Bitter Demons by Sarra Cannon Page A

don’t know why I didn’t tell her that Caroline and I had switched places with a glamour. Had Caroline changed back into herself while she was up in the room alone? Or did she still look like me?
    The thought hit me like a truck. If she looked like me, did that mean whoever hurt her really meant to hurt me? I stuffed the black feather in my pocket. If I told anyone about the glamour, the Order would put me in chains up on the third floor. I felt sure of it. Mrs. Ashworth’s threat was clear in my memory. If the Order believed I was acting in a way that put myself or them in danger, they would take the necessary steps to make sure I remained safe.
    I couldn’t afford to let that happen.
    But I couldn’t just sit back and let Caroline be killed. Or was she dead already?
    Meredith hung up the phone and turned to me. “Mom is on her way,” she said. “We need to make sure no one else gets up here. They’re going to want to cast a memory spell on this room, so please stay here if you can.”
    “Why do they need me for that?” I asked. My insides felt jumbled up and jittery. Would their memory spell show the truth about our switch? I wanted to confess the truth, but the words wouldn’t come out. I held it in like a dirty secret.
    “You’ve disturbed the energy already,” she said. “We both have. If we leave, it will just disturb the scene even more.”
    “Can you tell if she’s okay?” I asked. I didn’t want to come right out and ask if her sister was dead or not. I kept my eyes away from the blood stain on the balcony.
    “She’s alive if that’s what you mean,” Meredith snapped.
    I breathed a sigh of relief. If she was alive, I still had time to fix this. Maybe once whoever took her realized they had the wrong person, they would just let her go. Or be willing to make a trade. If it was me they wanted, they might let her go if I agreed to give myself up to them.
    Of course, the Order would never agree to such a thing. A second like Caroline was nowhere near as valuable to them as the sole remaining blood-line of an entire demon gate. I wasn’t going to put this in their hands.
    My heart raced in my chest. I hoped I was making the right decision. I’d already put Caroline in danger. If she died, I would never be able to forgive myself.

There’s Only Fear
     
    Within ten minutes, the house was crawling with members of the Order of Shadows. Downstairs, the music was quiet. Sheriff Hollingsworth barked out instructions for everyone to sit down and wait to be questioned. I sat up in the cold bedroom, the open balcony door mocking me.
    Meredith sat in a corner on the other side of the room. Her head dropped into her hands and she barely moved while we waited for her mother to arrive. If she was crying, her tears were silent.
    When the door to the bedroom opened and her mother walked in, Meredith ran to her. She threw her arms around her mother’s neck and held on tight like a child afraid of the boogeyman. I stood and backed toward the wall, not wanting to interrupt their family moment. I lowered my eyes to give them whatever privacy I could.
    I had expected her mother to have an entourage, but no one else entered the room. I heard the door click closed.
    “Harper,” the woman said. “My name is Eloise Sullivan. I’m Meredith and Caroline’s mom. Meredith tells me you were the first one up here when Caroline was taken?”
    Eloise was not a tall woman, but her presence made her seem taller somehow. Her hair was the same caramel color of her two daughters. She was dressed in immaculate matching detail, like an older, more mature version of Meredith.
    “I was in the hallway and heard her scream,” I said. “I ran in to see what happened, but she was already gone.”
    “And the balcony?”
    “The door was open. I walked over to see if she…that’s when I found the blood,” I said. I dropped my eyes again, knowing how difficult this must be for a mother to hear.
    “Why were you upstairs?” Eloise