at him now is darkness. And not a normal darkness. Comparing the color black to what he is encased in is like comparing a picture of the Grand Canyon to actually standing on its edge and looking down. It’s so deep, it’s disorienting. That’s what looking at Jared is like. An endless darkness that is just as frightening as it is deep.”
“Can you draw it?” Grandma asked. “The symbol. Do you remember what it looks like?”
He shrugged. “I can try.”
She stood to scrounge up a pen and a piece of paper and handed them to Cameron.
“So, it’s a symbol, right? It’s sending a signal,” Glitch said. “Then why don’t we just disrupt the signal?”
Glitch, ever the techie, but he did seem to have a point.
Cameron sat with head bowed in thought. “There’s something even more strange about this.”
How could this get any stranger?
“It’ll heal,” he continued. “They’re descendants of nephilim. They had to know that. They have to know how fast he heals. And when he heals, whatever power that binding spell had over him will cease to exist. Or are they too stupid to realize that once that scar heals and the light resurfaces, he’ll kill them all?”
“You’re right,” Granddad said. “Branding Jared was like putting duct tape on a collapsing dam. It might hold for a little while, but when that dam breaks, nothing will stop it.”
“Absolutely nothing,” Cameron agreed.
“I think they are very aware of that fact,” Granddad continued. “But it was obviously a risk they were willing to take.”
“So why now? Binding Jared can’t last more than a few days.”
Grandma looked at him. “He could kill us all in the flash of a moment. Can you imagine what he could do in a few days?”
“That’s true,” Brooke said. “But maybe they know something we don’t. You guys keep talking about a war. Maybe it’s coming now and they wanted him out of the way.”
“But why?” I asked, no closer to understanding. “What would they have to gain? This a war that has nothing to do with them.”
“It has everything to do with every human being on Earth,” Cameron said, “so that’s a definite possibility. Whatever the case, we need to reverse the spell. We need him on our side.” He glanced at Granddad, a worried expression drawing his brows together. “We can’t fight what’s coming alone. If we’re going to have even the slightest chance, we need him.”
“But what if that’s not it?” the sheriff asked. “What other motive could they possibly have?”
“A pretty simple one, actually.” Cameron stopped drawing the symbol. “They needed him out of the way for another reason.” He nodded toward me. “Just long enough to take out the prophet.”
I straightened when the focus shifted my way. “You still think they’re after me?”
Granddad put a hand over mine. I saw for the first time the sadness that pressed on his shoulders. They didn’t seem quite so broad as usual. Quite so strong. “Either way, this needs to be dealt with now.”
Cameron placed a hard gaze on Granddad. “I have an idea, but you aren’t going to like it.”
“There’s nothing about this I do like. What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking Glitch-head is right.”
“Can you not call me that?”
Cameron ignored him. “We need to disrupt the signal. We need to distort the symbol somehow.”
“Of course,” Grandma said. “We need to break the lines, to make it not mean what it means.”
“And how do we do that?” the sheriff asked. “It took three tranquilizer darts and a nephilim just to get him to the ground.”
“Then we’ll use four this time,” Cameron said.
The sheriff seemed doubtful. “He’ll see that coming.”
Cameron looked at me, his eyes suddenly glistening with hope. “Maybe not.”
BARGAINING CHIP
I tiptoed into the room where the monitor was set up. The screen was still black, no signal whatsoever, but the audio was on. I heard a sound here and there. A tap. A scrape.
Filtering as much hope as I could into my voice, I whispered, “Jared?” The sounds stopped. I waited a full minute, gathering my courage, before asking, “Can you hear me?”
After a long moment, he said, “Yes.”
My eyes slammed shut. I turned up the audio so I could hear from a distance, then walked to the vault door. “If I let you out, will you take only me and spare my family and friends?”
He waited again before asking, “Bargaining now?”
I looked over at Cameron. His mouth formed a grim line as he beckoned me to continue with a nod. I took a