, to represent the hollowness of loss, and a gray candle, to stimulate clairvoyance.

  The contents of my starter kit clanged and sloshed as I dragged it toward me. I’d added dozens of items, and I happened to have a gray candle stub. For bone, all I had was my newly assembled sortilege set, which Vanessa had said could never be used for anything else. I tapped my chin, thinking, and then remembered the real elk antler chew toy outside in the dog run.

  Trio of items in hand, I went to Grandma Kerry’s room, shoved the bed and rug aside, and sat in front of the Warden’s Rune. I lit the candle and arranged the objects in a way that felt proper, with the book at the center of the mark, the antler above it, and the two other items beside it.

  Centering my mind and spirit, I conjured a blurry image of the missing page and read, “A precious thing has been mislaid, surrendered, stolen, or has strayed. I ask this bone to be my guide; show me where the lost thing hides.”

  I waited. If the page had been destroyed, nothing would happen. That seemed the most likely outcome, and I girded myself for disappointment. But the antler scraped across the wood floor as it calibrated like a compass needle, spinning back and forth and eventually pointing northeast. Now that it was enchanted, it would show me the right direction as I journeyed, pointing me along until the lost page was found.

  Pleased, I blew out the candle and collected my supplies. While I dressed—a black tank top and dark jeans had become my Warden uniform—Levi texted me back and invited me over. My capricious curiosity about the missing page could wait.

  My truck was back from the shop, making cantankerous noises but otherwise functioning. On my way to Levi’s, I tried calling Faith for the third time, but there was no answer. I felt guilty going to his house without making amends with her first. But after we stopped the Claiming, I told myself, thinking positive, I would do everything in my power to save my friendships.

  When Levi answered the door, my first thought was that he didn’t look any different, not like Ryan, not like I’d feared. He was himself, his eyes dancing mosaics of warm colors, no hint of any shadow, no evidence that anything had changed.

  My second thought was regret that I’d put no effort into my appearance. He wore a loose-fitting denim button-up and smelled so good that I wanted to stand there drawing in his essence like a fragrance sample at a beauty counter. I practiced some self-control and stepped inside the quiet house, glancing into the kitchen and to the top of the stairs.

  “They’re at the meeting,” he said. “We have the place to ourselves.”

  “I’m sorry I slept late. I could have come over so much sooner.”

  “You needed rest,” he said, brushing off my apology. I could hear barely restrained excitement in his voice. “And it gave me time to get ready.”

  “Get ready?” I asked, looking him up and down. There was no way it had taken him more than half an hour.

  He took my hand and interlaced our fingers. “Come with me.”

  Out back, under the shade of an oak tree near the pond, he’d set up a picnic in the bed of his truck. I gasped. White paper lanterns floated in the branches overhead. Sunflowers peeked their bright faces out of a basket on a checkered blanket that held an array of sophisticated snacks for two: a baguette, fruits, cheeses, and jams. There were pillows lined up against the back of the bed, and even mini handheld fans to help us keep cool.

  “Let’s try to forget about tomorrow, at least for a while,” he said, tugging me by the hand. “I know you have to go at sunset, but until then…”

  Grinning until my cheeks ached, I let him lead me across the yard. “Do you like it?” he asked as I stood next to the open tailgate, absorbing every detail. I wanted to remember this forever.

  “This is the most amazing thing anyone’s ever done for me.” I turned to stand on tiptoe and capture his mouth with mine. He gripped my hips and lifted me onto the truck bed. His arms encircled me, sifting through my hair, holding me as if the world would end soon. Maybe ours would.

  But he cut off the fervid kiss. “I don’t want you to think I’m trying to take advantage of the fact that today might be the last day we—”

  I laughed, my cheeks flushing hot at the mere suggestion. “I didn’t think that. Besides, you said you wanted to forget about potential impending doom.”

  “It’s harder than I thought.” He sighed and settled next to me. “I can feel this weird change inside. It started the moment that…it happened. Otherwise, I’d have trouble believing in the Claiming.”

