“Of course it’s me,” Tatyana exclaimed, laughing nervously. I couldn’t feel her usual cool and curiosity. There was anger and longing—the toxic kind that burned holes through my stomach. This all felt different.
I put my hand out, the white pearl on my Esprit lighting up like a miniature star. I’d recently learned that if I aimed my Esprit at someone, while focusing on my Empathy, I could dig deeper and get an even better read on a person. I hadn’t used it often because my instinct was good enough on its own for most circumstances, and it took a toll on my energy—but right now it was worth it, and I was able to instantly identify two independent strands of emotions.
One was strained and fearful, desperate to get back to the surface. The other was furious and missing someone… I could almost see her face before me. Long, flowing hair. Wild green eyes. A smile that made my heart flutter. I gasped, realizing that I’d tapped into a string of emotions that carried powerful images with them. That was something I’d never seen or experienced before. It scared and enticed me, all at once. It also confirmed a most dreadful fact.
“Tatyana’s not in control anymore,” I said.
Wade noticed my Esprit and the look on my face and frowned. “You can feel Oberon?”
“Oh, yeah. Absolutely. He’s behind the wheel,” I replied.
“Tatyana, you have to push him out!” Santana shouted. “Push the bastard out! He’s controlling you!”
Tatyana smirked, crossing her arms. “You’re way too loud, you know that?” she replied dryly. “I told you to chill out. I’ve got this under control.”
“Oberon Marx. You don’t belong here,” Wade hissed. “Leave now or you’ll regret it.”
“What part of ‘I’ve got this under control’ didn’t you understand?” Tatyana spat.
“I have a hard time believing that,” Raffe said. Rage was boiling inside him, tainted with malice and a thirst for blood… violence. At that point, I wasn’t sure whether I should be more scared of him than of a possessed Tatyana. “Unless you’re speaking as Oberon, in which case, yes, you have control. Over a body that’s not yours. Release her!”
“Don’t you have anything better to do than butt into my business?” Tatyana asked, her Esprit bracelet twinkling blue.
“That’s it. I’m pulling your ghostly ass out of there!” Santana said, darting toward her.
Tatyana smirked, then used her Telekinesis to swat Santana away like a fly. She gripped Raffe by his throat, trying to suffocate him. Wade cursed under his breath and launched a fireball at her—he didn’t aim to hurt her. The purpose was to distract her.
It worked. Tatyana let go of Raffe, dodged the blaze, and jumped back a couple of steps. She grinned, her eyes glimmering yellow. That wasn’t a good sign, since it probably meant that the spirit was sinking his teeth into her flesh, determined to never let go.
I took a step forward, ready to use my Telekinesis on her, but Wade motioned for me to stand back.
“Hold on,” he said. “Don’t. There’s a mighty Herculean in there. Force clearly isn’t an option here. It’ll take more than a tackle to stop him.”
“We can’t just let him—”
“Just listen to me, for once, and wait!” Wade cut me off.
“Well, at least you kids aren’t as stupid as I thought,” Tatyana announced, her voice doubled—both female and male, as if she and Oberon were speaking at the same time. It was freaky, to say the least.
“Let go of her, Oberon,” Wade warned. “You know there’s a soul in there already. And you know what happens when you possess someone in the long term, right?”
“It doesn’t matter!” Tatyana-Oberon snarled. “I have a body now, and I’ll use it to do what I have to do. Once I get my own body back, this one can burn for all I care!”
Santana managed to get up, panting and holding her side. “You’re loco if you think I’m going to let you destroy my friend!”
She charged Tatyana—this time, however, her Orishas came out to help. A dozen bluish wisps of raw energy swirled around Santana, before dissolving into her body and lighting her up from the inside. Glowing and seething with anger, Santana rammed into Tatyana.
Tatyana grabbed Santana by the throat, delivered a series of crippling punches into her ribcage, and tossed her aside. Santana rolled on the ground, limp. Raffe leapt to his feet and let out a bloodcurdling roar. I’d never heard or seen him like this. Judging by the looks on Astrid’s and Wade’s faces, however, they had, and it seemed to spell serious trouble for all of us.
“Raffe, stand down!” Wade commanded.
Raffe shot him a glance over the shoulder. Only then did I spot the change—the fiery red in his eyes, as if volcanoes were erupting in there. Raffe bared his teeth, seemingly feral and raring to tear into Tatyana. He panted, his chest swelling with every breath. The malice and viciousness I’d sensed coming out of him earlier was now blaring at full volume, as if his otherwise calm and composed nature had been literally trampled, making way for… the beast.
