Was she scared of whoever was ruling Ember?
And if she was scared, did that mean the demons and dark witches were scared, too? Could these rulers of Ember be the key to helping us bring down the demons?
“I know what you’re thinking,” Ethan said to me. “And no. Absolutely not.”
“You don’t know what I’m thinking,” I said.
“You’re wondering if we could ally with the rulers of Ember against the demons.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. Because I wouldn’t have been surprised if Mira had read me that easily, but Ethan wasn’t my twin.
“How’d you know that?” I asked.
“It was obvious.”
“Hm.” I watched him, wondering. Because first there was the hot chocolate, and now he was reading me more easily than ever.
Just like the Ethan I remembered.
You didn’t “remember” anything,” I reminded myself. You hallucinated.
I wanted that other Ethan back so badly that I would probably grasp at anything to believe it was possible. Especially because every time this Ethan spoke to me like I was a stranger instead of someone he loved, it was like a knife to my heart, slashing it to shreds over and over and over again.
It physically hurt. So much that sometimes, I didn’t think I’d ever be able to bear it.
I wished I’d stayed away from that nightshade. Whatever it had done to me was going to drive me crazy—if it hadn’t already.
But I needed to control my emotions. Because right now, we had bigger issues to deal with.
“So,” Harper said, glancing between me and Mira. “Which one of you wants to come with us to Lilith’s lair?”
48
Gemma
“Me,” I said immediately. “I’m going.”
I didn’t expect Mira to argue.
I was right.
“No,” Ethan said.
“What?” I stared at him, shocked. Mira was his girlfriend. He loved her.
I thought he’d be happy with keeping her safe inside the Ward.
“Once we’re with the gifted vampire, we’ll be free to use our elemental magic against her,” he said. “You and I have a stronger affinity with our fire magic than I do with air and you do with earth. Mira’s strongest affinity is water. She complements my fire. And we need all the variety we can get.”
“But I’m better with a sword,” I said. “And when we combine our fire, we’re stronger.”
“You are?” Makena looked at us quizzically.
“It’s both of our strongest affinity,” Ethan said.
“Hm.” Makena nodded, but said no more.
“Both are good points,” Harper said. “But Gemma wants to go. Mira—what do you want?”
My twin’s hand went to her stomach—to the spot where the demon had stabbed her. “Gemma’s right—she’s better with a sword,” she said, speaking slowly. “And she has better control over her magic. She should go.”
Harper nodded, like she’d expected that.
Ethan frowned.
Why doesn’t he want me to go?
“Decision made,” Makena said, and then she allowed us inside Isobel’s cell so we could perform the blood oath.
Since blood oaths weren’t witch magic—they were just general magic—Isobel could do it with the cuffs still on.
Part of the oath was that Isobel was never allowed to harm any of us or try to escape the Ward before the mission was complete, to make sure she wouldn’t attack once the cuffs were removed. There were a bunch more clauses, too, to ensure Isobel didn’t go rogue.
Makena had thought through everything to make sure the oath was airtight.
Ethan was the last to slice his palm, press the cut against an identical one on Isobel’s palm, and seal the oath. The cuts healed immediately after they pulled away.
“It’s done, then,” I said.
“Yes,” Makena said. “It’s done.”
“We need our weapons back.”
“On it.”
The elevator doors opened, and her daughters stepped in, carrying our weapons. One longsword and one holy dagger each. They handed them over silently, and stepped back.
Harper examined her sword—as if worried it had been tampered with—and placed it back in the sheath in her weapons belt. I took mine back without inspection, as a gesture of good will to our hosts.
“We should leave now,” Ethan said. “We’re well rested, and have done as much training and studying as possible. And the sooner we’re done, the sooner the twins can resume practicing with their elemental magic.”
Isobel held her hands out. “Who’s first?” she asked.
“Me.” Harper stepped forward. “I can make a sound barrier spell around the three of us—me, you, and the gifted vampire—when we arrive. That way she can’t cry out for help.”
“Smart,” I said. “I’ll go after you.”
“No,” Ethan said. “I’m after Harper.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s the safest.”
“For who?”
“For you.”
The ember flakes in his eyes burned with fire, and I knew he wasn’t budging.
“Fine,” I said, since I’d be there a second afterward, anyway. “We should get going.” I didn’t want to give Mira a chance to change her mind. She’d already almost been killed once.
The fear I’d felt when I saw the hilt of that dagger sticking out of her stomach… I’d never imagined a life without my twin. But in that moment, I had. And Mira was a part of me. The pit of emptiness in my soul at the thought of a life without her in it was unbearable.
I refused to let that become a reality.
“Harper?” I glanced at her.
She gave me a curt nod, then took Isobel’s hands.
They were gone in a blink.
I held my breath, waiting for Isobel to return. My blood slowed, and all I could do was stare at the spot where they’d disappeared.
What if Isobel doesn’t come back?
Based on the blood oath, that meant she’d be dead.
Which meant Harper would likely be dead, too.
