Claire was about to give up on trying to remain calm. She’d been sitting here for hours and there hadn’t been a sighting from Claudia. She was willing to do whatever it took to bring down Abigail, but this waiting was crazy.

It didn’t help that her phone had been ringing off the hook. Obviously her friends had realized she was gone. Even though she’d turned off the ringer, she couldn’t help checking it constantly to torture herself. Was she really never going to talk to them again?

Just as she was starting to become tempted to answer the next call that came in, Claudia appeared right in front of her. Claire jumped back in her seat on the couch and her phone tumbled to the ground.

Claudia eyed the phone skeptically but didn’t mention it. “I’ve found Abigail. Are you ready?”

Claire decided against telling Claudia what a stupid question that was. Of course she wasn’t ready to take on Abigail and probably die in the process. Instead, she stood, picking up her phone, and closed her eyes, trying to find whatever peace she could. “Let’s get this over with.”

Before she opened her eyes, she felt Claudia’s cold hand on her arm and the world seemed to tilt on its axis. Claire winced at the unnatural feeling, and when her lids opened, they stood outside on a street she didn’t recognize. From the modern style of the buildings around them, she was going to guess they were in the Upper East Side.

She had barely gotten her equilibrium back when Claudia pulled her to the side until they were in the shadows of a building. Claudia was tense and her eyes darted along the cars parked along the street. It was a dark, deserted time of night when almost no one was out, but Claire was betting that soon rush hour would completely change that.

“Where’s Abigail?” Claire looked around, trying to find any sign of Sam’s mother or any other witchy activity, for that matter.

“Close,” said Claudia, not turning her attention back to Claire. The fact that Claudia was tense had Claire close to terrified.

“So what’s the plan, Stan?”

That got Claudia’s attention and she turned her stern gaze on Claire. “Don’t call me Stan.”

“I....” Whatever. She didn’t have to apologize for trying to defuse the tense situation with humor, no matter how stupid.

“Abigail will be leaving soon. Then you’ll have to do what you do best. If the darkness realizes you’re here, you’ll never make it there in time. The element of surprise is the only advantage we have.”

The words were in the calm, cool, powerful voice Claudia always spoke with, but the tension throughout her entire body was more than obvious. She was nervous and that was damn terrifying.

Though what did Claire have to be afraid of at this point? She was going to be out of the picture soon enough. She leaned back and let Claudia continue to be on the lookout. Almost subconsciously, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and stared at the little blinking light.

She didn’t have time or the emotional capacity to make a call to explain herself. Instead, she went to the text messages and, refusing to read any of the many she’d received from Dante, Sam, and Derek, she opened up Sam’s information. She felt the need to say something, but nothing was enough. So she wrote a quick “I’m sorry” before she powered down the phone and put it back into her pocket.

She squeezed her eyes shut as the mixed emotions swirling around inside threatened to take over. She could do this. She would do this, damn it.

“The darkness approaches,” said Claudia.

Claire squeezed her eyes shut and when she opened them again, she was ready to go. “How am I supposed to get close?” Surprising someone as powerful as a darkness-fouled Abigail wouldn’t be easy.

“I will distract her.”

“I’m not Sam,” said Claire sternly. “Now isn’t the time to hide things from me. How exactly are you going to distract Abigail?” Well, apparently knowing she was about to die made her ballsier than normal.

“I’m going to distract her by making myself a target.” Claudia turned. They were the same height, but Claudia still managed to look down her nose at Claire. “You’re not the only one willing to die for this.” Then the doors of a nearby building opened and Claudia’s attention was immediately on the movement. “Don’t disappoint me, Claire.”

With that, she walked away. Her strides were long and confident, and Claire only hoped that she could be that put together when it was her turn to approach Abigail.

Abigail herself had left the building and was surrounded by an entourage. Claire was just trying to think of ways to get past the entourage when Claudia waved her arm, sending all of the witches down the street.

That solved one problem. Abigail started to say something, but Claudia wasn’t waiting around. She held her palm out and a burst of blue flame shot out to Abigail.

Abigail threw her arms in front of her face just in time to stop the fire from hitting her. Claire knew that she wasn’t going to get any more distracted than this, so she stepped out from the shadows and started for the frenzy in front of her. She knew that if she gave herself time, she’d chicken out, so she sped up to a jog and ran straight for her best friend’s mother.

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“I think we found Abigail,” said Derek as the entire street was lit up by the blue flame.

Parker slammed on the brakes before they got too close. For a second, they both stared out the windshield. “I don’t want to sound like a coward or anything, but I think we should stay in the car.”

