''I get it,'' he said, ''the sun so loved the moon...''
His voice trailed off. We both knew the story. We knew it all too well. He was looking at me thoughtfully. I, however, turned away.
''What if,'' I began, ''the sun didn't want to die for the m...
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Johnathan removed the blade with a sickening squelching noise.
Tucker grunted in pain, the sound horrifying to my ears, and almost sank to his knees, but my father held him up. Tucker's eyes appeared as if they were about to shift, but they didn't change into the fluorescent blue I'd gotten used to. While his eyes remained angry, Sophia's magic and my father's ability to whisper had muted his abilities, and they didn't glow.
My jaw set as I looked back to the compass on the ground, my hands shaking. Tucker's breath was coming and going in short little bursts that sounded as if they were choking him. My father had nothing to lose and everything to gain while I had everything to lose. But that had to strengthen me- I couldn't afford to shut down. I glanced at Tucker, unable to clutch his wound and felt my heart constrict. Would he heal? Or had Sophia inhibited that ability as well?
My fingers flexed as I picked up the compass, standing under Alice's watchful eye. It still possessed that strange hum, but there was a louder vibration that I could feel all around me. The energy rolling off of a wounded Tucker and the other supernatural creatures in the circle caressed my skin and called to me. Even the remnants of the last of Tommy Joy's energy still lingered near the river.
When I looked up one last time, my father and Alice were still staring at me as was everybody else in the circle. The large amounts of hunters around the circle all stood, ready to spring into action if I were to make any sudden movements. The creatures they were watching were docile in front of them, their abilities reigned in by the power of a whisper and a jilted witch.
Alice's face twisted in a sick smile- one that I was, unfortunately, growing used to. This time, however, I forced my face to match hers. Her smile faltered as she watched mine grow, assuming I knew something she didn't. And she was right. I did.
She made to grab me, instinctually, attempting to stop whatever I was about to do.
CRACK.
She fell limply to the ground as my fist connected with her face. I had no time to revel in how bad it hurt because I was focused on how awesome it finally felt to hit that stupid bitch in the face. My father was motioning and yelling for more hunters to come forward and subdue me as I dropped to the dirt, my hands firmly pushing into the hard-packed and cold ground. I scraped my fingers back, feeling the mud in my fingernails and feeling the power of the earth underneath me. The energy from the lines forced my eyes shut as I let myself welcome the power. I controlled it- like Thomas said- it didn't control me.
The hum grew louder and my hands shook. When I opened my eyes again, I saw each of them circled around me. The two vampires, the daemons, the fair folk, the witches, the Joys. All of them were standing before me, eyes shut and faces pale. A strange mist-like substance was surrounding them. A concoction made by my father and Sophia no doubt. Something to keep them all docile- pliant to their will and ready for the sacrifice.