Then Isobel reappeared, and I breathed easier. “The barrier spell is cast,” she said, and she flashed out with Ethan. She returned a few seconds later and held her hands out to me. Her expression was stone cold.
I took a deep breath and placed my hands in hers.
The floor disappeared underneath my feet, my stomach flipped, and then I was back on solid ground.
I was in a small bedroom with Ethan, Harper, and a vampire in her thirties with short brown hair and red eyes.
Only demons had naturally red eyes.
“She’s demon bound,” Harper said, as if I didn’t know that already from our studies on supernatural species. “To Lilith.”
The vampire—Jamie—nodded after Harper said Lilith’s name. She just stood there, in the depressing room with no windows and sparse furniture, staring at us with those creepy, demonic eyes. It was like she was a prisoner.
What more did our studies say about the demon bound?
They were forced to do whatever the demon they were bound to commanded. But they didn’t have zero free will. And if Jamie was bound, then it meant…
“You’re not willingly helping the demons,” I said. “Are you?”
She shook her head slowly. “They took me,” she said, her voice trembling. “They turned me into…” She paused and stared down at her hands in disgust. “Into this monster.”
I shuddered, not knowing if she was referring to being a vampire, or to being demon bound.
“Are you here to help me?” she asked hopefully.
I swallowed, wishing I could tell her yes.
“We could only teleport in because Isobel brought us,” Harper said. “But there’s a boundary spell around this place. We can’t teleport out.”
The hope drained out of Jamie’s eyes. “You’re here to kill me.”
“You’ve been tracking us.” Ethan didn’t
answer her question. “You’ve been telling them where we are so they can find us and try to kill us.” He flipped his hand around, opened it, and a flame burst out of his palm.
Jamie’s mouth opened in an O of surprise. “You’re one of them.” She backed up, although she was forced to stop when she hit the inside of the boundary dome. “Dragons.”
“I am.” He nodded. “And it’s my duty to protect the twins. As long as you’re alive, you’ll keep sending the demons after us. You’re putting their lives in danger. Anyone who puts their lives in danger needs to be stopped.”
“I’m only doing it because of her,” Jamie said desperately. “Lilith. She’s forcing me.”
Harper removed the dagger from her weapons belt and stepped closer to Jamie. “The only way to unbind you from Lilith is to kill her,” she said sharply. “We can’t do that. At least, not yet.”
The light left Jamie’s eyes, and she nodded. “I understand,” she said slowly. “But I’m not Lilith’s only weapon.”
“You’re talking about the Dark Wand?” I asked.
“And the Dark Grail. That’s how she bound me to her.”
“No way.” Harper sounded truly shocked. “The cup the demons use to bind supernaturals to them is the Dark Grail?”
Jamie nodded.
“What other Dark Objects does she have?”
I held my breath, waiting. Because every moment we stayed was more dangerous for us. But if we could get more information…
“I don’t know,” Jamie said. “But she has a dragon heart. It’s how she’s finding the Dark Objects.”
Ethan brought out his dagger and pointed the tip of it toward Jamie. “Where did she get a dragon heart?” he asked calmly—too calmly. Like it was taking every effort to not ram that dagger into her heart.
Jamie’s eyes flashed with fear. “Lavinia brought it to her,” she said. “From a dragon she slayed in Australia.”
Ethan stiffened, and his grip tightened around the handle of his dagger. “What was the dragon’s name?”
“Bradon Pendragon,” she said. “The king of the dragons.”
All of the air left my chest at once.
Because Bradon was Ethan’s father’s name.
Ethan’s father who was supposed to be away on supernatural business.
Before I could fully process the information, Ethan rushed at Jamie and buried his dagger deep in her chest.
She sucked in a sharp breath, her eyes glazed over, and she slumped forward.
Ethan removed the dagger, and I watched, speechless, as Jamie’s body crumpled to the ground.
I couldn’t move.
All I could do was stand there, staring.
I knew we were going to kill her. But I’d thought she was working with the demons by choice. I hadn’t expected her to be bound. I hadn’t expected her to give us information that could help us.
And Ethan…
I focused on him.
He glared down at Jamie’s body, orange embers glowing in his hazel eyes, flames dancing along his skin. Rage radiated off him, and he breathed heavily, as if each breath pained him.
“Ethan!” Harper yelled. “The bond is severed. We have to leave.”
Wind blew through the dome, and he didn’t acknowledge that he’d heard her.
The door to the room opened, and three demons rushed inside. They ran at us, but the barrier dome stopped them in their tracks.
Ethan was just standing there, staring into nothing. Jamie’s blood dripped off his dagger and onto the floor. The flames grew around his skin, and the wind whipped my hair against my face.
His body was there, but his mind was lost somewhere else.
I rushed toward him and placed my hands on his shoulders, forcing him to look at me. The flames that surrounded him engulfed my hands, but of course, they didn’t burn me.
“Ethan,” I said his name steadily, firmly. “We have to leave.”
He didn’t even see me.
I need to bring him back.
So I did the first thing that crossed my mind.
I leaned in and kissed him.