  The Triad had caved and told him what he needed to know, nothing more. “What did you see during the ambush?” I asked.

  “Blurs and shadows,” he answered, squinting his eyes as though reliving the moment, trying to make out what he’d seen in the dark.

  “How’s Emmy?”

  “The nightmares are worse than ever. She choked on dirt in her sleep again. I’m ready for this to be over, for all of our sakes.”

  It was a strange paradox, to be dreading something imminent while feeling anxious to put it behind us. It made the next few hours feel too short and too long at the same time. Soon the warm pink hues in the sky gave way to an expanse of cool indigo, and the paper lanterns looked like fairy lights.

  I realized that he and I were night and day: kept apart by the cruelty of a mysteriously magical universe, converging and sharing the same exquisite sky for moments that passed too quickly.

  “I should go,” I said, but made no move to leave the comfort of his embrace. I was sweating, curled up in his arms and propped against the pile of pillows, but I didn’t care one bit.

  “I wish you didn’t have to,” he whispered into my hair.

  I shifted to look at him. The stunning greens and ambers in his irises glimmered, hypnotizing me. But something dark slithered through his gaze, and his arms suddenly felt like a cage.

  “I have to go,” I said, pushing myself up. I half expected him to try to hold me back. I remembered Vanessa’s theory that Ryan had been sent out to lure potential victims to the Woodwalkers, and I scanned the woods at the back of the Langfords’ yard for something lurking just beyond the Wardens’ protective boundaries.

  “What’s wrong?” Levi asked, blinking the darkness away. Guileless and confused, he reached for my hand, but I ripped it away. “Nat…”

  “I just have to go.”

  We both climbed out of the bed. He took in my wild, fearful expression, and didn’t try to touch me again. He seemed tempted to offer words of comfort, then closed his mouth in a hard line.

  And we were better off leaving it at that. Every touch brought me closer to the threshold of irrevocable pain should he die tomorrow night—or worse, should he be claimed by some other soul entirely.

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  The prayer meeting had ended by the time I reached the church, but there were a few stragglers outside the fellowship hall. My parents were loading up their leftovers in the car. Good. They would get home before full night descended.

  I circled the block and came back when they were gone.

  For the first time in a while, the sanctuary gave me the creeps. I could imagine the scene after the last massacre too clearly: the bodies spread around the room, some untouched, others battered from fighting the people who were trying to save them. The Wardens had brought the bodies of the ones who had
escaped back here, leaving them for the pastor to find.

  When the pastor had called the police, distraught, they’d told him not to disturb the scene and to get out in case the murderer was still there. Their reports had been factual and clinical, but shock seemed to bleed through the careful words. How could twelve more boys have died in San Solano without a trace of useful evidence—and no discernible cause of death?

  “Nat,” Lindsey said, emerging from the choir hall and hurrying to squeeze me in a tight hug. “I’m so, so sorry. I want you to know that I’m ready to fight with everything I have tomorrow.”

  “What are you sorry for?”

  She stiffened and backed up a step. “Did Kate not tell you?”

  “I was out back trying to call her,” Kate said, sweeping in, clearly stressed. Frizzy dark hairs drifted from her ponytail, and bluish veins stood out on her pale temples. This was the first time I’d seen her looking anything close to haggard. “The cell service here…” She shook her head, realizing that was immaterial. “Nat, your dad’s been Shadowed.”

  I stared at her. “No, no way,” I finally managed. “They want young men. Why would they—?”

  “I know,” Kate said, gripping my shoulders as though I might burst into pieces. “It’s almost like they’re getting more hostile toward us.”

  “I put up more secret wards around the house, around everything, just in case!” I shouted, a ragged desperation in my voice. “And that was on top of my grandma’s protections.”

  “You did everything you could,” Kate assured me.

  “I should have been there. I could have stopped it. I should have watched over him better.”

  “Do not blame yourself. You can’t follow your loved ones around every second of every day. Believe me, I resist the temptation constantly.”