The Enchanter Heir (46 page)
Read The Enchanter Heir Online
Authors: Cinda Williams Chima
Jonah tried to move, but it was like his wrists and ankles were weighted . . . too heavy to lift. When he lifted his face out of the dirt, his head was spinning, and he nearly puked. He finally managed to lift his head enough to look past the tree toward the house. He could see two costumed figures kneeling on the ground about thirty feet away. His vision swam until all he could see were blotches of color and lurid streaks of light.
“Will,” Fitch said, his voice low and strained. “There’s another body. Over that way.” He pointed.
Jonah struggled to clear his head. Had he been attacked as well? Was he in shock from blood loss, or . . . ? Truth be told, he felt sicker than he’d been since—since right after Thorn Hill. And Emma . . . what about Emma? She’d gone straight back to the house after the argument, hadn’t she? Could Rowan DeVries have returned with reinforcements? His heart froze in his chest. Was Emma lying dead with the others?
“Do you know any of them?” Will was asking. “No, but there’s a lot of people here I don’t know,” Fitch said. “I’m kind of out of touch since I’ve been away at school. And this one . . . he’s wearing a mask. Do you . . . do you think I should take it off, or—”
“Don’t touch anything,” Will snapped, pulling out his cell phone. “We don’t want to compromise the crime scene. Just . . . we better go back to the house until the police get here. I don’t think anybody should be out here alone.” He sat back on his heels, jaw set, peering into the trees. Instinctively, Jonah froze, knowing that movement would draw attention more than anything.
You’re not guilty of anything, he thought. Why are you hiding? That
does
look guilty. And yet, he didn’t move.
After a long moment, the two boys stood, turned, and sprinted toward the house.
Jonah rolled over onto his back and propped up against the tree, fighting back another wave of nausea. His hand closed over something metallic. Familiar. He looked down. A dagger with a long, razor-sharp blade, smeared with blood. At first he thought it was a shiv, but no. Just a dagger.
His muddled mind tried to make sense of it. Had he brought a blade along for some reason? No. Why would he?
It seemed to take a superhuman effort to get to his knees. On all fours, he scanned the ground around him. Here was another dagger, similarly bloodied. And bits of leaves and berries, as if someone had put a fistful of plants through a shredder. His skin prickled and burned, like he’d been scalded. There was something about plants—something he should remember. And then it came to him. Nightshade. Deadly nightshade. Belladonna. Had he been left for dead like the other victims of Lilith and her crew? Or had he been set up to take the fall himself ?
Using the tree as a prop, he managed to get to his feet. His hands were smeared with blood to the elbows. His T-shirt and jeans, too. He ran his hands over his body. No obvious wounds. He felt more sick than wounded, but he probably looked like he’d been the guest of honor at a bloodbath.
Or the host.
He swayed, nearly falling before he caught himself. His head felt like it might explode. Was it possible? Could he have totally lost it, out here in the dark? Blanked out and gone on a rampage?
If he hadn’t done it, then who had? Lilith? Or Rowan DeVries, making damned sure that Jonah was caught with blood on his hands this time?
One thing reassured him: none of the victims was dressed in torch-singer black. Emma was not among the dead scattered around him.
Already, he could hear sirens in the distance. He needed to buy some time. He needed to figure this out. And if he went to jail, he’d never, ever come out.
So Jonah did the only thing he could do.
He ran.
Table of Contents
Prologue Thorn Hill, Brazil
Chapter One Mean Old World
Chapter Two Too Little, Too Late
Chapter Three Slayer
Chapter Four Lies and Secrets
Chapter Five Debriefing
Chapter Six Kenzie
Chapter Seven Motherless Child
Chapter Eight Teach
Chapter Nine Good Morning, Little Schoolgirl
Chapter Ten If Trouble Was Money
Chapter Eleven I’m in the Mood
Chapter Twelve Sharks
Chapter Thirteen Monster to Monster
Chapter Fourteen Shadeslayer
Chapter Fifteen Escape from the Flats
Chapter Sixteen Heir Apparent
Chapter Seventeen Trinity Faire
Chapter Eighteen Interguild Play
Chapter Nineteen Kinlocks on the Case
Chapter Twenty Backdoor Man
Chapter Twenty-one After Midnight
Chapter Twenty-two Melee
Chapter Twenty-three Kiss of Death
Chapter Twenty-four Down by the River
Chapter Twenty-five Safe Passage
Chapter Twenty-six Survivor
Chapter Twenty-seven Can’t We All Just Get Along?
Chapter Twenty-eight Vigilante Justice
Chapter Twenty-nine In a World of Trouble
Chapter Thirty Ask Me No Questions
Chapter Thirty-one Anaweir
Chapter Thirty-two Do-Over
Chapter Thirty-three North Coast Blues
Chapter Thirty-four Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Chapter Thirty-five The Anchorage
Chapter Thirty-six Audition
Chapter Thirty-seven Born Under a Bad Sign
Chapter Thirty-eight I’m with the Band
Chapter Thirty-nine Home of the Blues
Chapter Forty War Games
Chapter Forty-one Fire
Chapter Forty-two Got Ourselves a Gig
Chapter Forty-three Halloween
Chapter Forty-four Mingling
Chapter Forty-five Showtime
Chapter Forty-six Death Came Knocking
Chapter Forty-seven Night Moves