Chapter 563

Luca gets to me first, pulling me hard against his chest, tucking his head down against my shoulder. But Jackson's here too, at my side, taking my chin in his hands and turning it towards him.

"Ariel," Jackson whispers, desperate, "are you...all right?"

Slowly I nod, staring at him, unable to do more than that in my shock.

Behind me, Rafe groans and Luca turns toward him, taking me with him. My eyes go wide when I again see the ruin of Rafe's chest - where his uniform has disintegrated, the God of Darkness's two handprints seemingly burned into his flesh. I cry out in dismay to see my brother wounded but Jesse is already there, his shadows beginning to sink back into him as he slips his hand beneath Rafe's shoulders, urging him to lay down flat on the floor, murmuring to him, inspecting the wounds.

I look anxiously around the room then, terrified. "Is he...is he gone? Or just invisible?"

"He's gone," Jesse calls over to me, lifting attention away from Rafe for a brief second. "I can feel him when he's here. Which is probably why he decided to attack today."

Still shaken, but I think encouraged by the idea that he's gone, Luca, Jackson and I move over to stand over Rafe and Jesse, staring horrified down at my brother, baffled by what just happened, none of us able to fully comprehend it just yet -

"Kids?"

All of our heads turn towards the tinny electronic voice.

It takes me a moment to focus on the laptop on its side, half broken, and the images of my mother and my aunt leaning close to the camera, peering at their own screen, trying to figure out what the hell is going on.

“Rafe, Jesse?” I hear Cora's voice ask. "Is...everything okay?"

"Mom," Rafe croaks out, a little sigh in his voice alongside a wince of pain. "I think...you need to come here."

I see my mom's eyes go wide with panic.

"Whoa," says a voice across the room.

My head flies up to see Ben standing there on the other side of the splintered wreckage of our door.

"What...what happened here?" Ben's eyes are wide with shock as he stares around the room.

"I'm coming now, Rafe," our mom snaps, and my eyes move to the computer to see her beautiful face framed in the screen. "You just hold on, baby - I'm coming right now."

The screen goes dark and we all stand very, very still.

We all just stand completely still, staring around. Even Ben seems to be unable to catch his breath, words.

"Um," I whisper, feeling a little ridiculous. "If mom's coming...maybe we should clean up."

Everyone's eyes turn slowly towards me to stare at me like that's the understatement of the year.

We all tense simultaneously when

we hear movement from area by the window where Alvez lays slumped t reach for Jackson, wanting him

close as we all turn towards Alvez,

watching as his body slowlyel.ne

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Jesse lets out a dark growl, slowly rising to his feet as Alvez's shoulders twitch and he lifts his head.

None of us move as he blinks around at us, confused. "Who...who are you all?" he asks, seeming frightened and baffled. "Where am I?"

"Professor Alvez?" Ben asks, stepping into the room and starting towards him, the only one of us who has found his voice. "You don't...know who your students are?"

I stare at Alvez, trying to figure it out - if he's just...faking it?

Or if he really was...possessed this whole time. If we're actually meeting John Alvez...kind of for the first time.

Alvez pulls himself to a sitting

position, but as he does I can tell

that it costs him a great deal. He leans back against the wall, panting like he's run a marathon, looking around at us. When his eyes land on Rafe and Jesse, he goes a bit still. "Are you... Rafe Sinclair?" he asks like he kind of can't believe it.