Second Chance: Paranormal, Tattoo, Supernatural, Coming of Age, Romance (The Chronicles of Kerrigan Sequel Book 3) Read online

  But he never should have turned his back on his friend.

  Just a second before he could reach her Devon grabbed him by his trademark ponytail, yanking him backwards before hurling him into the ground.

  Rae stifled another scream.

  Julian cried out sharply as he hit the dirt, but rolled over automatically to get back onto his feet. Devon was standing in front of him, the knife clutched in his hand again.

  “Don’t.”

  It was the only word he said. In a voice that sounded nothing like his own.

  Julian’s eyes widened in shock as he stared back at him. The man who had always been like a brother. Closer than a brother. The man he trusted above anyone else. “Devon…what are you doing?”

  Rae clutched her chest and watched as Devon took a step forward, raising the blade threateningly.

  “Get back, Julian. I don’t want to hurt you,” Devon whispered.

  “…Don’t want to hurt me?” Julian echoed, at a loss. His eyes flickered to Rae, making sure that she was still breathing, before returning to his friend. “Dev, you need to listen to me, okay? I need you to put the knife down. Give it to me.” He took a tentative step forward. “It’ll be okay, I promise. Just give me the—”

  There was a blur of speed, followed by a sickening crunch. Then Julian was on his back. Another cry of pain echoed in the air.

  Devon stared back impassively. “I said don’t.”

  A stream of silent tears slipped down Rae’s face. Her fingers and toes were beginning to feel cold. It felt like there was a steady weight being pressed against her.

  “This isn’t you,” Julian panted, getting to his feet. “Dev, something’s happened to you.” He clutched at his shoulder as he pulled himself up. “Look around. Does any of this look right?”

  Another blow, and he was back on the ground. The earth shook with the force of the impact. His best friend expertly preyed on the holes in his visions, giving him no time to slip into the future lest something happen to Rae.

  “Jules…just get out of here,” Rae murmured, still inching backward on the grass. While the pain may have been overriding her other senses, she was still hyper-aware of the fact that Devon still had a weapon in his hand. “He can’t hear you. It’s like he’s not even here.”

  But Julian wasn’t about to leave her. And he wasn’t about to leave Devon.

  “This isn’t you,” he panted, pulling himself up once more. A steady stream of blood was dripping down his arm, but he lifted it to point to Rae. “You love that girl. Love her more than anything in the whole world. You don’t want to hurt her.”

  A boot came flying out of nowhere, and kicked him right in the jaw. Devon straightened and stared passively as he set his foot back down.

  “Jules!” Rae screamed.

  But he simply spat out a mouthful of blood and pulled himself up once more. Whether he was unwilling or unable to fight Devon—Rae would never know. All she knew was that, with every breath, Julian kept trying to stop him.

  “Remember what you told me the first time you saw her? Back at Guilder?” Julian staggered to his feet and kept moving forward. “You said that you’d just met the most beautiful girl in the world. That you couldn’t get her out of your head. That you didn’t want to.”

  This time his eyes flashed white, and he dodged Devon’s attack before it could land. There was a violent collision, so fast that Rae couldn’t quite understand, then the two of them went flying in opposite directions, landing hard upon the grass. The knife dropped out of Devon’s hand and he scrambled to grab it again.

  “You don’t want to hurt her. You don’t want to hurt me.” Julian wiped a smudge of blood from his face, angling himself between them. “You have to fight this—”

  “I can’t…” Devon faltered, then grew suddenly steady as he strode forward and picked up the knife from the ground. “I told you… don’t. This isn’t about you.”

  Rae’s blood ran cold but Julian stayed steady, moving to stand right in front of her.

  “Rae, are you okay?” he murmured, keeping a careful eye on Devon’s approach all the while. “Say something, talk to me.”

  She nodded weakly and embraced the lie, knowing that her time was running out. “Yeah… I’m okay.”

  He hazarded a glanced behind him before turning his attention back to his partner, who was advancing with a cold look of determination in his eyes.