He was inclined to agree with her. When they’d run Abigail Harris’s credit card activity and came up with, strangely enough, a hit on one of the parking meters here, they had planned to drive by to see if it checked out. They’d never planned to confront anyone. “I need to tell Sam we found....” Derek trailed off when he saw the little blonde running across the road before the flames obscured her. “Fuck.” He jumped out of the car and pulled out his sidearm as he tried to assess the situation. Claudia seemed to be giving it her all and Abigail seemed to be straining under the effort to keep the fire away. Would it be possible for Claudia to beat her? Maybe this whole thing would be over before he needed to step in....

But then the flames started to die down and Derek knew it was wishful thinking. Before he could even aim his gun at Abigail, Claire appeared behind her and set a hand on the bared skin of her wrist. A look of surprise came over Abigail, but before she could twist around, she lurched forward as if she were about to gag. Claire’s grip tightened as Claudia fell back a few steps, obviously drained from her display of power.

Derek could only focus on one thing at a time and Claire was his priority. He started toward her but ended up slowing down as he approached. She and Abigail were both writhing on the concrete sidewalk. His first instinct was to get Claire the hell out of there, but he knew she was the one who had killed Jackson. Considering she was touching Abigail, she had to be doing the same thing, but she wasn’t in control like she had been the last time he’d seen her use her strange power. What she was doing now was hurting her.

Killing her.

“Leave her!” called Claudia from where she leaned against a car on the street.

He heard footsteps approach and glanced over just long enough to see it was Parker.

She looked just as conflicted as he did. “We’re just going to leave her?” she bit out.

Derek didn’t know what to say. Claire had chosen this the second she’d walked away. He knew from experience how hard the darkness was to kill. Was he just supposed to sit back and watch this happen? Was that what Sam would want him to do? Was that what his brother would’ve done?

But then Derek saw movement out of the corner of his eye. Five people were running right for Abigail and Claire. Derek had no idea who they were and went against every piece of training he had as he fired off a shot toward the ground in front of them. The bullet did nothing to stop their approach, and he knew it was only a matter of time before they reached where Abigail and Claire were lying defenseless. “We’re pulling her out,” he said even as he was already closing the distance between him and Claire. He managed to get to Claire right as the other witches did. But they ignored Claire and instead pulled an immobile Abigail back into the apartment building while Claire was still gasping in pain.

He hooked one arm behind her shoulders and one under her knees and lifted her up, carrying her away from the chaos as quickly as possible.

“Get her,” he said to Parker, motioning to Claudia as he got Claire to the Charger and put her in the backseat. By the time he looked up again, Parker was leading Claudia to the car. The older woman leaned heavily on Parker, showing just how drained she was. He slid into the driver’s seat and had just pulled the car seat back when Parker slid into the passenger’s seat and tossed him the keys.

“Where are they?” she asked as he slammed on the gas, taking them away from the shitshow as fast as possible.

“Distracted,” he muttered, taking the first right and running a series of red lights. “Once Abigail recovers, she’s going to be pissed.” And if she wanted Claire dead before, she was going to move hell and earth to get it done now.

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Sam stood back as Dante carried Claire into the apartment. Claire was awake and didn’t seem all that happy about being carried. “I told you I could walk,” she said as Dante made his way to her room.

As much as Sam wanted to give them privacy, she wanted to yell at Claire a hell of a lot more. “What the hell were you thinking?” she snapped before Dante even set her down.

“Sam,” said Derek warningly.

“No. I thought we were a team. All of us were supposed to be open and honest with each other no matter what and Claire thinks she can go off and sacrifice herself without even saying good-bye?”

Claire looked down and balled the comforter between her fists but didn’t say anything to defend herself. Before Sam could yell anymore, Derek grabbed her upper arm and pulled her out of the room to the living area, where Angela stood awkwardly.

“She’s had a rough night.”

“She’s had a rough night?” shouted Sam. “We’ve all had a rough night thanks to her. Thanks to what she did. We have problems coming at us from every direction and we don’t need to be wasting time running after her!” Why wasn’t anyone else angry? Why wasn’t Dante fuming? Why couldn’t Derek understand that Sam had spent all night thinking she might never see her best friend again?

Was she the only one who hadn’t gone completely insane?

Finally, Derek said calmly, “Did you ever think that Claire doing this was how she thought she was going to solve our problems?”

“Well, she didn’t,” bit out Sam. Logically, she understood what Claire did and why, but she wasn’t even close to calming down about it.

“Besides,” said Derek. “It’s hard to say no to Claudia. You know that more than most.”

