“Shall I escort you back to your parents? Perhaps they can keep you under—”
Santana’s eyes suddenly turned black, the rapid change silencing Leonidas.
“She’s about to Purge!” Raffe shouted. “We need to get her out of here, fast!”
Santana doubled over in pain, clutching her stomach as her face drained of color. Her arms jerked in a way that told me Santana had lost control. Her legs spasmed, her shoulders jolting backward with such force I thought she’d fall. I reached out to grab her, only for an Orisha to pop out from beneath her skin. More followed, all of them swirling around her in a vortex, the spirits buzzing about her in terror.
Feeding my Telekinesis out toward them, I tried to contain them in a wall of shimmering energy, but their fear was overwhelming. It shattered the Telekinetic shield and the magic that Raffe was hurling toward them. They didn’t want to be trapped with whatever was coming out of Santana.
“We need help!” I yelled toward Santana’s parents. They came running, their own Orishas bursting out of them to help calm Santana’s worried spirits. Her mother began to chant something under her breath, releasing a powerful gust of energy that caught the Orishas in an invisible net. They tried to break free, but her mother’s magic was too strong.
“EVERYONE OUT!” Leonidas led the frightened crowd out through every available door. Alton was nowhere to be seen, but a few of the preceptors assisted in the evacuation. Pretty soon, there was nobody left in the room but Santana, her parents, me, and the rest of the Rag Team. All except Astrid and Garrett, who still hadn’t shown up.
“Everyone prepare to fight this thing,” Wade said, breathing hard. “It looks like it’s going to be a strong monster. What the hell caused this? It’s way too soon for Santana to be having a Purge like this.”
My cheeks burned with guilt. This was because of me. She’d stopped me from summoning whatever I’d been about to summon, back in New York, and this was the result. She must have used a more powerful spell than I’d realized.
“Whatever happens, we can’t kill it,” Raffe chimed in, before I could answer. “It’s part of Santana. She would want it to be kept alive.”
Her mother nodded. “I agree. Do you have any jars here?”
“I’ll get them,” I said, sprinting for the door. I didn’t stop until I reached the entrance to the Bestiary. Tobe was in the middle of cleaning some of the glass boxes, but he looked up as I screeched to a halt on the marble floor.
“Harley?” he asked, his tone concerned.
“Purge… happening now… Santana… BIG one!” I wheezed, catching my breath. “We need a jar.”
He nodded and pulled one out from beneath his golden wings, before chucking it at me. I caught it in one deft swoop. Seriously, what else does he have in there?
“There are crowds,” I explained. “We need to hurry.”
“Get on my back,” he instructed. Lowering himself down onto all fours, he folded his wings behind his back.
I frowned at him. “Are you serious?”
“It is the swiftest way of reaching Santana,” he replied.
With no time to argue, I hopped up onto his back and looped my arms around his neck. We took off across the Bestiary and out into the hallway. With his paws scraping on the floor, he bounded through the evacuating crowds, who quickly dispersed at the sight of a hulking Beast Master coming at them at full speed. He could really move, covering ground way quicker than I could’ve. Within a couple of minutes, we were back inside the vaulted space of the Assembly Hall.
The Rag Team, along with Santana’s mom and dad, were busy trying to subdue a serpent-like creature with a ruff of feathers and glinting scales. At first glance, I thought Quetzi had somehow escaped, only this beast was smaller. Orishas zipped through the air, spiraling around the serpent to confuse it, while Wade shot fireballs to stop it from escaping. It recoiled as one hit it in the side of its head, giving Dylan the opportunity to slide in and grip it by the tail, holding it fast as it wriggled and writhed, its jaws snapping violently in every direction. It moved like a whiplash, striking without warning.
With the jar still clutched in my hand, I leapt down off Tobe’s back and rushed toward the fracas. I put the jar down in front of the serpent, only to have it strike at my chest, the blow sending me hurtling back against the far wall. I put out my arms in an attempt to lessen the impact, my hands smashing against the thick stone with a sickening crunch.
I sagged to the ground, struggling to shake off the pain that ricocheted through my bones. When I lifted my hand up, I gasped. Two of the gemstones on my Esprit had shattered. They were the ones channeling Earth and Air—the two elements I had yet to fully master.
Getting to my feet, I scanned the ground for the missing shards, but they were too small to find.
Great… that’s just what I need.