  It was like they were sixteen years old again. Back in the Oratory, sparring with together just like they did every morning. Only this time the stakes were much, much higher.

  “Dev, please.” Julian raised his hands entreatingly. “You don’t want to do this. It’s me—”

  A hard smack hit him right in the jaw. Followed by another.

  Still, Julian stood firm.

  “Please.” His hair fell into his face, and he pushed it back with trembling hands. “You don’t want to hurt her. I don’t want to hurt you—”

  There was another sudden impact, but this time it was Devon who went flying. Rae stifled a scream, and grabbed weakly at her ravaged skin as her fiancé came down hard upon the ground.

  It was a foolish man who would pick a fight with a psychic. No matter how talented they might be. Even as the prophetic glow faded from Julian’s eyes, a soft snap echoed across the noisy field.

  Devon’s arm had broken.

  If only that would stop him…

  “Come on, man! Please!” Julian cried as Devon surged forward again, as oblivious to the pain as he was to everything else. “Just listen—”

  “It’s you who isn’t listening to me,” Devon replied, dodging his friend’s attack and ducking cleverly behind to catch him in a chokehold. “This isn’t about you. It’s only about her.” His arm tightened as his eyes glassed over unfeelingly. “I told you not to get in my way.”

  “Devon, stop it!” Rae screamed as he squeezed even tighter. Julian’s hands came up to free himself, but Devon was standing at such an angle that Julian couldn’t break free.

  The whole world was blacking out entirely for her, lost in a din of screams and sound, but out of the corner of her eye she saw a sudden stillness in the crowd. Like a black hole. A place that none of the madness or chaos had yet to trouble.

  With tremendous effort, she raised her head to see a tiny brunette staring back at her. It took another second still to realize that it was Samantha standing motionless in the crowd.

  For a split second, the two of them locked eyes.

  It was utterly surreal. To be so motionless, in a field of pandemonium.

  It was like time itself had stopped, and for a moment both girls just stood there. Frozen as they stared. One bleeding. One standing completely unmolested amidst the carnage.

  Then a broken gasp brought Rae back to the present.

  “Dev—” Julian choked, grasping desperately at his arm. The ashen edges of his face were already beginning to turn blue as his eyes drifted out of focus. “Dev, don’t—”

  “DEVON—NO!” Rae screamed.

  It took every bit of effort she had, and the second she did she almost regretted it.

  Devon did, in fact, stop. He released Julian, dropping him to the ground. But, in doing so, he turned his attention once again to her.

  She started shaking with outright fear as he moved deliberately towards her.

  “Honey,” she began, her voice dropping to no more than a whisper, “what are you doing?”

  He didn’t even slow down.

  “Devon, you need to fight this. Whatever it is, just…” She trailed off as her eyes flickered desperately around. Searching for anyone who could possibly help her. There weren’t many options.

  Luke and his father were still locked in a deadly game of cat and mouse. While Luke might not have been the one gifted with super speed, he had overcompensated by training to perfection with every weapon and method under the sun. Although the Commander had clearly gotten in a few devastating blows, Luke was already beginning to turn the
tables.

  Molly was long gone, and Gabriel still frozen—staring with wide eyes while Angel stood calmly beside him. Watching, but not seeing. Not registering anything except her specific task.

  Kraigan was nowhere in sight. He had taken off right after the hearing.

  “Mom!” Rae cried in desperation, backing away as best she could as her fiancé moved towards her with the blade. “Mom, where are you?!” She swiveled around desperately, but Beth was locked in her own battle and couldn’t hear her daughter’s cries. No fewer than thirty members of the crowd had descended upon her, and it was all she could do to hold her own. “…Dad?”

  The word slipped out before Rae could stop it. But, as strange as it felt, every fiber in her body was praying for a response. She had stared into Devon’s eyes, and found nothing familiar there. She knew in her heart of hearts that she was out of time, and out of options. Even if it meant calling upon her murderous father, she would take whatever help she could get.

