27
EVERY INCH OF MEhurts when I wake. It starts with my head—Benton must have hit me—but the ache spreads all the way down to my toes. Like I’ve been thrown down a flight of stairs.
Maybe I have been.
My eyelids struggle open, and the light sends a fresh wave of pain through my head. When my eyes adjust to the brightness, I realize I’m surrounded by rich black leather, cramped and shoved into the tiny backseat of a two-door sports car.
With Veronica.
I try to call her name, but I can’t. Duct tape covers my mouth, the discomfort masked by all the other pain in my body. But though I can’t form the words, my voice hums in my throat.
Benton glances in the rearview mirror, and there’s a glint to his eyes that I’ve never seen before. “You weren’t supposed to wake up.”
The tape over my mouth muffles thefuck you, asshole, but even as I glare at Benton, panic rises, threatening to drown out all my training.
Where is he taking us?
What is he going to do?
Why didn’t he just shoot us?
At least my hands are bound in front of me. I rip off the tape,cursing at the pain. My eyes sting, but even as I taste blood on my lips, I try to focus. “Veronica? Veronica, wake up.” I reach out and feel for her breath. It’s there. Faint, but there.
I inhale deep, trying to draw courage from the air, but it doesn’t help. Nothing helps.
“She’s not going to wake up.”
“Excuse me if I don’t trust the guy trying to kill us.” I lean forward and search under the seats, looking for something—anything—that might be helpful. If I can untie my hands, I can at least get an air message to my mom.
Benton flashes me a look I can’t read. “Trust? That’s rich, coming from the girl who broke into my house.” His fingers tighten around the steering wheel. “Do you have any idea how much a door like that costs?”
“Screw you.” I reach for my magic and I find... nothing. The swirl of power in my chest is there, I canfeelit, but I can’t access it. Can’t try my grandmother’s advice to steal the breath from Benton’s lungs until he passes out cold.
Benton must see the tense concentration, the panic, the worry, because he smiles. “It feels amazing, doesn’t it? To be completely human for once.”
“What did you do?” My head swims as he takes another sharp turn, and I slide across the leather seat, closer to Veronica. He probably gave me a concussion with the blow from the gun, but that’s not enough to block my magic. “What did youdoto me?”
“It’s an old family recipe, actually. We’re so close to getting it right.” Benton sighs, and there’s this hitch in his voice. “I tried so hard to keep you out of this, Hannah. I wanted to save you, but you wouldn’t leave it alone.”
His words send a chill down my spine. The effect is sobering,but it doesn’t clear away the fog slowing my reactions. “What are you talking about?”
Benton glances in the rearview again, his eyes shimmering. “The drug’s effects aren’t permanent yet, but soon we’ll be able to save you. Instead of killing you, we can make you human.”
“Wearehuman. We’ve alwaysbeenhuman.” I try to sound reassuring, but I can’t hide the bitter rage swirling inside. “We’ve never done anything to you.”
Veronica is still unconscious beside me, oblivious to the danger we’re in. I reach out and stroke the hair from her face, and my fingers glance across cool metal. I pull the bobby pin from her hair and hide it between my hands, my heart thudding loud in my ears. I don’t think I can angle it right to cut away the tape at my wrists, but if I could free my ankles, I’d have a chance to escape.
“Your kind is a danger to society. We can’t take that risk.”
I ignore Benton. Clearly, the other Hunters have him convinced he’s a hero, and I’m not going to waste precious seconds trying to undo whatever brainwashing they’ve done. Instead, I pull my knees into my chest, wincing as the movement pushes a wave of nausea through me.
Focus.I swipe the sharp end of the bobby pin across the tape, but it’s too dull. There’s no way it’ll cut through fast enough. I shift the pin and angle it so the edge pokes through the layers of duct tape. I retract the metal and puncture the tape again and again and again, forming a jagged line of holes in my binding. I flinch each time the tapepopsas the pin pokes through, but Benton doesn’t seem to notice.
Shit. I suck in a breath when the next stab misses and goes through an existing hole, stabbing my leg. I wince as it breaks theskin, drawing Benton’s attention. “How did you figure out what we are?” I ask, desperate to distract him from what I’m doing.
He taps his thumbs against the steering wheel and signals for his next turn. “We received word of a family of witches moving east, so we’ve been on high alert for signs of magic. I noticed Veronica first.” He glances in his mirror, like he can see her slumped against the window. “At the party in the woods. I thought it was weird how quickly the fire went out, so I set a trap for her at Nolan’s. I set a small fire outside the bedroom door to see what she’d do.”
I can see it. Veronica opening the door to flames, dampening them without a second thought. Restarting them after she and Savannah were clear so Savannah wouldn’t notice what she’d done. “I should have let you die there.”
