Page 60 of Spell Ya Later

“Draven the one who pulls your strings?” My voice is tired. My eyelids are heavy but I force them open.

“Draven—” his voice drops and he gets right in my face. The stench of blood lingers on his breath, “—is the one who will destroy your entire family. Too bad you won’t live to see it.”

My body flies off the tree and slams back into it. Pain blooms at the back of my head.

Again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

“Hazel!”

Mom?

The world goes black.

Chapter 22

Nothing

The light is what wakes me. It burns even with my eyes shut.

Voices follow. Grandma, Laura, Mom.

Mom?

Despite their heaviness, I blink through the pain and open my eyelids. I’m in Grandma’s cottage, presumably in her bedroom. The floral wallpaper extends to this room, which is about the same size as my bedroom in my apartment.

“She’s awake,” Laura says, a mix of relief and something else in her tone. She’s standing in the open doorway, soon joined by both Grandma and Mom.

Grandma approaches first, sitting down next to me on the royal-purple bedspread. Mom lingers in the doorway. If I thought she was closed off the day I left, well, she’s outdoing herself now. Her shoulders are square, her posture rigid. She’s barely even looking at me.

“How do you feel, sweetheart?” Grandma asks. She waves her hand over my face, a healing warmth emanating from her spread fingers.

I instinctively lean toward it, as if it can burn away the pain. “Like shit.” My voice is hollow and breathy.

Laura snorts from the corner of the room. “No shit, bitch. You got your ass beat.”

“Laura.” Mother’s voice makes the Earth stop spinning for a second. I’ve never heard her sound like that. Sharp and callous, as emotionless as her face. Laura shrinks back into her corner, arms wrapped around herself.

“Laura has a point,” I say. Even now, I revel in the way Mom’s nostrils flare at my response. I hope that pissed you off.

Grandma’s face falls, the disappointment rolling off her in waves. “Not now, girls, please. I’ll go make you some tea, Hazel. Sarah, join me.”

Surprisingly, Mom follows her out of the room and closes the door behind her.

I lean back and close my eyes against the headache that pounds under my eyelids. I must have a concussion; I hit that tree too many damn times to come out unscathed.

“What were youthinking?”Laura’s voice holds a fresh disappointment that cuts through my heart like the daemon cut through my skin. She’s hurt. She’s scared.

And I did that. Not anyone else.

Me.

But I can’t answer her question. I don’t think she’d understand even if I tried.