  And right at that moment… all her prayers were answered.

  “Rae?”

  She forced her chin up and saw Simon Kerrigan standing still amidst the crowd. Despite the band strapped around his anklet, the one stifling all his powers, he’d still remembered enough hand-to-hand training to make short work of those people swarming up around him. The Oratory had a way of seeping lessons into your skin. Imparting skills that time itself could never dull.

  He lashed out with a vicious kick, and sent the last person lunging at him flying back towards the hills. Then, without a second’s thought, he began sprinting towards his daughter.

  Devon didn’t notice. He was in a world all to himself. When he reached Rae, he sank slowly onto one knee—the same way he’d done when he proposed. He stared her up and down with those unfeeling, unblinking eyes. “I have to kill you now.”

  A single tear streaked down Rae’s cheek as she shook her head, reaching for his hand in spite of herself. “No… you don’t. Devon, please—this is me. Rae. The girl you’re going to marry.” An image of the two of them standing beneath the treehouse flashed behind her eyes, and she squeezed his cold, unyielding fingers. “I love you, Devon.”

  A glint of silver flashed through the air as he raised the blade behind his head.

  Her breath caught suddenly in her chest as she stared at him, stunned into silence. I can’t believe it. After everything that’s happened. This is how it ends? With Devon? A hundred different emotions crashed through her all at once, but in the end she was left with just one overriding conclusion. He’s going to hate himself. This is going to kill him. But even as she thought it, a flicker of light sparked suddenly in his eyes. His hand stopped its forward trajectory, like it had gotten stuck in thick mud. And for a split second, the curtain pulled back and Rae was able to see the devastation raging beneath.

  “Rae,” he whispered, fighting with every inch of himself, “run!”

  But she couldn’t.

  And he couldn’t stop himself either.

  With a heartbreaking look of anguish, he lifted the knife once more and lurched to bring it down with all his strength upon her heart.

  Except…

  It never got there.

  “Sorry, Wardell.” Simon caught his wrist with a breathless gasp. “But that’s my daughter.”

  Chapter 2

  Rae watched in terrified awe as her father and her fiancé spun around to face one another.

  Each frozen with rage. The knife glistening on the ground just behind Devon.

  “Rae, honey? You okay?” Simon called, never taking his eyes off Devon.

  Every instinct told her to just say ‘yes,’ but this time her body wouldn’t have it. Even as she opened her mouth to try, a river of blood came to the surface and she coughed it to the ground.

  “… Not so great.” A sudden wave of pain and nausea crashed over her and she bent at the waist, cringing into the crimson grass. “Dad… please… hurry.” She stared at her father and fiancé facing off in front of her. How much time did she have? Why wouldn’t her tatù slow the flow of blood? What if she tried Angel’s tatù and froze the flow? Would it work?

  Simon cast her one stricken look of panic before turning back to Devon.

  “Son, are you anywhere in there?” He read Devon’s blank stare with an expert gaze, and then nodded grimly. “In that case, trust me. You’ll thank me for this later.”

  Rae didn’t know if it was the blood loss, or if her father had really moved that fast. But the next thing she knew he was flying in the air—streaking towards her fiancé with a skill that she had only ever seen in Devon himself. A second later his boot landed squarely on Devon’s chest, and the younger man somersaulted backwards across the ground, rolling to a painful stop upon the grass.

  For most anyone else, that would have been the ballgame. It was a fight-ending blow delivered with unspeakable force. But Devon had never been one to give up easily. Already, he had recovered the blade and was angrily surging forward. “Simon,” he spat. He seemed to recognize Simon, even amidst his stupor. “This is a long time coming.”

  Simon’s lips twitched up in a humorless smile, while he angled defensively against the grass. “Like father, like son.”

  With a vicious cry Devon launched himself in the air and flipped twice, blurring into a streak of light and color as he came down on Simon. It was an extraordinary attack. The kind that, no matter how prepared you were, there was no way to fight against. Even in her trance-like state, Rae could hear bones snapping as her father hit the ground. He lay there for a minute, recovering his senses, before spitting out a mouthful of blood and pushing to his feet.