That brought Sam up short. “Claudia? What did she do?”

Derek looked between Sam and Angela. “I thought Parker told you.”

“She told me to get my ass here. What happened with Claudia?”

“She was with Claire. If you’re wondering why Claire left, it’s because Claudia told her to.”

Sam shook her head and her hands tightened to fists. But it wasn’t in disbelief. Because if there was one thing she believed, it was that Claudia was capable of pulling a stunt like this. “Son of a— Where is she now?”

“Downstairs,” said Angela. “Last I saw her, she was calling her bodyguard. Apparently she didn’t have enough juice left to twitch her nose out of here.”

Sam twisted around and strode out of the apartment, slamming the door behind her even though it never latched as Derek and Angela followed her out.

“Where are you going?” Derek kept up with her as she took the stairs two at a time.

“I’m going to find Claudia and shove my foot up her magical ass.” Sam stopped for a second and pointed a finger at Angela. “You stay here and keep an eye on Claire. If she tries to sacrifice herself again, shoot her.”

Angela looked as though she was wondering whether Sam was joking or not, but apparently decided against asking because she wordlessly turned around and ran back up to the apartment. Derek stayed close as she flung the apartment doors open to see Claudia standing on the street, head down as she spoke in hushed tones to Bastian where he stood on guard next to a limo he had apparently procured for them.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” called Sam as she approached, trying her best to keep the fire under control.

There was a hesitation before Claudia looked over at Sam, as though she was debating just ignoring her altogether. “There’s nothing wrong with me. That’s the problem, Samantha. You don’t want a plan to save the world. You want to save your world. The people you care about. What I have brewing, what I’m working on, will destroy the darkness for good. But if you think everyone you care about is going to make it out of this alive, you haven’t been paying attention to just how tight a hold the darkness has on this family.”

She wanted to defend herself, but she was becoming more and more convinced that Claudia was right. How could she be so naive to think that she could come out of this unscathed? Especially after the people she’d already lost....

“That’s bullshit.” Derek stood by Sam’s side, facing down Claudia as if she wasn’t one of the most powerful people in the city. “Will everyone survive what’s coming? Maybe not. But they sure as hell won’t if we don’t do everything in our power to make sure they’re safe. We can’t give up without exploring every possible route.”

Sam stood up straighter, bolstered by his words. It was easy to doubt herself when confronted by someone who intimidated her as much as Claudia. The reminder that she wasn’t facing this alone was comforting.

“No, she’s right,” said a sickeningly familiar voice.

As Sam turned, she heard the swoosh of Bastian pulling out his sword and the click of Derek pulling out his sidearm.

But Abigail didn’t seem the slightest bit afraid of them. She was flanked by four witches, each with the blank expression of being controlled by the darkness. Which made it five against four.

“Get to the car,” bit out Bastian as he moved to stand in front of Claudia.

At the same time, Derek started to push Sam behind him, but she made sure she still could see what was happening. From their night together, she felt energized and ready to contribute whatever she needed to the fight. She had learned from painful experience that she might not be enough to take on Abigail, but she was willing to do what she could to the minions.

Abigail ignored everyone and stared directly at Claudia. “Going to run from me again? Your lungs must be exhausted from all this cowardice.”

Sam looked between the two women. Abigail was throwing out a lot of threats, but she’d never actually attacked Claudia. What was she waiting for?

Bastian wasn’t playing around, though. One hand still held a sword, but the other grabbed a dagger, and he threw it through the air and impaled one of Abigail’s minions through the heart.

The witch Sam barely knew fell dead on the street. Black liquid oozed out from the knife wound. The confrontation had been reasonably private until then, but the early morning crowds of people around them saw the attack and a woman screamed. Just like that, chaos erupted as people started to scatter.

Derek aimed his gun at Abigail but didn’t shoot.

Was he waiting to see what Abigail was going to do or was he remembering that beneath the deep hold the darkness had on the minions, there was a real person who probably was being used against their will?

Well, Sam had been that person once, and she knew just how improbable it was to save them. And she hated to admit it, but they were already too far gone. And the longer Derek waited, the more chance he’d be caught in the crossfire.

She took a page from Bastian’s fighting style and shot a blast of fire at two of the minions. Their reaction time was dulled by the darkness, and it was only after they started to burn that they both ducked for cover. Derek fired off three shots at the fourth minion, hitting him in the chest each time, causing him to fall to the pavement and the oily substance to spill onto the ground.

