He turned to the crowd. Muttering to himself.
“It looks like everyone—wait, where’s your little shadow?”
“Who?”
“Tatiana. Have you seen her?”
Tatiana. Chubby fingers curled around crayons and knock-knock jokes. I didn’t get a visual of her, just an impression.
“I-I don’t know,” I admitted.
Lucifer narrowed his eyes at me and then tilted my face to see it better. He ran the backs of his fingers down my cheek. It was a surprisingly gentle touch for a such a terrifying-looking man.
“Stay here. Don’t move. I’ll find you.”
Then he faced the institute. Looking left and right to search the crowd, he spied a nurse. She ran toward him, gesturing wildly at the building, tears streaming down her face.
The demon nodded, clenched his tight jaw, and put his head down. He glanced back at me for a long moment.
I found my feet taking a step toward him before I could register even moving.
He shook his head once, forbidding me closer. Then he turned back toward the blaze and walked unerringly into the burning building.
See... I told you he was a demon.
I couldn’t breathe properly. My throat was tight and my lungs cramped. Something crawled up my throat as I watched the man stride back inside.
Fear?
A car horn sounded behind me, and I whirled around. Dr. Blackwood, sitting in the driver’s seat of a small black car. He pushed open the passenger-side door.
“Get in. I’ll take you into town.”
“What about the patients—the fire?”
“Emergency services are already on their way. The patients will travel into town as well.”
I hesitated. I was freezing cold, my limbs shivering in the snow, and there was nothing I wanted more than to get in a nice warm car, but...
It felt wrong. Leaving when everyone was standing outside felt wrong.
Leaving before that man had emerged from the fire felt wrong.
“Katarina, your mother is waiting for you. Get in.”
My mother.
I was moving toward the door before I could stop myself. I slid into the warm interior, and thoughts of my mom filled my head. Yes, I’d go home and see my mom. Comfort at the very thought filled my chest. Despite the fog in my head, she was clear.
Blackwood reversed the car, and that nagging feeling that I shouldn’t be leaving like this reappeared. If only I could think more clearly.
A chain around my neck threatened to strangle me, caught in my sweater. I tugged at it. It was long, with a pendant hanging far down my chest, caught between my breasts.
I pulled it carefully free from my tangled sweater.
Blackwood sat forward, staring intently at the dangerous roads. Fire engines streamed past us on the way to the institute, disappearing in the rearview mirror.
It wasn’t a pendant, I realized, when I uncovered the whole necklace.