Glancing over at the others, I watched as Wade reached into his pocket and deposited a bunch of the small, green entrapment stones in a circle around the serpent. It reminded me of the first time we’d met. He was still as cocky as he’d been back then, but he’d well and truly won me over. He stopped, dropped, and slapped the ground hard, the way he’d done that first time, his mouth moving as he muttered something. His rings lit up, while the crystals glowed to life, greenish-white beams crisscrossing over the Purge beast. The serpent thrashed against it, looking for a way out of the entrapment net as the glowing ropes flattened the creature to the ground and singed the shimmer of its scales.
Standing up, Wade lifted his hands across the beast, his rings turning that familiar shade of red. He whispered something as the snake writhed and slithered, before it disintegrated in a puff of black smoke that sank down into the glass of the Mason jar. Major déjà vu. The net vanished a moment later, leaving Wade to pick up the used stones and the Mason jar to glow red.
I was relieved to see that they’d managed to capture the serpent safely in the jar, though Santana had slumped to the ground in a broken heap. Her body shivered all over, her teeth chattering. I could hear them from where I stood.
At least she’s alive, and that beast is in a jar. At least there’s that.
My smashed gemstones paled in comparison to her suffering. Still, I could feel their loss moving through my veins. I’d only just started to get used to the Esprit, and now I’d lost half of my channeling power. With Katherine looming large around us all, the timing couldn’t have been worse.
Thirty
Santana
I bolted upright, bright light streaming into my eyes. With my chest heaving and my heart pounding a million miles a minute, I struggled to get my vision to focus. Black spots danced like Orishas in my line of sight. A hand grabbed my shoulders.
“Hey, it’s okay, you’re safe.” Raffe’s familiar voice cut through the panic in my head. “Calm down, you’re in the infirmary.”
As I took a few deep breaths, the anxiety fled from my body. My head felt fuzzy and everything ached, but if Raffe said I was okay then I had to be. Ugh, what the hell happened? Why do I feel like I’ve been hit with a freight truck? Slowly, my vision cleared, revealing Raffe perched on the edge of the bed. He smiled at me, a furrow of concern pinching his brows together.
A nervous chuckle rippled from the back of my throat. “I’m so glad to see you, Raffe. I thought I was losing my mind for a moment,” I said. “Seriously, I had this freaking crazy nightmare, right before I woke up just then. I dreamt that I was at the Family Gathering and I Purged right in front of your dad. I think I might have said something to him before it happened, which was embarrassing enough. Dreams are so weird, aren’t they?”
Raffe nodded slowly, a strange expression on his face. “They are… but that actually happened, Santana. That’s why you’re in here. You’re in recovery after a pretty nasty Purge.”
I gaped at him in horror. “Is everyone okay?”
“Everyone’s fine, although my dad probably should’ve worn his brown pants to the party.” He chuckled, but I couldn’t bring myself to laugh with him. All I could think about were those poor bastards who’d witnessed me Purge, right in front of everyone. Frankly, I was mortified. It was on par with calling a teacher “Mom” or not noticing you had toilet paper on the bottom of your shoe.
“Oh my God, I can’t believe I did that,” I said. “I just thought there was something wrong with the heating. I never thought… I’ve been so absorbed in everything else that’s been happening lately, I didn’t notice the signs my body was giving me. The sweating, the slurring, the pains. I’ve been a total idiot. I can’t believe I put so many people in danger.” I held my head in my hands, wishing I could turn back the clock. I’d done some stupid things in my time, but this topped the lot.
What must you think of me, Raffe? You saw me like that… What am I going to say to your dad the next time I see him? “Yeah, sorry about the whole Purging everywhere thing. It happens, right?” I’m sure that’d go down well.
I looked up as Harley entered, a broad grin on her face. Everyone seemed determined to cheer me up, but I felt like hiding under a rock for the rest of my life. Purging in public wasn’t exactly a common thing to do, and I felt like I’d broken rule number one of the coven guidebook. I’d put people in danger. No quantity of smiles or jokes could put me in a better mood. Nope, you’re going to have to deal with Captain Sourpuss for a while.
“How’re you feeling?” Harley asked, taking the chair on the opposite side of the bed.
“Grim.”
“Wade just came to tell me that your Purge beast is safely stowed away in the Bestiary,” she said brightly. A little too bright, Merlin. Your acting skills are terrible. “It’s like a smaller, less terrifying version of Quetzi. Like, I wouldn’t try to keep it as a pet, but I wouldn’t fear for my life if I got in a box with it. Tobe seems pretty smitten, though I guess he gets like that with most of his creatures.”