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Kody cupped his face in her hands and forced him to look at her “You have your powers Can you take us home? If you’re back in your own body, they won’t be able to track you Right?”

Caleb shrugged

Kody popped him on the arm

“Ow!” He rubbed the spot where she struck hiood to lanced around the yard to where Savitar and Ash were still unconscious Bubba, Mark, the two Tophers, and Cherise were cautiously leaving the house He aze then Caleb’s and finally he returned to Kody, and all the while the pain in his chest burned deeper andFast “I can try”

She leaned down to place a chaste kiss on his lips “You will succeed”

Like Caleb, Kody made it all sound so easy But Nick lacked her optis on what he needed to do to get ho h he’d been stuck here forever

Stop co At least you have your powers back

That was true Not to mention, his father had told him that this body couldn’t contain his real spirit If he could bypass that realht make it back to where he came from and no one would be able to track him there All he had to do then was kick the other Nick out of his skin and hope for anotherat the ridiculousness of that, too

Closing his eyes, he tried to focus

“You can do this, Nick,” Kody whispered in his ear as she clutched his hand in hers “I have complete faith in you Think of your mom and Aunt Mennie and Liza and Kyrian All the people who love you The ones who need you”

Her voice was so hypnotic It lulled him into a sense of cos he valued at home The people ere his fah, it felthim to sleep In spite of the pain, his eyes beca, he went co, Nick tried to grab hold in the darkness Nothing was there He couldn’t even hear Kody’s voice any This was an absolute cessation of sensory input He could no longer hear, see, taste, s His eyes rolled back in his head

And still he fell

Angry and scared, he su he had and did his best to stop the free fall

Suddenly, the darkness began to cradle hihtly over his chest just as it’d done earlier He heard the sound of a thousand hooves running far away like a powerful thru heartbeat

Then he saw the Alory Tall, evil, and unstoppable Covered in arht, with a sick look on his face Dressed in his own battle ars extended, Caleb brushed his hand over the blood that covered him “Your enemies have been routed, my lord They are down to only a tiny handful who’ve taken refuge in the church”

Nick, as the Aave his report He turned his red gaze to his once trusted friend who no longerto him “You dare condemn me?”

“No, my lord It’s not my place” What had he done to Caleb to make him so subservient? Never had he known the de him like that

Fear was not respect It was only a cold substitution He would rather have Caleb’s biting sarcas to placate him But the Ambrose Malachai didn’t seem to care or to notice the difference He usted by the sight, Nick shook his head to clear it and forced his thoughts to his mother and his home He had to return to her Without him, she was defenseless

“Talk to me, Kody Guide me back toin his ears until it overrode the sound of his own heartbeat

I’m lost

No He couldn’t think that way If he did, he really would be lost and he’d never return to the world he knew The world he loved

I et The landscape was home Back to the world thatwas his nerdy friend and Stone was the one who slaative

Abnormal normality

“Come to me, Nicholas I canvoice that filled him with an inexplicable joy It was like a

He alave in, until he remembered one fact he’d learned the hard way—beware the easy path It’s never as simple as it seems Even Zavid had warned him of that, and he knew it for fact Don’t sell your soul for a lifetime of slavery to avoid a brief tio down in fla forced on hiet so to make it easy on her

Nick concentrated as hard as he could on the horounded for life by hishi his heels in and refused to let it sway hirowled “You will not own me You will not control o and he fell fast enough that his eyesight blurred

He slalass His spine felt busted Fragments showered him as he finally caroaned out loud in utter agony Afraid yet determined, Nick opened his eyes to , growling ith bared fangs

Nick started to attack until he realized where he was He knew that elaborate crownThat ornate French

This was Caleb’s house

That would lare suspiciously at hiet you so onaway, Zavid returned to his human form He narrowed his eyes suspiciously “Gautier? That really you?” He reached out and his hand passed straight through Nick’s body

Nick let out a sound of disgust He didn’t even want to knohat he looked like right now “That’s not a good sign, is it?”

“Depends Are you alive or dead?”

“I’ with alive because it beats the alternative”