My mouth pinched, and I cleared my throat, but Chaos didn’t take the hint.
“The skin looks like charcoal because it is burnt. It will flake and rain down around it as it moves, scorching the earth.”
“Whoa.” I pinched the bridge of my nose and squeezed my eyes shut. That was not good.
“Are you okay?” Ember rested a hand on my shoulder.
“Yeah. Just a lingering headache from yesterday. It sounds like someone summoned a demon. You don’t think they were coven members, do you?”
“They’d better not be. With all the shit that’s gone down in the past few months, a power grab wouldn’t surprise me, though. I’ve heard rumblings about my lack of leadership skills.”
My empty stomach suddenly felt like a brick dropped into it. Why hadn’t the idea crossed my mind before? “Wait. Do you think Mom, Dad, and Cinder… Do you think someone’s picking us off one by one? Do we have a traitor in the coven?”
“No. No way. They might submit a vote of no confidence to the Higher Power, but they wouldn’t use violence or kidnapping.” Her words may have said that, but the tightness around her eyes and mouth said she wasn’t so sure.
“Mutiny is already abound.”
“No, it’s not.” I stomped toward my tattoo machine.
“What’s not?” Ember followed.
Crap. Can it, Chaos. “It’s not a coven member. They wouldn’t dare. So, what do you want then? If I could figure out a way to make speed and strength permanent on you, it would save us a ton of time.”
“I need you to come with me and check it out.”
I laughed. “You’ve got a short memory, don’t you?”
“It’s not an active scene. Whatever took those kids…if anything took them at all…is long gone. Hell, the boy could have been tripping on acid and imagined the whole thing.”
“Let’s hope.” I crossed my arms and worried my lower lip between my teeth. It sure would have been handy if Chaos could read my thoughts. I had so many questions. “I’m still not sure I should go. What if something is still there? I could burn the forest down if I had to fight.”
“Nothing is there. The humans have been there for two hours already. If a demon wanted to take someone else, he’d grab a mundane before he’d mess with a witch.”
“Unless he had a vendetta against witches.”
I scoffed. “Like you?”
“Or like you,” Ember replied, though my comment was directed at Chaos. “You’re the best at reading spells. I need you to figure out what, if any, magic was used so we can locate the missing kids.”
“If they’re really missing.”
“Exactly.”
“All right. I can handle that, but if a hungry beastie pops up, that’s all you.”
She grinned. “Deal.”
CHAPTER FIVE
“I don’t like this.” I slid out of the van and slammed the door before pacing around to the driver’s side. Ember wasn’t packing her sword, nor did she let me arm her with sigils. “What if something happens? What if it’s a trap?”
Her brows shot toward her hairline before she recovered. “It’s fine. Look, Chief Higgins is right over there, and his gun is holstered. If there was a threat, he wouldn’t be chewing on a toothpick with his hands on his hips.”
I crossed my arms. “He’d be blind to a magical threat.”
She waved a hand dismissively. “It’ll be fine. Here.” She slid open the side door and retrieved her sword from the secret compartment in the floorboard before laying it across the back seat. “It’s ready if I need it. I’ll take care of you, little sister.”
It wasn’t me I was worried about. I had no problem turning tail and running if things went south. Ember, on the other hand, would fight a demon with her bare hands bound behind her back before she’d retreat.
“Move toward the law enforcer,” Chaos said. “I sense a rift.”
“A rift?” I clamped my mouth shut. I seriously had to stop talking to the voice in my head.
“What?” Ember closed the door. “Did you say a rift?”
“A tear in the fabric of the veil. A hole.”
“Yes, I know what a rift is.” I rolled my eyes.
Ember narrowed hers. “What’s wrong with you? You’re not making sense.”
I ground my teeth. “Sorry, I misunderstood you. I think I sense a rift in the veil. Like a hole or something.”
She cocked her head. “How? What does it feel like?”
“Umm… Different?”
Chaos grunted. “The other realm has a lower vibration. I sense it bleeding through.”
