glittered in the moonlight as she stared at me across the circle. For a moment, her face had a wild look to it, more like a feral dog gauging its prey than a friend looking at a friend.
"You know," I said, taking a step back. "I think I'm going to need another minute."
She took a deep breath, then smiled. "I know it's scary, baby, but if we're going to do this, we should do it. We are running out of minutes." She started to walk around the edge of the circle, toward me, and I found myself stepping along the circumference, too, keeping it between us. She pointed toward my feet.
"Now be careful," she said. "You want to watch your step around that circle. If it gets broken, this could go terribly wrong."
I stepped back a bit, keeping an eye on the carefully drawn circle. "Wrong how?"
She stopped where she was, and I stopped as well, directly across from her. "What?"
"What happens if it goes wrong?"
"Won't go wrong if you do what I say," she said, her voice deepening.
"Okay, you're officially freaking me out."
She smiled warmly, and her voice softened. "I know. But it's for the best, right? I mean, you want to protect your town, don't you?"
"Right," I said. "So just ... close my eyes and think of Nodaway?"
She laughed. "Something like that." Her smile faded. "You know, if you want to turn back, it's not too late. But once we start ... well, then it will be tough."
I thought on that for a moment. Part of me wanted, very badly, to turn back. To run home, to crawl under my covers, and wake up in the sunlight and figure out another solution. But the rest of me knew there was no other solution. The next time someone got attacked, I would no more be able to stop it than I had been able to stop things the other night with Frankie, or tonight with Peach. And the next time, someone might get killed, and if they did, it would be my fault, and the very idea of that was way worse than anything I would be dealing with here, tonight. Davina wasn't going to let me get hurt, and this was the best shot we had at getting rid of Cain. Once I didn't have what he wanted anymore, everything would be okay. I just had to suck it up and get through to the other side; maybe I couldn't save the town from a rampaging redneck asshole, but this much, I could do.
"Let's get this done," I said, and took a deep breath, raised one foot, and stepped carefully over the powdered line, into the circle. I didn't realize I was holding my breath or scrunching my eyes until a moment later, when Davina said, "Gonna need to open your eyes, baby."
I opened them, and she handed me a water bottle. It was pink plastic, and had flowers on the side, which just seemed ... wrong for a potion.
"So, I drink this? And that's it?"
"Yes," she said. "I already said the prayers for your protection, and the circle has been purified. All you have to do is drink that, and I'll take care of the rest."
"How much do I have to drink?" I asked.
"As much as you can. What's in that bottle is your best shot at surviving this process."
I felt tears come to my eyes, and my leg muscles began to tremble. "It's going to hurt, isn't it?"
Davina reached out and touched my face. "I'm going to take care of you. You trust me, right?"
She's not your friend.
It was the memory of Cain's voice in my head now, and there was no way I was listening to him.
"Yeah," I said. "I trust you."
Davina smiled. "Good." She touched the bottom of the water bottle in my hand, nudging it toward me.
"Let's get this over with, okay?"
"Okay." I lifted the bottle, pulled the top open, touched it to my lips, hesitated, and then squeezed. "Oh, god," I sputtered, spitting and choking. It went down like fire, harder than any alcohol I'd ever tasted. Davina rubbed my back and said, "I know, but it's all we've got. Remember, this is what's going to protect you when we get started. You have to drink it or it's just too much of a risk."
The tears splashed down my cheeks, partly from the burning in my esophagus, and partly from the terror I felt, but I thought of Peach being pelted into