49
Gemma
At first, it was like kissing a statue.
Then, his lips responded to mine. Warmth flickered through me, and he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me closer.
It was like I’d come home. Everything about him was so familiar, as if we’d done this a million times before.
Because we have.
Memories of all the times we’d kissed rushed through me, and his fingers brushed along my cheek, like he was memorizing the shape of my face.
I could have stood there kissing him forever.
But I pulled away slowly and looked up into his eyes. They were open and warm, just like I remembered.
The wind stopped, and the flames died down along his skin.
“Gemma,” he said my name slowly, like he was coming out of a trance.
“Hey.” My heart leaped, and I gave him a small, shy smile.
“I missed you.”
“What…?” I shook my head, confused.
He looked down at me in awe.
With love.
For the first time since waking up from being poisoned, I was seeing my Ethan. And I never wanted to let him go.
“I’m taking down the boundary.” Harper’s panicked voice yanked me back into focus. “We need to get to that door.”
I shook myself out of it and glanced around. I could talk with Ethan later. Because right now, demons prowled the boundary walls, blocking our way to the door. They circled us, staring us down like wolves eyeing their prey. Ten of them in all.
Ethan sized them up, and his expression switched to fight mode. He created twin balls of fire in his hands. “Gemma and I will hold them off with our fire,” he said. “Harper—you go through the door first. We’ll follow.”
Ethan looked at me in a way that I knew meant, I’ve got your back. He’d hold off all the demons himself if it meant protecting me from getting hurt. And he was more than capable of doing so.
But I had my own magic.
And we worked best while fighting together.
“Since when were you the one in charge?” Harper asked.
“It’s the best plan,” he said. “Unless you have a better one?”
“Kill them all and show Lilith what we’re made of?” She held up her dagger and grinned wickedly.
“We already did what we came here to do.” Ethan glanced at Jamie’s corpse. “Now we need to get out of here.”
“I know.” Harper frowned. “But it would be fun.”
“We’re sticking to the plan,” he said, and then he glanced at me. “You ready?”
I called upon my fire and reflected his stance. “Let’s do this.”
Harper flung her hands out, and the boundary spell shimmered away. The moment it did, the demons ran through.
Ethan and I slammed the demons closest to us with fire. But the key was maintaining control. Because we weren’t in a giant cavern like in Utopia. The room was small. And if it caught on fire, the flames could hurt Harper.
The demons caught in our blast grunted in pain, and their skin turned bright red. But they didn’t burn like a human would have, or like the griffin had when we’d killed it.
Because there was only one way to kill a demon—with a holy weapon.
“GO!” Ethan screamed at Harper.
She stayed put and glared at the demons, who were howling as the fire charred their skin. “You’re weakening them.” Fire reflected in her eyes, and she held up her dagger, ready to attack. “I can easily take them down.”
“Don’t be stupid,” I said. “Go to the door.”
“You don’t be stupid,” she snapped. “Every demon killed is a small win for us in this war. These demons may only be pawns, but you have to eliminate the pawns to have a clearer shot at the queen.”
I had no time to reply before she ran toward them, moving in a blur as she reached the first one and
drove her dagger into its heart. It turned to ash, but before the ash hit the ground, she’d already ashed the one next to it, too.
She was fast, and good with a sword.
But the demons weren’t dumb.
The moment they realized what she was doing, two of them circled around to come at her from behind.
I let go of my fire, reached for my dagger, and ran it through the back of a demon and into its heart. It turned to ash, and its sword clinked to the ground next to Harper’s feet.
But I’d only gotten one of them.
The other pulled Harper to its chest and sliced a dagger across her neck.
Blood poured out like a waterfall.
A scream echoed through the room—mine.
Eyes wide, Harper dropped her dagger and pressed both of her hands to her throat, trying to stop the blood. But it poured past her fingers, and the demon let her go.
She collapsed to the ground.
Ethan rushed at the demon and ran his dagger through its heart.
There were two piles of ash behind him—he must have been fighting some of the demons while I’d jumped to save Harper.
Harper.
She’d fallen onto her stomach, so her dark hair covered her face, wet with the blood pooling around her. There was nothing I could do to help—there was no way that wound wasn’t fatal—but I wouldn’t leave her.
Before I could reach her, Ethan wrapped an arm around me, stopping me. He used his other hand to maintain control over his fire, creating a wall of it so the five remaining demons couldn’t reach us.
“We need to get out of here,” he said. “Now.”
I glanced at Harper, then at the demons, and then back to Harper. She lay there limply, her chest rising and falling in shallow breaths.
She was still alive.
How was that possible? There was so much blood…
“One key, one person,” Ethan said. “We can’t take her with us. And even if we could, we can’t save her. Healing potion only heals non-fatal wounds.”
I nodded, knowing he was right.
But I couldn’t bring myself to leave her like this.
“I won’t lose you.” He eased me toward the door, still maintaining his hold on the fire. “I can’t lose you.”
The Dragon Twins (Dark World: The Dragon Twins Book 1) Page 19