“Raffe! I said stand down!” Wade raised his voice.
“Raffe, don’t… You’ll kill her,” Santana croaked, propping herself up on one side. Blood was trickling from the corner of her mouth.
The sight of her seemed to be enough to make Raffe’s inner storm subside. Tatyana-Oberon grinned, watching as Raffe exhaled heavily, before rushing to help Santana.
“You’re in over your heads,” Tatyana-Oberon said. Then she darted toward Wade, but his instincts were fast, and he managed to beat her back with a bright blaze. She stilled several feet away from him and carefully eyed each of us, probably looking for the weakest spot. Santana was off limits, it seemed, since Tatyana-Oberon gave Raffe a nervous grin. She preferred not to cross him.
“And you’re about to get your ass thrown back into the veil!” Astrid shouted. She looked at Wade. “Use the Krinkman-Sadler exorcism. This area is secured for that.”
“What’s that?” I asked, moving slowly to the side as I looked for attack angles. I wanted to have a shot of my own at taking Tatyana down, immobilizing her without hurting her.
A split second later, Wade released another fireball at Tatyana-Oberon. She dodged it, but it exploded just above her—a nifty trick I’d seen him use before. It forced her down on her belly, coughing and wheezing from the sudden burst of heat she’d inhaled. It hurt me to see her like this, but we had to stall her as much as possible until we figured out what to do.
“I had to double check the coven’s blueprints to make sure,” Astrid said. “The Krinkman-Sadler exorcism is a difficult thing to do since it requires a ton of Dark energy. There are parts of the coven where the walls are imbued with Light energy, and parts where it’s Dark. This garden is Dark, and Wade will need some of that to perform the exorcism.”
“I’m confused. Are we talking about Darkness and Light? As in the Children of Chaos? The kind of energy that’s supposed to run through us, naturally?” I asked.
“Well, you’re behind on your theory, it seems,” Tatyana-Oberon sneered at me, then got up and stepped forward, assuming an attack stance. The spirit was taunting me, banking on anticipation to make me nervous and cripple my concentration. How the hell am I the weak spot?
“Yes. I’m not Dark by nature, I’m Light,” Wade explained. “So, I need extra Darkness energy to perform the Krinkman-Sadler exorcism.”
He threw out a trio of exploding fireballs this time, forcing Tatyana-Oberon to drop and roll in order to avoid another throat-burn.
“Which is a Dark ritual,” Astrid added. “Raffe’s Dark, but his is not the kind of energy you want to let out for this, trust me.”
“Why not?” I replied.
“I’ll explain another time! Just stand your ground and keep your eyes on Tatyana!” Wade said. “We need to find a way to restrain her. My fire won’t stall her forever.”
Tatyana-Oberon laughed. “Good luck with that.” She raised her hands and pushed out a Telekinetic barrier so powerful it felt like a tidal wave, throwing us all backward. I wound up rolling over the garden path stones, then lying on my back, the air knocked out of my lungs.
Wade grunted as he tried to get himself back up, but Tatyana-Oberon wasn’t done. Her Telekinesis was amplified by that of the spirit, making it twice as powerful and potentially deadly. She sent out another pulse that pushed us all back down. It felt as though she had her boot pressed against the back of my head, stuffing my face against a patch of hard ground and grass.
I cursed under my breath, struggling to release myself.
“Lordy, you kids are stupidly easy to overpower,” Tatyana-Oberon said in a double voice.
“Tatyana…” Dylan’s voice emerged from the other side of the garden.
I managed to look ahead, spotting Dylan as he staggered toward us. He was wearing his infirmary garb—the open-back gown. Had I not been under the pressure of a ghost’s Telekinesis, I probably would’ve thrown out a backdraft joke at Dylan’s expense.
He saw us, then frowned, setting his sights on Tatyana-Oberon, since she was the only one standing.
Surprisingly, she stilled at the sight of him.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, her voice barely audible.
Tatyana’s emotions flared through me. She was trying to reach out to him from the depths of her consciousness, where Oberon had stashed her.
“Astrid left me one of her tablets, to patch into CCTV and check out the place if I’m bored with streaming movies,” Dylan said, frowning. “What’s going on with you?”
“She’s possessed,” Santana groaned.
Dylan’s shoulders dropped. His concern and fear rammed into me. But it was quickly drowned out by determination. Dylan wasn’t one to wallow in the dark stuff.