“It means I’m going to be fighting in the ceremony,” I said, standing tall. “Jude wasn’t meant to succeed when he tried to stab me. He was trying to get my attention. The message was for me. Caleb wants me in the fight, and that’s what he’s going to get.”

“No way,” Talbot said. “You can’t do what Caleb wants.”

“But why would he want you?” April asked.

“Caleb has a thing for Grace,” Talbot said with disgust.

I snapped a glance at him. “And you don’t?”

He glared at me. “If Caleb wants you in the fight, then you should be as far from it as possible. Caleb—”

“No!” I shouted. “He said I fight, or James dies. Which means I’m fighting. When Daniel enters the ceremony, I’ll be entering at his side. I probably would have regardless of what Caleb wants. I’m fighting, and you can’t stop me. I’m not going to let anyone Wendy me.”

“Wendy you? What the hell does that mean?” Talbot asked.

“Wendy, from Peter Pan!” I shouted at him. I’m sure I sounded completely unhinged. But I couldn’t help it. “Peter and the lost boys get to go off fighting pirates while Wendy has to stay back and clean their stupid tree house because they want her to be their mother.

Well, I’m not doing it. I’m not going to be sidelined. I’m fighting for my baby brother, and that’s final.”

“She’s being unreasonable,” Talbot said to Daniel. “Tell her to sit this one out.”

Daniel stood at my side. “If Grace wants to fight, she’ll fight.”

Talbot scowled. His behavior made no sense. He was the one who’d taught me how to fight in the first place, encouraged me always to use my powers. Why would he ever try to make me stay away from the Challenging Ceremony?

“If Caleb wants her in the fight,” Talbot said, “then he either wants to kill her with his own bare hands, or he wants to make her angry enough that she’ll try to kill him, forcing her to fall to the Urbat curse.”

“That’s not going to be a problem.” Daniel placed his hand on the small of my back. “Because I’m going to kill Caleb Kalbi.”

“Daniel?” I looked up at him.

“If I’m this thing, this true Hound of Heaven, and if God made me to destroy pure evil, then that’s what I’m going to do. Starting with Caleb.”

“But I thought you said only Gelals and Akhs were pure evil? Caleb is still human. You said he could still choose to change his ways.…”

Daniel shook his head. “This is the proof I needed, Grace. Doing this, taking Baby James to use him against us, it proves that whatever spark of humanity I’d hoped still existed inside of Caleb is gone. He is pure evil—human heart or not. And I’m not bound by the Urbat curse. I can kill him without losing myself.”

“Daniel…” I looked up into his deep dark eyes, which told me he was determined to do what needed to be done. He’d embraced his calling as a true Hound of Heaven.

“Excuse me?” came Jarem’s accented voice from the group of Etlu Elders. “Have you considered that one of Caleb’s intentions with this kidnapping is to prevent us from being properly prepared for the ceremony? Throw us off our game, as the saying goes. We have already lost several precious hours that should have been spent planning and making preparations.”

The other Elders, including Lisa, nodded in agreement with Jarem.

“The message says that they’ll bring your little brother to the ceremony,” she said. “We have to assume he’ll still be alive when they do. If there’s no other way to find James, then we must accept that the best way to get him back is to be as prepared for the ceremony as possible.”

Daniel looked at me, and I nodded. “So be it,” he said.

Thirty-nine hours remained until the ceremony, and we were going to be ready for whatever Caleb and the Shadow Kings could throw at us.

Chapter Thirty-three

PREPARATIONS

FRIDAY, ELEVEN A.M., THIRTY-SEVEN HOURS UNTIL THE CEREMONY

The first thing the council decided we needed to do was get a proper lay of the land at Frightmare Farms. Get to know our battlefield. So most of the council of Etlu Elders, plus the other Elders Daniel and I had also selected—my father, Talbot, and Jude—headed out for the farm, with the lost boys in tow. It seemed the closer we got to the ceremony, the closer the boys wanted to stick to Daniel and me. I found their protective nature reassuring, if not a little annoying.

“What do we do if the owners show up?” I asked Gabriel on the way over to Frightmare Farms. It may have been abandoned as a Halloween attraction, but somebody still owned the place. It would be just our luck if the owners decided to take a midnight stroll on their property during the Challenging Ceremony.

“Not a problem,” Gabriel said, checking the ancient-looking pocket watch he pulled from his jacket. “In about an hour’s time, we’ll be the owners of the land.”

“What?”

“I noticed the ‘for sale’ sign when we were here with Sirhan. I called the Realtor and made a cash offer the owners could not refuse, on contingency of taking immediate possession of the property. One of the Elders is handling the paperwork and wire transfer as we speak.”

“That ‘for sale’ sign was for a sixty-acre parcel of land around the farm. That must have cost a fortune.”

“Until Sirhan’s successor is named at the Challenging Ceremony, the council controls Sirhan’s estate. Trust me, money is not a problem.”

The caravan of Escalades pulled into the parking field near the farmhouse, and Gabriel led us all to the barnyard. The Elders, dressed in regular clothing, congregated around the spot where Sirhan had died, their heads bowing in silent reverence.

“How do they know that’s the spot?” my dad asked as we watched them. Daniel and I had covered up the blood-soaked ground with dirt and straw before we left.

“They can feel it. I can feel it,” Daniel said. “It must be some sort of pheromone footprint left behind when he died.”

“Is that how the challengers will know where the ceremony will be?”

“Many will be able to sense it. And word will travel fast for those coming great distances,” Jarem said. “This is the epicenter,” he continued, addressing the other Elders and holding out his hands at his sides. “Let the battlefield be determined from here.”