  “Like I said. You’re just like your father.”

  There was no response. Devon was past that now. His hollow eyes focused only on the task that lay ahead. Rae choked on a frightened scream as he made his way towards her once again.

  Except he never got to her.

  There are few things more powerful than a father’s love, than a man’s desire to protect his children at all costs. Simon may have been away for the better part of twenty years, but one way or another he was still Rae’s father.

  And people hadn’t come to fear the name Simon Kerrigan for nothing.

  Devon cursed in surprise as he was tackled off his feet. Before he could recover his senses, the knife was kicked out of his hand and Simon was kneeling on his back, pressing his face into the ground. There was a dull thud as the tatù-inhibiting anklet was broken off and thrown onto the grass, and a second later Simon had grabbed the bare skin on Devon’s wrist.

  “That’s it…” his eyes closed with a nostalgic smile, “that’s what I remember.”

  Devon’s body jerked in surprise, and he grabbed not at his wrist but at his arm. At the skin where Rae knew his inked fox would be. He rolled out from underneath Simon a moment later, panting softly and clutching at his sleeve.

  “What…what did you do to me?”

  “Just evened up the playing field a little.” Simon got to his feet as well, looking more animated and alive than Rae had ever seen him. “You don’t mind a fair fight, do you, Devon?”

  Devon’s blank eyes flashed, and he raised his hands in a chilling invitation. “Come on, old man.”

  And just like that, they were off. Crashing into each other with unspeakable force. Both delivering and receiving a beating that neither man should have been able to survive. Around them, the rest of the school was still locked in a battle of their own—supernatural powers and fantastical abilities lighting up the sky with random bursts of color and screams. Everywhere Rae looked was absolute, unadulterated mayhem. But the two men were in a world all to themselves.

  Each one battling to get to the girl they loved.

  Each for very different reasons.

  There was another burst of profanity, and they crashed to the ground once more. Rae’s breathing grew weak and shallow as they wrestled there.

  Each one trying to get the upper hand. Neither one able to do so.


  Every attack Devon launched was countered. Every strike he made was anticipated. It was as if Simon was inside his mind, reading his every move before he’d thought to make it himself.

  Their hands locked together again and again, and at one point Devon paused for a moment and stared up in astonished frustration, wondering if Simon might have access to other powers after all. The next second, he pulled back his fist for yet another punch that was almost instantaneously deflected.

  It’s because of Tristan, Rae suddenly understood. Because he fights like his father.

  But no sooner had she thought it than a sudden tearing inside her chest made her cry out to the sky. Both men came to an instant pause, their heads snapping up to look at her. While Simon’s face paled in rage, Devon’s did so in horror. For a split second, that flicker of light was back in his eyes. Shining like a tiny beacon, just strong enough that she could see the man breaking inside.

  “Rae…?” he called tentatively.

  Then Simon smashed his body into the ground.

  That flicker of recognition died as he tried to push back to standing, but by that time it was already too late. Simon had used his moment of distraction to catch him by the same arm that Julian had snapped just minutes earlier, twisting it up behind him at an impossible angle. Rae didn’t see how it could possibly stay attached. A second scream ripped through the air. But this one wasn’t hers. It was deeper and feral. Rae had never heard Devon scream like that in her entire life.

  “Dad,” she choked, “don’t—”

  But Simon was immune. He was kneeling atop Devon’s back. Leaning so far down that his forehead touched the curled tips of Devon’s unruly hair. “So, kid, you still going to get up and try to stab my daughter? Or have you snapped out of it already?”

  He lifted the arm higher, and there was another scream.

  “Let go,” Devon panted, his face dangerously white. “Simon, let me—”

  “Dad! Stop, please! He’s not himself! It’s not him,” Rae panted, trying to catch her breath and be heard above the noise. “Get off him!”