Abigail considered the three of them. “I appreciate your balls, but this doesn’t concern you.” Then with a wave of both of her hands, she sent Bastian, Derek, and Sam flying away from Claudia.

The magical blow was so forceful that Sam didn’t stop until she slammed into a nearby car. Any pedestrians who weren’t scrambling away before were now full on running. Sam tried to push herself up to run back to Claudia, but her arms seemed to forget how to work. It had taken the three of them to take out the minions, and Abigail hadn’t even batted an eyelash.

But Claudia was stronger than all of them. She had to be able to put a dent in the darkness.

“Just the two of us, Mommy Dearest,” said Abigail in a singsong voice, belying the danger of the situation.

“You’re not my daughter.” Claudia clapped her hands together.

The shockwave reverberated through the entire street. Sam could feel the tremors shoot through her, and Abigail shuddered and strained to hold her place. But to Sam’s sinking despair, she didn’t move.

If Claudia couldn’t stop Abigail, she would die. Abigail smiled. The motion twisted her features, and her dark eyes seemed to become bigger and inhuman. “This has been a long time coming. I’m almost going to miss you.” She held out a hand.

It was as if she were calling fire, but it turned black and dark. Like the opposite of fire. Something cold and empty and terrifying.

“Claudia!” screamed Sam as she pushed up on her feet and started to run.

She heard Derek call her name in the distance, but she couldn’t just sit back and watch this. As she ran, she called the fire to her and started to shoot it at Abigail as soon as she had the opportunity.

She waited for Claudia to take over. To shoot another energy blast or anything to protect herself. Except when she waved her hand, nothing seemed to happen. At first.

Then the cracking, rumbling sound reverberated through the street. Sam looked up right as the top hundred or so feet of the nearest skyscraper started to tumble away from the building and careened toward her. Sam liked to think she was getting better with the pressure, but she found herself glued in place as she watched it fall.

The seconds seemed to stretch to minutes and she closed her eyes, absolutely sure she was about to die. But when the stone hit concrete, the tremors shook the ground around her, the vibrations signaling that she hadn’t died.

Sam cracked open an eye and looked around her. The clouds of dust took a moment to clear away. The first thing she saw was Claudia’s stone-cold face as she looked over the wreckage. She turned in a circle and saw that Abigail had jumped out of the way just in time and was pulling herself up. The only person who was missing was....

A strangled noise escaped her throat. She had to be wrong. Sam started to run around the rubble, expecting to see Derek on the ground on the other side. He would’ve gotten out of the way. He had to. He was so much stronger and smarter than her. He would’ve heard the crumbling and known exactly what to do. He would’ve—

Then she saw it. The hand. The big, strong capable hand that was now motionless. And the piece of building it was under was impossibly big. But it was okay. She had magic on her side. She’d free Derek from the rubble and then she would heal him. Or she’d get Claudia to heal him. She could do this. With a wave of her hand, the rock crushing Derek was moved and tumbling down the now mostly deserted street.

“Derek!” she called as she ran to his side. But as she reached him, she was filled with a sense of wrongness. It wasn’t that he was a gray, ashy color from the debris. And it wasn’t the unnatural shape of his chest. It was the emptiness of his face that struck her. “Derek!” she called again, willing the spark to come back. Willing him to open his eyes. Willing the life force to suddenly return. “No, no, no, no....” She repeated the word over and over until it was more of a moan than any discernible syllables.

This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening. Derek had been there just a few seconds ago. She could bring him back. She had to bring him back. Sam set her hand on his chest and closed her eyes, calling all her energy and power that she could as she tried to use it to spark something in him.

She didn’t know any spells or rituals. All she knew was that this couldn’t be happening.

But before she could even try the most basic spell, something slammed into her chest and she fell back a few feet. She looked up, expecting to see Abigail standing victoriously over Derek, but it wasn’t the darkness that had ruined her chances of bringing him back.

It was Claudia. “I’m so sorry,” she said as she knelt down and put her hand on his shoulder.

“Grandma, plea—” But then they were gone. It was just empty, dusty air where the love of her life and grandmother used to be.

“Claudia!” she screamed as she jumped up and ran to the place where Derek’s limp body had just been. She ran her hands over the earth, wondering whether she had imagined the whole thing. Sam spun in circles, realizing everyone was gone now. No Claudia. No Abigail.

No Derek.

A strangled cry started to escape her throat but she stopped herself from releasing it.

No. Derek wasn’t gone. He couldn’t be gone. She was a witch, damn it. Not just any witch, but a Harris. She didn’t care how many cities she had to level or people who had to die, but one way or another, Derek was coming back to her.