Chapter 96

I whirled around.

A girl stood several yards behind me in the rubble. With an I'd Rather Be Reading t-shirt. Bright eyes glowed blue behind her glasses. Sorceressi blue.

"Darby?" I whispered. What I saw couldn't be real. But no matter how much I wished it to be an illusion, she still stood there. Her hair had come undone from her ponytail so it hung in a tangle past her shoulders to hide some of her face. But not those eyes.

A spasm gripped her entire body. She fell to her knees, threw back her head, and screamed. The sound felt like a slap to the face. It was real. That cold stone of realization dropped me to the floor with a high-pitched moan.

"Oops. I missed." Ica's voice scraped out of Darby's mouth. It sounded so unnatural to hear it come out of her, so wrong, that I wanted to cover my ears so I wouldn't have to listen.