Renegade (Heven and Hell #4)(13)
Author: Cambria Hebert

I adjusted my backpack strap on my shoulder and looked away. “Look, if I tell you something, can we keep it between us?”

This got her attention and she smiled. “Oohhh, a secret.” She capped some kind of makeup in her hand and tossed it into her locker, grabbed her water, and shut the door. “Tell me.”

“I’m serious, Kimber. Not a word.”

She crossed her arms and leaned her shoulder against the wall of lockers. She was enjoying my discomfort. “Who else knows about this?”

I gritted my teeth. “No one.”

Her eyes lit up. “Not even Heven?”

“Forget it,” I said and started to walk away.

She caught the sleeve of my T-shirt and pulled me back. “Fine.” She sighed. “I won’t tell anyone. Swear.” She held out her pinky finger and I stared down at it.

“What’s that?”

She wrinkled her nose. “It’s a pinky swear.” She grabbed my hand and hooked her pinky around mine and shook. “Now it’s sacred.”

I didn’t think her touching her pinky with mine made anything sacred, but if that kept her mouth shut I wasn’t going to argue. “You said you saw a skeleton hand in the lake.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I’m not crazy,”

Had she heard that rumor around the school, too? “I know that. You’re right. It was Andi’s hand.”

She drew back. “Are you playing games with me?” she hissed.

“No. Listen.” I stepped closer. “China—the hellhound that was trying to kill Heven?” When she nodded, I continued. “She was at your party. She killed Andi.”

“What?” Kimber shrieked. Down the hall someone looked our way.

“Shhh!”

“Sorry,” she mouthed and motioned for me to go on.

“She did it because she looked like Heven, and China wanted me to think it was her.”

“That’s sick.”

“I didn’t know what to do. Heven didn’t know about me then. No one knew, and if the cops came and started asking questions…”

“You dumped her body in the lake, didn’t you?” She rolled her eyes and sighed.

“I didn’t dump it. I placed it there. Gently.”

Kimber snorted. “Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

“That’s the thing. It doesn’t. I feel guilty. I went back there to, you know, bring her body back up so it could be found, but it was nothing but bones.”

Kimber nodded like she understood.

“I want her family and Sean to stop worrying. I want them to be able to get on with their lives.”

“What does this have to do with me?”

“I was thinking maybe you could use your magic to bring up the body, so it’s all still together and can be found.”

Her mouth flattened. “I don’t have my power anymore.”

“No. But you might someday. Maybe then?”

I saw refusal come into her eyes, but then it disappeared and she nodded. “Yeah, okay. But I make no promises on that hand. Who knows where it is now?”

“Thanks.” I felt better just knowing Andi might get some peace.

Kimber shook her head. “What else have you done that we don’t know about?”

I stared at her, silent.

She sighed dramatically. “Fine. Don’t tell me.”

“Look, I don’t want anyone to know. Not Heven, not anyone. The less people that know the better. I don’t want Heven implicated in case someone ties the body to me. I want everyone to be able to deny any knowledge.”

“Except for me.”

“Something tells me you can handle it.”

That made her look smug. I wanted to laugh because it hadn’t really been a compliment.

“Do you really think I’ll get my powers back?”

“You miss them?” When she nodded, I said, “They didn’t seem that strong down in hell.”

“That’s because I was in hell, with my soul out of my body. Trust me. I can do stuff.”

I hoped I could trust her. If she sold me out to the cops, it wouldn’t be the first time she’d backstabbed someone.

Chapter Six

The Vile

I stalked through the cave. The things I saw moments ago were unacceptable. How had this happened? Someone would pay for this. I would not have it!

The wall of fire was thick, hot and blazing. It should be no match for the kind of power that resided behind it. I reached through the burning flames and opened up the cell door. A decrepit body came forward, along with a soul without a body. I lifted my hands and spoke, pulling the body and spirit through, enjoying their screams of pain as they were burned.

They deserved that and more.

As they cowered on the floor, I waved another hand to put out the fire. Without the angry roar of the flames, the dungeon plunged into silence. I hated silence. It was too still.

“What is the meaning of this?” I roared. “How could you allow this to happen?”

“We were tricked,” the hag of an old woman said on her knees before me. “My powers have been bound.”

“How could anyone, a mere girl, bind your powers and trap you on your own land?”

The old hag looked up. “The dust, the golden dust,” she muttered. “She has the power of the sun.”

This I did not know. This I had not seen. “Tell me more.”

“She must have found where the flower grows. She could lead us to it.”

I heard the desperation in her voice, the pleading behind her words. I wanted to punish her, but I wanted that flower. I wanted its location.

I reached into my pocket and brought out a black velvet pouch. Her eyes widened in hope. I grabbed a handful of the black powder and threw it at her. Instantaneously, a heavy cloud of black surrounded her. Within, purple lightning cracked and flashed. When the dust settled, Hecate stepped out, no longer the burned, old hag.

She was young and beautiful once more, with onyx hair and flawless skin. Around her shoulders was a blood-red cloak. She smiled triumphantly, as if she won.

I threw out my hand and the age of the old hag began to creep up her hands and turn her skin paper thin, allowing the veins and wrinkles to show through. She began to shriek as she held up her hands and watched her newly returned beauty fade away. “I returned your powers to you, unbound them, but only because I want that flower. I want its location. You will find it. If you do not, I will reduce you to that blithering, weak hag and let you rot for your eternal life in misery.”